Finally? Sony Alpha A7III Review 2025 in Progress...Part 1

Finally? Sony Alpha A7III Review 2025 in Progress... Part 1

November 2025, Carl Garrard

When Sony shifted to full frame mirrorless cameras back in 2013, the writing was on the wall. For years I told countless people online that Sony would very soon abandon the original A-Mount that they inherited from the purchase of from Konica Minolta and go all in a new mount based entirely on the E mount going forward. Very few agreed or believed me, and I took a lot of heat from those in denial about the obvious. The monumental shift from Minolta ergo design that proceeded to the new mirrorless design was pretty much anti-Carl preferred ergonomics and design. Sony has had their best success in the camera market with the FE mount, but their products, for more than just ergonomic reasons, did not interest me in the slightest. That's why I have never reviewed a single Sony FE camera on my blog. It's not because of my past history with the company or other conspiracy theories that some of you following the blog may be aware of. 

And yet, here I am finally reviewing a Sony FE mount camera, the Sony A7III. Since 2011 my blog has been a diary of what I've perceived as high value or interesting photography gear that I felt photographers should be considering. I have largely centered my blog around caring about my fellow photographers and hope that my articles would help steer new photographers in the right path towards new gear acquisition and improving their photography skills. 

Modern mirrorless cameras (I'd say 2015 and beyond) have simultaneously become some of the most easy to use and complicated hybrid devices, cameras I feel aren't ideally still photographer friendly. This is why I have so many articles about high value used or older cameras that I feel are the best choices for still photographers. I've historically had no interest in videography or products that best suit that genre. That's not to say that modern mirrorless cameras aren't good for still photography, it simply means that there have been tradeoffs made in still camera design to accommodate a wider audience.

With that being said, curiosity drove me to see what in the FE mount would be something I could recommend to readers. I recently tested two of Sony's first generation A7 cameras, the A7 and the A7s. Both surprised me in how compact and well built they were, and, admittedly the ergonomics for such a small camera weren't awful, in fact, they were quite decent. Both had relatively simple menu systems and decent evf and rear screens. 

Unfortunately the original A7's lower light focusing was so unreliable there is no way I'd recommend that camera unless you only shoot outdoors. It's the cheapest used FE mount camera (you can find them for as low as $400.00) but I can name a giant list of cameras for that price that perform much better focusing wise in anything but bright light. It was literally the worst camera I ever tested for lower light focusing. So I cannot recommend that camera without a HUGE asterisk. If you only want to use it for manual focusing with adapted lenses, fine, but be aware of the big red flag when it comes to autofocus.

I read many testimonies claiming the A7S solved all of the A7's low light focusing issues, and indeed it performed much better than the A7, however, that's where I would stop. Any of my DSLR's or even Sony's RX10 series cameras auto focus better in lower light than either camera. The A7S is charming with its really nice 12mp sensor and excellent high ISO performance, but the autofocus was not enough to sway me for a full recommendation. 

Neat small cameras, and unique, but both could not focus up to snuff to my standards. 

Fast forward twelve years and several generations of FE camera design later, the biggest design shift overall occurred in the 2nd gen A7R and 3rd gen A7 FE mount Alpha cameras. Autofocus was supposed to be vastly improved amongst basically every other issue the 1st/2nd gen cameras had. 

So I decided to pick up an A7III and see how much Sony improved the design. Shocker! Many times I have said that I would never review a Sony FE camera. I did once trial (for less than 24hrs) a Sony A7II, which, to put this as nicely as I can, I would never use again in my life. I cancelled the review that I had announced on this site years ago and haven't touched an FE mount camera again until about 2 weeks ago.

As I type, the A7III it is sitting next to me charging with an HDMI cable (Sony doesn't supply a stand alone charger with this camera). I picked it up used for about $1,000 in like new condition. This means for the dollar, it will have to compete with cameras like the D500/D810/Canon 5DIII/IV/6D Mark II/D780. That's quite some competition. New they run about $1,500.00 currently which is a median price considering abhorrent  pricing on new cameras these days.

What I'm hoping this camera will be: A compact camera that handles well, that can be adapted well to use Leica-M glass, and would be a nice walk around camera for street photography I do at the beach cities. My current choice for that role has been the Canon 6D and a 40mm STM for years, minus the adapted Leica-M glass. 

Can the Sony A7III and a 40mm lens replace my tried and true street beast?

But mostly I'm hoping I will actually like using a Sony FE camera for once. 

If it is anything more than that, great, that will be a bonus. But honestly, I'm not going to hold my breath. Almost all modern Sony cameras have let me down in several key areas, with perhaps exception to the lovely little RX10II (that I used to shoot the images of the cameras in this review.). 

The lens choices for the FE mount are really good, better than m4/3 by far, so at least the ecosystem has support. But if I don't like using a camera, all of that is moot. So here's to hoping I will like the Sony A7III. More to follow in part II of this review...

Stay focused.

Carl