Sony A7C: A little too late to the party?

The Sony A7 III is one of our favourite cameras for video production. Yeah, it’s not perfect, but it does so much so well for its price point, and is perfect for what we need. OK, almost perfect. If I had to nitpick, I’d love it if Sony remove the recording limit, upped the temperature threshold and made the body a little bit smaller. Oh, and throw in a fully articulating screen too, please!

Well…it looks like they did just that with their brand new full-frame mirrorless camera, the Sony A7C. If the S in A7S stands for sensitivity, and the R in A7R stands for resolution, I guess the C here should mean compact. Because it looks like Sony just crammed an entire A7 III into the tiny body of a Sony A6600.

I mean, just look at the specs. Sony’s A7C is nearly identical to the A7 III when it comes to what makes it a camera. It has the same full-frame 24.2MP Exmor R CMOS sensor and BIONZ X image processing engine. Only difference is that it is now a small, light body that ‘s only 1% heavier than the A6600.

Despite the larger sensor, the A7C doesn’t sacrifice on in-body image stabilisation (IBIS) as this camera will still stabilise your shots along the same 5 axes. It also retains the big FZ100 battery which has a CIPA rating of 740 shots using the LCD monitor and 680 shots when using the viewfinder. If my experience with the A6600 is anything to go off on, this new A7C should have some awesome battery life even when shooting video.

Speaking of, the A7C will be able to shoot up to 4K/30 fps as well as 1080/120 fps. Besides that, it boasts basically the same video chops as the Sony A7 III with a few subtle differences when it comes to ISO and White Balance. If you want to know more about that, I’d recommend Gerald Undone’s in-depth video because he will do a better job at explaining all these things.

On top of that, Sony’s improved the AF and AF tracking, removed the recording limit and it also looks like they’ve improved the temperature threshold to boot. All awesome things for video shooters, especially in hot countries like ours. But, I think one of my favourite upgrades here is the fact that the camera now comes with a fully articulating touchscreen. However, that comes at a cost because for some reason the new camera doesn’t come with the big rubber hood over the eye-piece so that’s a pretty big downgrade over previous Alpha cameras.

That said, being nearly identical to the Sony A7 III also has its downsides. Rolling shutter, for example, is still a problem on this camera even though Sony’s pretty much solved it on the A7S III. I also doubt the IBIS will be as good as its competitors like the Fujifilm X-T4, with some reports even indicating that it’s worse than that on the A7 III.

Nevertheless, I feel like if Sony can find the right price for this camera, people will absolutely buy this by the dozens. In the States, the Sony A7C retails for USD 1,799 (~RM7,434) which means it’s more affordable than the RRP for the Sony A7 III. But, that camera’s pretty old now and you can find them on Lazada and Shopee for around RM6,500.

Does that mean that this Sony A7C, even with all its awesome updates, is a little too late to the party? If they price it like that, then there’s a pretty good possibility that the answer is yes. So far, there’s no word on how much this camera will retail for in Malaysia, but Sony Malaysia will be having a livestream on their Facebook page where they’ll reveal all the details. In the meantime, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the new camera. Let me know in the comments below.

[UPDATE 17/09/20, 13:46pm] Pre-orders for the Sony A7C has started. Body-only, the A7C will retail for RM8,399. If you pick it up with the FE28-60mm kit, that will set you back RM9,899.