Sony is releasing the A7iii on April 10, 2018. I’ve already preordered this magical piece of equipment, but this post isn’t about the review, the specs, nor the camera itself. you can look all that up later, and here’s a decent review about why this Full Frame “Basic” level camera will destroy the competition.
What i’ve been interested in, is how this will impact the rest of the photography market. all the other gear out there. in particular, all the pro/pro-sumer camera gear. See, this A7iii is $2,000 for an amazing Full Frame camera. not aps-c, not 4:3…. not DSLR… but a solid mirrorless full frame 35mm equivalent camera. this is unheard of. it shares the same quality and build with most cameras in the $4,000-$8,000 range. along with it working fully with Canon lenses as well as the amazing Sony and Sigma lineup of glass.
Sony is canibalizing their OWN market. They released the Sony A7Riii just 6 months ago…. that’s $3,000…. and has LOWER performance. most camera manufacturers and consumer electronics companies tend to carefully plan their market presence and not undercut their own products. after all, normally you don’t want to sell a customer something for $1,000… then a week later make a BETTER product for $100. they’ll feel like you ripped them off. cheated them. but that’s exactly what sony did. and it’s GENIUS.
See , sony has had a hard uphill climb for about 10 years in the camera space. they make the glass for Nikon, the sensors for canon….. (or vice versa… i forgot the details… many phones use sony lenses and sensors too)…. but they never really captured the PHOTOGRAPHY premium market. boy did they try. and they make amazing stuff (sony a6000 is one of the best APS-C cameras ever!) …. so to have this uphill fight and to release a product SO SOON that screams in the face of EVERY photo business model out there…. to piss off all their loyal fans… all to get that sweet market share… well whether you like it or not… the camera is AMAZING, and it’s going to … most importantly…. RIPPLE and tear apart the entire high end camera market.
here’s why. first this camera will release April 10. next, Canon and Nikon and others, to stay competitive, will start to lower their RETAIL prices. a Canon 6D mark 2 that’s $1.8k… .will drop down to $1.3k (after all it is inferior and they need to fight sony on price… because it takes too long to come up with a new product to disrupt sony’s surprise release…. at least 1 year… that’s too much time for sony to have a stranglehold on the market).
well Canon 6Dii…. people will suddenly start selling their camera USED at around $1,200… where just a month ago it was sold USED AT $1,600. this will repeat for all cameras. of all styles. nikon will drop. lenses too. Even sony’s own a7ii (older model) is already dropping in market value on Ebay… as it’s currently priced HIGHER than the new one… yet clearly a weaker performer… so the street used market value is canibalized. Sony took a HUGE risk to reset the baseline.
and it’s going to pay off. it will piss off a lot of people. not me…. i’m jumping from an a6000 to this a7iii…. i’m a happy camper. and all my good lenses coming together will pay off this new model. yay me… oh but anyway… point was it’ll piss off a lot of people. especially sony owners…. that bought into the older gear just a few months ago.
but… it’s worth it for the industry. they have reset the baseline for what’s “Basic” and the bottom…. everyone else is blown out of the water. and if they wanna play, they have to come back in swinging hard. the ball is now in Nikon and Canon’s court… to see what they respond with. second…. by sony undercutting the competition SO much…. this will now put HIGH END amazing cameras… CHEAPER than cell phones. obviously people want convenient cell phone camera with them. but you know those dang hipsters LOVE to look cool in their beards and skinny jeans lugging around a pro SLR camera. well now that an iPhone x costs $1,000… and you can get an AMAZING camera for $300 that blows the Iphone X out of the water when it comes to vlogging and still photos…. Apple and Samsung and other phone manufacturers are REALLY going to have to step up their game to keep advertising that “phones are able to take SLR level photos!”
NONE of this is new. this has been the market trend since pretty much 2007. heck, even with point and shoots back in the 2000s … this economic drama started. But what’s unique is that; prior to this…. the industry took YEARS to shift…. a better senser/pixel ratio would take about 3-5 years to alter the price and public perception …. what sony basically did… was speed ALL that up into a 6 month timeframe. it will have MASSIVE ripple effects across the entire imaging market.
you can check specks on the sony a7iii here : https://www.sony.com/electronics/interchangeable-lens-cameras/ilce-7m3-body-kit