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A7r IV

MrSmith

Member
looks like a nice evolution of the genre, better focus, dynamic range etc.
not sure of price yet. wonder if this will impact on the 50mp MFD or not?

real time eye-af in movies. that’s quite cool.

edit: $3500 USD
 

iiiNelson

Well-known member
I may be in the minority but I’m pretty underwhelmed by this camera. I’m sure it’ll be great... they usually all are but it sort of answers a question that few were really asking.

High points are the EVF (for those ultra sensitive to EVF’s) and the Dual UHS-II slots. Low points for me are that it didn’t receive the AF system from the A9 with 93% coverage, it’s probably still 4k30, and the body isn’t larger which is sort of pushing me further away from the system in a way.

I’ll reserved final judgement for actual hands-on time but I’m really not excited at all about this camera to be 100% honest.
 

SrMphoto

Well-known member
Better EVF is good. Would have liked to see focus bracketing, multiple exposures and lossless compressed RAW.
Probably most attractive for the owners of a7rII who skipped the upgrade to a7rIII.
 

iiiNelson

Well-known member
Better EVF is good. Would have liked to see focus bracketing, multiple exposures and lossless compressed RAW.
Probably most attractive for the owners of a7rII who skipped the upgrade to a7rIII.
Yeah I fit into the “skipped the A7RIII” category myself. For now I’ll just wait until the camera is out and I can get a hands-on with one.
 

pegelli

Well-known member
I may be in the minority but I’m pretty underwhelmed by this camera.
I understand where you're coming from but I think you'll have to wait for the A9ii. That probably has most of the goodies you're looking for, maybe a 42 MP sensor and hopefully for you a bigger body, allthough I wouldn't bet on the latter.

For me I already determined 24 MP is all I need for the moment, so I also don't think I'll be getting one soon.
 

iiiNelson

Well-known member
I understand where you're coming from but I think you'll have to wait for the A9ii. That probably has most of the goodies you're looking for, maybe a 42 MP sensor and hopefully for you a bigger body, allthough I wouldn't bet on the latter.

For me I already determined 24 MP is all I need for the moment, so I also don't think I'll be getting one soon.
You may be right. I think he crux of it is that the A7RIII is already a great camera. Outside of resolution and a handful of improvements to the hardware I don’t really see the point of this camera right now really.

Here are the detailed specs. https://www.sony.com/electronics/interchangeable-lens-cameras/ilce-7rm4/specifications

Looks like they added 1:1 and 4:3 aspect ratios as well so that’s another positive for this camera though there shouldn’t be a reason why they can’t add these things to any camera.
 

msadat

Member
think this is also the a9ii body with a bit modification on the dials, but now for the competition, my thoughts


Canon better have something great cooking in the rf mount. So far Canon has rolled out great lenses in the RF mount but lackluster bodies.

Nikon, the smaller company, I think is officially challenged!

Leica S3 with 60 meg is rolling out at 20k!!

L-mount I think it's in good shape

m 4/3 needs the new sony 32 meg, which now I think it will be there

Pentax, I love K1II. Hopefully, they survive

fuji looks like holding their own; though I was hoping for a new 50 meg medium format camera, it seems a nogo
 

tcdeveau

Well-known member
Agreed it looks like a nice evolution of the genre.

I want to get another FF 35mm mirrorless at some point, maybe it fits the bill, maybe not. I had an A7R and A7RII but didn't really bond with them. I like the Nikon Z bodies but the Canon RF lens selection better. The A7RIV has some features that are intriguing to me though.

Hoping the arrival of the A7RIV and 60 MP 35mm sensors has some influence on MF pricing, in particular the Hasselblad CFVII (price currently TBD).
 

ptomsu

Workshop Member
Pretty excited about that camera. Especially when shooting APSC you still get 26MP.

For me this is the death of all dedicated APSC cameras (looking at you Fuji).

For me that is also the death of MFD - why bother with that size when one can have MFD resolution and qualities in a FF system.

