I am a professional photographer and I have owned every other A7 camera including A7, A7S, A7R, all the gen 2 versions and now the gen 3. I currently shoot on the A7riii. If you'r reading this review then you likely already know enough about what this camera's amazing low light performance and want to know if this camera is still relevant in 2019.
The short answer is really depending on what you plan to use it for. At the $2,000 the answer is no for all scenarios. For $400 more you can purchase the A7sii and that's a significant upgrade which I will go into further below. However if you can find this camera for around $1,500 or less, then the answer is YES!
If you're an advanced amateur or getting into the photography or the video business, then this is a great camera. It is small, light, and powerful in low light situations without having to own flashes and other light modifiers. For video, most videographers will need a gimbal for smoothing out shake anyways so having IBIS (from the A7sii) may be redundant for your purposes and you can save some money with this camera. However if you are a working video professional, then most likely you should skip over this generation and go for the A7sii or the A7iii for 4k and 6k downsampling capabilities. However if you need a backup camera or a camera for personal projects, it still holds its value well.
I used this camera mostly for photography stills as a backup for my A7rii. While this camera is primarily geared towards video, in my experience shooting stills with this camera is great despite what others may tell you about autofocus and video. It's definitely not a main camera for photo stills (12MP is too low to deliver to a client) but works well as a secondary or backup camera for low light situations. Even today the A7s holds up well as being a legendary low light king that's unmatched by few others. Possibly the reason why the price is still around $2000 is because there's no other camera out on the market besides the mark 2 that can match the same type of low light performance. The A7Sii is essentially the same camera with 1 stop better low light ISO performance in a better body with IBIS. The IBIS may not directly affect image quality but it allows for far longer hand held stills and smoother video so that it essentially boosts the low light image quality by leaps.
Low light - This is this camera's strongest selling point. Low light beast. This camera will shoot in situation that no other camera can shoot in, and shoot it cleanly. People who don't know about this camera are constantly asking me to "turn on the flash" or "you'll never get that photo" and then are amazed when I show them the results. Simply put this camera is superb in producing "natural light" photos in low light without the distracting flash or harsh flash lighting. It's a unique look that few other cameras can really replicate.
Dynamic Range - This camera has amazing dynamic range. It's like having layers and layers of color and data hidden under each fold. You can literally shoot once and bring out colors and details you never thought were there. The files are extremely malleable for editing. This is especially true for shooting in low light. Low light shadows and
dark areas can almost ALWAYS be brought up for additional details hidden in the shadow.
AF - this is the main concern most people have with using this camera for stills. True, this camera has no phase detection AF and it's all contrast detection. However it's AMAZING contrast detection. I've honestly never had issues with it as it is fast, accurate, and works in the dark. The camera was made for low light use so consequentially the sensor's ability to see in the dark and focus in the dark is excellent. I've had cameras like the A7rii and A7ii which have hundreds of "advanced hybrid PDAF/CD" sensors utterly fail in low light. The A7s is always dependable in seeing where sometimes your eyes can't.
Battery - The gen 1 and gen 2 A7 cameras all have issues with battery life. It's a consequence of the small W batteries and it wasn't addressed until the gen 3 Z type batteries were introduced. But for stills photography where you don't need the camera to be on for 30 min at a time, it was sufficient with a second backup battery. When shooting video you have the camera on for hours at a time filming and will need to attach a second screen, mic, and extra batteries. For photos, get into the habit of turning the camera off when not shooting and turn it back on when you're ready to shoot.
