As someone that has owned the A7r, the A7rII, and the A7rIII I was really excited about the potential for what Sony could do with the A7rIV. There is a lot of cool tech out there and a lot of cool implementation of that tech we’ve seen in other cameras.
For example, the Fujifilm GFX100 with the rear screen on the grip or the customizable top display. The Canon with their touch-sensitive touch bar and flippy screen. The Panasonic S1R with the XQD and UHS-II memory card support and the Nikon Z7 with the massive 3.2″ screen with 2 million dots with really good IBIS.
As a leader in innovation, I was really expecting and anticipating Sony to bring something new to the table, some new designs, new interfaces, and new experiences to at least match the competition or hopefully leapfrog it.
But what does Sony do?
They go back to the 2012 trend and try to restart the megapixel war with a 61MP sensor wrapped in a now outdated body. They introduce dual UHS-II memory cards (something that should have been in the A7rIII), and then they build a new mic that you can buy. That’s it. I guess 15-stops of dynamic range is cool, however, it’s 2019, there are plenty of YouTube videos out there that can teach you how to correctly expose for your shadows.
There are a few other little improvements that you would just expect with any camera via firmware, like eye AF for video, but for the most part, the camera is extremely boring and still far behind the competition in terms of the overall design.
For the most part, this is an extremely lazy update and fingers crossed, we don’t get this same treatment with the A7IV and A7sIII.
What Sony Needed To Do
You probably think I’m insane for saying Sony mirrorless cameras are behind after being bombarded by Sony propaganda for the last few years, but they really are. They are very overrated compared to the competition, and the only thing they have going for them is eye AF. Which everyone has now figured out and in my opinion, Nikon is now doing it better, simply because of superior implementation.
Yeah, maybe the Sony AF is 2% more accurate, which I’m not finding to be relevant. I own a Z6 and A7rIII and have a lot of experience with both now.
The Nikon Z cameras are better pretty much across the board, the Panasonic S1 cameras are better with most things, even the Canon EOS R is better at many things.
Here is a list of what Sony needs just to compete
I was really expecting Sony to at least hit half of these in the A7rIV, but what did they do instead? Slapped in more megapixels and stole a mic from another department and for whatever reason paired it with the launch. It’s really the laziest update I’ve ever seen.
Actually, the mic was the coolest thing about the launch of the A7rIV. They should have made it primarily about the mic, and then said, oh btw, here is an overpriced mediocre camera to go with it, if you want.
Anyway, here is a huge list of Sony shortcomings.
Better IBIS to match Nikon / Panasonic – Sony IBIS is currently the worst on the market.
A better screen to match, Canon, Panasonic, and especially Nikon. – The A7III and A7rIII is 3.0″ compared to Nikon 3.2″ and 2million dots. A7III is about 900k A7rIII is about 1.5million dot.
Faster Memory Cards – I’m not sure how I feel about XQD vs UHS-II. There is a convenience of having smaller UHS-II cards and they are pretty quick, but XQD and CFExpress offer so much more. I’ve just had too many SD cards fall apart but those Sony Tough cards are really nice. I give them a pass on this and I am ok with them sticking with UHS-II if it allows them to keep their cameras compact.
Better implementation of Eye AF – Currently you have almost no control of your eye and face detect autofocus. They need to implement some of what Fujifilm and especially Nikon have done by allowing you to switch between eyes, or tap to switch between eyes and faces. Nikon and Canon also give you the option to quickly engage a tracking mode if the Eye AF isn’t working like in situations where you’re shooting large crowds.
Top Screen – What Fujifilm has done with the top screen on the GFX100 is amazing. Sony needs to consider this type of tech in their cameras. A top screen is a nice feature, of course, not game-changing and maybe not for everyone, but it’s nice.
Proper Touch Screen Implementation – Like in the menus.
A better quality screen that doesn’t delaminate if you don’t use a screen protector.
Higher bitrate video – give us H.265 and more than 100Mbps if you’re going to do 4k. Even the EOS R does 400Mbps with its pathetic 4k.
Better Native ISO – 64, please.
More buttons and dials that are better designed – See Nikon Z7. They did improve the feel of the buttons though.
Better space between grip and fingers so people with large hands don’t rub their knuckles on the larger lenses. The new design looks like it might help this actually. We’ll see.
More PDAF points or some Dual Pixel Design – To match Canon’s 5655 PDAF points. The A7rIV has only a measly 567.
10-Bit external recording – Nikon is offering RAW 10-bit external recording.
4k60p – You won’t find that here
Wish List
Lossless compressed
16-bit RAW
Programable Bulb Mode – So you can shoot longer than 30 seconds. Fujifilm does this.
Good Thing The Sony A7r IV Did
They Improved their EVF – This is good! They beat Nikon and Canon here! Tied with Panasonic.
