Phil Hall of TechRadar just posted his full review of the Sony α7R III. In his review he walks through the camera's key features and inspects the build, handling, autofocus, image quality and performance. After a thorough examination of each, Hall gives Sony's newest camera an impressive rating of 5/5 stars. Here's the breakdown:
Build and Handling
"It may seem a small thing, but the arrival of the joystick greatly improves handling over the α7R II, as it makes for much quicker AF point selection. The α7R III also sees the addition of a dedicated AF-ON button for back-button focusing, again as on the α9."
Autofocus
"The Alpha α7R III's Eye AF has also been enhanced, and now uses the same autofocus algorithms as the Alpha 9. This means that when the α7R III is in AF-C mode and with Eye-AF activated, the system should be able to continuously track and focus on your subject's eye, even if they look down or away from the camera."
"In our time with the camera this really impressed us. The α7R III managed to happily maintain focus on a subject in two challenging scenarios – while they were moving round the frame quickly as well as moving towards us, or looking down or away from the camera."
Performance
"The Alpha α7R III is kitted out with Sony's 5-axis optical image stabilization system, and this has been tweaked for the new camera to deliver a 5.5-stop shutter speed advantage, improving on the α7R II's 4.5-stop system. To reduce the risk of vibration and image blur, especially when shooting at 10fps, there's a new low-vibration shutter mechanism."
Image Quality
"The Alpha α7R III's dynamic range performance is also very impressive. If you're shooting at low sensitivities and purposefully underexposing the shot to retain highlights, you'll have to really push the file in post-processing before you see any signs of quality beginning to deteriorate in the shadows. For general editing of raw files where you want to recover detail, you've got plenty of flexibility with the α7R III's files."
The Verdict
"If Nikon thought it was going to have things all its own way with the D850, it should think again. Sony has taken one of our favorite mirrorless cameras and bolstered the performance to make the new Alpha α7R III a much more capable and well-rounded offering."
"As we've seen with the D850, you no longer have to sacrifice performance for resolution or vice versa. The heady mix of 42.2MP and high performance that includes 10fps burst shooting and a very sophisticated AF system is bound to help this camera appeal to an even broader range of photographers than the older model. This is a camera that would be equally at home perched on a mountain as in a studio or on the sidelines of a football match."
"For now, the Alpha α7R III is not only the most well-rounded mirrorless camera you can buy, but one of the best cameras out there."
Read the full review at TechRadar.com
