Sony Alpha 7R IIIA vs Sony Alpha 5100

In this comparison, we will evaluate the Sony Alpha 7R IIIA and the Sony Alpha 5100, highlighting the advantages of each over the other, discussing their pros and cons, shared strengths and weaknesses, and providing a rating based on their available features and specifications to assist you in choosing the one that best suits your needs.

Sony Alpha 7R IIIA was introduced in October 2017 and Sony Alpha 5100 was introduced in August 2014. Let us first list highlights of the models.

Now that we've looked at the most essential specifications and gained a basic understanding of these cameras, we can delve into more details and see the differences between them.

This section shows those features and specifications which are the reason to choose Sony Alpha 7R IIIA over Sony Alpha 5100.

This section shows those features and specifications which are the reason to choose Sony Alpha 5100 over Sony Alpha 7R IIIA.

We already listed pros and cons of each model. However, you may also find useful to look at their common strengths and weaknesses shown side-by-side.

Screen

Sony Alpha 7R IIIA and Sony Alpha 5100 have 3.0" Tilting screens with 2,360k dot and 922k dot resolutions respectively. Tilting screen makes cameras very useful for photography purposes but not so useful for video shooting. Both models feature touchscreen which has advantages such as easy menu navigation, intuitive controls, quick setting adjustment and most importantly a Touch-to-Focus functionality allowing users to select a specific point on the screen where they want the camera to focus. This feature can be helpful for achieving precise focus in both photo and video recording.

Electronic Viewfinder on Sony Alpha 7R IIIA

Sony Alpha 7R IIIA has a built-in 0.5" Electronic viewfinder with 3,686k dot resolution. It has a 100% coverage and 0.78x magnification. There is no built-in or optional viewfinder available on Sony Alpha 5100.

Sony Alpha 7R IIIA features a 42.4 megapixel Full Frame BSI-CMOS sensor with dimensions of 35.9 x 24 mm and a total area of 861.6 mm². Its native ISO range is 100 - 32,000 and expands to 50 - 102,400 in boosted mode. Sony Alpha 5100 features a 24.3 megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor with dimensions of 23.5 x 15.6 mm and a total area of 243.4 mm². Its native ISO range is 100 - 25,600.

Sony Alpha 7R IIIA has BSI-CMOS sensor, short for Backside Illuminated Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor sensor. In traditional CMOS sensors, the wiring and circuitry are located on the front side of the sensor, which can block some of the incoming light. BSI technology flips this design by placing the photosensitive elements (pixels) on the backside of the sensor, allowing more light to reach the pixels. This significantly enhances light sensitivity and improves low-light performance. BSI-CMOS sensors are particularly effective in low-light conditions, as they can capture more light, resulting in brighter and less noisy images. This makes them well-suited for indoor and night photography. BSI-CMOS sensors deliver a higher SNR and reduced cross-talk.

Here is a sensor size comparison chart where you can see how different sensors compare with each other:

Sensor size chart

	Sensor	Dimensions	Area	Aspect Ratio	Crop Factor
	Medium Format	44 x 33 mm	1452 mm2	4:3	0.79x
	Full Frame	36 x 24 mm	864 mm2	3:2	1x
	APS-H	27 x 18 mm	486 mm2	3:2	1.3x
	APS-C	23.6 x 15.6 mm	368.2 mm2	3:2	1.5x
	APS-C (Canon)	22.3 x 14.9 mm	332.3 mm2	3:2	1.6x
	Micro Four Thirds	17.4 x 13 mm	226.2 mm2	4:3	2x
	1-inch	13.2 x 8.8 mm	116.2 mm2	3:2	2.7x
	1/1.7-inch	7.44 x 5.58 mm	41.5 mm2	4:3	4.7x
	1/2.3-inch	6.17 x 4.55 mm	28.1 mm2	4:3	5.6x

Cameras are equipped with BIONZ X processor.

Lens Mount

Cameras have Sony E lens mount. Due to Full Frame sensor in Sony Alpha 7R IIIA its crop factor is equal to 1x, this means that a 35mm equivalent focal length of the mounted lens will be equal to its actual focal length. Due to APS-C sensor in Sony Alpha 5100 its crop factor is equal to 1.5x, this means that a 35mm equivalent focal length of the mounted lens will be equal to its actual focal length times 1.5.

No Low-Pass Filter on Sony Alpha 7R IIIA

There is no optical low-pass filter (OLPF), also known as an anti-aliasing filter, in front of the sensor on Sony Alpha 7R IIIA. This results in a slightly sharper image but may also introduce moiré patterns and aliasing artifacts when photographing subjects with fine, repetitive patterns or details.

