"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwe're the high-resolution a7r high ISO a7s and high-speed a 9r all specialists the base Sony a7 has always been more of a generalist it's okay at a variety of tasks but doesn't excel in any one or at least that's how it used to be when Sony introduced the a7 three it proudly claimed it would redefine what it meant to be a basic camera with this combination of excellent image quality blazing fast performance and really solid video features this isn't just an affordable entry-level model it's an aspirational product of its own and probably the most valuable camera in Sony's full-frame lineup and yes we get it that this video is quite late but there's a reason we like to look at products even many months after their release when we published our initial hands-on with the a7 3 we were easily blown away but since then other brands have had a chance to catch up with Sony's new definition of the basic model Canon and Nikon have entered the full-frame mirrorless game and the Nikon z6 in particular is a direct competitor to the a7 3 offering the same resolution similar performance numbers and importantly the same $2,000 price tag but before we get carried away talking about the competition let's talk about what the a7 3 is and what it does really well because there's a lot like the a seven and a seven to before it the mark 3 is built around a 24 megapixel sensor but this one is now backside illuminated meaning more surface area is exposed to light making it more sensitive if you believe the Wizards over at DX o mark it actually matches the a7 our 3 for dynamic range and puts up the best score of any full-frame camera for high ISO noise in our testing we found ISO 25600 to be surprisingly usable although the maximum 50 1200 did introduce a noticeable magenta color shift and quite a bit more noise still with some modest noise reduction in Lightroom it's not too bad so unless you absolutely need more Ellucian the a 7-3 is just about equal or better than any other full-frame camera on the market for both low and high ISO shooting add to this the 10 frames per second continuous shooting speed and it has more than enough speed for most of us plus you get the 693 point autofocus system from the a9 a camera that costs more than twice as much and don't forget about the five axis stabilization which is now good for five stops of Shake Reduction half a stop better than the a7 - so a review over go by it well maybe not so fast a few months ago the a7 3 was a shoo-in but it's no longer running uncontested the nikon z6 is a compelling alternative and does actually offer some things not found on the sony such as 10 bit 4k video output the a7 3 does offer much more control for internal video recording however with s log 2 & 3 for different flavors of hybrid law gamma and a wealth of additional settings you can customize the z6 does have a faster maximum burst rate of 12 frames per second but image quality does drop to 12 bit raw in this mode at 14 bit it's limited to 9 fps whereas the Sony can shoot 14 bit at its full 10 FPS the a7 3 also boasts vastly superior battery life with a SEPA rating of 710 exposures compared to just 330 for the z6 and as always in real-world conditions you may get much more than this ultimately though your choice may be less about specs and more just about your personal preferences which of course are going to be determined by many different things for example we're not huge fans of Sony's user interface in terms of physical controls it makes somewhat poor use of the cameras real estate with plenty of empty space on top and on front where additional direct access controls or a top LCD screen could have been placed worse though is the menu system which organizes some settings together in a way that just doesn't seem to make sense in time you'll get used to whatever camera you buy so this isn't a huge issue but it is one area where Sony could see some refinement and this is not to say that Nikon or kin or anyone else doesn't have their own issues but it's one of those things you may want to consider and look into before making a decision overall we were really impressed with the a 7-3 it's an incredibly capable very responsive camera that performs above expectations in a wide variety of scenarios while it may not be quite as obvious of choice as it was when it launched the a7 3 remains one of the top options in this class and even reaches beyond its class we can wholeheartedly recommend it to a wide variety of photographers even professionals who could afford much more when it comes to full-frame mirrorless Sony may no longer be the only game in town but in many ways it is still the best hey thanks for watching this video for more on the sony a7 3 you can find our full review over at digital trends calm and be sure to hit that subscribe button if you want to see more videos from digital trendswe're the high-resolution a7r high ISO a7s and high-speed a 9r all specialists the base Sony a7 has always been more of a generalist it's okay at a variety of tasks but doesn't excel in any one or at least that's how it used to be when Sony introduced the a7 three it proudly claimed it would redefine what it meant to be a basic camera with this combination of excellent image quality blazing fast performance and really solid video features this isn't just an affordable entry-level model it's an aspirational product of its own and probably the most valuable camera in Sony's full-frame lineup and yes we get it that this video is quite late but there's a reason we like to look at products even many months after their release when we published our initial hands-on with the a7 3 we were easily blown away but since then other brands have had a chance to catch up with Sony's new definition of the basic model Canon and Nikon have entered the full-frame mirrorless game and the Nikon z6 in particular is a direct competitor to the a7 3 offering the same resolution similar performance numbers and importantly the same $2,000 price tag but before we get carried away talking about the competition let's talk about what the a7 3 is and what it does really well because there's a lot like the a seven and a seven to before it the mark 3 is built around a 24 megapixel sensor but this one is now backside illuminated meaning more surface area is exposed to light making it more sensitive if you believe the Wizards over at DX o mark it actually matches the a7 our 3 for dynamic range and puts up the best score of any full-frame camera for high ISO noise in our testing we found ISO 25600 to be surprisingly usable although the maximum 50 1200 did introduce a noticeable magenta color shift and quite a bit more noise still with some modest noise reduction in Lightroom it's not too bad so unless you absolutely need more Ellucian the a 7-3 is just about equal or better than any other full-frame camera on the market for both low and high ISO shooting add to this the 10 frames per second continuous shooting speed and it has more than enough speed for most of us plus you get the 693 point autofocus system from the a9 a camera that costs more than twice as much and don't forget about the five axis stabilization which is now good for five stops of Shake Reduction half a stop better than the a7 - so a review over go by it well maybe not so fast a few months ago the a7 3 was a shoo-in but it's no longer running uncontested the nikon z6 is a compelling alternative and does actually offer some things not found on the sony such as 10 bit 4k video output the a7 3 does offer much more control for internal video recording however with s log 2 & 3 for different flavors of hybrid law gamma and a wealth of additional settings you can customize the z6 does have a faster maximum burst rate of 12 frames per second but image quality does drop to 12 bit raw in this mode at 14 bit it's limited to 9 fps whereas the Sony can shoot 14 bit at its full 10 FPS the a7 3 also boasts vastly superior battery life with a SEPA rating of 710 exposures compared to just 330 for the z6 and as always in real-world conditions you may get much more than this ultimately though your choice may be less about specs and more just about your personal preferences which of course are going to be determined by many different things for example we're not huge fans of Sony's user interface in terms of physical controls it makes somewhat poor use of the cameras real estate with plenty of empty space on top and on front where additional direct access controls or a top LCD screen could have been placed worse though is the menu system which organizes some settings together in a way that just doesn't seem to make sense in time you'll get used to whatever camera you buy so this isn't a huge issue but it is one area where Sony could see some refinement and this is not to say that Nikon or kin or anyone else doesn't have their own issues but it's one of those things you may want to consider and look into before making a decision overall we were really impressed with the a 7-3 it's an incredibly capable very responsive camera that performs above expectations in a wide variety of scenarios while it may not be quite as obvious of choice as it was when it launched the a7 3 remains one of the top options in this class and even reaches beyond its class we can wholeheartedly recommend it to a wide variety of photographers even professionals who could afford much more when it comes to full-frame mirrorless Sony may no longer be the only game in town but in many ways it is still the best hey thanks for watching this video for more on the sony a7 3 you can find our full review over at digital trends calm and be sure to hit that subscribe button if you want to see more videos from digital trends\n"