CameraLabs: Sony a7RIV In-Depth Review
Godran finished his Sony a7RIV review and it a long one. Overall he sounds impressed by the value and below you can find excerpts from the video:
- 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
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Sony a7RIV: B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama
Sony RX100VIII: B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama
Sony VG-C4EM grip: B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama
XLR-K3M Mic Input: B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama
ECM-B1M Digital Audio Shotgun Microphone:
B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama