It only took me one year to swap my Sony Alpha 7R II for the new Model III with Battery Grip. There was an offer on eBay which I could not refuse 😉
What’s the point?
The new camera has the same 42 megapixel sensor as version II, but apart from that, a lot has changed, especially the handling is much improved:
- The menu was revised and improved, there is now the option for a custom menu
- The AF area can now be selected using a newly integrated joystick or the touch display
- There are two memory card slots available now
- The new battery lasts more than twice as long as before
- Both viewfinder and display have a higher resolution, especially the viewfinder is very impressive with its XGA resolution
- Eye-AF works now with adapted Canon lenses. Especially with my 1.2L 85mm lens I got amazing results, much sharper than with Canon bodies!
- The continuous shooting speed has doubled to 10 fps
- During storage, the menu remains (at least partially) operable.
Especially the new rechargeable battery, the improved speed and the improved AF (especially the Eye-AF with Canon lenses) and the much better general speed of handling motivated me to switch. Further improvements are a second USB 3.0 port, Bluetooth and the pixel shift mode, which takes 4 single images that are each shifted by one pixel and thus improves the resolution and avoids moires completely. All in all a good evolution, not a revolution, but it proves that Sony is listening.
In addition to the camera I also bought the F4 24-105G standard zoom, which is also very impressive. Therefore I will probably sell the Canon counterpart soon.
What is still missing is an affordable fast lang lens, I am very excited about the announced 2.8 400mm, whereby the price will certainly be very high, typical for Sony. Unfortunately, my Sigma HSM Sport 150-600mm with the Sigma MC-11 still does not work satisfactorily in AF-C mode on the 7R III. The Canon 400mm still performs much better with the Canon bodies, which means that for action shots the Canon system remains necessary - otherwise I would think about a complete transition. Keep up the Sony, good work!
