Digging into the A7rIII star eating issue: The new camera is actually eating fewer stars than the A7rII

Dpreview noticed that the new A7rIII is indeed “eating” fewer stars than the previous A7rII:

The Mark III does show an improvement: there are stars that aren’t there in the Mark II shot, and there’s generally more ‘pop’ to the stars. This is encouraging, but it’s also difficult to rule out how the spatial filtering algorithm interacts with shots that might be ever-so-slightly focused differently.

For more technical insights on this jump over to Jim Kasson‘s blog.

What Sony should do is easy: Add an option within the menu to disable spatial filtering when shooting stars. That said normal night sky shooters like me and 99% of the readers will not have any issue with Sony’s normal setting. This because only a limited amount of very small stars (1 pixel size on the sensor) will get cut by the filter.

Preorders:
Sony A7rIII at Amazon, Bhphoto, Adorama, BuyDig, FocusCamera, Calumet DE, Wex UK. Photo Porst Neuwied. Sony Netherland. Sony Australia. Sony Japan.
Sony 24-105mm at Amazon, Bhphoto, Adorama, BuyDig, FocusCamera, Amazon DE, Calumet DE, Wex UK.

Join the A7rIII facebook group to discuss the camera features and tests!

Review of the Sony FE 16-35mm f/2.8 G Master Lens by Dylan Giannakopoulos

This is a guest post from Dylan Giannakopoulos. Original article at dylangiannaphotography.com.au

Review of the Sony FE 16-35mm f/2.8 G Master Lens

Reviewed by Dylan Giannakopoulos – 16th November 2017

Yick Fat Building - ISO 100 | f/8 | 30s | 24mm

Yick Fat Building – ISO 100 | f/8 | 30s | 24mm

The Sony Vario-Tessar T* FE 16-35mm f/4 ZA OSS Lens is by far my most frequently used lens and an overall favourite of mine, so when Sony announced the release of their FE 16-35mm f/2.8 G Master wide angle zoom lens, I was dying to get my hands on it for a comparison. For this review, I wanted to put less of a focus on pixel peeping and stress more about the aspects of the lens which I found to have a discernible impact on image quality and usability.

It was important for me to test the G Master in similar situations that I frequently use my Sony FE 16-35mm f/4 ZA in. On my recent trip to Beijing and Hong Kong, I left my 16-35mm f/4 ZA lens at home and took the 16-35mm f/2.8 G Master with me. I’ve done a lot of travelling with the f/4 ZA, so I knew this was going to be a perfect opportunity to see which lens I preferred.

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Photons to Photos test: Sony A7rIII Dynamic Range increased by max 0,4 stops over the A7rII

Photons by Photos measured the Sony A7rIII Dynamic Range and the conclusion is:

1) At low ISO up to ISO 400 the new Sony A7rII has the edge over the A7rII. From ISO 800 there is virtually no difference between the two
2) The max measured difference is 0,4 stops

We are far off Sony’s claim of one stop advantage over the A7rII. But let’s forget Sony’s claim and focus on this fact: The A7rII already had a world-class leading DR performance unmatched by most of the FF cameras on the market. So having a near half stop increase is a nice achievement. And I expect the A7rIII to lead the DxOranking once it gets tested!

UPDATE: It also beats the D850 when it comes to overall performance:

Preorders:
Sony A7rIII at Amazon, Bhphoto, Adorama, BuyDig, FocusCamera, Calumet DE, Wex UK. Photo Porst Neuwied. Sony Netherland. Sony Australia. Sony Japan.
Sony 24-105mm at Amazon, Bhphoto, Adorama, BuyDig, FocusCamera, Amazon DE, Calumet DE, Wex UK.

Join the A7rIII facebook group to discuss the camera features and tests!

Dpreview published the full Sony A7rIII review: “easily Sony’s best camera yet, and one of the best cameras we’ve ever tested”

Dpreview published the full Sony A7rIII test and the camera earned a 90% score. The conclusion:

The sheer capability of the Sony a7R III is hard to overstate. With the sports-oriented a9, Sony was aiming for outright speed; the a7R III has inherited much of that, but offers far more resolution and dynamic range. Like the Nikon D850, the a7R III is a camera that you can shoot just about anything with, from landscapes to fast action.

