It’s been a long time and we’re still waiting for the Sony a7s III; and things have changed.
The Sony a7s II had a 12MP full frame sensor, and while I was convinced that the next sensor would be a 16MP option I’m now even more convinced that at the heart of the Sony a7s III will be a 24MP sensor. Why? Well, the subtle answer comes from what all the other manufacturers have been saying over the past few months with their releases. The Nikon Z6 and the Panasonic S1 in particular are said to be more video oriented in their lineups–and both of them use a 24MP full frame sensor. With their image quality output, that means that it is theoretically possible for great videos to be made with enough resolution from these sensors at with high ISO output high enough to be usable for video creators.
Then take into consideration that Sony, with the Sony a9, delivers some incredibly clean high ISO output. Of course, this is a special BSI stacked sensor. But who’s to say that Sony can’t develop a processor to work with the Sony a7s III? Additionally, manufacturers seem to be trying to make more of a push for 6K and 8K video content–which could all be theoretically possible with a Sony a7s III camera. Sony, for sure, will try to be the leader here and prove that they will continue to innovate. While I have absolutely no doubt that they will, I think that the Sony a7s III having a 24MP sensor could also have even more usage.
While the Sony a7 III is great for weddings and the Sony a9 is great for weddings and so much more, Sony also is talking about their algorithms for autofocus tracking and animal face detection. This is a pretty big market, and one of the bigger problems with lots of cameras out there is not getting cleaner high ISO results. A Sony a7s III could take the lead here and deliver cleaner high ISO results than we’ve ever seen. This in turn would equalize out the four musketeers:
- The Sony a9 would be for the professional photographer who really needs the versatility that a photojournalist’s camera does.
- The Sony a7r III would be for the photographer that needs to print often and needs the most color and details.
- The Sony a7 III would be a more entry level camera. In fact, Sony still calls it the Basic camera.
- The Sony a7s III would be for the photographer that really needs high ISO results that wow. Plus, as we’ve seen in the photo world with 12MP sensors, they need more resolution.
What I really hope is that Sony’s nuclear level high ISO output doesn’t look like a painting the way that previous camera output has.