Megapixels and Image quality. This is my primary issue with the camera. 12 megapixels. Even though it's 12 beautiful megapixels, it is unfortunately not enough. 12MP is the size iphone cameras shoot these days. I am constantly wishing there was JUST BIT MORE megapixels squeezed in there to play around with. Often it comes when I need to crop photos down for better composition. I shot this in tandem with a A7rii and I could crop the hell out of the A7rii's 42MP files to get to my liking. The A7s's 12mp files are almost at the limit of what's deliverable to the client. Cropping even 20% gives you 9MP which is understandably tiny. The standard in the industry is 24 megapixels and 12 is too little to deliver to a client. Furthermore, used with beautiful Sony G Master lenses you really can't make proper use of the lens's resolving ability. Small tiny details and textures are lost because the 12MP sensor can't record all the details. However with 12MP you have nearly unlimited image storage with a 64gb card size. The file sizes are tiny, under 16mb per file as RAWs. For things like Instagram where you're limited to a 1080x1080 size, then it's good enough, but for anything serious, it won't be.
At the end of the day you want to know if you should buy this camera. At $2000, the answer is no. For $400 more you can get the A7sii which with IBIS makes a lot more sense to a photographer or videographer. However around $1500 it's definitely worth it as a backup camera or a main camera for an aspiring photographer or videographer. I would say get one just to experience how good a true low light camera can be!
***If this review was helpful, please give me a helpful vote! Thanks!
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This Item  Sony ILCE7S/B Alpha a7S Mirrorless Digital Camera |  |  |  |  |  | |
| Price | $590.00 | -8% $2,298.00 List: $2,499.99 | -7% $2,498.00 List: $2,699.99 | $1,798.00 | -19% $649.00 List: $799.99 | -17% $998.00 List: $1,199.99 |
| Delivery | Get it May 31 - Jun 3 | Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14 | Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14 | Get it as soon as Wednesday, May 15 | Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14 | Get it as soon as Wednesday, May 15 |
| Customer Ratings | ||||||
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| Auto focus | ||||||
| Image stabilization | ||||||
| Value for money | ||||||
| Sold By | Chumdog LLC | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com |
| display type | LCD | LCD | LCD | LCD | LCD | LCD |
| display size | 3 inches | 3 inches | 3 inches | 3 inches | 3 inches | 3 inches |
| lens type | 1/2-inch (1.3 cm) XGA OLED color electronic viewfinder (2,359,296 dots) | Wide Angle | Wide Angle | Zoom | Telephoto | — |
| shooting modes | Aperture Priority, Auto, Manual, Program, Shutter Priority | Auto, Programmed, Aperture, Shutter speed, Manual, Movie | Auto, Programmed, Aperture, Shutter speed, Manual, Movie | — | Automatic | Auto, Programmed AE, Aperture priority, Shutter-speed priority, Movie, Slow /amp; quick motion, Scene selection |
| connectivity tech | NTSC | HDMI, USB | HDMI, USB | HDMI, Wi-Fi, USB, NFC | Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Micro HDMI, USB | USB |
| video resolution | FHD 1080p | 4320p | 4320p | 2160p, 1080p | 4320p | 4K UHD 2160p |
| optical zoom | — | 8 multiplier x | 8 multiplier x | 3 multiplier x | 0 multiplier x | — |
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Reviews with images
2019: A Good Specialty Camera for Photographers
I am a professional photographer and I have owned every other A7 camera including A7, A7S, A7R, all the gen 2 versions and now the gen 3. I currently shoot on the A7riii. If you'r reading this review then you likely already know enough about what this camera's amazing low light performance and want to know if this camera is still relevant in 2019.The short answer is really depending on what you plan to use it for. At the $2,000 the answer is no for all scenarios. For $400 more you can purchase the A7sii and that's a significant upgrade which I will go into further below. However if you can find this camera for around $1,500 or less, then the answer is YES!If you're an advanced amateur or getting into the photography or the video business, then this is a great camera. It is small, light, and powerful in low light situations without having to own flashes and other light modifiers. For video, most videographers will need a gimbal for smoothing out shake anyways so having IBIS (from the A7sii) may be redundant for your purposes and you can save some money with this camera. However if you are a working video professional, then most likely you should skip over this generation and go for the A7sii or the A7iii for 4k and 6k downsampling capabilities. However if you need a backup camera or a camera for personal