• Categories
• Tips & Inspiration
• Reviews
• News
• Events
• Features
• Buying Guides
• Competitions

Sony A7R IV Review

Introducing the new Sony A7R IV, a brand new mirrorless camera from Sony with a whopping 61MP, still more than the A1 professional full frame camera introduced in 2021, which sports 50mp. The  A7R IV is able to produce stunning images with an incredible level of detail allowing you to crop right in, recompose shots in post and retain the detail. It’s no slouch when it comes to speed, video or autofocus either as we found out when we had the chance to shoot with it at the launch event in Dublin.

Image Quality

The new A7R IV is sporting a 61MP full frame sensor. That makes it the highest resolution full frame camera out there and more in line with medium format level of quality. The images are seriously impressive, the level of detail is genuinely incredible. Combined with that high resolution, it also has 15 stops of dynamic range allowing you to capture more detail in the highlights.

That super high resolution allows you options in post and lets you crop in and recompose your image after you’ve shot it. The fact that you have that much detail means you could crop 50% of the image and still have a 30MP photo.

Shooting in APS-C mode still gives you 26MP which makes it a perfectly viable option if you want that extra reach.

In addition, the A7R IV can also shoot at up to 10fps in continuous mode with a buffer of 68 images at full resolution and with AFC tracking. That means you can make sure you nail a moment and it’s great to see that kind of speed with such a large resolution.

Autofocus:

Sony is renowned for their eye autofocus and with the A7R IV, they’ve incorporated all of their latest technologies. With 567 AF points giving you 76% coverage, the autofocus was super fast and snappy.

Sony have included the real time eye autofocus and real time tracking so the camera is able to keep things in focus perfectly. I never had a single issue with focusing and the eye AF made portraits so easy.

Sony have added something that I have been so excited for, real time eye AF for video. This is such a great addition and it allows you to focus on your composition, your cinematography, rather than having to worry about focus. It’s really nice to see Sony continuing to push this technology.

Video:

This camera is obviously a great stills camera but it’s nice to see that video is still a big consideration as a lot of Sony users tend to shoot both.

It can shoot 4K at up to 30fps and fullHD 1080p at up to 120fps, that in itself is nothing special these days, however the 4K is actually oversampled from 6K so it does look particularly crisp.

You’ve also got SLog 2 and 3 so you can get 14 stops of dynamic range. Sony have also reduced the ISO required for this to ISO 500. The big new addition for video though is that real time eye AF. It is such a huge thing and is really impressive to see.

Build and Feel:

There’s a number of operability improvements over the A7R III such as an improved grip which is more comfortable to shoot with, a significantly upgraded EVF which is now 5.76 million dots, perfect for portraits, weddings, landscapes and everything else.

Sony have also improved the sealing for better dust and moisture resistance while including wireless tethering options to free you up for studio shooting.

Overall, the new A7R IV is a nice step up from the A7R III and it feels like Sony have really raised the bar in terms of premium, full frame cameras.

You can watch more of our thoughts on the new Sony A7R IV in the video below, including loads of photo and video samples.

The Sony A7R IV is available here.

Share this post:

By Park Cameras on 19/07/2019