Sony A7S review

Sony's most expensive Alpha 7-series CSC has the lowest resolution and highest price – what's that all about?

Sony Alpha 7S
Its weather sealing and metal construction make the Alpha 7S a tough little beast

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We shoot a specially designed chart in carefully controlled conditions and the resulting images are analysed using DXO Analyzer software to generate the data to produce the graphs below.

A high signal to noise ratio (SNR) indicates a cleaner and better quality image.

For more more details on how to interpret our test data, check out our full explanation of our noise and dynamic range tests.

Here we compare the Sony Alpha 7S with the Sony Alpha a7, Nikon D4S and Panasonic GH4.

JPEG signal to noise ratio

Sony A7S JPEG signal to noise ratio

The Alpha 7S has the highest signal to noise ratio at its lowest and highest sensitivty settings, indicating that its images are cleaner than those from competing cameras - including the Nikon D4S.

Raw (after conversion to TIFF) signal to noise ratio

Sony A7S raw signal to noise ratio

Although the Panasonic GH4 leads the way for the majority of its sensitivity range this doesn't extend as far ast the A7S's. At the very highest settings the A7S beats the Nikon D4S, but it's a pretty close run contest throughout the range.

JPEG dynamic range

Sony A7S JPEG dynamic range

All of the cameras capture a good dynamic range in their JPEG files but the Sony A7S appears to cope significantly better than the Nikon D4S at the higher vaules.

Raw (after conversion to TIFF) dynamic range

Sony A7S raw dynamic range

Again the Sony A7S beats the Nikon D4S at the higher sensitivity values, indicating that it can capture a wider range of tones in a single shot. The Panasonic GH4 does best its mid and high values though.