Sony A7R IV - ILCE7RM4B.CEC

Sony A7R IV - Megapixels strikes back!

The Sony A7R IV takes over the megapixel kingdom of cinema sensors with its new camera. It's been a while since the last update (Sony A7R II), so real progress has been made. With a whopping 61.0 megapixels, it takes 10 shots for every second until the buffer goes into knots after 63 frames. If the megapixel count doesn't annoy you, it's hard to think of what shooting the A7R IV isn't suited to? It's almost the perfect camera for action, landscape, architecture, astro and potshots, well that's almost where it all came in. To expand a little on what I just said, the infinitely fast autofocus and continuous shooting speeds combined with the really big body make this a great wildlife, birding and sports camera. The possibility to use a further 1.5x crop factor is like a free telephoto stick, leaving 26.2 megapixels.

Potrait, astro and landscape photographers will appreciate the widest dynamic range on the market and certainly those famous megapixels. The Sony A7R IV is not suitable for underwater use, at least not without a housing, although the weather protection has been updated to match the professional bodies of Canon and Nikon. To match the new and improved weather protection, a redesigned Sony VG-C4EM battery grip has also been made to improve vertical shooting ergonomics and double the battery capacity.

Sony A7r IV experiences

The camera has quickly become the number one camera for many professionals and we recommend you take a look at the updated (03.11.2020) Youtube videos on the subject. The camera is (still) widely regarded as excellent and one of the best studio, stills and landscape cameras. As an example, Jared Polin put his Nikon on the shelf and switched to a Sony A7R IV. However, he was one of the most fanatical Nikon fans on YouTube. Similarly, Matt Granger (That Nikon Guy) is actively shooting with Sony gear today.

Sony A7R iv vs A7R iii main changes

• 61 Megapixel backlight sensor vs A7R III's 42.2 Megapixels
• Very accurate 5.76 million pixel viewfinder compared to the old 3.69mpix. The refresh rate has also doubled to 120 frames per second
• Extended focus points now reach closer to the edges, offering 567 focus points (A7R III - 399)
• The AI focus, borrowed from the Sony A9, is extremely reliable at tracking subjects. On the A7R IV, it's now also in video.
• Considerably larger bumper considering the size of the images
• Large megapixel sensor allows 26.2 megapixel body mode (free telephoto)
• A staggering 240.8 megapixels pixelshiftmode
• Renewed weather protection finally on a par with competitors
• Better ergonomics and larger, more comfortable buttons
• 2x UHS-II memory card slots vs A7R III 1x UHS-I and 1x UHS-II

61 Mpix sensor - BIONZ X™ image processor

Did you know that this camera has 61 megapixels? Yes! Sony's in-house-designed sensor delivers cutting-edge 15-aperture dynamics at 61 megapixels. And because that's certainly not enough for some people, there's also a ”pixel shift multi shooting” gimmick that slaps 963 megapixels of data on the board, albeit reduced to a pitiful 240 megapixels. But you can print a ten-pixel image from it. In this mode, a stabilizer is used to move the sensor to 16 different ”positions” and all the images are then combined into a single file. Since Lightroom already coughs up 24 megapixel files, you should try Capture One before importing a file like this into Abode. For the record, Capture One is free for Sony users, winkwink.

The new sensor also improves autofocus in stills and video. Realtime AF is already familiar from previous models, but now it sticks to the eyes of people and animals alike. And now it works in video too, so far as Sony's only camera. The 567-point (phase-detection) autofocus covers 74% of cinema cell area and 100% in APS-C mode (325 phase-detection points). In terms of video features, the most important innovation is probably the aforementioned Realtime AF, but there are other improvements as well. Video is upsampled from 6K to 4K, with the familiar S-log2/3 and HDR video.

Sony A7R IV other updates and features

The body has also been redesigned compared to the Sony A7R III. Not that big, but much needed changes. A new Sony "king class" viewfinder, with a whopping 5.76 megapixels. You might not bother looking at the screen much after looking through that. Also, the handle has gone through another makeover and has a slightly fatter/better grip. Although it looks like the frame is still the same height as the old frames, so those who really want a good grip will have to buy Sony GP-X1EM with additional handle. The frame is also now better protected against weather and moisture to withstand, for example. Joel Forsman wild photo trips. No more debates about whether Sony's weather protection is enough or whether it's a match for Canon or Nikon. If you were already doing well with the old body and Sony didn't even mention anything about protection, it's now certainly on a really good level with the Sony A7R IV. This is a feature that has been wanted by photographers for a long time, and it's certainly been done properly. The weather protection is also helped by the revamped Sony VG-C4EM battery grip, which is on a par with the rest of the protection.

Same battery Sony NP-FZ100, which is very well proven, and is one of the best batteries on the market. Oddly enough, the Sony A7R IV also lasts longer than the older model in terms of battery life. The second memory card slot is now UHS-II (VIHDOIN!). So you can write RAW images to both cards without the camera slowing down because of the slower location. The image stabilizer has also been optimized and should now stabilize to 5.5 apertures. The old image stabilizer was nowhere near Olympus' top stabilizer, but it did the job well so this update is probably not the most important one. With Pixel Shift it's pointless to expect this to work, those 240 megapixels aren't easily fooled.

Main features

• Professional camera with the highest performance sensor on the market
• Revamped 61 megapixel sensor and Bionz X processor
• 15 holes dynamics
• 5.76 megapixel viewfinder (old 3.69 mpx)
• APS-C crop mode (telephoto!) at 26.2 megapixels
• 567 phase-detect AF points from 74% sensor area / 100% APS-C (325 AF points)
• 10 frames per second
• Both memory card slots are finally UHS-II
• More ergonomic handle
• Redesigned 5-axis image stabilizer (5.5 aperture)
• Oversampled 4K video with S-log2 and HDR
• USB-C interface
• Size 128.9 x 96.4 x 77.5 mm
• Weight 665 g

More information about the Sony A7r IV on Sony's website

See other Sony E / FE system cameras and accessories here