Sony kept fans waiting a long time before finally unveiling the a7 IV, and with the release date quickly approaching, a7 III users will be weighing whether it’s worth the upgrade. And what if you're pondering your first a7 camera? Should you shell out the extra cash for the newer camera?
Those waiting for the price to drop on the a7 III might have to be patient, as even with all of the holiday season deals happening right now, it’s still not dropped to its previous low point of $1,698. Perhaps we’ll see that shift in the new year once the a7 IV has been on shelves for a few weeks.
Stock for the a7 IV is looking promising, despite all of the news surrounding supply chains and chip shortages. We reported a few days ago that Sony is halting production on a selection of its older imaging equipment in order to manage its chips, but there have been positive reports that European pre-orders of the a7 IV are shipping earlier than expected.
The a7 IV is certainly impressive, but as an a7 III owner, I’m going to hold off, mostly because I can’t afford to change cameras every time an upgrade comes along, but also because the new camera is not the same seismic shift that we witnessed in 2018. While YouTube might give you the impression that everyone on the planet upgrades to the newest model as soon as it's released, most photographers skip a version or two before shelling out.
Which would you buy? And if you own an a7 III, are you going to upgrade? Let us know in the comments below.
a7 III is still a winning price to performance powerhouse, I think a lot of people will hold off on the upgrade.
I'm definitely going to do the upgrade, from the A7R2 to the A73 I've been a fan all along but just can't handle how poor of quality the EVF is on the A73. I also am seriously looking forward to the auto focus improvments! I do a lot of video shooting too and cant wait to see the difference in SLog-3 from the A74 compared to Cine4 from the A73. Gotta get some D range baby!
a73 also has slog-3.
if your primary concern is image quality and versatility for photos, you're better off with a A7RIII - just reduced to 2000 than with a spanking new a7iv
"upgrading" for a non-professional is basically spending for the sake of spending ; and for a working pro, the consideration should be measured in dollars and cents - not in pixels or f-stops
I pre-ordered it. I’m planning on keeping my a7iii as a 2nd camera to use. I felt the new features and improvements in the body are worth it.
Being able to rename video files is more than enough reason to upgrade. We sometimes have 4 x A7iii's on set and all of the video files start with C00001, is driving us insane. Surely this can be fixed with a software update on the A7iii BUT Sony has been holding back on that for years now. You can custom rename the prefix of your images... why not video too????