10-fps Continuous Burst – beat Panasonic and Nikon by 1 frame.
It’s strange, Sony in their live stream kept saying, we listened, we listened, we listen to you guys. They listened to who? Nobody was asking for 61MP. Everyone was asking for an A7sIII, not an update to a camera everyone already loved.
But most people just wanted quality of life improvements. Things like better ergonomics, better buttons, make the cameras more fun to use, better screen, better IBIS, better menus.
Sony Has Fallen And Now Plays Catchup
For the first time, Sony plays catchup and it is weird and hopefully not a new trend. I was really hoping Sony would leapfrog everyone else, instead, they just sidestepped everyone else and it still feels like they are behind.
Right now Sony is surrounded and strangled by the competition which is why they had to release this camera. Possibly rushed it. They had to respond to Fujifilm who keeps murdering with their high megapixel cameras.
First the 50MP GFX50s, then the 50MP 50R, now you have the GFX100. Panasonic releases their 47MP full-frame mirrorless beast, mind you, with no banding. Nikon releases their 45MP full-frame beast even Canon has a 50MP beast, albeit, a dated beast. What did Sony have? A humble little 42MP 4-year-old sensor that’s been overclocked to shoot continuous 14-bit raw so as to catch up to the Canon 5Dsr that was 2.5 years ahead of implementing this tech.
So now Sony just thinks, hey look, 61MP we win! Right?
No.
Advancements in sensor tech are showing to be less and less relevant to the mainstream.
61MP Is Not Very Useful In Full Frame
There is a problem with going ultra-high megapixels like this in a full-frame camera.
For one, the file sizes are annoyingly large.
Second, it’s not useful for the people that really need it due to the limitations of physics with this thing called diffraction.
Diffraction Doesn’t Care About Your Megapixel War
If you’re a landscape photographer, and you want to take advantage of the full resolving power of the 61MP sensor, you will have to shoot at somewhere around f4.
As you stop down your lens, you create diffraction which introduces a hard limit on the optical resolution the sensor is able of capturing. In other words, if you stop down to f16, even with that 61MP sensor, you might only have an optical resolution of somewhere around 24MP.
This is why I don’t love shooting landscapes with my Fujifilm X-T3. You’re limited by diffraction and you really can’t shoot an aperture smaller than f8, even that is pushing it and you can see it reducing the resolution of your output. So it’s my street daily life camera, that I almost never shoot over f5.6 with that camera.
I had the same issue with my Panasonic LX100 II where the image would just fall apart if I shot above f4.
This is why medium format is great. You can have larger pixels with a higher megapixel count so that you can still resolve high detail even at smaller apertures.
This is also why I roll my eyes every time I see those big Youtubers compare something like a Nikon D850 to a Fujifilm GFX50. Yes, they are similar megapixels, but the GFX50 has way more resolving power because you can still get great detail at smaller apertures which also helps clean up any lens anomalies.
As you probably know, lenses usually get sharper as you stop down but when you introduce diffraction, there ends up being a limit to that performance. This is why larger sensor cameras often just look better with detail. Because you get to stop down your glass, which improves the optical output, and the sensor can take it.
But this isn’t a lesson on diffraction.
Who Is The A7rIV For?
So now that I spent 1,500 words trashing the thing based on my personal disappointment with it, not all is bad and it has some really cool features that will open it up to a whole new market of professional photographers.
Not Landscape or Architecture Photographers
I would rule out this camera as being useful for landscape photographers unless they primarily shot astrophotography and the only reason I say that is because you can now get such great deals on the A7rIII or the Nikon Z7 that it would be dumb to buy this thing for landscape photography. Especially considering the consequences of stopping down your aperture. Basically, it’s a waste of money.
I’m just not sure you’ll be getting more detail at f11 or even f8 with this new sensor compared to the previous 42MP sensor. Or if there is a difference, it might only be very marginal so I personally will not be upgrading.
Also, the low resolution smaller screen really puts the camera behind the Z7. Have the 3.2″ screen with the 2 million dot display really makes composing and reviewing shots on the Z7 a better experience. Especially if you consider that a lot of landscape photographers like to manually focus.
It’s a shame that Sony A7rIV is capable of all this resolution, but you can’t even see it because they keep using that same terribly outdated LCD screen from five years ago. Good luck using manual lenses.
I get why they do it, I fully understand. It’s another Sony gimmick, Sony smoke & mirrors. Having almost half the pixels as the competition allows them to display the focus tracking box at a faster refresh rate giving the illusion of “stickier” focus. But it’s just a GUI and not at all representative of actual autofocus performance. But still, when YouTubers go online and put these cameras side by side, the Sony looks like it’s doing a better job.
I could be wrong here because AF still looks good even in my EVF on my A7rIII, but I can’t figure out any other reason why they refuse to use nice screens in their cameras other than a bigger better screen would eat some of the processing power and battery life. Sony really relies on specs to sell cameras.
Now the cool stuff
The Sony IV introduces 10 fps continuous burst shooting. This opens the camera up to a whole new batch of professionals.
Sports / Wildlife Photography
This will now totally work for most sports photographers and even a lot of wildlife photographers. If the Sony A7rIV really matches the Sony A9 autofocus tracking like they say it does, that could be game-changing for sports shooters who are shooting at those faster apertures like f4.
I’ve seen many pro sports photographers say they don’t like shooting faster than 10fps, some say they like more, but it really depends on the sport. So this camera is for them.
Think of the cropping power you will have with 61MP. You could crop down to APS-C and still have 26MP to work with so you could easily recover fast-action moments that were maybe sloppily composed. If you were shooting something like professional football or soccer, you could potentially pull out multiple photos from a single image. That’s extremely cool.
Of course, nobody is saying you can’t do this with a Z7 or a Panasonic S1R, you can.
You no longer need to own a second APS-C camera for better “reach.”
With shooting sports, I could totally forgive Sony for having a crappy screen, because sports photographers seem to live in the EVF and they don’t have time to sit there and check their rear LCD screen all the time.
So I don’t want to say a 61MP is all bad. It’s great for professionals that don’t shoot stopped down and 10fps is more than enough for many different types of sports and wildlife shooters. So this could be game-changing for them.
Studio Photographers
Studio photographers who tether will also love it because they often review their photos on professional external monitors or retina display especially since they upgraded the WiFi. They often are shooting at faster apertures and usually don’t stop down much more than f5.6 anyway, so they will see the resolution of the 61MP sensor.
Personally, if I was a pro studio photographer, I would go GFX just for the medium format look, that medium format compression. Being able to use longer lenses while closer to your subject. But that’s just me.
Conclusions
Sony pumped out another pretty cool sensor but let’s be honest with ourselves, the shell surrounded that sensor kind of sucks and I imagine a lot of pros that don’t fit the full-frame 61MP niche will return back to Canon and Nikon as they continue to show the world what thought out well-designed cameras look like.
People are beginning to wake up to the fact that cameras are more than sensors and that most of the sensors in the cameras today are good enough. It’s now a game of processing power, display, user interface, and ergonomics, and it just doesn’t seem like Sony is ready to take on those challenges.
It’s possible that we are now seeing the limitations of what Sony can do with camera design. Maybe they really are just a sensor company that is only capable of producing roided out sensors wrapping with poorly designed, rushed out bodies.
Now I know how Canon fans feel when Canon keeps delivering cameras with specs and features nobody is asking for.
To learn more about the Sony A7 IV check out BHphoto’s announcement.
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I must say that you took the words out of my mouth. This Sony is extremely underwhelming and I really don’t care about 60 megapixels. What I cared about was an updated screen with proper touch functionality, fully articulating and high res. I wanted native iso to be lower than 100. Updated ibis. Proper programmable bulb mode. I mean I could go on here but my wish list was literally the same as yours.
To me personally, this camera seems less attractive than that of Canon and Nikon. I don’t like the Panasonic – way to big for me. I have an apsc a6500 and was never really convinced by the ff offering from Sony. Actually my ff is still Canon.
I have no idea what happened here and why they decided to rush it to the market since funnily A7R3 didn’t look that bad amongst the new competition. I mean everyone understood it is older. Now R4 looks just plain boring/almost bad exactly because of the fact it is the newest of them all.
For me this is a super easy pass. I am either waiting for new high res Canon or prices of Z7 falling even further. Though I presume I would be happy with Z6 as well at this stage.
My FTZ-01 Adapter arrived today so I can test Sony lenses on the Z6. It might be a nice way for people to transition if those Z cams. Or like I’m still shooting Sony for my high res stuff and Nikon Z6 more for video and street, so it’s nice being able to use Sony lenses on both systems. Still testing to see if it’s worth it, the Sony Zeiss 35mm f2.8 is showing a mild blue / purple vignette likely because it was designed for Sony micro lens design. But it’s focusing pretty good. I’ll do an overview on it soon. Maybe this week if it ever decides to stops raining.
I am waiting for that one, checking your blog on daily basis 😉
I’ve had TZE adapter for a while (I have A9 and Z6). Tamron 28-75 works great, Sony 85GM works good, and Samyang 35 2.8 FE does not work (shows wrong aperture etc). Oh and my Sony 10-20 lens works great and unlike on Z6/Z7, there is no autocrop!!!! Great!
Thanks for that update. I don’t have any third party lenses that AF for Sony so I would have never known.
I imagine a lot of third party AF lenses might have a problem. I bet the adapter was designed to mimic Sony lenses so when you throw on a Rokinon maybe it has its own focusing and aperture codes.