projects, it still holds its value well.I used this camera mostly for photography stills as a backup for my A7rii. While this camera is primarily geared towards video, in my experience shooting stills with this camera is great despite what others may tell you about autofocus and video. It's definitely not a main camera for photo stills (12MP is too low to deliver to a client) but works well as a secondary or backup camera for low light situations. Even today the A7s holds up well as being a legendary low light king that's unmatched by few others. Possibly the reason why the price is still around $2000 is because there's no other camera out on the market besides the mark 2 that can match the same type of low light performance. The A7Sii is essentially the same camera with 1 stop better low light ISO performance in a better body with IBIS. The IBIS may not directly affect image quality but it allows for far longer hand held stills and smoother video so that it essentially boosts the low light image quality by leaps.Low light - This is this camera's strongest selling point. Low light beast. This camera will shoot in situation that no other camera can shoot in, and shoot it cleanly. People who don't know about this camera are constantly asking me to "turn on the flash" or "you'll never get that photo" and then are amazed when I show them the results. Simply put this camera is superb in producing "natural light" photos in low light without the distracting flash or harsh flash lighting. It's a unique look that few other cameras can really replicate.Dynamic Range - This camera has amazing dynamic range. It's like having layers and layers of color and data hidden under each fold. You can literally shoot once and bring out colors and details you never thought were there. The files are extremely malleable for editing. This is especially true for shooting in low light. Low light shadows anddark areas can almost ALWAYS be brought up for additional details hidden in the shadow.AF - this is the main concern most people have with using this camera for stills. True, this camera has no phase detection AF and it's all contrast detection. However it's AMAZING contrast detection. I've honestly never had issues with it as it is fast, accurate, and works in the dark. The camera was made for low light use so consequentially the sensor's ability to see in the dark and focus in the dark is excellent. I've had cameras like the A7rii and A7ii which have hundreds of "advanced hybrid PDAF/CD" sensors utterly fail in low light. The A7s is always dependable in seeing where sometimes your eyes can't.Battery - The gen 1 and gen 2 A7 cameras all have issues with battery life. It's a consequence of the small W batteries and it wasn't addressed until the gen 3 Z type batteries were introduced. But for stills photography where you don't need the camera to be on for 30 min at a time, it was sufficient with a second backup battery. When shooting video you have the camera on for hours at a time filming and will need to attach a second screen, mic, and extra batteries. For photos, get into the habit of turning the camera off when not shooting and turn it back on when you're ready to shoot.Megapixels and Image quality. This is my primary issue with the camera. 12 megapixels. Even though it's 12 beautiful megapixels, it is unfortunately not enough. 12MP is the size iphone cameras shoot these days. I am constantly wishing there was JUST BIT MORE megapixels squeezed in there to play around with. Often it comes when I need to crop photos down for better composition. I shot this in tandem with a A7rii and I could crop the hell out of the A7rii's 42MP files to get to my liking. The A7s's 12mp files are almost at the limit of what's deliverable to the client. Cropping even 20% gives you 9MP which is understandably tiny. The standard in the industry is 24 megapixels and 12 is too little to deliver to a client. Furthermore, used with beautiful Sony G Master lenses you really can't make proper use of the lens's resolving ability. Small tiny details and textures are lost because the 12MP sensor can't record all the details. However with 12MP you have nearly unlimited image storage with a 64gb card size. The file sizes are tiny, under 16mb per file as RAWs. For things like Instagram where you're limited to a 1080x1080 size, then it's good enough, but for anything serious, it won't be.At the end of the day you want to know if you should buy this camera. At $2000, the answer is no. For $400 more you can get the A7sii which with IBIS makes a lot more sense to a photographer or videographer. However around $1500 it's definitely worth it as a backup camera or a main camera for an aspiring photographer or videographer. I would say get one just to experience how good a true low light camera can be!***If this review was helpful, please give me a helpful vote! Thanks!
Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2019
The short answer is really depending on what you plan to use it for. At the $2,000 the answer is no for all scenarios. For $400 more you can purchase the A7sii and that's a significant upgrade which I will go into further below. However if you can find this camera for around $1,500 or less, then the answer is YES!
If you're an advanced amateur or getting into the photography or the video business, then this is a great camera. It is small, light, and powerful in low light situations without having to own flashes and other light modifiers. For video, most videographers will need a gimbal for smoothing out shake anyways so having IBIS (from the A7sii) may be redundant for your purposes and you can save some money with this camera. However if you are a working video professional, then most likely you should skip over this generation and go for the A7sii or the A7iii for 4k and 6k downsampling capabilities. However if you need a backup camera or a camera for personal projects, it still holds its value well.
I used this camera mostly for photography stills as a backup for my A7rii. While this camera is primarily geared towards video, in my experience shooting stills with this camera is great despite what others may tell you about autofocus and video. It's definitely not a main camera for photo stills (12MP is too low to deliver to a client) but works well as a secondary or backup camera for low light situations. Even today the A7s holds up well as being a legendary low light king that's unmatched by few others. Possibly the reason why the price is still around $2000 is because there's no other camera out on the market besides the mark 2 that can match the same type of low light performance. The A7Sii is essentially the same camera with 1 stop better low light ISO performance in a better body with IBIS. The IBIS may not directly affect image quality but it allows for far longer hand held stills and smoother video so that it essentially boosts the low light image quality by leaps.
Low light - This is this camera's strongest selling point. Low light beast. This camera will shoot in situation that no other camera can shoot in, and shoot it cleanly. People who don't know about this camera are constantly asking me to "turn on the flash" or "you'll never get that photo" and then are amazed when I show them the results. Simply put this camera is superb in producing "natural light" photos in low light without the distracting flash or harsh flash lighting. It's a unique look that few other cameras can really replicate.
Dynamic Range - This camera has amazing dynamic range. It's like having layers and layers of color and data hidden under each fold. You can literally shoot once and bring out colors and details you never thought were there. The files are extremely malleable for editing. This is especially true for shooting in low light. Low light shadows and
dark areas can almost ALWAYS be brought up for additional details hidden in the shadow.
AF - this is the main concern most people have with using this camera for stills. True, this camera has no phase detection AF and it's all contrast detection. However it's AMAZING contrast detection. I've honestly never had issues with it as it is fast, accurate, and works in the dark. The camera was made for low light use so consequentially the sensor's ability to see in the dark and focus in the dark is excellent. I've had cameras like the A7rii and A7ii which have hundreds of "advanced hybrid PDAF/CD" sensors utterly fail in low light. The A7s is always dependable in seeing where sometimes your eyes can't.
Battery - The gen 1 and gen 2 A7 cameras all have issues with battery life. It's a consequence of the small W batteries and it wasn't addressed until the gen 3 Z type batteries were introduced. But for stills photography where you don't need the camera to be on for 30 min at a time, it was sufficient with a second backup battery. When shooting video you have the camera on for hours at a time filming and will need to attach a second screen, mic, and extra batteries. For photos, get into the habit of turning the camera off when not shooting and turn it back on when you're ready to shoot.
Megapixels and Image quality. This is my primary issue with the camera. 12 megapixels. Even though it's 12 beautiful megapixels, it is unfortunately not enough. 12MP is the size iphone cameras shoot these days. I am constantly wishing there was JUST BIT MORE megapixels squeezed in there to play around with. Often it comes when I need to crop photos down for better composition. I shot this in tandem with a A7rii and I could crop the hell out of the A7rii's 42MP files to get to my liking. The A7s's 12mp files are almost at the limit of what's deliverable to the client. Cropping even 20% gives you 9MP which is understandably tiny. The standard in the industry is 24 megapixels and 12 is too little to deliver to a client. Furthermore, used with beautiful Sony G Master lenses you really can't make proper use of the lens's resolving ability. Small tiny details and textures are lost because the 12MP sensor can't record all the details. However with 12MP you have nearly unlimited image storage with a 64gb card size. The file sizes are tiny, under 16mb per file as RAWs. For things like Instagram where you're limited to a 1080x1080 size, then it's good enough, but for anything serious, it won't be.
