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In stills and video mode, the Sony A7S III has a native sensitivity range of ISO ISO 80-102,400 with expansions settings pushing the range to 40-409,600. As usual, that upper range is best avoided unless it’s really important to get an image, perhaps for news reporting. In theory the A7s Mark II can record movies – including at 4k – up to 29:59, but this is always something I like to test in practice. I’m pleased to report my A7s Mark II sample managed to record 4k video to this maximum length just one second shy of half an hour without issue, consuming roughly half of a fully-charged battery in the process. Afterwards the camera was warm to the touch but by no means hot, and also happy to film a second clip, although I did perform the test in a cool room during a UK winter. Out of curiousity I also retested the A7r Mark II under the same conditions and found it too managed to record half an hour of 4k, again consuming roughly half the battery, albeit ending-up a little warmer at the end. When I originally tested the A7r Mark II in this regard it was during a warm Summer and the camera stopped after around 24 minutes of 4k, needing to cool-down for a few minutes before it was happy to start recording again. I hope to retest the A7s Mark II in warmer conditions to see if it behaves any better, but in the meantime I can report both it and the A7r Mark II can record half hour 4k clips in cool conditions.
The Sony FX3 and Sony A7S III are variants on the same concept – they're both small, 4K full-frame cameras that are particularly strong in low-light and offer highly compact setups for solo shooters. ISO range: [Stills] 80-102,400 (Standard), 40-409,600 (Expanded), [Movies] 80-102,400 (Standard), 80-409,600 (Expanded) Sony has arranged the menu tabs in a column on the left of the screen rather than across the top. These also colour-coded and the icons upgraded to make the whole thing look a little bit more 2020. To the right of the tabs, there’s a column of the various features listed within the selected tab and as you scroll down them, you see the options and settings available for each item. As I mentioned earlier, these can be selected with a tap or using the navigation controls. One of the biggest differences between the Sony A7S III and A7S II is battery life, with Sony's new video flagship getting a significant upgrade thanks to the inclusion of its Z battery.In addition, Sony has introduced new/improved codecs including XAVC S-I 4K (All-Intra), XAVC HS 4K (Long GOP) and XAVC S 4K (Long GOP), plus there’s S-Log2 and S-Log3 and improved S-Gamut3 and S-Gamut3.Cine colour science. It's a high-end video camera, whose capabilities become apparent if you're shooting in a demanding manner. If you're not a video specialist then yes, a general stills/video camera like the Z6 will be a better choice, but that's not what this camera is trying to do.
you’re shooting landscapes. The high-resolution sensors on both cameras will allow you to capture a staggering amount of detail
In depth
Another area Sony has regularly been criticized for (by others as well as us) is the under-utilization of their touchscreens. The a7S III puts this right by letting you control both the Fn menu and main menus using the touchscreen. Above: Sony A7s II vs Sony A7r II (APSC) vs Sony A7r II (full-frame) – 4k daylight resolution at 100 ISO. The A7S's EVF system also performs very well indoors in low light, typically the scourge of most EVFs which have to "gain-up" to produce a usable picture, resulting in a noticeably grainier picture. The A7S doesn't suffer from this unwanted effect at all, making its electronic viewfinder the equal of and in many areas better than a DSLR's optical viewfinder. The truest testament to the A7S is that we almost exclusively used it by holding it up to eye-level, something that we wouldn't do unless the EVF was of sufficient quality.
That’s a nice improvement on the A7 III which doesn’t have 10-bit colour nor 4K 60p capability and applies a 1.2x crop to 4K 30p footage. There’s no question that the A7S II’s stabilisation is useful for stills and video shooting, and it’s worth switching it to the active mode for video, but it’s a stretch to call it gimbal-like. It’s handy for taking out those fine shakes and tremors that come with hand-holding a camera, but a gimbal like the Zhiyun Crane 2S is still a good call for run-and-gun video. Colour and Exposure
The camera’s twin card slots will both accept either UHS-II SD cards, or the new CFexpress Type A cards The issue of ISO is not a trivial one and it seems that when it comes to the 7S there are some questions lingering. Would be nice to have access to Sony technical data on this sensor. Beyond this improved dynamic range, the Sony A7S III also includes a number of upgrades to satisfy pro video expectations in 2020. Viewfinder: 0.64-inch type 9,437,184-dot OLED electronic viewfinder, with refresh rate up to 120fps, adjustable magnification up to 0.9x Furthermore, not opening up the aperture means extended DOF, which means the camera has to search a wider range to detect focus. This becomes particularly egregious at smaller apertures. Say you want to ensure an erratically moving subject is absolutely in focus as it's running, and you're moving alongside it as well. You may wish to choose F8 for a higher hit rate. But the AF would be slowed due to DOF.
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