I have also noticed it seems like it’s using contrast detect a little more than normal.
lol Alik you sound pretty mad hahahahahaha.
Great article. Didn’t think about the diffraction limitations but you have a point there. I think the most impressive thing about this camera is the 10fps with AE/Tracking. If it can really track and shoot wildlife effectively then it is an interesting camera.
Sounds like you are liking the Nikon Z more and more… Do you still shoot with the EOS R or have you completely foregone it for the Nikon?
Either way, I am a little happy that there wasn’t too much in this announcement. I was getting worried for Canon’s sake about how aggressive Sony would be with the A7RIV. We now know what Sony offers in its high res model for the Olympics. How Canon and Nikon respond to this will be a grand revelation. Exciting times.
PS: Tried a Nikon Z in the store for about an hour the other day… It was fun, at the very least equal to the EOS R. But… tough to let go of the EOS R without seeing the zooms’ appearance. That will be very crucial to my decision on which system to invest in…
Thanks for read, Alik. Hope to see more posts from you, I honestly enjoy reading your blogs, whether they be rants or reviews.
Ha ha, no I’m not mad, but just want to tell the truth about the cameras, so I went a little over the top. Sometimes you just have to or you don’t make an impact.
So many people are getting caught up in megapixel count, while completely ignoring the breakthroughs Canon, Nikon and Panasonic have done. I personally don’t really want to have start dealing with 170MB raw files because Sony is insecure about how many megapixels they have in their cameras compared to Fujifilm. They need to just make MF cameras which are designed for that resolution and stop pretending diffraction isn’t a thing.
I still shoot with the EOS R. Just shot with it the other day. But right now I’m working on the review of the Nikon lens and just got the FZE-01 Sony E to Nikon Z adapter. So I’ve been testing things out. I’m only one man!
Yeah and I’m still waiting to see what Canon does. Right now I’m loving the Nikon lenses, but I also think that Sony 35mm f1.8 looks pretty cool. I was in the shop the other day messing with it. Very cool but a bit overpriced for what it is, I think the money would be better spent on that Nikon 35mm f1.8 even though it’s more expensive.
I might take the EOS R out and do some street, maybe next week or the follow with the EF 40mm f2.8. A lens often overlooked but is actually one of the best bangs for the buck and one of the few cheap Canon lens that still performs very well.
I also shoot a ton with the EOS R for landscape stuff, but don’t always have time to fix up those shots and post them. I don’t always get keepers when shooting landscapes because the weather here in Japan this time of here is completely insane. But the EOS R is such a fun landscape camera, that screen makes life so easy.
Alik, hope you had a chance to watch the dpreview blog about horrible rolling shutter and see their examples. I don’t know A7RIII anymore (I own A9) but I don’t remember seeing it so bad with A7RIII, https://youtu.be/NR8e2N0Fn4o In fact, based on that I would not use A7R4 with silent shutter for anything that moves.
I’ve read also in dpreview earlier blog that Sony has not changed LSI structure for A7R4 because supposedly they knew when designing A7R2 and A7R3, that 61MP sensor was coming down pipeline…..so it was predesigned for this capacity. Could that explain the rolling shutter issue? I am not an engineer so I don’t know.
I also am curious to know how the buffer clears. Do we get the Sony signature 30 sec delay to clear the buffer after a burst, or did Sony come up with something new here.
Thanks just watched it. Glad Jordan called out all dumb stuff. This feels like good cop bad cop. ha ha ha.
At least it looks like they improved the grip, but it still looks less good than the EOS R or Z grips (all four fingers aboard).
I would still buy the Z7 over the A7iv due to ergonomics, lenses colour science and build quality.
I also much prefer how the Z cameras look.
Yeah, after the A7rIV announcement I’m considering that now as well. I want to see what the new Nikon 12-24mm will be all about before I do that though. I also want to see the 70-200 f4 on their roadmap.
Where Nikon is going right now from what they’ve been releasing is looking the most compelling of all the brands for how I shoot.
As a Sony shooter, I still just can’t believe that after 4 cameras, they still can’t include a nice screen, and they finally just now figured out how to make a nice grip with decent buttons, but still, very few decent buttons with very limited controls. And they STILL don’t have a touch screen menu. Even GoPro has a touch interface. And all this, after everyone trashed Canon and Nikon by saying, “well it’s their first time making full frame mirrorless.” Meanwhile Sony invented the full frame mirrorless and they still can’t include a nice screen with a modern interface 6 years later. It’s just a little shocked.
Actually a lot of Sony shooters are a little upset by this too which is good to see. I was starting to think everyone in the Sony community was just completely delusional, but it’s good to see they have a solid group of sane individuals rising up and speaking out. This makes me feel better about Sony at least. Since you know, when you buy a camera you become part of that community, and with all the Sony shooters being the way they’ve been it makes me no happy to be part of that community.
