Sony a7III VS a7RIII User Experience Review - BEST Hybrid Mirrorless Cameras of 2019.

What's going on hybrid shooters, it's Jason Vong and today I'm very excited to be sharing with you guys my user experience review on the new Sony a7 3 All right, so it looks like we accidentally picked up the wrong camera for today's introduction So we're heading back right now to get the other one But I mean who can blame me both cameras look and few nearly identical With of course the obvious different labels in the corners the lock button on the mode dial the PC terminal port on the a7 Obviously there are differences in performance and features and we'll get into that very soon But first we got to talk about the similarities and why they make us so happy The joystick the dual SD card slots the bigger battery These are the things that pros and reviewers have been asking for for the last couple of years now and boom Sony delivered the inclusion of the joystick makes changing focus spots a lot easier and quicker Although both cameras have the option of touch focus having something tactile like this gives us more finer controls over our autofocus The dual SD card slots allows for redundant recording So in the event one card fails you still have another card retaining all of your photos and videos from the same session You can of course utilize the dual SD card slots differently For instance You can write raw files exclusively on the first card and JPEGs on the second card or even separate photos and video files on different Cards and if you're shooting videos make sure to turn on auto continuous recording So when one card fills up it will start writing to the second card seamlessly But by far the most welcome improvement is the bigger battery the a9 and a series 3 cameras are sporting the new FZ100 batteries which holds more charge and lasts way longer without bulking the camera bodies too much It's also big enough to where I can fit a label with both my first and my last names But seriously, that's the biggest reason why I tell my video shooters to upgrade to these cameras You're getting about two to two and a half hours of 4k 24p recording per battery Plus because of these new batteries it makes shooting 4k on the series 3 cameras No longer a struggle for one the screen does not dim like its predecessor In fact, you can amp up the monitor brightness now to better gauge your shot in bright sunlight While we're out here in the hot Sun, let's just let's just talk about it. Okay overheating I've experienced none of it with either of these cameras now in the past My 6300 has overheated from long 4k recording and that has long been fixed now with an update My a7r 2 as well has overheated in the hot Sun But I'm happy to report that both the a7r 3 and the a7 3 was shooting out in the hot sunny weather 80 degrees two and a half hours long shooting 4k 24p and it even get an overheating signal. In fact, you cooking egg rolls here Gosh, it's hot. I think it's me You sure you don't want to come on the hot Sun and get a nice tan Sure, if you just kind of nice today, it's cut So what are the differences between both of these cameras? Well, let's start off with the biggest first 42 megapixels versus 24 megapixels the are on the a7r 3 stands for resolution So it makes sense to getting about twice of it with this camera the advantage of having more megapixels not only shows more details But also allows for extra flexibility and editing. There are less penalties when you're doing any sort of heavy cropping There are a lot more data to sample off of when doing blemish control and post-processing and of course the ability to have larger prints But there is a downside shooting exclusively 42 megapixels things can get very expensive very fast First to really maximize the amount of details you can potentially get from a high-resolution camera You would need lenses that can resolve a lot of those details and a Sony G master lenses are designed exactly for that However, they do have a hefty price tag on top of that more storage spaces 42 megapixels per photo is going to fill up your SD cards and hard drives faster than before so you'll need more of them Unfortunately, there is no option to shoot smaller RAW files only the option to shoot smaller JPEGs now Ideally the folks who will be buying this camera would be in these types of businesses including but not limited to commercial fashion architecture landscape and wildlife But honestly 24 megapixels is enough for anything and everything It doesn't make the a7 3 any less of a professional camera In fact, it's still pretty much the standard so I wouldn't worry too much about it it's large enough to do any large billboard size prints and an absolute overkill for Instagram photos and speaking of megapixels, I Feel like it's a good time to bring up super 35 mode For those of you who are unaware the Sony alpha full-frame cameras are capable of also shooting in crop mode Meaning you can use APS-C lenses on the a7r 3 and the a7 3 without any even getting The camera will crop in 1.5 times therefore filling up the frame So if you're transitioning from an a6000 series camera, you can still use all of your old lenses However, the drawback is the amount of megapixels reduced when shooting in super 