The a7III offers 4K video and, at 24 frames-per-second, is full-frame.
Levels of luminance and chrominance noise were excellent and similar to – but surprisingly not better than – the Nikon D750. The reds have been boosted in processing.
The North America Nebula with the Sony a7III and a Meade 70mm f/5 astrographic refractor, for a single 4-minute exposure at ISO 1600. Brightness of Live View for framing and focusing.Quality of Raw files, such as sharpness of stars.Effectiveness of Long Exposure Noise Reduction (LENR).Instead, I concentrated on those points I felt of most concern to astrophotographers, such as: In testing the Sony a7III I ignored all the auto functions.
The Sony a7III, Nikon D750, and Canon 6D Mark II.
In a mirrorless, the camera remains in “live view” all the time, with the sensor always feeding a live image to either or both the rear LCD screen and electronic viewfinder (EVF). The Sony a7III’s excellent Live View screen display. In the meantime, Sony commands the full-frame mirrorless market.Īs its name implies, a mirrorless camera lacks the reflex mirror of a digital single lens reflex camera that, in a DSLR, provides the light path for framing the scene though the optical viewfinder.
The Sony a7III with the compact but fast Laowa Venus Optics 15mm f/2 lens.Īs with Sony’s other popular Alpha 7 and 9 series cameras, the new Alpha 7III is a full-frame mirrorless camera, a class of camera Canon and Nikon have yet to offer, though models are rumoured or promised. All with the Laowa 15mm lens and Sony a7III at ISO 3200. MILKY WAY AT DINOSAUR PARK A stack of 2 x 90-second exposures for the ground, to smooth noise, and at f/2.8 for better depth of field, plus a single 30-second untracked exposure at f/2 for the sky. NOTE: Click or Tap on most images to bring them up full-frame for inspection. I did this testing in preparation for the new third edition of my Nightscapes and Time-Lapse eBook, which includes information on Sony mirrorless cameras, as well as many, many other updates and additions! It was not supplied to me by Sony in return for an “influential” blog post. In my testing I compared the Sony a7III to two competitive DSLRs, the Canon 6D MkII and Nikon D750.Īll three are “entry-level” full-frame cameras, with 24 to 26 megapixels and in a similar price league of $1,500 (Nikon) to 2,000 (Sony). Indeed, the ease of manually focusing in Live View is a key function. Most tests focus on its superb auto exposure and auto focus capabilities that rival much more costly cameras, including Sony’s own a7rIII and a9.įor astrophotography, none of those auto functions are of any value. Sony’s a7III camera has enjoyed rave reviews since its introduction earlier in 2018.
I put the new Sony a7III mirrorless camera through its paces for the features and functions we need to shoot the night sky.