Sony A7Riii Review


wli

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Jun 25, 2018
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Following my trial of the Sony A7iii earlier this year, I was very much interested in getting my hands on the A7Riii. The opportunity came with my recent trip to the United States, and given I would be shooting a mix of cityscape and landscape, I opted for the FE 24-105mm f/4 G OSS for greater shooting flexibility.

The main thing that stood out about the A7Riii was its 42.4 megapixels and incredible resolution – a definite plus for photographers shooting for commercial purposes. The obvious downside (especially since I was shooting somewhat casually on vacation) is I found myself burning through memory space at a very rapid rate, and at the end of it when I was stuck in the mountains with no access to shops, I had to switch to shooting with a lower megapixel to conserve space – which defeats the purpose of an A7Riii.

Resolution aside, I was somewhat surprised to find the A7iii very much comparable (or at times, better performing) than the A7Riii. The battery life of the A7iii was much better – while the A7Riii’s battery was still pretty decent, I found myself worrying it wouldn’t last through the day and had to run a daily charge despite averaging 200-300 shots per day (as opposed to once every three days for the A7iii after an average 300-400 shots per day). I would, however, add a disclaimer regarding weather – I was using the A7Riii is much cooler conditions (15 degrees).

Low light performance for the A7iii also appeared to be significantly better. ISO sensitivity aside, I found the images at similar ISO levels much cleaner for the A7iii.

My two cents in a nutshell, given the significant price difference between the two – if you have to work with high resolution images, the A7Riii is for you. If 24.2 megapixels would suffice, I would go for the A7iii.

I digress to take a moment to gush over the FE 24-105mm f/4 G OSS – I loved this lens more than I thought I would. The image quality of this lens blew me away and the versatile range transitioned beautifully as I went from shooting cityscapes in San Francisco to mountain ranges in Colorado’s national parks. This will be my choice of lens for travel should I decide to pack light