But at the end of the day, this really making me question the capabilities of the Sony designers. I use to just think “yeah, it’s mirrorless, they are the only ones doing it so they make it cheap, or maybe these cameras just aren’t capable matching the screen resolution of the Nikon D850.” Which no mirrorless has yet. But it doesn’t seem that’s the case with Sony anymore now that everyone has done literally everything better, and they had a chance to prove themselves and the best they could do is wrap an outdated body around a sensor, of course a sensor that’s from a completely different division, technically a different company, Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation. But Sony Imagining Products & Solutions Inc gets all the credit, but all they did was build an outdated body around a sensor they probably didn’t design.
I imagine we’ll see a major loss in momentum from Sony mirrorless cameras moving forward. People have shown an increased interest in Nikon as well which is cool. They are have the best cameras in terms of design and features. They’re just missing that second card slot for those paranoid pros.
What I also really like seeing now is that each brand is kind of trying to carve out their own niche. Almost certainly guided by Japan Inc. since they are all siblings in the same family. People I think people forget that. Japan’s government likely forces these companies to work together in a way to completely dominate the imaging market and leave no room for competition. But somehow they let DJI and GoPro sneak in there.
But it seem Sony takes the shotgun approach, they just rush out everything, make anything for everyone with no real plan but lenses that live somewhere between proper mirrorless and DSLRs in terms of design and output. Canon looks like it’s going hardcore for the wedding / portrait photographers with those f2 zoom lenses, but also as always they will dominate the amateur market. Nikon looks like it’s trying to continue to dominate the landscape maybe portraits and more casual professional scene with high quality f1.8 lenses that aren’t too massive but very well corrected. Plus those top-tier zoom lenses that are smaller and lighter. Panasonic looks to be still going all in on video, making cameras without PDAF for improved sensor performance and high quality everything while not caring about size and weight.
So at the end of the day it’s kid of cool, there ends up being no best camera system, but one might be the best for you depending on what you’re doing, and Sony seems to be the way to go if you have no idea what you want to do. Or maybe you want to do a little of everything.
Anyway, just drinking and rambling so I’ll stop. Thanks for the comment. I always like your sane view on things and the knowledge you bring.
Thank you, and sorry for my late reply. Sounds lovely a couple drinks and a wee ramble!
I’m sure Sony has some dedicated and passionate people that love photography. After all, it’s all built on Konica (the oldest out of all the Japanese photo brands) and Minolta. But unfortunately that heritage seems erased.
I compared the A7RIV and Nikon Z7 a lot on camerasize.com. I even estimated my fingers total length in several holding positions at home. The Z7 at most can only be 10% better then A7RIV (but it think it’s a wash and personal preference, shape of hand will decide truly wich is better). In fact the Mark IV has a better maximum length from top to bottom (so the pinky issue is BETTER on Sony now then the Nikon). Also the length from the mount is further for the Sony now. Only distance between mount and grip is still bigger on Nikon (but a lot improved on the Sony.
My prelimary conclusion is that Sony closed the ergonomic gap in one big go with the A7RIV. Anyone saying (objectively) that the Z7 is better, has either the right kind of hands for Z7 or a Z7 Bias (same for Sony over nikon btw). Ergonomics should no longer make someone decide wich system to buy.
Sounds interesting for sure. It looks like they raised up the curve that the middle finger sits in to give more room for the other fingers.
There are something like 17 buttons on the A7rIII and Nikon Z7. But the Nikon looks like it has more because you don’t realize the rear dial actually acts as 4 buttons on the A7rIII. So the A7rIII is actually one of the better cameras out there for customization and buttons.
There is just still so much empty real estate on that camera body that could be better utilized though. Like they could move that top dial to the left side, then they would have room for a top display. If they ever decided to increase the chassis size they could probably add some buttons next to the mount, but as it is there is no room.
But of course, I’m not a camera designer, Sony might be limited to what they can jam onto the camera without making it bigger and keeping the camera small is still a cool selling point.
I personally wouldn’t mind if the broke the camera lineup up with different body styles though. Higher megapixel cameras should have bigger screens now with a top display then they could keep the A7IV small and compact.
Thanks for the opinions 🙂
Well, the A9’s AI eye tracking, Video eye tracking, 15 stops of dynamic range, better weather sealing, a lock on the dial, dual fast card slots, the top shoe, better grip and buttons, better EVF – yes they listened.. it’s not the 50% higher MP that is good about this new version.. it’s all the small details that most reviewers complained about with A7RIII.. and yes, Sony did listen to a ton of these things and improved on them.. That they did not what you personally wished for.. does not mean they did not listen to the general consumers, especially those who the A7R line was already fitting for.