At the end of the day you want to know if you should buy this camera. At $2000, the answer is no. For $400 more you can get the A7sii which with IBIS makes a lot more sense to a photographer or videographer. However around $1500 it's definitely worth it as a backup camera or a main camera for an aspiring photographer or videographer. I would say get one just to experience how good a true low light camera can be!
***If this review was helpful, please give me a helpful vote! Thanks!
Color: BlackSet: BaseVerified Purchase
2019: A Good Specialty Camera for Photographers
Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2019
I am a professional photographer and I have owned every other A7 camera including A7, A7S, A7R, all the gen 2 versions and now the gen 3. I currently shoot on the A7riii. If you'r reading this review then you likely already know enough about what this camera's amazing low light performance and want to know if this camera is still relevant in 2019.Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2019
The short answer is really depending on what you plan to use it for. At the $2,000 the answer is no for all scenarios. For $400 more you can purchase the A7sii and that's a significant upgrade which I will go into further below. However if you can find this camera for around $1,500 or less, then the answer is YES!
If you're an advanced amateur or getting into the photography or the video business, then this is a great camera. It is small, light, and powerful in low light situations without having to own flashes and other light modifiers. For video, most videographers will need a gimbal for smoothing out shake anyways so having IBIS (from the A7sii) may be redundant for your purposes and you can save some money with this camera. However if you are a working video professional, then most likely you should skip over this generation and go for the A7sii or the A7iii for 4k and 6k downsampling capabilities. However if you need a backup camera or a camera for personal projects, it still holds its value well.
I used this camera mostly for photography stills as a backup for my A7rii. While this camera is primarily geared towards video, in my experience shooting stills with this camera is great despite what others may tell you about autofocus and video. It's definitely not a main camera for photo stills (12MP is too low to deliver to a client) but works well as a secondary or backup camera for low light situations. Even today the A7s holds up well as being a legendary low light king that's unmatched by few others. Possibly the reason why the price is still around $2000 is because there's no other camera out on the market besides the mark 2 that can match the same type of low light performance. The A7Sii is essentially the same camera with 1 stop better low light ISO performance in a better body with IBIS. The IBIS may not directly affect image quality but it allows for far longer hand held stills and smoother video so that it essentially boosts the low light image quality by leaps.
Low light - This is this camera's strongest selling point. Low light beast. This camera will shoot in situation that no other camera can shoot in, and shoot it cleanly. People who don't know about this camera are constantly asking me to "turn on the flash" or "you'll never get that photo" and then are amazed when I show them the results. Simply put this camera is superb in producing "natural light" photos in low light without the distracting flash or harsh flash lighting. It's a unique look that few other cameras can really replicate.
Dynamic Range - This camera has amazing dynamic range. It's like having layers and layers of color and data hidden under each fold. You can literally shoot once and bring out colors and details you never thought were there. The files are extremely malleable for editing. This is especially true for shooting in low light. Low light shadows and
dark areas can almost ALWAYS be brought up for additional details hidden in the shadow.
AF - this is the main concern most people have with using this camera for stills. True, this camera has no phase detection AF and it's all contrast detection. However it's AMAZING contrast detection. I've honestly never had issues with it as it is fast, accurate, and works in the dark. The camera was made for low light use so consequentially the sensor's ability to see in the dark and focus in the dark is excellent. I've had cameras like the A7rii and A7ii which have hundreds of "advanced hybrid PDAF/CD" sensors utterly fail in low light. The A7s is always dependable in seeing where sometimes your eyes can't.
