In an interview to dpreview, Mr. Kenji Tanaka, VP and Senior General Manager of Sony’s Business Unit 1, Digital Imaging Group, has this interesting comment about the successor to the A7S II:
The ‘S’ originally stood for ‘sensitivity’ but now I think it should stand for ‘supreme’ in terms of image quality, and expression. It comes from having really big pixels. I think that many professionals and high-end users will enjoy the new camera.
He also said that Sony is currently “focused on the launch of the new camera, and it will be a complete redesign of the whole system, including the image sensor. Everything is new. We hope it will meet and exceed the expectations and requests of our customers. I’m very confident that our new model will meet their demands.”
For those who may not know, the A7 comes in three flavors: the A7, the A7R and the A7S. As we explain in Crazy Camera Naming Conventions, they are basically the same camera, with the A7 having 24.2MP, the R having more megapixels (61MP) for detailed landscape photography, and the S (enhanced Sensitivity) having less megapixels (12.2MP) to allow for larger pixels and thus much better high-ISO-low-noise image quality in low-light shooting. The larger pixels were the “really big pixels” Mr. Kenji Tanaka was referring to in the quote above. I guess Sony now feels that the A7S III will be so filled with new technology that it will blow the competition away, and hence the “Supreme” label.
via dpreview
I wonder what Canon is thinking right now, as it gets ready to introduce the Canon EOS R5 on July 9. And even though Canon has whetted our apetite by releasing many of the major specs for the R5 (here and here), it seems that it is keeping at least one other major feature closely under wraps until the big reveal. To prevent the A7S III to be outspeced by the R5, Sony even postponed the announcement of the A7S III to mid-end-July until after the Canon EOS R5 is officially revealed in all its glory. (And, as I keep reminding our readers, the R5 is not even supposed to be Canon’s flagship full-frame mirrorless camera.)
Things are at last getting interesting in the mirrorless category as the rivalry heats up between the reigning full-frame mirrorless leader (Sony) and the traditional full-frame DSLR leaders (Canon and Nikon) now seriously getting into mirrorless. And, we haven’t even heard from Nikon yet (Z8/Z9). Stay tuned, for July promises to be an interesting month.