And no.. youtube videos will not truly compensate for having a shorter dynamic range, and a software update would never be able to bring AI eye tracking like the A9 into say the A7RIII.
Else there are plenty good points in your post about other things that could have been improved – like the touch screen still not working on menus, that would have been nice. – though I’m sure things like video improvements (400mb/s 4K60 (or perhaps even 6K/8K?) is certainly kept for the S range of the camera.. and something with even more bells and whistles are likely going into A9 range. I’d say all the updates and improvements are truly impressive seeing how close this release is to the last one.. and the price would also have been likely much higher, and release much later, if most of the things you wished for were implemented on top of all the things that were improved.
There is no camera that is for everyone, but those the Sony A7R line was already suited for, will likely be thrilled with the new version as well. (then I know a lot of people still wait for the S.. and it’s likely following suite quite soon, I’d guess within 2-5 months) but.. will it be SIII or SIV..? seem more tidy to simply jump straight to gen 4 and keep the generations grouped rather than have them seperate.
Good points Roger, thanks for the comment!
Yeah, I guess I never really was bothered by all those little things they fixed, I had the vertical grip so the grip never bothered me, the only button that bothered me was the rear thumb dial, the rest felt a little cheap but no big deal. More buttons with better placement could help overall feel. I always just viewed stuff like that as things that they should have been working towards since 2013 and shouldn’t have waited for people to ask. But of course, everyones hands are different as well so maybe they have no way of knowing. There could be internal struggles with designers not agreeing on things, then the boss comes in and says, Just make it this way!. Like Apply finally blamed their Macbook pro designer for pushing to make the laptops thinning and thinner which caused all these thermal issues so you could never take full advantage of the processor. Finally last year, everyone called them out for it.
Obviously Sony knew they should have used UHS-II in both card slots with the rIII, other cameras were already doing it, but held it back on purpose. Improving buttons and adding locks likely increases the cost of production so they held those back until people complained about them. They’re just playing us a little.
Button placement and grip design is of course great, they have to rely on user feedback for that and I’m actually excited for the improved feel of the camera. If it actually makes a difference.
But ultimately the reason I’m not really impressed by the Sony upgrades is because (minus the EVF and sensor which is new tech of course, the AF, and digital hot-shoe that nobody was asking for) a lot of those improvements are likely features Sony held back intentionally with the Sony A7rIII so that they could have something to put in the IV. Or to cut costs. Don’t over engineer your cameras until people make you seems to be their ethos.
Or maybe, Sony Semiconductor had a new sensor ready and they wanted to be first with it to the market and didn’t have enough time to add more features.
The digital hotshot makes no sense on this camera unless maybe they put there knowing less people will buy it for video, so they can debug it on a live public model, before including it on the A7sIII. But since not a lot of people will be using it for video on the A7rIV, if there are any issues it won’t a catastrophe for them. Like obviously you don’t want to put brand new tech on the video camera that everyone will buy. I think camera companies are doing this now. It looks like the Z6/Z7 is exactly that. Public test platforms, almost like Nikon’s versions of an open beta. Get it in everyones hands to work out the bugs and polish firmware so the pro models are flawless.
Lately I’ve stepped back and have been looking at the bigger picture, and what Sony has now is pretty dang cool. It looks a little like they might be doing the Tick – Tock Apple style upgrade. Where every other camera has a gen new sensor, then the following camera comes with all the new features and processor to max out the potential of that sensor. We saw that with the A7rII -> A7rIII. Now we’re back on the Tick.
So it’s looking like I might just get myself onto the every other camera upgrade cycle buying only the Tock, since to me the tech on the camera is becoming more important than the sensor. Waiting 2 years for an A7rV is no big deal, or I could just go in on a used A7rIV for $1800 at that time. Or maybe Nikon will unleash the beast at a premium price but with more features.
Anyways, thanks for the discussion! I’ve talked to a lot of people about this camera and where Sony is going and it’s interesting to say the least. They have some really cool gear out there now, it will be interesting to see how Canon or Nikon will respond. Or will full frame start losing the pro market for the now competitively priced medium format systems and will it become an APS-C / Medium format world!
totally agree! Amen!
Fantastic article. I’ve been a Nikon shooter as far back as I remember and have been tempted to make the switch to Sony for the eye AF since I do so many weddings. Unfortunately the Z6 didnt do it for me with 1 card slot and no major improvement in AF. I’m hoping Nikon improves on their next version of the Z6 otherwise I might go buy a Sony A7riii. And yes 61MP is waay too overkill for most applications.
Photographer at https://www.mickealphoto.com/
Thanks Mickeal, your portfolio is awesome by the way!
The eye AF in the Z6 has been incredible. I’ve been using it for street photography and Nikon’s implementation is fantastic. It seems like it tries to look for what’s closest in frame, which makes it easy to work with for me anyway, where as my Sony seems to focus more center frame and looking for movement and contrast moving out from there, probably better for groups maybe.
