On May 7 Sony will announce the A7s pricing. According to one of our trusted sources the price could be surprisingly low: $1800! That’s about the same price of the Panasonic GH4.
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16 Responses
Now it makes sense. I don’t think this is “cheap”, I just think this is “making sense”.
This is a good start for Sony. However, Sony still need to improve some performance issue on this camera in order to overtake competitions, such as the ridiculously-slow burst frame rate on such low resolution (this doesn’t make any sense!). And I hope the AF speed has improved over A7/A7R as many people are complaining on their A7 series cameras. And of course, make sure the start-up time is fast with latest firmware updated on their pre-order batch, otherwise we’ll start hearing complains all over and hit their sales and reputation even if they update new firmware to resolve it later (when many many customers already put their money to buy Panasonic, they won’t return).
Please do it right on one shot, Sony. Be smart and be serious about it. Your company is facing serious financial issue now, the camera department (especially the E-mount segment) might be your only hope to survive. If you could grow as big as Canon today, just imagine how much business you can make by selling lenses. The two Zeiss FE prime lenses are very good start, great lenses are very important for camera system. However, the Zeiss FE 24-70 was a big disappointment, bad move. We need more OSS lenses (be it zoom or prime) for videographers because the main advantage to use such a small and lightweight camera for shooting is high portability. If we still required big rig and stabilizer whenever using the camera, that’s a pity. Now Sony is serious on video for the A7S, I hope they start selling OSS lenses that are as great as the Zeiss 35 and 55. Seriously, because of the lack of OSS, I bet many point and shoot documentary videographers will not buy these two optically brilliant Zeiss FE lenses. Such a waste, isn’t it?
zeiss has argued for a very long time that OSS degrades image quality — the gyroscope-mounted elements are not optimal optically. of course, when a photo is blurry, it’s not optimal either. but it’s their argument.
the 28-135 f/4 g zoom lens looks good for video, if huge.
Zeiss 24-70mm will be great on 7S, only mediocre on 24/36mp A7(R). Wonder if it was designed with 7S in mind.
They reconsidered that incomprehensible pricing. Well done. Now this camera is somewhat more desirable, but what about the price for the indispensable external recorder? If should be priced not over $200-$300 as there is some tough competition in 4K resolution.
Even if it is at such a price, it’s no value against the Panasonic GH4.
This just seems like another volley in the Sony-Panasonic war that’s been happening for decades. Sony seem more interested in style than functionality. They need to put everything on hold and re-think it all. Being mediocre isn’t an advantage.
“being mediocre isn’t an advantage” “volley in the war that’s been happening for decades”
great insights!!
Panasonic and Sony have been fighting for consumer audio and video mostly since the 1960s, at least, in Japan. They took their war to MSX computers in the 1980s, as well.
If Sony had decided to make rice cookers and other general household items, it would have become ridiculous.
Nikon Df is screwed…
You’re serious?
I would not say that as DF does not even do video and there are so many that have many nice Nikor glass and just so many Nikon fans as well as most who buy it are doing it for the looks So these cameras have different audience in so many ways. Still plenty shooters that are not into video. I do think that it will change in the next 5 years a bit with more shooting pics as well as video. With some fast primes the DF is really good in low light. Sony is sacrificing in MP to squeeze out a bit better low light performance at low light evels most pro shooters would not be shooting anyway except news crews maybe They key selling point of the DF is the retro looks and that it is smaller and lighter and it’s many manual controls The DF was not going to have the mainstream appeal but certainly the purists will con tiny buying it :). The a7s has impressive low light performance but such low MP count does not make it practical for example landscape photography etc. The FE mount has limited amount of lenses and nothing faster than f4 in zooms. Nikon has F1.2 lens while fastest FE is f1.8.
I don’t think so, sounds too good to be true.
It uses the metal build from the A7R with an even stronger lens mount, so it is probably more costly to produce.
I think $1800 is unlikely – unless Sony is really trying to get attention and compete with the Panasonic GH4 –
I think for video work the GH4 is still a better choice –
For photography the A7s has a small MP count – I think 16MP is a the good compremize for low light performance and MP count for FF – similar to what Nikon has in their DF and D4s – Of course 36MP is great for landscape etc but not needed for portrait work –
So three versions of the A7 – so there are few fast primes for the A7/r/s – but there are only F4 zooms – and does not seem there are any faster zooms on the way – I suspect due to size and weight –
So will be interesting to see how the A7s will sell
I also think GH4 is a more suitable choice for most users, but also Kinefinity, Blackmagic and other dedicated video cameras. Today there is strong competition and pricing is much better than some years ago.
I also think $1800 is unlikely but would be welcomed. The GH4 is an incredible value and perhaps Sony will price this camera accordingly. However, the A7S will certainly have better dynamic range and high-ISO than the GH4 as well as S-LOG2 which adds great flexibility. The only real downside is the lack of a 10-bit option for the A7S.
I think Sony was really targeting the Canon 5Dmk3. They’ve basically said as much in their interviews.
Did they release any information? I haven’t seen it anywhere.
Everyone exclaiming that this is the “same price as the GH4!” seems to be forgetting that the A7S can’t record internally. If you want to shoot 4K video, which is the whole point of this camera (only 12 megapixel stills), you NEED an external recorder like the Atomos Shogun, which adds an additional $2,000 to the price. So you are really looking at $3,800 and if you want XLR inputs it’s gonna cost even more. This is an epic fail on Sony’s part. If the A7S recorded internally I would go for it in a heartbeat. But as it stands, it just doesn’t compete with the value of the GH4.