This chart comes from a good source but seems off. The video specs are very disappointing with no full frame 4K/60p on either the A7S or A7 M4. 1080p ones again caps out at 120fps. The sensor readout mode on the A7 IV is shown as once again 6K downsampled to 3840 x 2160 with a 1.2x crop if shooting 30p, which hints at the same sensor as before. Interestingly the A7 IV is listed as having a variable optical low pass filter (like the RX1 Mark II) – basically a vibrating piece of glass over the sensor, and the next A7S (oddly labelled Mark 4 when it should be Mark 3) at least has 1.5x crop 4K/60p in Super 35mm mode (like the Panasonic S1 and S1H).
Is Sony easing up on the specs race, or is the chart fake?
Well specs aren’t everything and there’s a lot of features not covered by the chart above. No mention of the codec – what if we got ProRes RAW internally and 10bit ProRes 422? What if the user interface was completely revamped (it needs to be)? What if an innovative electronic ND adapter is part of the parcel? These are the things we need to see from Sony next, not just bigger numbers on the box.
Sony will probably never make a camera hand carved out of aluminium with a wooden grip, that is not their style is it? They are never going to feel that special to use but we do need to see some sort of progress before things get boring and we start wondering “why bother upgrading”?
Will you upgrade to the A7S III if it has the specs above, plus a 10bit codec of some sort (but no RAW)?
Have your say below.
[polldaddy poll=10493033]