In-Body Image Stabilization on Sony Alpha 7R IIIA

Sony Alpha 7R IIIA has a built-in 5-Axis Sensor Shift in-body image stabilization (IBIS) with 5.5 stops of compensation. This means that you are still getting vibration reduction when camera is paired with non-image stabilizied lenses. It also works with lenses with optical image stabilization and in combination can achieve even better compensation.

Built-in Wi-Fi

Cameras have built-in Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n, 2.4 GHz) which allows to easily transfer photos and videos from the camera to other Wi-Fi-enabled devices, such as smartphones, tablets, printers, or computers. This eliminates the need for cables and allows for quick and convenient media sharing and social media integration. It gives you the ability to control your camera remotely using a smartphone or tablet. This is particularly useful for taking self-portraits, group shots, or capturing images in challenging conditions without having to touch the camera. Firmware updates can also be downloaded and installed wirelessly.
  Check out the cameras in our database that have built-in WiFi.

Bluetooth on Sony Alpha 7R IIIA

Sony Alpha 7R IIIA has a built-in Bluetooth which lets you to connect the camera to a smartphone or a dedicated remote control device. This allows you to remotely trigger the camera, adjust settings and controls remotely through a paired mobile app. While Wi-Fi is generally faster for transferring larger files, Bluetooth can be used for small, selective transfers, it can provide real-time information about your camera's battery status, memory card capacity, and other key settings directly on your paired smartphone or smartwatch.
  Check out the cameras in our database that have built-in Bluetooth.

NFC

Cameras have Near Field Communication (NFC) technology which simplifies the process of pairing it with other NFC-enabled devices like smartphones or tablets. It allows to quickly transfer photos and videos or remotely control the camera from compatible device. NFC can also be used for authentication and security purposes. It can verify your identity before accessing certain features or transferring sensitive data. It can be used with NFC-enabled accessories as well, such as lenses, flashes and GPS devices.

USB Inputs and HDMI Outputs

Both models have USB inputs for data transfer. Sony Alpha 7R IIIA has a Micro HDMI and Sony Alpha 5100 has a Micro HDMI connector for video signal output.

Battery

Sony Alpha 7R IIIA comes with NP-FZ100 battery pack with battery life of 650 shots and Sony Alpha 5100 comes with NP-FW50 battery pack with battery life of 400 shots.

External Storage Slots

Sony Alpha 7R IIIA has two card slots - one for SD/SDHC/SDXC (UHS-II) and one for SD/SDHC/SDXC/Memory Stick Duo Hybrid (UHS-I). Sony Alpha 5100 has a single SD/SDHC/SDXC/Memory Stick Duo Hybrid (UHS-I) card slot.

Shutter

Sony Alpha 7R IIIA has Electronic shutter. Sony Alpha 5100 has Electronically controlled Vertical-traverse Focal-plane shutter. Shutter speed can go up to 1/8000 sec on Sony Alpha 7R IIIA, and up to 1/4000 sec on Sony Alpha 5100. Sony Alpha 7R IIIA can shoot continuously up to 10.0 fps. Sony Alpha 5100 can shoot continuously up to 6.0 fps.

Focusing

Both cameras have Fast Hybrid AF (Phase-detection / Contrast-detection) system with Sony Alpha 7R IIIA having 425 focusing points and from -2 to +20 EV detection range and with Sony Alpha 5100 having 179 focusing points and from -1 to +20 EV detection range. and Sony Alpha 7R IIIA having from -2 to +20 EV detection range and Sony Alpha 5100 having from -1 to +20 EV detection range.

Exposure

Exposure meterings of Sony Alpha 7R IIIA and Sony Alpha 5100 range from -3 to +20 EV and -1 to +20 EV respectively and you can set the exposure compensation within the ±5 EV range on Sony Alpha 7R IIIA and ±3 EV range on Sony Alpha 5100. You can also do exposure bracketing and manual exposure adjustment on Sony Alpha 7R IIIA and exposure bracketing and manual exposure adjustment on Sony Alpha 5100.

Flash

Sony Alpha 5100 has a built-in flash with maximum range of 4.00 m at ISO 100. Sony Alpha 7R IIIA has no built-in flash but an external flash may be connected via Intelligent Hot Shoe or PC Terminal. The fastest flash synchronization speed is 1/250 sec on Sony Alpha 7R IIIA and 1/160 sec on Sony Alpha 5100.

Sony Alpha 7R IIIA body has dimensions of 127 x 96 x 74 mm (5 x 3.78 x 2.91") and Sony Alpha 5100 body has dimensions of 110 x 63 x 36 mm (4.33 x 2.48 x 1.42"). Sony Alpha 7R IIIA weighs 657 g (1.45 lb / 23.17 oz) and Sony Alpha 5100 weighs 283 g (0.62 lb / 9.98 oz).

Sony Alpha 7R IIIA

Sony Alpha 5100

127 mm

96 mm

110 mm

63 mm

96 mm

63 mm

74 mm

36 mm