I had the opportunity to test the Sony A7iii, paired with the FE24-70mm lens, on my recent summer vacation to Hong Kong. I won’t go too much into the technicalities because these you can easily pull up and will instead share my thoughts on how the key features gel so seamlessly with the user’s lifestyle.
The A7iii is probably any serious photographer’s best choice of camera for a city break. One of the key reasons I love it is because of its weight (and the fact it has a full-frame sensor!) - at approximately 650g, it was a breeze to carry around amidst all the eating and shopping. The ability to assign various functions to the custom buttons dotted around the camera body was a huge plus; you no longer have to go through the very extensive menu to change certain functionalities, perfect for shooting in a fast-paced city with ever changing subject and lighting conditions.
The other thing you don’t want to worry about whilst travelling is your camera’s battery life. With the A7iii, your worries are dispelled – naturally, long exposure shots will drain the battery quicker than regular shooting (as will cooler weather), but this was nowhere near a concern. I charged the battery once every 3 days on average and this was after taking between 300-400 photos on a daily basis.
The A7iii does incredibly well in low-light, and I somehow managed handheld images up to 1/30 of a second – an incredible feat given my hands aren’t the most stable, and a testament to the amazing in-body image stabilisation. The overall ISO performance was superb, with shots up to ISO12800 remaining fairly clean. I do, however, have a personal preference for “cleaner” images; as such, I kept to a maximum ISO of 3200 and the grain was barely noticeable.
Photographers who want the flexibility of post processing have the option to shoot in RAW. I toggled between shooting in RAW and JPEG and was pleasantly surprised at how high resolution the JPEGs were. Sony’s RAW files were slightly problematic during the post production process as I could not open them on even a Lightroom v7.2 – an upgrade to v7.3.1 was necessary to access. This might be a possible deal breaker for photographers not keen on an Adobe subscription and are using an older version of the license.
All in all, the A7iii is almost impossible to fault – a superior camera packed into a compact lightweight body. I am now battling the temptation to get one for myself post trial!
The A7iii is probably any serious photographer’s best choice of camera for a city break. One of the key reasons I love it is because of its weight (and the fact it has a full-frame sensor!) - at approximately 650g, it was a breeze to carry around amidst all the eating and shopping. The ability to assign various functions to the custom buttons dotted around the camera body was a huge plus; you no longer have to go through the very extensive menu to change certain functionalities, perfect for shooting in a fast-paced city with ever changing subject and lighting conditions.
The other thing you don’t want to worry about whilst travelling is your camera’s battery life. With the A7iii, your worries are dispelled – naturally, long exposure shots will drain the battery quicker than regular shooting (as will cooler weather), but this was nowhere near a concern. I charged the battery once every 3 days on average and this was after taking between 300-400 photos on a daily basis.
The A7iii does incredibly well in low-light, and I somehow managed handheld images up to 1/30 of a second – an incredible feat given my hands aren’t the most stable, and a testament to the amazing in-body image stabilisation. The overall ISO performance was superb, with shots up to ISO12800 remaining fairly clean. I do, however, have a personal preference for “cleaner” images; as such, I kept to a maximum ISO of 3200 and the grain was barely noticeable.
Photographers who want the flexibility of post processing have the option to shoot in RAW. I toggled between shooting in RAW and JPEG and was pleasantly surprised at how high resolution the JPEGs were. Sony’s RAW files were slightly problematic during the post production process as I could not open them on even a Lightroom v7.2 – an upgrade to v7.3.1 was necessary to access. This might be a possible deal breaker for photographers not keen on an Adobe subscription and are using an older version of the license.
All in all, the A7iii is almost impossible to fault – a superior camera packed into a compact lightweight body. I am now battling the temptation to get one for myself post trial!
