The Sony A7R III is a bit of a cult favorite and is a great mirrorless camera for astrophotography, and it’s now heavily discounted over $500 (opens in a new tab) thanks to this Black Friday offer on Amazon.
It features a 42.4-megapixel full-frame image sensor capable of capturing 4K HDR video and features 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 into almost any camera bag. This means it’s easier to travel with the camera and take it to dark sky locations for astrophotography.
Although we haven’t reviewed this specific model, we gave its smaller sibling the Sony A7 III and its newer variant the Sony A7R IV 4.5/5 stars in our reviews, noting their fantastic build quality and their high quality imagery. The price has dropped from $2,499.99 to $1,998.00, making this mirrorless camera a steal on Black Friday.
The Sony A7R III has an ISO range of between 50 and 102,400 (extended) to make it see through in the dark. When paired with a fast wide-angle lens with an aperture of between f/1.4 and 2.8, crisp, bright images of the night sky are a breeze.
It has up to 15 stops of dynamic range to capture the brightest highlights and deepest, darkest shadows, making it perfect for astrophotography as it allows photographers to edit their astro images with great flexibility when shooting in RAW format.
The A7R III has built-in image stabilization up to 5.5 stops so users can shoot this handheld even at dusk and other low-light situations where a tripod would normally be needed. It also autofocuses down to -3EV for decent focus in dim light (though probably not dim enough to autofocus on 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.