The Nikon ends up being really nice for street when people quickly pop into frame. It grabs them every time where as the Sony likes people to get a little more towards center frame. Of course wedding photography will be great with the Sony since you’re often composing things that aren’t running in and out of frame. But keep in mind, you can’t switch around between eyes and faces with the Sony like you can with Fujifilm and Nikon. So you will have to turn off eye AF when crowds are involved. I have mine on my A7rIII set to a rear button so I can quickly toggle it on and off.
Some people are complaining about the Nikon catching eyelashes too much. I haven’t had this problem, or at least I should say, I haven’t had this problem more than I have had it with my A7rIII. My Sony A7rIII also catches eyelashes. But I only have the 50mm f1.8 for the Nikon right now so the depth isn’t really shallow enough for this to make a different. I’ll pick up the 85mm f1.8 as soon as it drops. This should help me see if it’s really a thing or if people are just doing the same thing they did with the Z6 banding issue. Where they ignore it when the A7III does it, but point it out and make a big deal about it when Nikon does it. I do think the Sony AF has designed eye AF to find the pupil though. Not positive but this seems like an easy fix for Nikon.
Luckily single point autofocus still works in these cameras. They didn’t turn off all the other time tested and very reliable autofocus focus technologies built into these cameras when eye AF was invented. 🙂
There is a rumored Nikon Z8 coming that’s suppose to be the Pro model and it’s suppose to have that same 61MP sensor. Hopefully they can polish up the firmware before that arrives.
Hahaha fantastic article because is the only person to say something good about the pathetic Nikon mirrorless??? Are they stopping production of the z7 because of too much demand too ? Lol
Good article. But I would like you to explain a little more about the limit of diffraction in a sensor of this size. Please. Thanks
Go check out PhotographyLife’s article on it here: https://photographylife.com/what-is-diffraction-in-photography
Probably the best writeup on it I’ve seen.
Here is a sample of what diffraction can do to an image. This is shot with the Original Sony A7r. Once you’re in the land of all that blur with those high apertures, increasing megapixels basically won’t fix the blur. With the 61MP sensor, you’ll get more resolution at those lower apertures, but the blur will look even more extreme at those higher apertures by comparison. So you’re basically limited by the resolution you can take in because of diffraction unless you stay under the diffraction limit. Which on something like a 61MP sensor, that cutoff is going to be about f5.6. You will still see improved detail as you close down your aperture compared to the A7rIII, but it’s not longer rendering 50% increase in megapixels, rather that number drops closer and closer to zero as you increase your aperture. I’m not sure where we stop seeing an improvement since I can’t test yet, my guess is somewhere around f16.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a79a5680d3b52d52e6130bea4f077956096373d50b38f51864ddc3d2625aecf7.jpg
As a landscape photographer that’s looking to gain that 20% linear resolution over the A7rIII, shooting at f8 might only give you a 15% increase, f11, might only give you a 10% increase, f16, a 5% or even zero.
This is why I never shoot higher than f8 on my Fujifilm X-T3. It has the same pixel pitch and the images always look noticeably worst at f11. The problem with shooting f8 on a full frame camera is that you still have a lot of dof for landscape. So you have to start always focus stacking.
But I’m not sure how diffraction scales with APS-C vs Full Frame. I know the position of the aperture changes with wider lenses, and the actual diameter of the same aperture decreases with wider lenses. I haven’t done the math on that yet. On my A7rIII, I don’t typically shoot with an aperture higher than f11.
Diffraction would be the same on-sensor for a 24-26 Mp aps-c camera, then you have to enlarge the flaws (and other lens aberrations) 1.5 x to get a final picture. Sorry, but the 61 Mp full frame sensor will win – every time.
Thanks Magnar, Yes this is correct! I was being a little hyperbolic. I’m doing some research and working on another article regarding this. What happens though is you still lose your gains. So like the A7rIV has 20% more linear resolution than the A7rIII. At about f5.6 or f6, you will see this, but as you move up, f11 – f16, you will still see more detail with the 61MP sensor but the gains aren’t going to be the same since diffraction will be reducing the overall IQ as you move up. So at f16 it’s possible you might only see a 5% improvement in detail.
This is something I really want to test with a few lenses though. I know there are some things lens designers can do to help with diffraction, like moving the exit pupil. This makes sense as I’ve noticed some lenses get hit really hard by diffraction, like the Sony Ziess 35mm f2.8, which you will see it even at f8 on the original A7r, but some lenses handle it a little better.
I know Canon is going to release their 70MP beast soon, so everyone will all get caught up in this resolution war once again. Hopefully I can write an article that can neutralize the hype at least for landscape photographers and point out some of these details, without being hyperbolic.
