Top critical review
2.0 out of 5 starsTruly amazing hardware and build quality but insanely inadequate movie recording format
Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2020
I spent the last seven years with Sony alpha cameras, from the A7, to A7ii this a7iii. They are simply the most beautiful cameras on the market, and for shooting stills you just can't get better at this pricepoint. Canon shooters will beg to differ but when you are shooting RAW you have all the latitude to make your own creative looks come to life.
Unfortunately, I can't say such great things about the video capabilities of this camera. This camera is stuck with the XAVC codec, which was great a few years ago - good picture quality in a compressed format when high-priced memory cards was the big concern. But times have changed and and either ProRes (422 at least) or ProRes RAW (or the new BlackmagicRAW on Blackmagic cameras) gives you the dynamic range you should be getting from a superior full frame sensor as in found in this camera. You can use an Atomos Ninja V to enable ProRes 422 recording - but here's the unfortunate limitation: 8 bit only. Compare that to the 14 bit depth you get from RAW stills and you start to see the limitation.
For those not in the pro video world, image you got a souped up Audi or BMW and the car had only three gears. Could drive around comfortably? Or would a less beastly car with more gears perform better? Back to cameras: the smaller micro four thirds sensor in the Panasonic GH5 can't hold a candle to this amazing Sony full frame sensor, and yet the 4k 60p ProRes 422 video you will get on the GH5 with help of the Atomos is astoundingly impressive. Or, going up in price, the full frame sensor in the Panasonic S1H with Atomos will get you 10 bit ProRes 422 6K 60p. Simply wow, and no wonder Netflix has approved that for creating features. Even the $1300 Blackmagic Pocket Cinema 4k will get you truly cinema quality Blackmagic RAW format at 10 bit 60p 4K, albeit micro four thirds and without any stabilization and autofocus (great for cinema use only).
I would love to buy an upcoming A7 IV or an A7 Siii with ProRes 422 or ProRes RAW capability (internal recording would be great, but Atomos external OK) but without more modern video recording formats this is, unfortunately, a hard pass for me as a video camera. Come on, Sony, you rule in the sensor world, just up your game in recording formats, or team up with Atomos just as Panasonic have done.
