When in doubt, leave it to Auto. Most tests focus on its superb auto exposure and auto focus capabilities that rival much more costly cameras, including Sony’s own a7rIII and a9. You just need to compare the pictures where there is a real lack of light(such as on a moonless night or ISO 102400 on test images from dpreview.com). The small tree at the top of the image looked very different with the two cameras. Keep in mind that if the lens you use is a bit soft at its fastest aperture, it can smudge the contours of overexposed details, creating a small halo effect that might remain visible after the merge. ( Log Out /  A camera upgrade to a full frame is my next big purchase after I get some more experience with the T5i. In other words: the larger the aperture, the better. you will find the following parameters. As versatile as a mirrorless camera is for lens choice, making use of that versatility requires buying the right lens adapter(s). In Continuous mode, I think the effect is still there but maybe a little less. These settings will allow you to manually focus on the brightest star or planet in the sky on any given night and the α7R III has a really nice zoom-in feature using the Control Wheel button. With a mirrorless camera the sensor is not set far back in a mirror box, as it is in a DSLR. Well, almost. I saw no great benefit from the BSI sensor. Overall Recommendations In shots on Bulb controlled by the External Timer, maybe the stars at 4 seconds are a little sharper still. The Sony 24mm f/1.4 GM very quickly became my favourite lens of all time and is still in my opinion, the best lens ever made for landscape astrophotography. Time-Lapse Smoothing  Our newsletter goes out every week on Sunday. I expected the new BSI-equipped Sony to better the Nikon by about a stop. Star Trail / Time-Lapse7. And of course BackyardEOS or Nikon won’t work with Sony’s. An 18mm lens or wider is ideal. Canon and Nikon both offered factory modified cameras at one time, notably the Canon 60Da and Nikon D810a. I had originally remarked that this useful function was missing. Thanks! Contrary to expectations, the Sony did not show any great loss in image quality as it crossed the ISO 640 boundary into its lower ISO range. But it can take the Canon lenses you might already own. Custom Buttons  That includes simple intervalometers like the Vello, the Syrp Genie Mini panning unit, and the Dynamic Perception and Rhino sliders, to name devices I use. Here I compare all three cameras for this effect in two-minute tracked exposures taken with Long Exposure Noise Reduction (i.e. And this was with equal processing and no application of Shadow Recovery. sony a7iii night photography settings. The camera may not give you an accurate metering preview. But this test re-emphasized my thoughts that Canon DSLRs remain the best for long-exposure deep-sky imaging where you can give images as much exposure time as they need, while the ISO invariant Sony and Nikons exceed at nightscape shooting where exposures are often limited and plagued by dark shadows and noise. I keep my A7RM2 vs upgrading to the A7RM3 for that reason BUT BUT LOVE REALLY LOVE the A7M3 for the sensor (ISO Invariant) and the 10 frames per second and many other likes!!! when i saw someone reporting an article that star eater was gone, i immediatly read your article. Noise at typical astrophoto ISO speeds – 800 to 6400 – were about equal to the four-year-old Nikon D750. I shot nothing but Raws. I am a Sony A7III owner and from what I have seen using this camera for the night sky I have to agree on most of the things you said. Finally, if you’re interested in learning more about astrophotography, we recommend the website Lonely Speck, which is dedicated to the genre and is run by passionate astro-photographers. There’s lots to love about the new Sony a7RII including upgrades to the original a7R of 5-Axis image stabilization found on a7II, Silent Shooting mode found on a7S and Electronic Front Curtain Shutter (EFS) found on every a7-series camera – except the original Sony a7R. Dark Frames  I like its image stacking options, which can help alleviate the noise and artifacts in still images, but aren’t practical for time-lapses. This also means that the shorter your focal length is (the wider your lens is), the longer the shutter speed can be. Now some more positive news: with the mark III generation, “star eating” is less apparent albeit not completely resolved. Heck, BY EOS won’t even work with my 6D MkII — I just tested it again in preparation for a workshop I’m doing in a couple of weeks. What iso would you recommend for the a7iii if you could pick any iso (so not limited by individual situations)? But that is true of all internal intervalometers — Pentax, Canon and Nikon. Unfortunately, this is not something you can control with the camera’s NR setting. I think it’s a great camera for both astrophoto stills and video. TABLE OF CONTENTS1. Post production is not just a question of playing with contrast, highlights, exposure, sharpness and noise reduction, but also involves creating a mask on the area where the Milky Way is to make additional localised adjustments. Large metropolises have a high level of light pollution that makes seeing and shooting stars more difficult. One supplier of filter-modified cameras, Spencer’s Camera, also refuses to modify Sonys, because this glow renders them poor choices for filter modification, for those wanting cameras with deeper red sensitivity. If you’re planning to stay out all night, this is very useful because you can plug it into a mobile power bank and ensure you never run out of juice. Hi Alan, thanks for this detailed review. Lighter Weight / Smaller Size It was a little worse than the stock Canon 6D MkII. It magnifies the Live View by 5.9x or 11.7x, allowing for precise manual focusing on a star. Turning on LENR did eliminate most hot pixels in long exposures, but not all. to me, your tests are indeed showing that, even if your are not in a