Sony a7RIV In-Depth Review

Gordan from Cameralabs finished his Sony a7RIV in-depth review. Overall he sounds impressed by the value of the full frame mirrorless cameras.

Sony a7R IV has a full-frame 61MP BSI-CMOS sensor with a claimed 15 stops of dynamic range (it’s the first new sensor since 2015, according to Sony).

Sony a7R IV body: $3,498 at Amazon, B&H, Adorama. Below you can find some excerpts from the Sony a7RIV In-Depth Review video:

Sony a7RIV In-Depth Review

• New Weather sealing
• The new exposure composition lock is nice
• The buttons are larger and feel better
• Would like backlit buttons
• Moving the back scroll wheel to the top feels better to Gordon
• More room between lens mount and grip which is welcome
• UHS-II for both slots is nice and should have been the case before
• The new smart hot shoe is useful with the new shotgun mic
• Hopes the new hot shoe is on other cameras
• Samer wired connectivity as before
• Still Bluetooth and wifi, but wifi now has 5ghz too
• Z battery is great still
• Sony has one of the longest battery lives around
• The grip lets you use two Z batteries
• The 5.76MP OLED EVF looks amazing in use
• The back screen is still very much the same and only angles up or down
• Would like it to angle out or flip
• The touch interface is still poor and hasn’t been improved
• Playback doesn’t let you swipe or zoom
• Interval timer built-in
• Larger denser AF than ever before with 567PDAF over 74% fo the frame in a square area
• Crop mode has 325PDAF points covering the entire frame with 27MP images
• -3EV AF
• Real-time eye AF for humans and animals
• AF is so good that you can trust it to automatically work unlike others
• Eye AF works in movies and should have been available in other models
• 10FPS for 68 frames
• Continuous eye AF works very well
• Can be used for sports/action/wildlife without an issue
• The interface is like the a7RIII
• Specs the same as a7RIII
• Super 35 is the best way to use if to video like the previous camera
• 4k up to 30p
• The camera uses 6k of data instead of 5k like the previous
• 4k super 35 24p is 1.6x crop and 1.8x crop for 30p
• 1080p up to 60p and 120p with sound and AF
• Sony has very flexible slow motion
• No 10-bit or 60p etc…
• Best phase-detection around for video
• The new 61MP BSI Full Frame sensor leapfrogs its rivals
• The camera still uses basically the same IBIS that gives 5.5 stops of stabilization
• Great for very large prints and crops
• When comparing the old and new model Gordon found that there is a visible increase in detail up till 400 ISO where there is more noise
• By 1600ISO there is almost no difference between the a7RIII and a7RIV and by the highest value you could argue the a7RIII is better
• You should shoot the a7RIV at below 400ISO to fully benefit
• a7RIV JPEG engine does a good job keeping images clean up to 1600ISO
• The upgraded pixel shift can give you a lot more resolution
• Pixel shift photos still need special software
• You don’t get quadruple the detail with pixel shift, but it’s good for archiving still subjects
• Subject and technique matter a lot
• Nonobvious things move in pixel shift like foliage in the breeze so it’s best to use indoors
• Should be able to process pixel shift images in the camera
• When pixel shift works you won’t get 240MP, but there is certainly more than 61MP for the right subjects
• The a7RIV is an impressive body that brings a lot of speed and handling to tempt D850 owners
• The body tweaks are welcome
• Still frustrated with the touch screen and video not being upgraded
• The new mic is great for video shooters
• If you want video the LUMIX S bodies are better
• Overall he recommends it, but if 42MP is enough then look for a deal on the Sony a7RIV

Stay tuned with us and read more Sony Mirrorless news and Sony Rumors here.

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