Sony A7S III

[Andrew Reid]

Sony has confirmed that the A7S III is finally on the way this Summer, likely in July to coincide with the big Canon rivals - EOS R5 and R6.

I have some more information on what we can expect from the new flagship full frame mirrorless cameras.

New blog post:

https://www.eoshd.com/news/sony-a7s-iii-or-will-it-be-a7h-and-canon-eos-r5-both-set-for-july-launch-as-sony-officially-hint-at-video-specs/

[Andrew Reid]

Also coming soon 

[Simon Young]

I wonder if Sony will put S-Cinetone in the A7sIII/H or if they’ll just release a new version of the already weird colors, keeping the tradition of non consistency alive. This matters much more than 8K raw imho.

[akasian]

Your closing remarks definitely resonate with me.  While tempted by the specs of the new unreleased stuff - specifically I was looking at the R5 and RF glass, i decide to recommit to Fujifilm.  Upgraded to the X-T4 and also completed the "holy trinity" with their recent sale by purchasing the 50-140mm. Such a great, affordable, chameleon-like system.  Easy to go from street, to studio, to sports.

[Video Hummus]

All the prices going up as expected. July should be interesting. This is the first time really Canon and Sony are coming out swinging at each other.

[Andrew Reid]

£3000 used to be Sony's standard price! And the want to go UP!

[newfoundmass]

I was more intrigued by the comment they made about it being a complete redesign. I think that is a good sign. I'm sure it'll still be uncomfortable to hold since that's Sony's thing, ha ha, but I'm guessing they realized they needed to increase the size to accommodate the higher end features that just haven't been possible with the standard bodies they've been using. 

[heart0less]

Prices going way, way up is a current trend in electronics, sadly.
Even PS5 according to many analysts will cost more than what PS4 cost at its launch date.

Just take a look at all those new smartphones. Every subsequent iteration breaks the price record, yet people still buy them.

It's only natural for ILC cameras, that begin to become a very niche product, to be more and more expensive.

 

Re: Sony and the new A7S

I'm cheering for them, seriously. Time to make a comeback.
Even if they fail to do that, we'll have tons of new videos praising how unbelievably good and useful that new camera is on YouTube, hahahaha.

And it's good that the main players here still feel somehow threatened by others. At least they're trying to stay competitive.

[noone]

30 minutes ago, heart0less said:

Prices going way, way up is a current trend in electronics, sadly.

With cameras, and a rapidly shrinking market I think that has to be expected.

I hope this is a huge success and maybe in ten years time i will be able to afford a 5th hand one (if I am still circling the sun by then).

[Alt Shoo]

Not really exciting news for me, especially since there are very good cameras out now with similar specs. As of this moment Sony isn’t even on my radar for cameras, at least the mirrorless’s. If I was going to pick up a Sony camera it’ll be the FX9. Other than that, I’ll pass. 

[zerocool22]

I am cheering for Canon, I hope the A7S III sucks so I am not tempted to buy it. (I don't want another camera with a E-mount)

[Super8]

Prices are not going up from where they've always been. The A9 was priced at $4,500

Nikon was charging $5,000 for a DSLR back in 2001. 

Sony will always have it's $2,000 to $4,500 price range. 

The S1H was priced at $4,000 for it's hybrid camera.  

Has the market and pandemic been going on since 2001? Nope.

 

 

52 minutes ago, heart0less said:

Prices going way, way up is a current trend in electronics, sadly.
Even PS5 according to many analysts will cost more than what PS4 cost at its launch date.

Just take a look at all those new smartphones. Every subsequent iteration breaks the price record, yet people still buy them.

It's only natural for ILC cameras, that begin to become a very niche product, to be more and more expensive.

 

Re: Sony and the new A7S

I'm cheering for them, seriously. Time to make a comeback.
Even if they fail to do that, we'll have tons of new videos praising how unbelievably good and useful that new camera is on YouTube, hahahaha.

And it's good that the main players here still feel somehow threatened by others. At least they're trying to stay competitive.

Same prices we had back in 2017 when the market was hot.

Sony A9 was $4,500

[Super8]

55 minutes ago, heart0less said:

Prices going way, way up is a current trend in electronics, sadly.
Even PS5 according to many analysts will cost more than what PS4 cost at its launch date.

The PS4 Pro is priced at $399 right now.   Spec wise that's what the PS5 has to be better than.

PS5 looks to be $599 and Sony makes very little profit on the PS4 as it is.  

Do you think the PS5 is over priced for the specs it delivers ?  $599 is way under what a PC gaming system would be.

 

Sounds like the A7SIII might lead the market in ability and image quality.

[heart0less]

44 minutes ago, Super8 said:

PS5 looks to be $599 and Sony makes very little profit on the PS4 as it is.  

Do you think the PS5 is over priced for the specs it delivers ?  $599 is way under what a PC gaming system would be.

PS5 price has not yet been announced. The numbers we see are just estimates.