Still waiting for that rumoured Niko Z8 that should have around 60MP - maybe based on this sensor.
 

iiiNelson

Well-known member
Pretty excited about that camera. Especially when shooting APSC you still get 26MP.

For me this is the death of all dedicated APSC cameras (looking at you Fuji).

For me that is also the death of MFD - why bother with that size when one can have MFD resolution and qualities in a FF system.

Still waiting for that rumoured Niko Z8 that should have around 60MP - maybe based on this sensor.
I doubt it’s the death of APS-C... there’s a big difference in the $1500 vs. $3500 market. Resolution aside there’s still a difference between MFD and 35mm based system. What it MAY do is cut into a segment that wants the resolution but may not have the MFD budget but they still give a different look.
 

pegelli

Well-known member
I’ll reserved final judgement for actual hands-on time but I’m really not excited at all about this camera to be 100% honest.
Looking a bit closer I can see the new body is a bit wider and the extra room goes inbetween the grip and the mount. The grip is also shaped differently giving your fingers more extra room than just the extra few mm the body got wider. Don't know if this is enough for your liking, but it's a start :salute:
 

ptomsu

Workshop Member
Looking a bit closer I can see the new body is a bit wider and the extra room goes inbetween the grip and the mount. The grip is also shaped differently giving your fingers more extra room than just the extra few mm the body got wider. Don't know if this is enough for your liking, but it's a start :salute:
Yeep!

This may be just the size increase I always wanted and asked for. Will test one as soon as they become available in Austria ���� (maybe not before autumn but that is more the ok for me).
 

Knorp

Well-known member
Looking a bit closer I can see the new body is a bit wider and the extra room goes inbetween the grip and the mount. The grip is also shaped differently giving your fingers more extra room than just the extra few mm the body got wider. Don't know if this is enough for your liking, but it's a start :salute:
It's a good start for sure, but I reckon you still may require the battery grip or the grip extender.
 

ptomsu

Workshop Member
It's a good start for sure, but I reckon you still may require the battery grip or the grip extender.
The battery grip would be no problem - I would have it muted to that body more than 50% of the time. Actually this new battery grip design is a really smart move from Sony taking lot of arguments out the you compare this combination to the EM1X handling wise.
 

Pradeep

Member
I am pretty excited about this camera but then I get excited very easily ;)

It does check the box for me in one big way, which is the ability to crop to APS-C (don't think I will be using the mode directly) size without loss of resolution. Most of my wildlife photography has been with the a9 which is further cropped for prints or final images, leaving me with at best 10-15 MP in resolution. I still manage to print at 24X36 but it would be great to have more pixels available.

The past year or two I've shot exclusively with the 100-400 GM and most of the time with the 1.4TC on it. That makes it f8 and the background is very busy especially for birds perched on a branch with the foliage behind. Not to mention need for higher ISOs to keep the shutter speed up at that small an aperture.

What is incredible with this big a sensor which I think people do not immediately recognize is that you can keep your lenses wide open and still get that reach. So imagine if you had to use the 400 2.8 or the 600 f4 with this. You can then have a 26MP image shot at 600mm at f2.8 or at 900mm at f4. Has anybody ever had a high resolution image captured at 600mm at f2.8? I honestly believe this will be a huge advantage for wildlife photography too and not just for high-res landscape lovers.

Even if you do not own a SuperTele, the 100-400 will now give you 600mm at f5.6. I know the a6000 series already did that, and I too own an a6500, but believe me, it is not the same thing, the issue with the different batteries and chargers apart.

My only concern is whether the AF will be better than on my A7r3 which despite all the claims is not to my liking.

The other thing which Tre brings up is the size. I believe this does have a deeper grip so that too would be an advantage for people with big hands. Me, the smaller the better, especially if I am going to pop a big lens on it.

