Published: October 24, 2023
TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2023 list of innovations changing the way in which we live includes two Sony cameras – Sony a7R V and Sony FX3.
TIME credits Sony Alpha 7R V’s dedicated AI processing unit for it’s game-changing smarter autofocus system. “With resolution as high as the 61-megapixel sensor in Sony’s line of Alpha mirrorless cameras, focusing can be a challenge,” writes Alison Van Houten. “The new Alpha 7R V model features a dedicated AI processing unit, which enables the camera’s autofocus capabilities to process even more data in real time. While most autofocus systems are based on face and eye recognition, the Alpha 7R V is trained to recognize and stably track body movements, even if the subject changes course. It’s not limited to humans, either—it also clocks birds with long necks or intricate head feathers, insects like butterflies and dragonflies, cars and more.” Read more.
TIME also highlights how Sony FX3, makes high-quality filmmaking far more accessible. “The high-end cameras used to film today’s blockbuster movies can cost upwards of $100,000,” writes Jeff Wilser. “But director Gareth Edwards (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) shot his recently released sci-fi epic, The Creator, primarily on Sony’s FX3. The camera can be purchased at electronics stores for under $4,000, and most viewers won’t see a difference in quality. The FX3 is light and compact, but its real superpower is a dramatically high ISO (the sensitivity of the camera’s ability to capture light), which allowed Edwards to capture difficult night shots without the need for extra lighting. As the director said while promoting the movie, ‘You can basically film in moonlight.’” Read more.
See the complete list of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2023.
Order Sony a7R V from B&H Photo | Amazon | Sony
Order Sony FX3 Cinema Camera from B&H Photo | Adorama | Sony
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3 thoughts on “TIME Magazine Names Sony a7R V & FX3 Best Inventions of 2023”
I agree with TIME!! I stated with the A7S in 2013 and thanks to Brian Smith’s books on the A7 series cameras and all they could do I was up and capturing while reading each. The secret about the A7s was it would bracket 5 at +/- 3EV, it was the age of HDR! Next in 2017 I got the A7RM2 that had IBIS but that was already in the 2015 mod 2 cameras I was just a little late on the draw. But learned real fast how good the IMIS was when on a trip to Az. stopping at Antelope Canyon tour when I got to the entrance I found I had forgotten the tripod plate for the camera and left the tripod in the truck and went on the tour anyway. First stop everyone put their cameras on sticks but I just took a test shot and it was great. Next I tested a bracketed 3 at +/- 2EV took a look and all were perfect and sharp in Aperture. So while all others used sticks I was standing, lying looking up or low forward looking taking about 5 to others 1 on sticks and the other thing I also was using the new 12-24mm f/4 so wide no one else had a 12mm for some years. Back at the hotel I was editing at a table and first one then about 10 were looking over my shoulder and asking about the lens and commenting on how wide it was but the colors also. Also Sony let other lens makers like Voigtlander 10mm f/5.6 and went to Horseshoe and while others were standing on the edge doing two level panoramas I was able stand back a bit but one capture had the water below and the mountains on the horizon all and in focus and did 5 and left just as the tour buses arrived. The A7M3 next doing great Milky Ways as well as flying birds even hummingbirds with the 24-240. I got the A7SM3 because the M2 disappeared but the twisty screen I loved. And the A7RMV had one as well all the AI and after an update of the 200-600 and the A7RV you can press the back button Focus and all shake stopped even with 2X teleconverter in APS-C getting 1800mm baby birds in a nest 150 yds away are like you were sitting in the tree.
Sony has been so far ahead others will take years to catch. I still have both mod one and two models with on camera apps one app lets me capture without carrying a bunch of filters around.
Congratulations Sony! One new step at a time. Thanks also Brian Smith for all the info in the beginning and through the years!
You’re always so kind, Ed! Thanks for following along all these years. It’s been a fun ride!
Not really being kind but a thanks for the info! First came film in the mid 70’s with a Canon Ftb that a retiring Navy First Class who introduced me to Photography. It was right up there with Auto, you dial in film speed then for the shot it had a light meter and for aperture there was a needle with a little round hole that you put over the light meter needle, how easy. You carry daytime and nighttime speed film and pick slides or print film. The film log book you put facts of each shot for it would take a month to get prints or slides back. There was no real book of info or light triangle to study. Going point and shoot in the mid 2K and going digital in ’10 with a Canon T2i was about the same but software you thought was good but not for it was the makers software and Canon removed that model from its site so instead of just buying a new model you hit the bookstores and magazines. Even today every camera comes with a big sheet of paper in multiple languages!!! Today there are so many reviewers on on the tube that do not really show how either but results mainly and one person may cover many makes.
In ’13 and ’14 there were books with paper but most just showed each function sometimes with an image result. I was retired at the time and would spend a half a day looking at all. But I came across a magazine with the new Sony line of A7 and used to be Minolta. I found one of your books and just reading a little bit learned more about photography than before. Next a trip to Orlando where there was a Sony store for a hands on and it was eye opening with no mirror and an hour or more playing with. After finding out I had over a million credit card point after ten years not knowing I bought the A7s and a couple of OSS telephoto lenses. I think it was in the back of one of your books you stated about using a low cost adapters where other lenses could be used, I used my old Canon FD and EF-S lenses also. The most amazing was the on camera apps that could be downloaded. I had the time and playtime it was. I always had an eye for things no one took the time to see. In ’15 I discovered the Milky Way after seeing an article about and a new free app called PhotoPills that helped find it, captured over a neighbor’s house while being under a street light and not out in the desert with rattlesnakes. There are no words to describe what it is like to capture something that is unseen other than seeing something with a microscope. You info and photos of using manual mode helped to get that first image of the unseen with the eye.
Yes back in the early ’14/’15 era there were many books on bookstore shelves about camera models but today none. Everyone of your books showed things and settings you could do the same and with color images. Every book with night captures on the cover. I understand more than most the time it takes to cover every genre a camera is made for and can do.
Lastly this is not a gushing review but a need for one to get a book and read about a camera and its functions and a possibility of finding something new it can do no matter the make. I have a book on all the cameras I have and with the A7SM3 and the A7RM5 they are 2 inches thick or small PDF file. A take away is what settings affect only Jpegs. As a story in one book goes a National Geographic photographer did while in Africa sending RAW unedited back with Jpegs and telling the processors to make the RAW’s look like the Jpegs for which neither knew it could not be done not knowing settings differences. Just like everyone says to do it in manual mode but you pay for auto mode and only in metadata is it noted that no one sees or even printed on the back of a print, in manual mode at the bottom of the screen is a Metering Mode (M.M.) that shows a neg or pos or 0.0 that you adjust your settings to a value so again the camera is like in Auto mode letting you know what should be the correct setting. The image on the LCD (jpeg) is never realy like that of the RAW captured image. Things learned the hard way!!!
I always think about your books and reread many times for a memory can not hold all things when doing many different genre over time. So glad to have in print!