That's why I can't really say, if it's too much. But I agree - most likely it won't be overpriced for what it's going to offer.
However, comparing it to a PC gaming system isn't entirely fair, since the latter may be used for tons of different applications, which PS5 won't be able to execute.
Having said that, if one buys such a PC solely for gaming purposes, then okay - getting a PS5 would cost them much less for almost the same package.

 

That wasn't my point, though - I didn't try to justify if the price is right.

I simply wanted to show that back in 2013 a home entertainment system, which PS4 is, was priced at 399$.
Most likely, a next generation of those devices, which are to come in a couple of months, will cost more than their previous siblings did.

Same thing applies for iPhones.
Both iPhone 6 and 7 were 649$,  and yet iPhone 8 retailed for 699$ (not to mention iPhone X, which was 999$ at launch). Surely, iPhone 11 once again hit 699$ price mark, but that's only because people were furious with how expensive X was.

 

52 minutes ago, Super8 said:

Same prices we had back in 2017 when the market was hot.

Sony A9 was $4,500

That's right.

But A9 didn't have any competition at that point and even now it's hard to point any FF mirrorless camera that comes close to it.

As for video department - well, many seats here have already been taken, it's gotten quite busy in this sector.
You can't set your asking price that high, unless you give something that other companies don't.

 

[noone]

As technology ages, prices come down once costs have been paid for but equally as markets shrink, prices go up per unit all things being equal.

Also as time between product models GENERALLY shrinks prices have to go up too since there is less time for a company to make a profit on each model. (funny though since the time between A7s cameras has not shrunk).

I expect this will be a nice camera but expensive.

IF (hopefully) this and the coming Canon are closely competitive, that will keep the price down for both a little.

If one is clearly better than the other, the loser will get cheaper I would think.

 

[Andrew Reid]

2 hours ago, newfoundmass said:

I was more intrigued by the comment they made about it being a complete redesign.

Don't think he said redesign did he?... More like 'Everything is new compared to the 5 year old camera'. So obviously a new sensor, LSI, EVF and so on.

I'll be very pleasantly surprised if they do a design adventure.

Change the concept around.

Internal ND.

Small XC10 style camera.

Brand new menus.

But to be honest, despite the lack of adventures and bravery in new design concepts, I am quite happy with mirrorless form factor as it is. Hybrid stills / video is my thing.

PS I cannot promise to review the A7S III or even EOS R5, because I will have to buy them and I think rather than putting $4k into another corporation's bank account we should reward innovation at better prices, from Fuji, Sigma, Panasonic and others.

Canon and Sony have practically ignored us for 5 years and now suddenly they want our money again.

Bear this in mind when you see all the stage-managed YouTube hype next month about 8K and RAW.

[noone]

Internal ND, yes please!   

[Super8]

15 minutes ago, heart0less said:

But A9 didn't have any competition at that point and even now it's hard to point any FF mirrorless camera that comes close to it.

As for video department - well, many seats here have already been taken, it's gotten quite busy in this sector.
You can't set your asking price that high, unless you give something that other companies don't.

 

A9 at $4,500 in 2017 had nothing to do with competition.   They built the equivalent model to the top of line Nikon or Canon, i.e. flagship model.

The same is happening right now. 

The S1H was priced at $ 4,000 with additional cost for feature upgrades.  Most people thought this was a reasonable price.

Sony will still have a new camera at $1,999 and at $3,500.   They always do this and people buy which one fits their budget.

As I said over an over, go look at camera price from 20 years ago.   $5,000 for the flagship Nikon DSLR. 

A redesigned A7S III means most likely a bigger body, no heat issues, new sensor (one that's not in the competition yet), 10 bit (finally) and 4k 60p. 

 

Everyone has asked for more features that are in line with cine cameras.   If they put everything into theses cameras they will be north of $3,500 at release. 

 

[Andrew Reid]

I expect the A7S III to handily outperform the EOS R5 and EOS R6 for video.

10K Quad Bayer sensor (60 megapixel, 8K RAW, 4K Quad Bayer readout, no crop, good rolling shutter due to fast sensor architecture and multiple readout channels, a typical Sony strength)

Whereas EOS R5 is traditional bayer, lower megapixel count and likely high rolling shutter.

Also I can see on the codec side the Sony maybe doing something interesting with H.265 compressed RAW.

I think right now if I were to only choose one flagship it would be the Sony.

Doesn't mean I am going to bite the specs hype bullet though.

EOSHD during both these launches will be an ANTI-hype machine

Unless it is warranted and they put out a genuine marvel which is both practical to use not just with some dazzling high numbers on the box.

I can see the A7S III, A7SH or A7H or whatever they will call it being the new flagship for stills above the A7R IV as well.

There was a reason the A7R III and IV were just incremental evolutions.

[Super8]

MY guess is Sony puts the A7S III at $4,500 and then comes out with a $2,000 dumbed down version.  The $2,000 version won't have RAW or RAW out abilities, etc.   This will be like the S1H and S1.