Resolution / Aliasing / Comparison: Sony A7 vs. A7r vs. Canon 5D mark III

by Sebastian WöberNovember 22^nd, 2013

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We’ve been testing the new mirrorless Sony alpha a7 and Sony alpha a7R cameras that come with very promising new features dedication to video. Here’s a quick and dirty resolution comparison of the video function between these two and our all time favourite the Canon 5D mark III.

When you watch the video you can clearly see the differences between the cameras.
Some initially thought the higher resolution of the a7R versus the a7 would increase the video quality. This is true, but the test reveals that this difference is ever so tiny that it can hardly be noticed. When compared to the 5D mark III on the other hand we can see that the aliasing and moiré of the a7 as well as the a7R is pretty severe, probably similar to that of Canon DSLR’s like the 7D or TxI line.

On the left you can see the rig I used to make an accurate rolling shutter comparison. This revealed that the rolling shutter on the 5D mark III is much stronger than on the a7’s.
Is this a good thing? Yes it is. But the rolling shutter seems to be something most people take less severe as an argument against a camera.

The settings on both a7’s were the “Neutral” picture profile with everything turned down to -3. The same goes for the 5D mark III which had the “Neutral” picture profile and contrast/saturation/sharpness all the way down to 0.

There was no grading applied except for the last shot.

What I found really great about the Sony a7 was its oled viewfinder. This thing is truly amazing. I wish more cameras had this kind of technology implemented, or the A7’s had a cleaner image. In terms of functionality it’s not a bad camera by Sony. For more info check out Johnnie Behiri’s review.

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