Sony Supercamera Sale

Cheapest A7rIII
Sony's most desirable supercamera, the full-frame mirrorless A7rIII, went on sale last night at midnight at B&H Photo and at Amazon. You can also get your choice of a variety of extras for free, including a microphone or a 4TB hard drive (check all of the options under "Configuration" at both sites), and three months of Adobe's Creative Cloud Photography Plan. The discount is $400 and the price is the lowest you'll find on the 42-MP powerhouse.

Knew you'd want to know.  :-)

Mike

Original contents copyright 2019 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

(Not) everything must fade away

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Leon Droby: "Thanks for the heads up on the deal, but a supercamera? I had one for about nine months. Amazing camera. But, I found the longer I had it, the less I used it.

Towards the end of that nine months, I ended up getting a Fuji X-H1. My usage has gone back up. And because I used it more, my pictures got better.

IMHO, any camera that encourages you to take more pictures is a supercamera.  ;-)  "

Mike replies: Couldn't agree more. It's the real reason to buy the right camera—because the one that pushes your buttons and floats your boat and lights up the pleasure centers of your brain-pan will be more fun to use and you'll use it more.

I first realized that when I read a comment by Lee Friedlander, a photographer who at the time I considered severe and uncompromising...he said something to the effect that a lot of his pictures came about because he just liked to get his cameras out and play with them. If he could say something like that, I figured it was okay for anybody to feel that way.

By the way, not only did the price of the X-H1 drop all the way down to $1,299, but right now they're giving away the power booster for FREE along with the camera. With two extra batteries too. That's an awful lot of equipment for the money! Those cameras must really not be selling. I don't understand why...I liked it a lot when I tried it. And to think, I didn't buy it because I couldn't afford it when the body alone was $1,650.

Kenneth Tanaka: "In contrast to Leon’s comment, I certainly endorse Mike’s designation of the Sony A7R III as a supercamera. Mine has been my main go-to camera for a variety of challenging jobs since late 2017. I haven’t found any task it cannot just perform but excel at yet. This is a terrific opportunity to save lots of cash and get arguably the best general-purpose digital camera available today."

Comments

[Jeff]

Sony should be like Polaroid and give away their cameras to get you to buy their very pricey lenses.

[c.d.embrey]

The only Super-Camera I've owned is my iPhone Xs. When I retired, I stopped shooting—nada, nothing, zip. I have half-a-dozen cameras—crop, full-frame and 4x5. I have the wherewithal to purchase an oh-so-trendy full-frame-mirrorless. What I didn't have is any interest at all!

I've had several iPhones, but never shot a pic with one. The confluence of good-enough camera, and good-enough software has changed everything. As both a minimalist and surrealist, the phone is the perfect camera. A very private way to record fever-dreams, with no outside interference needed. Bokeh or not, normal or Rockwellian color is all up to me and an app. I'm the only person I need to impress, therefore the pic is only used as my desktop photo-of-the-day. Sharing is highly overrated.

[Trevor Johnson]

Great comment.
OK, so the Ricoh GR, (with wideangle conversion lens), is one of my all time favourite cameras.

So, the latest iteration, GR III, has more pixels and IBIS, but terrible battery life. And with the none-backwards compatible wideangle conversion lens, will set you back about £1100.

Why bother?

[c.d.embrey]

Today Eric Kim reminded me that The more things you own, the more things own you. https://bit.ly/2UEKttV He's got that right!

Today Mike said: Those cameras must really not be selling. I don't understand why... The reason is very simple, only old dawgs purchase cameras. Not many old dawgs left. Recently this old dawg learned a new trick called camera-phone—so I'm now out of the ILC market.

[John Dahlstet]

I bought that XH1 at the fire sale price with the grip which has never been attached. The extra batteries are a welcome addition. I find the camera to have become my current favorite. I really like the image stabilization feature and it really does work. I had the XT2 which I should sell since I am no longer using it but I just can't part with that XPRO2 which has been all with me for going on 3 years now. I think Fuji has not done a good enough job explaining the virtues of the XH1 as a great stills camera. It should not be discontinued.

[H. Slavitt]

Mike - For me the A7RIII has been a super camera in every way. My photo taking has gone up, and it's the best camera I've ever had, quality wise, flexibility-wise, and for reasonable compactness/weight. I recently bought a second new body through Greentoe with USA warranty for $2,600, and I've heard of others who have paid closer to $2,400 through Greentoe.

Couldn't recommend the Sony A7Riii more highly. It's better for me than the 6cm x 9cm view cameras I used back in the day, the Canon 5Ds, and the m43 cameras and lenses. The lens choices for the Sony are truly exception - Sony GM (super high quality), Zeiss Batis (autofocus), Sony-branded Zeiss, Zeiss Loxia (manual focus), and Voigtlander, as well as various Tamron, Sigma, and Samyang options. . . . People complain about the interface. I certainly find it much better than the Olympus m43 interface, and although it's not an easy interface to learn, it's well worth the effort. Also, the Sony interface is very flexible and easy to customize once you learn it.

[Phil Stiles]

Do we know if the price reduction is due to slow sales, or to clear the inventory before that new model is released?

[Peter Lacus]

A supercamera? Too many pixels (speed, storage considerations), not enough DoF, ugly as [insert your favourite ugliness here]. Am I missing someting? ;-)

[Bill La Via]

I just sent back the X-H1. am I the only one to find the command dials useless? The haptics are worse than on my x-t2; they have dual function as both a pressable button as well as dial. The problem is they are so slick, that you can’t operate the dial without pressing hard enough to actuate the button. Even at the bargain price that would continue to drive me crazy. It’s too bad because otherwise, I liked the camera. It’s just too expensive to have useless dials.