Sony A7 IV

£2,399/$2,498 (body only)

A real powerhouse for both stills and video

Traditionally, the Sony A7 has been the range’s entry-level camera, with the ‘R’ models adding resolution and the ‘S’ models adding speed/sensitivity. But while it does technically supersede the A7 III, the A7 IV is an altogether more advanced camera that, we think, targets a higher-level audience (the Sony A7C will offer an additional ‘beginner’ option for the full-frame Sony camera system).

Performance

The A7 IV’s still image quality is superb. Apart from the outright resolution, the A7 IV produces excellent colour rendition in its jpegs. Sony says its color rendition is improved over the A7 III, and while this is hard to measure, the A7 IV’s jpegs do look very good.

The video is oversampled from 7K down to 4K. In theory, the A7 IV’s video should be sharper, if only imperceptibly. Played back full screen on a 4K monitor, our sample footage looked pretty spectacular.

We’re not so convinced about the A7 IV’s image stabilisation, though. Sony claims a 5.5-stop shake advantage, and the A7 IV adds Active Mode digital stabilisation with a slight crop for steadier footage.

But while our A7 IV steadied up perfectly for relatively static shots, it did seem pretty poor at run-and-gun style camera movements. We’ve no such complaints about the autofocus, however, as the eye AF is just uncannily good. Rod Lawton