bad case scenario with ~3pixels wide stars, the star eater is definitely still there with all highest spatial frequencies decreased between 3.2s and 4s. Taking a dark frame with LENR did not eliminate this, and it should, demonstrating again that for whatever reason in the a7III LENR is not as effective as it should be. (See my test at https://amazingsky.net/2017/08/09/testing-the-canon-6d-mark-ii-for-nightscapes/). So you still need an external intervalometer for time-lapses with frames over 30s long. You will see more detail with smaller pixels but not more noise unless you are cropping photos from these different sensors to the same number of pixels. Instead, I concentrated on those points I felt of most concern to astrophotographers, such as: Noise Iet’s say you are comparing similar size photos between sensors that have larger vs smaller pixels. There’s autofocus, weather-sealing and the angle of view can be very useful for other things such as landscape, street and events. How evenly an image is illuminated is a common factor when testing lenses. One of the test sets shows just what you asked for – exposures of varying length below and above 4 seconds. Indeed, at slower ISOs and longer exposures, more stars are visible. Post processing is necessary to pull out all the details and give your photo a more dramatic look. However, the screen does not flip out and reverse, a feature useful for vloggers, but seldom needed for astrophotography. To my eye, the difference is nothing like the huge wiping out of stars reported and shown at Lonely Speck. The Sony a7III uses a sensor that is “Backside Illuminated,” a feature that promises to improve low-light performance and reduce noise. The camera subtracts the single dark from the buffered lights. But that’s a nuisance to do, and should not be necessary with a mirrorless camera. Plus the generation of the firmware. In models from a similar generation it will always be the ones with the larger pixels — regardless of sensor size. It varies with even Canon full-frame. Your personal data won't be recorded until the form has been submitted successfully. “The 2008-vintage 5D MkII had a 5-frame buffer!” USB Power  Hi, it all depends on what you want to buy or already have for lenses. The Canon is free of any such issue – stars are naturally colored whether LENR dark frames are applied or not. In your theory the image taken with it set to shoot full frame should be less noisy. And in tracked exposures over a minute where you’d really see the difference there is virtually no difference in sharpness, star count and limiting magnitude between the Sony and cameras not accused of eating stars. This would explain why in your first test the +4 EV image (iso 400) and in your second test the +3 and +4 EV images (iso 200, iso 400) appear iso variant. Some lenses can be a bit too narrow to capture a large portion of the sky, especially if you’re interested in the Milky Way, or want to include elements in the foreground. This might be an aid, or an annoyance. NIKON: I deducted points for real-time video of auroras – the D750 can do them but is pretty noisy with the high ISOs needed. You’re saying the a7III will show less noise than the competitors when used under very low light conditions. However you need to keep in mind that if you select a duration that is too long, the stars in your image won’t appear as sharp dots anymore, but will assume the appearance of thin lines. In my testing I compared the Sony a7III to two competitive DSLRs, the Canon 6D MkII and Nikon D750. Based around an updated 24.2-megapixel back-illuminated full-frame sensor, the A7 III punches well above its weight with a rich feature including a 693 phase-detect autofocus system, 10 frames per second, internal 4k video, and silent operation. Your journey in capturing beautiful astro-photographs doesn’t stop here. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. But it really is up to you. Ethics statement: We own the Sony A7 III and Sony A7R III, and many of the other models we bought and tested in the past. But this is a tough call. Only the latest Canons offer in-camera stacking to average noise, which is not the same as dark-frame subtraction. For star trails, you can do without an intervalometer and take different exposures of up to 5 minutes. Use the same lens as well. But the Nikon did show more image artifacts in the “odd-numbered” ISOs of 640 and 500. I provide that evidence. Plus it’s not something you’re really going to see unless you pixel peep. That said, even the slower (f/4) FE mount zooms would work just fine for astrophotography with the Sony a7S since the ISO performance is still pretty clean from 3200 to 51200, so maybe I … But when shooting aurora videos I found, to my surprise, I could “drag” the shutter speeds as slow as 1/4-second, fully 4 stops better than the Nikon’s slowest shutter speed of 1/60 second in Full HD, and 3 stops better than the Canon’s slowest movie shutter of 1/30 second. Tilting LCD Screen  At the Raw-files from dpreview.com shows that a7rIII much less noisy than the Canon 6D and Nikon D750. That’s why using exactly same sensor, different make and model cameras may produce diff quality images.). In January I embarked on a personal challenge to spend #100NightsUnderTheStars. I would invite you to further read my comments and images added in the Addendum. In conclusion, here’s my summary recommendations for the three competitive cameras, rating them from Poor, to Fair, to Good, to Excellent. Compressed files showed more noise and magenta discoloration in the shadows. I have chosen late model full-frame cameras and a cropped frame camera each from Sony, Canon, and Nikon. To get the most out of the Sony for deep-sky imaging you would have to have it modified by a third-party, though the amp glow described above makes it a poor choice for modification. This is really pixel peeping at 400%. More rapid-fire burst modes and quieter shutters are a plus for action and wedding photographers, though they are of limited value for astrophotography. Now I know why I haven’t seen you on my email feed in awhile! I’ll guide you through the things you need and which settings to use. If you have ever looked at the apps on Playmemories site (a selling point when I bought the A7S back in 2014 [no other camera offered and is ground breaking]). But Live Focus is where the a7III really stands out. Autofocus works brilliantly (and silently), too. The Sony would perform better in an ISO Invariancy “face-off” if its ISOs were kept above 640, to keep all the images within the Sony’s upper ISO range of its dual-gain sensor design, with two ranges (100 to 400, and 640 on up). Thanks for the suggestion. With the latest firmware, A7 III, A7R III and A9 all get Interval Meter built into the camera. Nevertheless, noise performance of the Sony a7III was still excellent, with both the Sony and Nikon handily outperforming the Canon 6D MkII, with its slightly smaller pixels, by about a stop in noise levels. (More on this further down). I can’t see anyone being unhappy about the sharpness of the starfield and galaxy itself in the 4 minute galaxy shot compared to the Canon version, and Canon surely sets the standard. So beware! This is particularly true if you want to make the Milky Way stand out. i.e. with LENR “on” with “lens cap on” to get a larger sampling of dark frames, to manually subtract in post? I know … people shoot dark frames separately for subtracting later in processing. Jim Kasson and Lonely Speck mention a workaround which involves shooting in continuous mode. • It lacks the “light-frame” buffer offered by full-frame Canons that allows shooting several frames in quick succession even with LENR turned on. So it is great to have one available on the Sony. The cameras were on a Star Adventurer Mini tracker to keep stars pinpoints, though the ground blurred in the longer exposures. But the dark shadows in underexposed nightscapes withstood shadow recovery better in the uncompressed files. Instead, you have to go to the Camera Settings 2 page, then select Still Image–Custom Key. It wouldn’t be my first choice because of the longer focal length, but once again the optical performance is really good and it has an extra aperture stop which is always welcome for astrophotography. Hi Alan, I don’t want to detract from an otherwise fantastic review, so feel free not to post this. It may take a few shots and some tinkering to get the focus correct so that the stars are sharp and don’t have an oval or egg shape to them. Hi, Alan. It controls the Sony through the camera’s Multi USB port. Electronic Front Curtain Shutter — Alan. You’ll want to consider your composition, the ambient light and sharpness of your lens. The higher noise of the Canon is visually obvious, but I’d say the Sony a7III and Nikon D750 are pretty equal visually for noise, despite the numbers. Eliminate all the variables — except one — you’re just varying the collecting area. I updated the firmware on my a7III. And the new a7sIII rumoured to come out soon would also be interesting to test. Bright Monitoring is not available on the A7 I series or the A7 II. Yes, they are not as bad anymore as on earlier A7RII firmwares, which originally created all the fuzz. Sony A7III Software. You want to take your images when the sky is as dark as possible, which means avoiding a full moon because it will brighten the sky too much and make the Milky Way more difficult to see. Share on Facebook. If you’ve never tried to take astro-photos with your A7 III before, then you’ve come to the right place. If stars are colored and misshapen at the single pixel level that’s deBayering. The Sony a7III is a superb camera for still and time-lapse nightscape shooting, and excellent for real-time aurora videos. Dark frame subtraction using Long Exposure Noise Reduction removed most – but not all – hot pixels from thermal noise. This would be much tougher to eliminate in deep-sky images where the extreme contrast boosts we typically apply to images of nebulas and galaxies will accentuate any odd glows. The A73 has the following shooting modes: Intelligent Auto: All settings are handled by the camera and it’ll even try to identify the scene from the list of … However, if the collection area is large, the incident “stream”/pixel is larger = less affected by variations. This is all with Raws developed with Adobe Camera Raw. If the sensors have the same area it is more likely you will see no difference in noise given the same level of technology. If you want an objective test, rather than comparing the Sony with Canon or Nikon images, you need to compare 3.2 with 4 second images, both shot on the Sony. I love it! That being said, what can be done with one camera can be done with another. With DSLRs it is the raised mirror which often casts a shadow, produced a dark vignetted band along the bottom of the frame. What little “star-eater” effect I saw might be mitigated by shooting on Continuous drive mode or by firing the shutter with an external timer. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! This was true whether I was shooting compressed or uncompressed Raws, with or without Long Exposure Noise Reduction. A great app I found with the A7S and A7RM2 was Digital Filter which is good for city lights below and dark sky above, you can capture two images in camera with different settings for the above and below and get a RAW combined in camera image to use in post instead of Photoshop blending, again just for thought. Thanks for reading! An example is in a 4K video I shot on May 6, 2018 of an usual aurora known as “STEVE.”. Do the test and let me know. The best way to focus is to look for a big bright star in your frame. While these might add glows to long exposure images, if they could be designed not to do that (i.e. In new models, Sony now offers the option of a final “My Menu” page which you can populate with often-used functions from the other 35 pages of menu commands!