The Sony a7rIII has been announced and I think it’s a great camera in its own right. I’d love one if I could afford one. Well, I can technically afford one but I think it’s a smarter decision to put my money into travel/glass….
Sony does not make too many cameras
Sony often gets railed at for releasing a lot of cameras in a short space of time, but when you look at Canon, Nikon or any other company interested in catering to multiple demographics, they release quite a few products. Canon has the rebel line, the 5dSR (which is neither a 5dmk3 or a 5dmk4), 5Dmk4, 6DII, 7DII, 80D, etc. However, Canon make their cameras vastly different in shape, and no one says they’re releasing too many cameras a year, even if they release a million all in the same year.
The Sony a7II, Sony a9, Sony a7sII and the Sony a7rIII all look pretty similar but they appeal to a different demographic just as much as the 5dmk4 and the 80D do. In other words, I think Sony would get criticised less for releasing numerous cameras a year if they made their cameras a different shape. Do I believe they should do that? Generally speaking, no. I like their decision for the most part. I love that they’re all pretty much the same size/shape with the same battery (the most recent cameras have a bigger battery but I’m sure they’ll stick with it as a standard across the board, soon enough.)
The Sony a9 line should be the exception, in my opinion. I believe it should be slightly larger. At some point, the Sony a7II series is going to be so good that it’s going to step on the toes of the Sony a9. If the Sony a9 was slightly bigger, it could have another processor or extra ram or whatever. When you start putting everything in the same body, you’re deliberately gimping something, and I’m not sure what should be gimped with the Sony a7III. The autofocus? I don’t think mirrorless autofocus is fast enough to be gimped yet, and it was originally meant to compete with the 5d line, so it’d be nice if it had a great autofocus. Gimp the dual card memory slots? Not a good idea, in my opinion. Gimp the joystick? Again, not a good idea. The Sony a9 forces the Sony a7rII series to be gimped in some way.
Where’s the extra dial?
The Sony a7rIII doesn’t have the extra dial the Sony a9 has, and in my opinion this is a sign of the aforementioned; the cheaper series is now starting to look deliberately cheaper. It wouldn’t cost more than $2 for Sony to implement an extra dial, and it’s something I’d really like to see on the camera.
The other improvements are great, in my opinion. It’s also great they’ve implemented a USB-C port. I think USB-C is single-handedly the best thing to happen to handheld devices. I hope this doesn’t mean they’ll start turning into power hogs just because they can be power hogs.
I bought the Sony a7rII with the plan to one day hike 2650+ miles along the Pacific Crest Trail in America. Although my Visa was denied twice, and I’ve basically said **** America for now, I still plan to do a long distance hike (I’m now looking at Canada, for next year as I’m allowed to stay there quite some time) next year. I’ll most likely hike the Great Divide Trail and some additional hikes. Having an efficient camera is important to me.
The dual card slots are a welcome addition. It’s the one thing I really, really want. I’m not even sure I need a bigger battery (I can charge my camera up with a power bank), but dual card slots is always nice. If the card doesn’t malfunction and the card slot doesn’t break, it’s not needed obviously. There’s ways I can circumvent this problem somewhat and use my smartphone as a portable backup device (I can plug my SD card directly into my Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and copy my RAW photographs) but it makes me feel uncomfortable.
The autofocus I don’t really care about too much but it’s a smart move, in my opinion. Sony’s done a good job here, there’s just two main complaints I have really…
What the **** is with the PC sync port? Camera companies are encouraging flash companies to use this archaic technology. We’re in 2017…
I’m not sure about the MicroSD port plus a USB-C port. I guess it makes sense because you can charge the camera while supplying data. It’d be better to just have two USB-C ports though.
The lack of a dial the Sony a9 has is a bit of a bummer, in my opinion.
There’s not really any huge complaints here though. It’s a solid camera, and I’d definitely buy one if I could justify the price for the extra battery life, SD card slot and an improved viewfinder (I don’t care about the other stuff so much.)
For people in the UK who want to pick up a bargain, eBay has the Sony a7rII at a very cheap price point.