Battery - The gen 1 and gen 2 A7 cameras all have issues with battery life. It's a consequence of the small W batteries and it wasn't addressed until the gen 3 Z type batteries were introduced. But for stills photography where you don't need the camera to be on for 30 min at a time, it was sufficient with a second backup battery. When shooting video you have the camera on for hours at a time filming and will need to attach a second screen, mic, and extra batteries. For photos, get into the habit of turning the camera off when not shooting and turn it back on when you're ready to shoot.
Megapixels and Image quality. This is my primary issue with the camera. 12 megapixels. Even though it's 12 beautiful megapixels, it is unfortunately not enough. 12MP is the size iphone cameras shoot these days. I am constantly wishing there was JUST BIT MORE megapixels squeezed in there to play around with. Often it comes when I need to crop photos down for better composition. I shot this in tandem with a A7rii and I could crop the hell out of the A7rii's 42MP files to get to my liking. The A7s's 12mp files are almost at the limit of what's deliverable to the client. Cropping even 20% gives you 9MP which is understandably tiny. The standard in the industry is 24 megapixels and 12 is too little to deliver to a client. Furthermore, used with beautiful Sony G Master lenses you really can't make proper use of the lens's resolving ability. Small tiny details and textures are lost because the 12MP sensor can't record all the details. However with 12MP you have nearly unlimited image storage with a 64gb card size. The file sizes are tiny, under 16mb per file as RAWs. For things like Instagram where you're limited to a 1080x1080 size, then it's good enough, but for anything serious, it won't be.
At the end of the day you want to know if you should buy this camera. At $2000, the answer is no. For $400 more you can get the A7sii which with IBIS makes a lot more sense to a photographer or videographer. However around $1500 it's definitely worth it as a backup camera or a main camera for an aspiring photographer or videographer. I would say get one just to experience how good a true low light camera can be!
***If this review was helpful, please give me a helpful vote! Thanks!
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2016
As soon as I started working with the camera I fell in love with it. It practically sees in the dark.
Buyer beware tho, the camera does everything and packing everything into a small interface means there are allot of settings that do not seem apparent out of the box. Sony has an app store that allows developers the ability to build in extra functions, but it ships missing a few key features.
You must download an app to perform time lapse photography. Once in this app you have to exit the app to return to normal shooting. Not a deal breaker, but kind of annoying especially since I'm an amateur photographer and when I'm shooting, I want to be taking shots not setting up the camera.
As far as customization, the A7S does allow you to set up 3 buttons to match your shooting style, putting features you use most at your fingertips.
All in all, grab a few lenses and this camera will take care of the rest.
All photos below shot on a ZYKKOR WIDE ANGLE 28MM F2.8 with a MD>E-Mount adapter.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E5T5BJW?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00
Color: BlackSet: BaseVerified Purchase
Great camera, works perfect in low light, takes time to master all of the functions.
Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2016
The sony A7S camera is absolutely amazing. It shoots wonderfully in low light. I bought this product used and it came with everything you would have expected. It was even wrapped up nicely in a foam sleeve. The sensor was spotless and no signs of wear and tear. The strap was never opened.Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2016
As soon as I started working with the camera I fell in love with it. It practically sees in the dark.
Buyer beware tho, the camera does everything and packing everything into a small interface means there are allot of settings that do not seem apparent out of the box. Sony has an app store that allows developers the ability to build in extra functions, but it ships missing a few key features.
You must download an app to perform time lapse photography. Once in this app you have to exit the app to return to normal shooting. Not a deal breaker, but kind of annoying especially since I'm an amateur photographer and when I'm shooting, I want to be taking shots not setting up the camera.
As far as customization, the A7S does allow you to set up 3 buttons to match your shooting style, putting features you use most at your fingertips.
All in all, grab a few lenses and this camera will take care of the rest.
All photos below shot on a ZYKKOR WIDE ANGLE 28MM F2.8 with a MD>E-Mount adapter.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E5T5BJW?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00
Images in this review
Top reviews from other countries
Client d'Amazon
One Star
Reviewed in Canada on September 19, 2016Color: BlackSet: BaseVerified Purchase
