Hot off the press! Sony A7R III First Shots are here

posted Thursday, November 9, 2017 at 4:15 PM EDT

Click here to see our Sony A7R III First Shots

Heads-up Sony fans, pixel-peeping day is here! We've received our Sony A7R III review unit and, of course, we immediately sent it down to our testing lab. We now have our trusty First Shots set of lab sample images ready for all of your critical eyes! As always, our First Shots series of lab sample images offers a standardized Still Life scene across the camera's full ISO range -- which in the case of A7R III spans ISO 50 up to 102,400 with full expanded settings. As always, we have both in-camera JPEGs and RAW files for download, as well as the full range of sample images at the default noise reduction processing level and the camera's most minimal setting.

Like its predecessor, the Sony A7R III uses a 42.2-megapixel BSI full-frame CMOS sensor, however, this time around Sony's paired this older sensor up with the faster, more advanced BIONZ X image processor from the flagship Sony A9 camera. Thanks to this refreshed imaging pipeline, Sony claims a full stop increase in dynamic range (15 stops compared to 14 in the A7R II), as well as improved noise characteristics -- the native ISO range, is expanded and the signal to noise ratio has been increased. In theory, the higher ISO performance should be improved.

Ready to see for yourself? Head over to our Sony A7R III Samples Page for all the test shots! However, as always, you can use our Comparometer to compare the Sony A7R III lab sample images side-by-side against any other camera we've tested. To get the comparison train rolling, below are a couple popular comparison crops, first against the A7R II and then against a major competitor, the Nikon D850.