Sony launches a7 III: $2000 24MP full frame mirrorless with a9/a7R III advances

canon does not see the light at all, but it is hard to see when you have your ostrich head stuck firmly in the sand, repeatedly shouting, mirrorless is only a fad
 
and the new sony does indeed look great, and for anyone looking at the sony system it is a great place to start, myself i ended up with an a9, which i might possibly put to the motorcycle test in may. the next gary wandering adventure is deep into the planning stages, airline ticket and rental car already booked and paid for. portland oregon and coastal oregon, 5/12/18 to 5/22/18. i started out going to a one day steam photo charter on the oregon coast railroad on 5/19, and since you pay the same to fly out for 1 day, as 9 might as well make a trip out of it. portland international raceway has road course amateur bike races that weekend, so i may very well got test out that a9 autofocus on some bike style. i am pretty impressed with how it does seagulls in flight here, just need more panning practice. so look for a gary goes even further west, until he runs out of land in may, portland, microbrews, light rail, columbia river gorge, mount hood, lighthouses, steam trains, puffins hopefully, more craft beer, wildflowers, big green trees, fierce waves, maybe coast guard training with the 47 footers as the columbia river bar is the only training school for the 47 coxswain rating there is, because it consistently has 20 foot waves or more to train on, waterfalls. if i missed anything someone let me know. oh and i am being joined for a few days by michael, our very own master of train photos.
 
I'm planning a trip to the Northwest, too. But more north and west...Olympic National Park.

Rumors are that Nikon will come out with an FX mirrorless sometime this year but with a new mount instead of the F-mount. The adapter better be great or it will be a waste of time.
 
ahh metabones will probably be the sub designer anyway, sony will make the sensor, nikon will decide the price and the marketing
 
gary said:
ahh metabones will probably be the sub designer anyway, sony will make the sensor, nikon will decide the price and the marketing
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Now that I know what a Metabones is. Have you tried any Nikon adapters for the a9? The a7 III has a lot in common with the a9 and thinking the adapters will be either the same or very similar. Thanks!
 
the only adapters i have are for canon fd mount, i have a couple of older razor sharp canon primes, and i have an adapter for sony a mount to fe mount to allow me to use some very famously sharp minolta lenses, i dabble a little with them, but i just sold my last canon eos lens, my beloved eagle and osprey lens, the 500mm f4 IS, the first gen model, it kind of broke my heart to sell it, but it would not have been near as fast on the a9 , i was pleasantly surprised that keh gave me more, substantially more than i expected, so my sony native lens buildout will be proceeding faster than expected. i have the 100-400 f4.5-5.6, and it is just a birds in flight monster setup on the a9, even with the 1.4 extender, and in daylight the 2.0 extender is sharp and incredibly fast focus, even shooting electronic shutter, compressed raw is still 12 frames per second, and that is why i went a9 instead of the a7r3. i shoot just enough fast things that i wanted that autofocus speed. the a7r3 is thought of as the a9 lite, it has 80% of the autofocus, shoots 10 frames a second, and has those gorgeous huge full of color, croppable beyond belief files. i know i was pleased at pixel mania with the rented a7r3 and my 100-400 lens, of course 10 frames a second is why michael and i left indiana jones, strolled over to beauty & the beast, sat down, set up, and i fired 2 shots and got the card full message, seems i had shot 742 frames in indiana jones, because i could, not because it was needed. as i did more shows i started to develop a little fire discipline, 600 or so in finding nemo, managed to get it down to 400 in lion king,
 
and while i may some day end up with an a7r3 for the disney trips, i am keeping a close eye on sony rumors and the speculation on fred miranda's site, if sony goes medium format size sensor to the tune of 60-70 mp with the a9 autofocus and speed, i am so there, that would be an automatic preorder for me, even if it meant no other photo purchases for the next 2-3 years
 
Thanks, @gary! Lots to think about. The price of the lenses is holding me back but I foresee me renting a SONY A7 III with a 70-200mm f/2.8 for testing in the Fall.
 
