The Sony A7R III has a bit of a cult following and is an excellent mirrorless camera for astrophotography, and it’s now got a deep discount of over $500 (opens in new tab) thanks to this Black Friday deal over at Amazon.
It’s packed with a full-frame 42.4MP image sensor that’s capable of capturing 4K HDR video and has a 3-inch touchscreen as well as an electronic viewfinder. At 9.6 x 6.1 x 5.6 inches and weighing just 1.45 lbs (657g) it’s lightweight and small enough to slip away in almost any camera bag. That means it’s easier to travel with the camera and take away to dark sky locations for astrophotography.
While we haven’t reviewed this specific model we’ve given its little sibling the Sony A7 III and newer variant the Sony A7R IV 4.5/5 stars in our reviews, highlighting their fantastic build quality and high-quality imaging. The price has dropped from $2,499.99 down to $1,998.00 which makes this mirrorless camera a steal on Black Friday.
The Sony A7R III has an ISO range of between 50-102,400 (expanded) to make it see in the dark. If you pair this with a wide-angle fast lens with an aperture of between f/1.4-2.8 then sharp, bright images of the night sky are a doddle.
It has up to 15 stops of dynamic range to capture the brightest highlights and deepest, darkest shadows and that makes it perfect for astrophotography because it allows photographers to edit their astro images with a great deal of flexibility when shooting in RAW format.
The A7R III has in-body image stabilization up to 5.5 stops so users can shoot this handheld even into twilight hours and in other low-light situations where a tripod would normally be necessary. It also autofocuses down to -3EV for decent focusing when the light is low (though, probably not low enough to autofocus on the stars).
Be sure to check out Space.com’s guide to the Best cameras for photos and videos or our astro-specific best cameras for astrophotography.