I’m all for more resolution for portrait and studio work where you shoot often f5.6 and under, and we should be able to get full frame up to about 90-100MP for this so more megapixels is always going to be nice. But you have to be incredibly careful with your technique as well.
I hoping what we’ll start to see as we move forward with technology is some sort of quad pixel binning system that happens in cameras on the fly. So if you had a 90MP sensor and just wanted to shoot street photography or your kids birthday party, you turn this on and the camera will give you 24MP files by scaling down. This way you don’t end up with 120MB raw files just for casual stuff.
I imagine that’s the future of where this megapixel war is going and that will be great. Just one massive megapixel sensor, that you can tune by in-camera scaling for your needs. Processors still need to catch up a little more though. It think they’re almost there. Canon could maybe do something like this now with a quad Digic 8 or something if they made a massive body to deal with heat.
Maybe that’s what Sony is waiting for for their A7sIII. A 8k sensor that can perfectly bin for 4k and 1080p. Maybe they’ll kill the A7sIII and just put that in the A7IV. That would be cool.
I focus stack almost all my landscapes anyway, so I don’t really see an issue and I gain that 15/20% resolution, which is very helpful when I print large.
A lot of unsubstantiated opinions are or, comparing numbers in a very shallow way.
Yeah that was the most embarrassing thing a retard fanboy could post as an “article”
“due to the limitations of psychics with this thing called diffraction.”
Psychics are the problem not physics. I suspected as much.
lol, thanks will fix now!
thanks for this review. definitely very helpful.
Now one thing I’m curious is when you say “unless they primarily shot astrophotography” what would be so special about this model for Astro that A7III won’t be able to attain. Are you referring to the high resolution or the in body stabilization? Thanks in advance.
With astrophotography you will typically be shooting at faster apertures so you end up not having issues with diffraction. So I was referring to the high resolution.
You should turn off IBIS with any type of landscape work. I actually keep it permanently off on my A7rIII unless I’m shooting casual, but I don’t use the A7rIII as my casual camera.
Wow this is the most stupid anti Sony BS “article” I have read in along time. It will take a long time to comment and all the retarded nonsense spread here but let me share a few:
First mentioning stuff like top lcd , a stupid waste of real state on the camera and just a retro thing for nostalgia.
The dual cards on this Sony are perfectly fine.
IBIS is as good as the Nikon which is crippled camera in comparison.
Then you make a top retarded comment about 2% better AF hahahaha were you having a stroke when you wrote this because that is something even the most hardcore fanboys wouldn’t dare claim. Sony is far ahead on the AF game right now
Then you dare compare the 4 year old sensor referring to the A7R3 vs that terrible canon RS 50mp camera…are you fucking serious????
Did you ask Sony for free gear and they didn’t give it to you and now you are in this stupid anti Sony full BS making mood??
Thanks for the article. Sorry I didn’t see this post before buying my rIV for landscape. D850 is a better choice for landscape?
I would personally use an A7rIV for landscape over a D850. I think still think the A7IV is a cool camera, I just wish they updated all the major issues to make it a better jack of all trades cameras. I use my A7III for a lot of different things so was hoping the A7IV would the one camera that could do it all. But it’s still amazing for landscape and studio work and the AF is pretty awesome now.
I just wish for landscape they would have given us a bigger screen with more resolution. It’s a cool camera though, especially if you didn’t already have an A7III.
I got 5DMk4 then I bought the rIV. But I am not happy with the landscape performance. Usually I shoot with F8 to 11. But this camera is not sharp. Even it is worse than 5dmk4. I need a dedicated camera for landscape. That was the reason to buy rIV. Now suggest me.
That could be diffraction you’re seeing. You’ll notice it at f11 for sure on a 61MP camera. Also make sure you turn off IBIS when shooting landscape. What lens did you go with?
A zeiss F4 16-35mm. So far I can understand that at F8, D850 can provide full res. Please help.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1082052-REG/sony_sel1635z_vario_tessar_t_e_16_35mm.html
I use that same lens on my A7rIII. Diffraction is introduced at f7 on the A7rIV, so do some test at f5.6-f8 and make sure IBIS is off. Also shoot with electronic first curtain. With that much resolution any little issue will result in soft images and you’ll really notice it handheld even with IBIS. Which is why I complained about them not improving their IBIS in this post. It’s also possible the lens is not a good copy.
I also have an EOS R which is the same sensor basically as a 5DIV and I go back and forth a lot between the two cameras. The Sony cameras and lenses are definitely sharp. You should be seeing a significant difference in overall resolution and data. My guess is it could just be a bad copy of the lens. Try the tests, shoot on a tripod, around f7 or f8, IBIS off with electronic first shutter. That lens also has IS but turning IS off in camera will turn off both IBIS and IS I’m pretty sure.
IBIS was off.
I will do some test for sure. Let’s see.