Adapter-wise with Sony E-mount, the mostly-agreed upon order of which adapters work the most normally, native-like, and quickly on the E-mount bodies is the Sony LA-EA3 for Alpha-mount lenses with their own motors, Sigma MC11 for some specific Sigma Canon-mount or Sigma mount lenses, and the Metabones IV or up for Canon's EF mount lenses...with a special asterisk for the Sony LA-EA4 adapter for A-mount lenses without motors, as it will focus perfectly fast and normal but uses its own internal focus system and translucent mirror, so you aren't using your camera's native focus system. Others are generally a mixed bag - some can work decently well, some work well with some lenses and not others, some have problems, etc - there are several different AF adapter makers out there covering some other mounts, but Sony Alpha and Canon EF get the most support. Nikon AF adapters haven't gotten glowing reviews yet - there's only one or two though and I don't think they've really been thoroughly tested to run through which specific lenses may cooperate better. There's even an AF adapter for Leica M mount, where the adapter has a focus motor built in that moves the lens itself, closer or farther from the sensor, to achieve autofocus...probably best for primes and times when you're not in a rush to get focus.
 
the a7iii with the 70-200 f2.8 gm and the 1.4 tele could be a very fast sports worthy setup, definitely worth looking at
 
I'm a bit late to this conversation, but @gary , didn't you have the A7R III last time I saw you? I think the A9 was out at the time. What's the reason for the switch?

BTW, I picked up the A7III. Have yet to put it through its paces but frame rate and focus are certainly a step up from the A7II.
 
I yes i did have a rented a7riii at pixel mania, no one could guarantee i could have it in my hands by 12/2, with release date projected as 11/28. so i placed a rent order with lens rentals, who not only received theirs on time but had it in my hands a full 2 days ahead of my need, so i got to practice a little. it's a great camera, so much so that as soon as i returned from pixel mania i sold the a7rii. but there were no r3 in stock a condition that went on for a full 6 weeks, in that time frame, over on the fredmiranda.com site someone started a very clear, concise thread comparing the a7r3 and the a9 and which was the best for a persons needs, no fanboy stuff, just good logical well thought out reasoning. and it went on out to 10 full pages worth, the consensus was that for most people the a7r3 was enough camera, but at the end of the day i realized that i do want to shoot just enough fast moving things that the a9 made sense for me. if it was just disney and slow moving steam trains the 10 frames a second and autofocus speed would be just fine, but that a9 is just smoking hot on birds in flight and ospreys coming into the nest with fish, motorcycles on flat track, and nascar modifieds at stafford and thompson, so i ended up getting a slightly used a9, there are many out there from wedding pros who really need the a7r3 resolution, and 10 frames per second should cover most brides. so a lot of those pros got a9's because for a year that was the fastest autofocus out there, but now the a7r3 is the wedding body of choice. some day, when my lens lineup is built out, i may in fact end up with an a7r3, just for trips to disney
 
gary said:
I yes i did have a rented a7riii at pixel mania, no one could guarantee i could have it in my hands by 12/2, with release date projected as 11/28. so i placed a rent order with lens rentals, who not only received theirs on time but had it in my hands a full 2 days ahead of my need, so i got to practice a little. it's a great camera, so much so that as soon as i returned from pixel mania i sold the a7rii. but there were no r3 in stock a condition that went on for a full 6 weeks, in that time frame, over on the fredmiranda.com site someone started a very clear, concise thread comparing the a7r3 and the a9 and which was the best for a persons needs, no fanboy stuff, just good logical well thought out reasoning. and it went on out to 10 full pages worth, the consensus was that for most people the a7r3 was enough camera, but at the end of the day i realized that i do want to shoot just enough fast moving things that the a9 made sense for me. if it was just disney and slow moving steam trains the 10 frames a second and autofocus speed would be just fine, but that a9 is just smoking hot on birds in flight and ospreys coming into the nest with fish, motorcycles on flat track, and nascar modifieds at stafford and thompson, so i ended up getting a slightly used a9, there are many out there from wedding pros who really need the a7r3 resolution, and 10 frames per second should cover most brides. so a lot of those pros got a9's because for a year that was the fastest autofocus out there, but now the a7r3 is the wedding body of choice. some day, when my lens lineup is built out, i may in fact end up with an a7r3, just for trips to disney
Click to expand...

Forgot then RIII was a rental. Makes more sense now.
 
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