How do I start reviewing this monster of a camera? I’ve been veering away from writing my experience with shooting with a Sony α7 RIII and a Sony FE24-70mm F4 ZA OSS vario – Tessar, since I want to do a video review but wasn’t able to do that(sorry), maybe in the future, who knows.
When I caught wind that I was going to get to play with the Sony α7 RIII, I was flabbergasted, anxious and scared. I was hesitant because I rarely get a camera to try out, and I usually think of worst case scenarios of either destroying or have it stolen.
I have never gotten around to really put a mirrorless camera run the gauntlet. I guess I should be thanking my lucky stars I can finally try one out and see what the fuss is all about.
Disclaimer: I will not get into much technical detail about the camera and or the lens. I’m basing the post mostly from my experience using the camera. All photos and videos are straight out of the camera.
Taking the camera out of the box, the camera feels solid heavy, but when I grabbed my other camera, it feels that weight is similar(had a hard time figuring it out). The size or dimension of the camera is a little smaller (just a tad bit).
I’ve been using the camera since December(2018) and was blown away since I’ve never tried out a full-frame mirrorless camera. 24 megapixels was not far from the current full frame camera that I use, but the tilting LCD really helped me get my shots from a very low, high and odd angles.
I brought the camera where ever I went. It wasn’t much of a weight in my bag and I shot with it in all of my gigs as my secondary camera. Although it seems redundant since my primary camera and the Sony α7 RIII are both using the same focal length, but I was able to utilize it and also shot some videos on the side.
I was really blown away by the focusing system that the camera and lens worked with, it was quick efficient and accurate. Quite surprised that once you have the focus locked and hit the shutter button all the way you’ll get your subject clear. Other than the mentioned above, continuous shooting mode was quite a surprise since it was blazing fast. I wasn’t shooting sports but I got the shot for sure.
Bottomline: It was fast and stupefying to be able to use a camera that is used in the industry as a standard. So this is what it feels like to use a different camera system. The focusing mechanism was fast and the burst mode was quick, 10fps and 8fps while on silent shooting mode. I found the camera pretty reliable and the battery life was OK, since I don’t shoot video very often.
Going back to my primary camera, I’m definitely going to miss shooting with the Sony α7 RIII.