Today, Sony Electronics Inc. announced the long-awaited addition to its acclaimed Alpha 7S full-frame mirrorless camera series, the Alpha A7SIII.
Featuring a brand new 12.1MP (approx., effective) back-illuminated full-frame image sensor with ultra-high sensitivity and 15+ stop wide dynamic range, a host of impressive video recording capabilities including 4K 120p1 and 10-bit 4:2:2 colour depth, a new heat-dissipating mechanism and dual-slot relay recording that realises over one-hour of 4K 60p movie shooting until battery ends, a brand new autofocus system, touch screen interface and side flip LCD screen, the new Alpha 7S III will become the ultimate creative tool for video professionals and all types of hybrid stills/video shooters.
“The Alpha 7S III is the ultimate representation of Sony’s passion to solve our customer's pain points,” said Ryo Ochi, General Manager, Digital Imaging Division, Sony Electronics Asia Pacific. “We are always listening to our customer's feedback, pushing hard to deliver innovation that goes far beyond their expectations. There is no better example than this new camera. Combining classic S series sensitivity with a feature set, performance level and user experience that is simply unmatched in the market today — at any price level — the Alpha 7S III opens up a new world of possibilities for today’s creators.” The system architecture for the new Alpha 7S III has been completely redesigned to deliver exceptional video and still shooting performance. The brand new 35mm full-frame 12.1MP (approx., effective) back-illuminated Exmor R™ CMOS image sensor, utilises a variety of advanced light-gathering techniques to ensure high-sensitivity with low noise, allowing users to shoot in low-light situations without needing large-scale lighting setups. In addition to improved image quality, this new image sensor includes a focal-plane phase-detection AF system for the first time in an S-series camera.
To complement the new sensor, the Alpha 7S III also includes a new BIONZ XR™ image processing engine that provides up to eight times more processing power, minimises processing latency, reduces rolling shutter up to three times, and enables many of the hallmark still and imaging features of the camera. The new system also includes the world’s brightest and largest 9.44 million dot OLED electronic eye-level viewfinder and is the world’s first camera with dual CFexpress Type A card slots, enabling high-speed data transfer in a compact size.
The Alpha 7S III offers in-camera 4K recording up to 120 frames per second, 10-bit depth and 4:2:2 colour sampling, producing stunning video recording. The new camera offers a more flexible and efficient post-production workflow with a variety of advanced movie recording modes such as All-intra 4 and MPEG-H HEVC/H.265 coding (XAVC HS™). The Alpha 7S III makes it easy to integrate video recordings with other professional camcorders by providing three-colour gamut settings: S-Gamut, S-Gamut3, and S-Gamut3.Cine. Using S-Gamut or SGamut3.Cine, users can easily match footage shot on the Alpha 7S III with footage shot on the professional camcorders to simplify multi-camera post-production workflow. In addition to S-Log gamma curves, the Alpha 7S III supports an HLG (Hybrid Log-Gamma) picture profile, with minimum post-production. The Alpha 7S III also allows 16-bit RAW output6 to an external recorder via HDMI Type-A 7, offering additional post-production flexibility. Improved Image Quality The new CMOS image sensor and BIONZ XR™ image processing engine in the Alpha 7S III delivers legendary S-series sensitivity with significantly enhanced colour reproduction and texture renderings for improved overall image quality.
The base ISO has been lowered to 80, resulting in a normal range of 80-102400 (expandable to 80-409600 for video and 40-409600 for stills) to provide more flexible ISO plus wide dynamic range with low noise at all settings. It offers improved image quality by approximately 1 stop of noise reduction in the middle and high sensitivity ranges.
The Alpha 7S III carries fast Hybrid AF system with a 759 point phase-detection AF sensors covering 92% of the image sensor. The camera can also achieve high AF precision to accurately and reliably focus in light down to EV-6 where subjects are difficult to see clearly even with the naked eye. Continuous shooting at up to 10fps or up to 8fps in live view mode is possible either mechanically or electronically for more than 1,000 uncompressed RAW images. The Alpha 7S III also includes the world’s first 9.44 million-dot (approx.), 0.64 type Quad-XGA electronic viewfinder with a high-definition OLED display and refined optics that delivers the highest resolution in its class.
The Alpha 7S III viewfinder offers a 0.90x viewfinder magnification, 41° diagonal field of view, 25mm high eyepoint for clear, low-distortion corner to corner viewing. It is also dust, fog and moisture resistant, extremely responsive and has switchable modes for different subject types. Every aspect of the Alpha 7S III viewfinder has been designed and refined for a professional workflow. For the first time in a Sony’s digital camera, the Alpha 7S III includes the HEIF (High-Efficiency Image File Format) allowing for smooth 10-bit gradations and advanced compression technology to maintain image quality while significantly reducing file size and saving storage space. HEIF stills shot in this mode can be played back on a compatible Sony HDR (HLG) TV via a direct HDMI connection from the Alpha 7S III, delivering true-to-life dynamic range.