There is a vast number of small improvements and refinements in the a7R III. From the ergonomics to the better organized menus, this is the most usable and engaging a7-series camera yet. The on-sensor autofocus system needs some work in terms of subject tracking, but in other autofocus modes, the a7R III makes it dead easy to get the most out of the 42.4MP of resolution it offers. Never before has shooting such high resolution files been so fun, or so painless.

The a7R III still can’t quite match the feeling of immediacy that comes with using a high-end DSLR; the card write speeds can get in your way, and the learning curve for new users can be steep. But the fact remains that the a7R III is capable of gorgeous still images and video, and has the feel of an impressively polished product. In our opinion, this is easily Sony’s best camera yet, and one of the best cameras we’ve ever tested. It’s the most well-rounded mirrorless camera on the market today, and for that, it earns our highest award.

Preorders:
Sony A7rIII at Amazon, Bhphoto, Adorama, BuyDig, FocusCamera, Calumet DE, Wex UK. Photo Porst Neuwied. Sony Netherland. Sony Australia. Sony Japan.
Sony 24-105mm at Amazon, Bhphoto, Adorama, BuyDig, FocusCamera, Amazon DE, Calumet DE, Wex UK.

Join the A7rIII facebook group to discuss the camera features and tests!

Pixel Shift A7rIII tests by Hugh Brownstone, Kevin Raber and Eddy Hagen.

Kevin Raber from Luminous Landscape tested the new A7rIII Pixel Shift function:

I did a lot of pixel peeping at 200% and 300%, doing side by sides in Photoshop. You can see differences when looking close. These become evident in highlight and specular areas as well as parts of an image with fine detail. There is less stair-stepping and other artifacts, which results in a cleaner file. So, while it may still be the same size as the original file, the resulting file has more perceived detail. I see this in areas of texture, such as the metal on the engine in the above samples or on the Chevy logo on the red truck.

Eddy Hagen also made a Pixel Shift test:

You could say that – at least in some situations – you get four times as much information, so comparable to a 168-megapixel Bayer-sensor. But you could also say that now that we’ve ditched the AA-filter and circumvented the mosaicing, we are – finally – getting the full resolution of the sensor, in the case of the A7R III: 42 megapixels…

Hugh Brownstone says the A7rIII is the best “medium format” camera of the year. It means it kills the reasons why people usually bought Medium Format cameras:

Preorders:
Sony A7rIII at Amazon, Bhphoto, Adorama, BuyDig, FocusCamera, Calumet DE, Wex UK. Photo Porst Neuwied. Sony Netherland. Sony Australia. Sony Japan.
Sony 24-105mm at Amazon, Bhphoto, Adorama, BuyDig, FocusCamera, Amazon DE, Calumet DE, Wex UK.

Join the A7rIII facebook group to discuss the camera features and tests!

Jim Kasson says the Sony a7RIII still eats stars

Jim Kasson analyzed the A7rIII spatial filtering and found out that is “behaves” the same way it does on the A7rII. So his conclusion is that the A7rIII also eat stars. This statement goes against the findings from Drew Geraci who said last week:

“Very Excited to share this side by side comparison of the A7RIII (full production model) shooting Astrophotography at 3.2″ and 10” at ISO 12,800 utilizing the Sony 16-35mm GM lens. As you can see in the side by side comparison, with ALL noise reduction turned off in the main menu, you can easily see that all stars are present and accounted for when blown up at 100% resolution. The star-eater is no more.
Download RAW images here: https://www.dropbox.com/…/ejyad8…/AAApFpv-kmRWfslWZ0-69awRa…
Password: star”

While Jim Kasson did yet not test this on real start shoots I really do trust Jim. And I worry that at the end he might be right. Unless Sony did something on the A7rIII we don’t know about. I hope further testings can confirm if the A7rIII will or will not eat stars.

Preorders:
Sony A7rIII at Amazon, Bhphoto, Adorama, BuyDig, FocusCamera, Calumet DE, Wex UK. Photo Porst Neuwied. Sony Netherland. Sony Australia. Sony Japan.
Sony 24-105mm at Amazon, Bhphoto, Adorama, BuyDig, FocusCamera, Amazon DE, Calumet DE, Wex UK.

Join the A7rIII facebook group to discuss the camera features and tests!