We researched and worked on Sony support for a long time. They can be split into 4 generations:
< 2013: No support at all for the PTP USB Protocol that we use to control the cameras.
<2013-2016: These cameras do support the PTP USB protocol, and we can control almost all aspects of these cameras, but for some reason, Sony didn’t give these cameras the ability to save images to the SD card when triggering via USB. Since we can’t transfer the original images via Bluetooth Low Energy, that means you’d be able to do all the cool things that the Unleashed allows you to do, but you’d never get to see the results, because they wouldn’t be saved anywhere.
2016-2019: Sony added the possibility to save images to the SD card to these cameras. The Unleashed is available for all of these! There are still some quirks with many of these models, such as that we don’t get any info on which aperture values are available, so we can only give you the current setting and a + and – option to increase or decrease aperture by ⅓ of a stop.
> 2019. These cameras are fully compatible with the Unleashed. Sony offers a new SDK only for these models. Over time, we’ve actually figured out how to do a lot more than the SDK allows, but with this SDK these cameras finally got all the expected functionality right.
The models are categorized as follows:
1: All Sonys introduced before the A7 & A7R in 2013 (with the exception of A58 and A99)
2: 2013-10 to 2016-03 (α7 ->RX10 III)
3: 2016-10 to 2019-01 (α99 II -> α6400)
4: 2019-03 until now (with exceptions)
On top of these categories with their issues, there is another limiting factor: Socket types and layout. The Unleashed plugs into the USB port, and its cable into the HDMI port. We made the Unleashed really, really tiny, but it unfortunately can’t fit if these two sockets are too close to each other, or to another protruding physical feature on the camera. That’s why we don’t officially support some cameras even though they might be perfectly usable with some adapter cables.
The α7C is an example of this: its USB-C and HDMI ports are too close together. To get around this issue, choose the α6600 from the shop page and use it together with a small micro-USB to USB-C adapter. It will work just like on all other compatible Sony cameras.