Sony Alpha A7R IV
MORE THAN JUST A MEGAPIXEL MONSTER.
PRO PHOTOGRAPHERS ARE a demanding lot and
Sony knows exactly how to please them. The Sony Alpha A7R IV comes in with some impressive specs and features, including a bump in sensor resolution and the addition of near-perfect real-time tracking for eye autofocus (AF) when following both human and animal subjects for stills and video. There are some significant improvements to the camera’s weatherproofing as well and, to cater to the click-happy pros, there’s now dual UHS-II SD card slots.
The 63MP sensor spits out 61MP photos with a promise of up to 15EV (exposure value) stops of dynamic range. That means your images will be bursting at the seams with details in both shadows and highlights. While 61MP images sound impressive, it’s likely going to be overkill for the average user as the file size of individual photos might be too large for many computers to handle during post processing. Even if you plan on printing your photos, 50MP is way beyond sufficient. That said, the image quality from the A7R IV is impeccable – we just couldn’t find anything to complain about.
However, if 61MP isn’t enough for you, Sony has upgraded its Pixel Shift Multi technology, which captures a series of shots that can be later merged into a single 240MP image (as compared to the 169MP ones from the A7R III). While this is an amazing feature to have, you can’t do this in-camera. You will need to use Sony’s Imaging Edge software (that comes bundled with the snapper) to overlay the individual images.
The A7R IV’s 10fps burst speed is amazing in a camera with this kind of resolution, but it’s definitely not a sports specialist, with a buffer depth of just 68 RAW or JPEGs. Once buffer limit is reached, the camera does take a while to clear the data being written to the memory card.
There is, however, an APS-C mode that, Sony promises, captures 28MP images, tripling the buffer depth. In this mode, the 567 phase-detection AF points cover the entire frame, but when using the entire sensor width, the AF points spread out across only 74% of the image area. Having the APS-C mode also could potentially allow for the use of crop sensor lenses as well, in case you have any lying around, although we weren’t able to put this to the test.
SURE SHOT
To ensure you can clearly frame your shot, Sony has upgraded the viewfinder. It’s now a 0.5-inch OLED panel that refreshes at 120fps, offers a magnification of 0.78x and boasts a better 5.78 million-dot resolution (up from 3.69 million). The rear LCD display, though, is still the same 3-inch 1,440K dot touchscreen.
Other than the addition of real-time AF for video, there’s not much too much different here. You still can’t shoot 4K in 50/60p and neither is there 10-bit capture. To get oversampled footage, the camera records 6K with full pixel readout and no pixel binning using the copped Super 35 mode before downscaling to 4K.
WORTH THE UPGRADE?
With in-body image stabilisation (called SteadyShot) that offers a top of 5.5 stops of compensation, shooting handheld (even for video) in most low-light conditions produces sharp results, particularly when paired with an excellent stabilised lens, but you’d best not get too reliant on this feature.
You’ll need to adjust your shooting style to compensate for the high level of details the 61MP sensor can capture, being careful with the shutter speeds and focusing. Even shutter speeds of 1/8th of a second can produce poor results when shooting handheld which, on any other camera with the same stabilisation system would have been in the safe zone. Video quality is great as well, although rolling shutter effect is an issue.
Unless you’re used to Sony’s user interface, digging into the dense menu system can be frustrating, and if you’re expecting in-camera RAW processing – that has been available on many cameras for a while now – you’re going to be sorely disappointed.
That said, autofocus performance is superb, while subtle changes to the body makes the A7R IV a lot more ergonomic than before. To cut a long story short, the A7R IV looks stupendous on paper but the real-world advantages of the sensor over rivals like the Nikon Z7 and the Panasonic S1R is very modest.
To match the powerful specs, the camera comes with a pretty high price tag which, for a camera of its calibre isn’t all that unreasonable. However, there’s a major price difference between the 47MP A7R III and its successor right now, so unless you have a real need for those extra pixels, it might be hard justifying the upgrade.
YOU’LL NEED TO ADJUST YOUR SHOOTING STYLE TO COMPENSATE FOR THE HIGH LEVEL OF DETAILS THE 61MP SENSOR CAN CAPTURE, BEING CAREFUL WITH THE SHUTTER SPEEDS AND FOCUSING. EVEN SHUTTER SPEEDS OF 1/8TH OF A SECOND CAN PRODUCE POOR RESULTS WHEN SHOOTING HANDHELD WHICH, ON ANY OTHER CAMERA WITH THE SAME STABILISATION SYSTEM WOULD HAVE BEEN IN THE SAFE ZONE.