It’s official: Sony has just announced that the launch event for the long-awaited (long, long) Sony a7S III will take place on Tuesday, July 28 at 10 am ET. In light of this confirmation, here is everything we hope to see based on the latest rumors and reports.
Sony first admitted that the a7S III would arrive soon in an interview with DPReview, promising “a complete redesign” of the camera, including a new image sensor. But while Sony has been very quiet about what this might mean in terms of specs, the rumor sites have been producing details.
In addition to correctly predicting the announcement date of July 28, this is what Sony Alpha Rumors has been gathered on the next camera so far. Consider a grain of salt for now, as no other source has substantiated these specs yet:
- Redesigned 12MP image sensor with “quick read” (probably a stacked CMOS sensor)
- 16-bit RAW output
- A claim of 15 stops of dynamic range (which should be possible with 16-bit RAW).
- 1080 / 240p slow motion
- 4K / 120p 4: 2: 2 10-bit video and 4K / 120p RAW video over HDMI
- 600Mpbs bitrate
- Base ISO 160 for S-LOG3, but no dual ISO
- No record time limits
- Fully articulated screen
- UHS-II SD card slots
There are some specs that deserve a pinch of salt. For example, we are not sure that Atomos recorders are capable of recording 4K / 120p RAW videos (please correct us if we are wrong), and even a UHS-II SD card might have difficulty recording 10-bit 4: 2: 2 videos 4K / 120p internally depending on the bit rate.
That said, with the launch as soon as we expect to see some (or all) of these specifications “confirmed” by other sources such as Nokishita, in addition to the expected leaks of product photos, prior to launch.
If you are interested in getting more information before launch, stay tuned; if not, you can avoid anything with a7S III in the headline from now until the morning of July 28.