I think overall this is good news for all of us, and not just Sony users.
 

k-hawinkler

Well-known member
Still waiting on A9 update.
Now I have definitely skipped the A7r3.
Dunno skipping the A7r4? Time will tell. :grin:
 

Audii-Dudii

Active member
I believe this does have a deeper grip so that too would be an advantage for people with big hands. Me, the smaller the better, especially if I am going to pop a big lens on it.
According to my rudimentary photogrammetrical analysis below, Sony has smashed its previous grip-depth record with the A7RIV: 23.6 mm!



This represents an increase of ~4.9 mm compared to the A7RIII and, unfortunately, it also makes the camera a non-starter for use with my various FrankenKameras, wherein I use my A7R as a poor-man's digital back, along with various adapted lenses, and mount it to my FrankenKameras via its lens mount. For example, here's my modified Cambo WDS outfit, which provides generous amounts of rise / fall / shift movements on its rear standard:



The trouble with this approach is that the greater the depth of the grip, the thicker the spacer that is required to provide sufficient clearance for the grip relative to the camera mount panel. And the as the thickness of the spacer increases, the minimum FFD of the lenses that can be used with it increases by a similar amount.

(For those who haven't been paying close attention to it, here's how the grip depth has (de)volved over the four generations of the A7R series: A7R - 8.8 mm; A7RII - 16.9 mm; A7RIII - 18.7 mm; A7RIV - 23.6 mm.)

Perhaps surprisingly, I use 35 mm format lenses most of the time -- you might be surprised how many of them project image circles large enough to provide a useful range of rise / fall / shift movements -- and the grip used on the A7RII was just beyond the limit my cameras could handle without significant additional modification. The A7RIII, with its even deeper grip still, can't be accommodated on my FrankenKameras using my lenses of choice (film-era Contax / Yashica lenses) and is basically limited to being used with medium-format lenses.

Worse, the one camera I own that is designed in such a way that it can accommodate the grip of the A7RIV -- a Cambo Actus -- will only just barely do so when used with my lenses of choice.

I just took some quick-and-dirty measurements from my Actus, which is presently setup to use my C/Y lenses, which have a FFD of 45.5 mm.

The A7RIV's deeper grip will easily clear the Actus' rotating camera mount bracket, but -- incredibly! -- it will also come within 3 mm of the outer edge of the back side of the lens panel.

This means it will push / fold the outer edge of the standard bellows around the outer edge of the lens panel and sandwich the bellows material between the lens panel and grip.

Not only is this likely to interfere with the rise / fall mechanism on the rear standard, but it will significantly limit the amount of tilt and swing that can be applied on the front standard as well.

Fortunately, Cambo does offer a single-pleat bellows for use with wide-angle lenses and this will at least partially address these issues by reducing the amount of bellows material that ends up being sandwiched between the Actus and A7RIV bodies compared to the three-pleat standard bellows.

And Yes, I realize Cambo didn't design the Actus to be used with 35 mm format bodies and 35 mm format lenses, but they do intend for it to be used with APS-C and m4/3 format bodies and 35 mm format lenses, and if this trend of increasing grip depth on mirrorless camera bodies continues, this may eventually become an issue with those bodies as well.

And I also realize that my particular combinations of needs and wants makes me very much outlier among the potential buyers of a Sony camera body, so I can't say any of this comes as a surprise to me. However, it sure would be nice if Sony recognized that not one form-factor works best for all photographers -- and especially not when the grip becomes larger and its depth becomes deeper every time they update it! -- and offer an alternative model that is flatter across the front. You know, like Fuji does across its camera range...

Needless to say, this is a long-winded rant pointing out that not everybody is pleased by Sony's decision to increase the size and depth of the grip on its A7R-series bodies with each succeeding generation. The fact that the A7RIV body is also 200g heavier than the original A7R (which represents an almost 50 percent increase ... oink, oink!) is not particularly welcome, either.

Mind you, I'm very happy with the performance of my A7R and although I would like to replace it someday, with the direction Sony appears to be headed, I fear that might never be possible. :(
 
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