35 mode It's not as bad on the a7r 3 as it drops from 42 megapixels to 18 Still a decent amount of megapixels to play with but on the a7 3 you're gonna be going down from 24 megapixels to 10 Megapixels with that said some photographers who use APS-C lenses would still shoot in full-frame mode Regardless as they prefer to retain a high megapixel count and choosing the crop the vignetting in post However using super 35 mode is incredibly advantageous when you're shooting 4k videos If you're using full-frame lenses, you essentially have two different sets of focal lengths For example, the Zeiss 55 millimeter 1.8 is 55 in full-frame, but in super 35 It's roughly 83 millimeters This 24 to 70 would be as it is in full frame But in super 35 it becomes a 35 to 105 millimeter equivalent This is incredibly helpful to get an extra reach out of your full-frame lenses Unlike in photo mode there is minimal quality loss when shooting 4k videos in super 35 mode In fact with the a7r 3 you're technically getting better quality as the camera will be shooting 5k in a 4k composition Offering more details in your footage than it would in regular full-frame 4k On the other hand though in full-frame mode the a7iii will be shooting 6k in a 4k composition Outperforming the a7r 3 in terms of image quality in video mode Now is that a big deal in the real world? Likely not as your audience may not be able to tell a huge difference between the two Unless shown side by side and you're really forcing them to pixel peep Let's talk about the autofocus now on paper the a7iii has the clear advantage of 693 face detection autofocus points versus 399 on the a7r 3 The a7iii has more focus points spread out on the screen meaning it can grab and stick focus on a subject That is close or gets close to the edge of the frame But when it comes to the speed at which both cameras grab focus, they honestly felt the same to me fast and reliable Both cameras are capable of continuous face detection autofocus and eye detection autofocus just like their series 2 predecessors But that doesn't mean sony didn't make any improvements Compared to the sony a7r ii both the a7r iii and the a7iii does a great job keeping the subject's face in focus Even when it's slightly obscured In fact what surprised me the most was the fact that both series 3 cameras does a great job Picking up a face from quite a bit of distance away For example, I shot wedding ceremonies and both times right when the doors opened up The cameras would lock focus on the bride's face right away at the start of the aisle And it did a great job tracking her and keeping her in focus as she walks down the aisle In the past the bride would have to be in a medium shot before the a7r ii detects and locks focus on their face So i'm honestly very impressed with the new autofocus performance Thanks to the new image processors being implemented into the series 3 cameras Photos are being written in much faster than before plus clearing out the buffer a lot quicker Especially on the a7r iii with the 42 megapixel photos shooting both raw and jpeg You can get in about 76 shots versus 22 on the a7r ii. I mean just listen to that I can't tell you how much it's been a joy to have this camera keep up with me as I get trigger happy Also previously on the a7r ii the camera would lock up after you max out the buffer rendering it Completely inoperable until it's finished But now you'll be able to preview your photos while the a7r iii finishes writing in the background tremendous improvement on this If you're a fan of slow motion, then I got some good news for you Both cameras are capable of shooting 120 frames per second in 1080p with no cropping and there's a definite Improvement in the image quality as well compared to the series 2 cameras Now one thing I would highly advise is to avoid using s and q when doing slow motion as this mode shoots at a lesser bit rate per frame Although the footage will be played back in slow motion automatically Fellow youtuber zed pro media and I did notice the quality did not match up to the footage We got when shooting in regular 60 or 120p and slowing it down in post afterwards However, if you're doing any sort of time lapses or hyper lapses Then s and q will be a great mode to use when shooting 1 to 15 frames While we're on the topic of frame rates There is a 1.2 times crop when shooting 4k 30 on the a7 iii Now I personally don't shoot 4k 30 too often But for folks that do just be mindful of that the a7r iii will not have this crop And yes, I am bummed that sony did not include 4k 60 on either of these cameras Which was honestly the biggest deal breaker for me personally But they were still able to hook me with a bigger battery the joystick the dual sd card slot and the new color science Which i'll get into in just a bit But our only hope of seeing 4k 60 now is in the next low light beast the sony a7s iii Speaking of low light though The a7 iii's low light performance is quite on par with the current a7s ii as demonstrated by max europe The a7 iii is capable of keeping up with the a7s ii as high as iso 12,800 that is honestly very impressive For the full low light performance comparison be sure to check out max's video linked up here and in description box below In the real