A7S vs 5D Mark III: Low Light & Quiet Shutter Tests

A7S vs 5D Mark III: Low Light & Quiet Shutter Tests

Many expect the soon to be released A7S to be a “game changer” for independent film makers. No doubt we will be seeing hundreds of Sony A7S vs 5D Mark III tests. While the truth of these forecasts remains to be seen there is no question the A7S brings some strong features to the playing field. I would even call them revolutionary features, packaged as they are all in one single camera. A Silent Shutter is certainly one of them. To my knowledge a first for a full frame 35mm camera. Many thanks to Chuljae Lee for uploading the video above to Youtube and sharing it with all of us. If anyone knows of another full frame camera with completely silent shutter, please email or comment below, but I don’t expect to hear of one anytime soon.

Why is a silent shutter so important? There are many places a photographer works where making noise is either very distracting or prohibited in the first place. Movie sets, recording studios, video taping sessions and church weddings immediately come to mind, but I am sure with a bit of thought I can come up with a dozen places equally as intolerant. In fact, I would say probably half of the places and the jobs I shoot would benefit from a silent shutter. Is this revolutionary, all on its own? Possibly not, even in the extremely compact package size of the A7S.

When it becomes revolutionary for certain is when you combine this completely silent shutter, ultra small and compact package size, and the best low light digital sensor ever made all into one tiny camera body. Wow. Street shooters are already going wild when they see this next video, showing the low light, high ISO capabilities of the A7S vs the venerable Canon 5D Mark III. I hate to say it, but my Canon gets smoked by this new Sony. Many thanks to Den Lennie for taking the time to make and share this with us.

So what is our take away from seeing these two videos? The A7S kicks the low light capability way down the road ahead of anything else ever made. Remember, the 5D Mark III is one of the current industry standards in low light cameras, and as this video shows is not even close to what the A7S can do. Combine that with a completely silent shutter, and you have a revolutionary photographic tool. Not only will it record in light so low that nobody will ever see it, none of them will ever hear it either!

Now that, I call revolutionary.