Sony A7S now official, “S” for Sensitivity

In the days leading up to the official announcement, rumor-mongers have speculated that the upcoming Sony A7S will be able to shoot 4K clips. While their claims were partly true, there’s more to this new full-frame, mirrorless camera than meets the eye.

Just to set things clear, by default the new Sony Alpha 7S can only record 1080p clips at 60fps and 720p videos at 120fps (APS-C mode). However, its sensor is capable of outputting uncompressed 4:2:2 video feeds with 4K resolution (3840×2160) via HDMI.

That said, the Panasonic Lumix GH4 has a slight edge over the A7S in this category. But the Sony Alpha 7S levels the playing field by having a full-frame sensor which is twice as big as the ones found at the heart of the GH4.

Now that we have that straightened out, let’s talk about the other aspects of the A7s. Externally, the camera inherits the same compact and minimalist design of its Alpha 7 siblings. It also shares most of the feature set of the A7/A7r like Multi-Interface Shoe, NFC and Wi-Fi.

But what really sets this bad boy apart from the two other cameras that came before it (apart from the ability to capture 4K videos) is the sensor inside it. The Sony A7s’ sensor has an insane ISO range of 50-409,600 which puts it at par with the Nikon D4S.

Sony A7s specs:
12.2MP CMOS sensor
Sensor Type: Full-frame (36 x 24mm)
Contrast Detect AF w/ 25 AF points
ISO 50 – 409,600
30 sec. – 1/8000 sec. shutter speed
12fps continuous drive
Optional External Flash via Hot shoe
2.4M-dot Electronic Viewfinder
0.71x Magnification, 100% coverage
3” Articulating 921k-dot LCD
1080p video recording @60fps
720p video recording @120fps
Optional 4K Video Recording via HDMI
MPEG-4, AVCHD, XAVC-S video formats
NFC
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
SD / SDHC / SDXC
RAW + JPEG file format
DMW-BLF19Lithium-Ion battery
Dimension: 127 x 94 x 48mm
Weight: 489g

Interestingly, the Sony A7s has the least number of pixels (12.2MP) compared to the A7 (24.3MP) and A7r (36.4MP). This results to bigger pixel size which, theoretically, should equate to cleaner images even at high ISO.

Sony has not yet announced the pricing and availability of the new A7s, but we’ll keep you guys posted once they do.

{Source}