Handling

I own a first-gen Sony A7S and have access to an A7R II, so it's interesting to see how the A7 series has evolved. The A7R III is certainly larger than the last model, but it's not that much heavier (657 compared to 625 grams) and the extra size has made everything better.

Borrowing from the more expensive A9, the A7R III has a beefier, deeper handle, something that might convince (some) Canon or Nikon pros to consider it. As some reviews have pointed out, though, the handle is a bit too close to the lens mount, making it hard to grasp the camera with gloves on.

There are manual controls for everything on this camera, and the buttons and dials are largely the same as on the A7R II -- except for two major changes. The first is the addition of a touchscreen, which is dedicated to changing the focus region with just a tap. The other is a joystick, which offers more convenient focus point adjustments when you have your eye to the electronic viewfinder (EVF).

Speaking of, the EVF is both larger and has a higher resolution than the A7R III's predecessors. It's also impressively fast, though that's something to be expected on a high-end mirrorless camera nowadays.

The bigger body allows a bigger battery with over twice the capacity of the last model, meaning you won't be sweating battery life (as much) on a shoot. However, you still get just 650 shots max compared to 1,840 on the A7R III's biggest rival, the $3,300 45.7-megapixel Nikon D850.