Sony A7riii Bundle Sales as of July 6, 2018
Sony tightly control the prices that retailers can advertise for their products. My guess is that the fantastic value Sony A7iii has eaten into sales of the Sony A7riii. While the Sony A7riii has a number of significant advantages including resolution, better EVF/LCD, and pixel shift, those advantages are not necessarily worth $1,000 to many people. (My article on the fair pricing of the Sony A7riii).
Retailers can still essentially offer discounts by bundling the camera with other items. Be careful, these bundles are often a bunch of junk that will be of little use. Maybe a tripod that will fall over in a stiff wind or a camera bag that will get torn in a month. But there are are some bundles that offer very real value.
As of July 6, 2018, these are the best bundles I’ve seen on Amazon:
- Sony a7R III 42.4MP Full-frame Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens Camera Body with 128GB UHS-II SD Memory Card Soft Carrying Case a7RIII, and Gun Zoom Microphone Bundle — $2999 (click here)
For the regular price of the Sony A7riii, you are getting a 128 GB UHS-II card. If you’re upgrading to the Sony A7riii, you probably don’t currently already own a UHS-II card, which is important to use to take advantage of the speed of the camera. This particular UHS-II card isn’t the absolute fastest on the market but should be adequate and retails alone for $92. If you plan on doing any video work, a gun zoom microphone is useful. This particular microphone retails for about $70.You probably already own a superior camera bag but you are getting $160 of real value with this bundle.
2. Sony Alpha a7R III Full-Frame Mirrorless Camera (Body Only), Tamron Di III RXD 28-75mm f/2.8 Lens for Sony E-Mount, 67mm UV/CPL/ND Filter Kit, Sony SF-G 64GB Class 10 UHS-II SD Card, Wasabi Power Battery (2-Pack) and Dual USB Charger for Sony NP-FZ100 and Monoprice Weatherproof Hard Case with Customizable Foam — $3898 (click here)
This is a very interesting bundle. The Tamron 28-75 is out of stock at many retailers and is truly a fantastic substitute for a kit lens. (My review here). Purchasing the Sony A7riii and Tamron 28-75 separately would cost approximately $3,800. With this bundle, you are getting a lot of extras for $100. The critical extra is the SD card. This bundle includes the fastest SD card currently on the market that retails for $105. (See here).
So essentially, you’re paying for the camera, a great kit lens upgrade and a great memory card. Then they are throwing in some useful extras. The most useful being the extra 2 batteries and charger, typically retailing for $82. (See here). The hard case may be useful and retails around $25. I wouldn’t expect to be getting good filters. But it’s still about $100 in useful extras, and it’s a chance to get the Tamron 28-75 now, with the lens backordered when purchased separately.
Which Bundles to Avoid
Avoid bundles with UHS-I SD cards, as you probably already own memory cards equally good. The Sony A7riii has two slots, only one of which is UHS-II. But you probably already own cards for the second slot.
Also avoid bundles that simply appear to have thrown together a trick or treat bag of off brand monopods, flashes, filters, etc. Junk doesn’t become valuable simply because there is a lot of it.
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