Have you checked out the low-light shootout Sony A7S vs. A7R vs. Canon EOS 5D III on DPreview?

It is impressive, but it does show that the A7s's advantage lies mainly in the ISO levels that other cameras don't have, and when it comes to medium high ISO's, in the shadows of scenes. For "normal" ISO values, up to 6400 or so, there's very little or no difference, even in the shadows.

So if you never feel the need to go over ISO 6400, or if you do but you want your exposures to be "normal" (and not dark like a night scene), you might as well get the regular a7 or the a7r and have the option to use their resolution advantage.

Well, the a7s still has 4k video (to an external recorder) and the electronic shutter ofcourse...
 
Fair enough ;) but 'more than that' would be 51200 (if you count full stops only), which would mean that a shot requiring a shutterspeed of 1/10 at ISO 6400 - and I don't remember encountering many of those situations - could now be taken at 1/80th, which at most focal lengths and in most situations should be enough for a sharp shot.

Sure, the situations requiring ISO 409600 will always exist (the Coal Mine Football League matches being a prime example) but for the most part, shutter speed and dof will be two parameters that can be set more or less independently with ISO as the parameter that makes the exposure work. How about extending the low ISO capabilities to make some gains in the other direction as well?
 
i was actually LESS impressed after seeing it
it was the downsizing that made everything so similar, it lost its WOW! factor for me

now i think i need an a7r and just shrink everything to 12mp size images...
 
The interesting thing I find about the results from the A7S is that it's advertised low noise, high ISO capabilities don't translate across the full range of ISOs but rather are noticeable only at ludicrous ISO values. My erroneous expectation was that it was going to show less noise at ISO values like 6400 or 3200
 
Actually... I am not impress at all. Looking at the photos, I noticed that the 5DmkIII do produce better details... although with slightly more noise.

Sony Alpha 7R Review

Attached is another review. I have downloaded the files, resize the Canon's 5DmkIII and 6D pic size to the same as the Sony, and noticed that the difference really is not that significant... the weird thing about 5DmkIII is the very bad 'red' color noise, other than that, result are comparable.

Actually I am very surprise at the result, the 5DmkIII was introduce in 2012 and was a almost 2 years old camera, result is comparable to a recently introduced A7S which I think should perform much better. In actuality, I am quite disappointed.
 
I am very impressed with the A7S, but not enough to buy one at $2500 when there are so many A7 bodies in perfect used condition selling for $1200 or less. Up to ISO 6400, it seems to me that the differences are minor. At 12800 the A7S begins to pull away, and at 25,600 it's no longer a contest. Here is the DPR Studio Scene Comparison to illustrate those differences:

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