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DXOMark: The Sony a7r III is Just a Hair Better Than the Nikon Z7

Chris Gampat
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03/17/2019
2 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Nikon Z7 review Weather sealing photo

DxoMark says that the Nikon Z7 really falls behind the Sony a7r III in high ISO performance

Let’s be honest here: Nikon z7 sales haven’t been the best and if anything, DXOMark’s latest tests on the camera are just an ego boost to Sony users. Nikon’s current top end mirrorless camera scored an incredibly 99 points right under the Sony a7r III–which has 100 points. But fear not Nikonians–your beloved Nikon D850 is still king of the full frame charts.

According to DXOMark’s charts, the Nikon Z7 wins pretty darned high marks. If anything, Sony users may say that it’s a “Sony a7r III lite.” As a reminder though, DXOMark really just evaluates sensor readings and despite these quantitative numbers that we see here, I’ll assure you that in real world testing they don’t mean all that much.

We finished our Nikon Z7 review a long time ago and in terms of sensor performance we can tell you that some of it depends on the program that you’re using. Lightroom is good, but Capture One at this point is the undeniable champion when it comes to working with RAW files. To that end, rendering output from the highlights, shadows and the colors is better in Capture One. While DXOMark states that Nikon and Sony are pretty neck in neck when it comes to colors, I’m not so sure that that’s really the truth. When editing Nikon RAW files we got some weird tones and couldn’t apply standard editing processes to the RAWs. Instead, we had to change up what we do. This is all to be expected though: I wouldn’t edit a Sony file the way that I edit an Olympus file.

Still though, DXOMark doesn’t tell the whole story of the camera. The Nikon Z7 is arguably more weather sealed than the Sony a7r III and has drastically worse autofocus performance. The ergonomics feel nicer with the Nikon and the battery life from Nikon outdoes Sony as well.

The Nikon Z7 and all the other full frame options though still aren’t as great as the medium format options currently on the market though. As you can see in this photo from DXOMark’s charts, Full frame just can’t beat its larger cousin.

Be sure to check out the full DXOMark review of the Nikon Z7 here.

camera dxomark nikon rating sensor sony sony a7r III
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.