world. I witnessed it firsthand how clean my jpegs and footage look at iso 6400 even at 12,800 it looked incredible a number I would never ever dare touch on the a7r iii r2 and especially the 6500 Now I know a lot of video people will be asking me this Should they not wait for the a7s iii then if the a7 iii's low light is already this good Well, if you're constantly finding yourself in a dimly lit situation and i'll throw this into in need of 4k 60 Then yeah, maybe wait for the a7s iii But if none of those matter to you, then go ahead and get yourself the a7 iii It also has s log 2 3 and hybrid log gamma profiles as well same goes for the a7r iii So both cameras are well equipped to do high production video work Let's talk about in body image stabilization Both cameras have it and has proven to be one of the greatest blessings in camera body history Especially if you do a lot of handheld video work But i'm going to say the a7r iii here has the slight advantage with its 5.5 axis in body image stabilization Versus just 5 on the a7 iii Now half a stop of difference may not sound like a whole lot but a subtle difference of extra stability is definitely there Another subtle difference is the evf and lcd display now on paper The a7 iii has a slightly lower resolution display compared to the a7r iii But when i'm out on the field, it's not something that I notice when jumping back and forth between two cameras However, others have reported the a7 iii has a similar soft display like the a7r ii So for video shooters who rely on punch-in manual focus a lot, it will be a little hard to gauge focus So you may want to consider an external monitor The a7r iii has a sharper display and I can confirm the punch-in manual focus on this camera is much better In fact, I just found out during this review that the sunny weather monitor brightness is noticeably brighter on the a7r iii Than it is on the a7 iii Now what's not a subtle difference is the newly implemented color science in the series 3 cameras Which I think a lot of canon switchers are going to be happy about when they come over to sony Both cameras now favor the red tones a little more All right, so we spent a little too much time on the video portion of this review So let's get back onto the photography track. Let's talk about off-camera flash options Most sony shooters are using flashpoint or godox. They're both the same thing They're relatively inexpensive compared to the other competition out there for the quality that you're getting The most popular one right now is the evolve 200 model, which is equivalent to three speed lights Great for outdoor portraits and perfect for wedding receptions If you're looking for something that can overpower the sun or just more power in general then consider the explore 600 model For general speed lights look into the r2 units. I have a more in-depth buying guide on these flashes So click up here to check it out All right, there are a couple of bees pollinating the flowers right now What a magical moment and i'm just firing shots away. Thanks to the silent shooting feature It allows me to capture this magical moment without disturbing my surrounding perfect for quiet events and weddings, too. Oh However, if you start to notice any banding in your photos You want to turn off silent shooting and electronic front curtain off as those are some of the known causes to that issue All right, so it's time for everybody's least favorite topic money How much of it are you going to have to take from your kids college savings fund? Well, the a7r3 is going to run you about $3,200 while the a7iii will run you about $2,000 if at this point of the review you're still going to be asking me if the a7r3 is worth the extra $1,200 over the a7iii Then go ahead and get yourself the a7iii Trust me on it. Take the extra money and get yourself some decent prime lenses There will be folks out there who would know if they need the 42 megapixels or not Now if you're coming from an older sony a7 or a6000 series camera, then absolutely I think either of these cameras are definitely worth the upgrade a6000 a63 a6500 users if you've been wanting to hop on the full frame train for a while now Then there's no better time to do it than with the a7iii a7 a7iii users you're going to find the autofocus performance on the a7iii Tremendously improved light years ahead of your current model a7r2 a7s2 users the bigger battery alone would make you want to cross over It certainly made me do it and i've never been happier Was there anything that I missed in this video? Were there anything crucial that you discovered from both of these cameras that you feel like? Current sony users and potential future sony users should know leave in the comments down below as time goes on More experiences will be unfold new tips and tricks will be discovered So definitely subscribe to my youtube channel for future micro updates on both the a7r3 and the a7iii Give this video a like and leave in the comments down below Which camera you decide to pick up after watching this review both cameras all the lenses all the accessories that I used and featured In this video are linked in the description box below. So don't forget to check that out guys I'll see you guys in my next video peace