Sony registers a new high-end camera – is the Sony A7S III finally coming?

Sony has pretty quiet on the cameras front in 2020, but that could be about to change – new rumors have revealed that it’s registered a new high-end E-mount camera, which could mean the imminent arrival of a Sony A7S III or Sony A7 IV.

A recent tweet by Japanese camera rumors site Nokishita reveals that Sony has just registered a new camera in Asia. And while specific details about the camera are lacking, Sony Alpha Rumors is confident that it’s a new high-end E-mount camera for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, the camera (which has the codename WW271448) has 5.1Ghz Wi-Fi, which is a common feature on its Alpha cameras. Sony Alpha Rumors also claims that it has also received “reliable info” about a new model from its sources.

The timing of the rumors is intriguing because Sony’s Imaging Pro arm has an event on April 30, which starts at 10am EDT / 3pm BST, which is midnight on 1 May in Australia. You can tune into the event on its ‘Powering Creativity‘ page.

The event is mainly focused professional shoulder camcorders, HDR workflows and AI tools, so it seems unlikely that Sony will say much, if anything, about new consumer cameras. Indeed, a new pro Sony FX6 camcorder is the more likely hardware arrival at the event.

But there is an outside chance that, like Canon’s recent teasing of further Canon EOS R5 specs at its pro-focused Imaging Unleashed event, Sony will include a footnote or development announced about a rumored camera like the Sony A7S III or Sony A7 IV. 

ソニーの「WW271448」が海外の認証機関に登録されました。Wi-Fi(5GHz/2.4GHz)とBluetoothを搭載。#認証情報 pic.twitter.com/lyQbC6NzogApril 28, 2020

Missing in action

The almost mythical Sony A7S III is expected to arrive in the first half of 2020, according to rumors, but there was no mention of it at CES 2020 or after the cancelled CP+ show.

It’s now four years since the Sony A7S II, which excelled as a video-shooting stills camera. But the camera world has moved on since rumors first surfaced about the Sony A7S III in August 2019, after a Sony exec confirmed that the company was still working on its ‘S’ line.

Most notably, the Canon EOS R5 has recently blown many of the supposed specifications for the Sony A7S III out of the water. We still don’t know the full specs for Canon’s full-frame powerhouse, but the EOS R5 confirms that the future is hybrid all-rounder cameras, and it’s possible that the A7S III and its rumored 15.36MP Quad Bayer sensor might be now be considered a little too niche.

This means it’s possible we might see a Sony A7 IV announced first, as a new flagship all-rounder for Sony’s E-mount system with new video powers. But we’ll have to wait until tomorrow’s event to see if Sony is finally ready to come out of hibernation and tease some details about its consumer cameras. 

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