I think many Alpha Shooters were hoping for a new a6500 successor or the a7S III to be announced today, instead Sony has surprised everyone by announcing the a7R IV.
Here’s a quick look at some of the key features:
- Full-frame 61 MP Sensor
- 15-Stop Enhanced Dynamic Range
- 10 fps with continuous AF / AE tracking
- 567 phase-detection AF points covering 754% of the frame
- 26.2MP APS-C mode
- Real-time Eye AF for stills / movies / humans / animals
- Real-time Tracking AF
- 4k Movie recording with S-log 2/3 and HLG
- 5.5-stop 5-axis In-body Image Stabilization
- 5.76 million dot UXGA OLED viewfinder
- Upgraded grip with improved dust and moisture resistance
- 240.8MP Pixel Shift
The full-frame 61MP BSI-CMOS sensor has a claimed 15 stops of dynamic range and a hybrid AF system with 567 PDAF and 425 contrast-detect points with 74% frame coverage. There’s also real-time eye, human and animal AF, eye AF now also works in video as well. The camera can shoot at 10 fps with continuous AF for up to 68 photos.
The body has been redesigned and the weather-sealing improved, including foam gaskets around the battery and card doors, and raised lips around all the connectors that, along with rubber port doors prevent water from working its way around the seal. There’a also a significantly deeper grip, a larger joystick and repositioned, ‘newly designed’ buttons and dials.
The EVF is now features 5.76M-dots, there’s dual UHS-II card slots and USB-C. The camera also has 802.11ac Wi-Fi plus Bluetooth and NFC. It still uses the NP-FZ100 battery just like the a7R III.
If you make use of APS-C crop mode you’ll now get 26 megapixel images which is an improvement on the 18 megapixel images from the a7R III in APS-C mode, with near-total-frame AF coverage and 325 PDAF points.
You can now choose to display the focus frame color in either white or red which is something that people have been asking for for quite some time.
The Pixel Shift mode can capture 16 images, which when processed via Sony’s Imaging Edge software will create 240MP photos. Users have a choice of 16-shot mode that makes 1/2 pixel shifts or a 4-shot mode that makes full pixel shifts.
The a7R IV can capture oversampled 4K/30p video with touch tracking and real-time Eye AF, and support for 8-bit S-Log2/3 and HLG. When using the Super 35 crop there is an additional 1.2x crop at 30p and 1.1x at 24p. As with its predecessor, the top bit rate is 100Mbps using XAVC S.
There’s a new digital interface between the the microphone and camera, making the a7R IV the first camera to accept digital audio input. To go along with that there’s a new microphone and an XLR adapter, both of which have built-in ADCs to provide digital signal to the camera (but which also have analog output modes to retain compatibility with older cameras).
The new a7R IV also adds 5GHz Wi-Fi, and Wi-Fi can now be used for tethered shooting.
And here are some first look videos from Sony:
And a first look from Manny Ortiz:
Along with the a7R IV they also announced a new shotgun microphone (ECM-B1M) and a new vertical grip extension (VG-C4EM) for the a7R IV.
The a7R IV will start shipping from September 12th in the US and cost $3500. In Europe it will be available from August and cost £3,500 / €4,000.
By comparison the a7R III is currently on sale for $2498.00 (Amazon.com | Adorama).
Further details are available on the Sony a7R IV product page along with sample images. Or you can download the a7R IV brochure.
Adorama will be accepting pre-orders from this Thursday at 10:00am ET. In the UK both Park Cameras and Wex Photo are already accepting pre-orders.
As much as I’d love to get my GAS fix by purchasing the a7R IV, I’ve only just bought the new FE 200-600mm lens so I’m going to need a little time for my finances to recover!
That said, my a7R III is my favorite camera for shooting wildlife due to it’s incredible cropping power (Boreno Wildlife Adventure with the a7R III). So the new 60 MP sensor would most definitely be appreciated along with the 26.2 MP APS-C mode.
Are you tempted by the new a7R IV? Let me know in the comments below.
The 26mp in APS-C mode has my interest, but only 68 frames to fill the buffer? That is a big difference to the 180 frame buffer on the A6500. And 24mp is not to bad. I too am tapped on gear funds, but I will be watching reviews closely to see if the AF has improved enough to justify replacing my A7RIII. Otherwise, I am looking forward to a 36mp A9, hopefully.
The 26mp APS-C mode is definitely interesting, it’s like having an a6400 in there as well, hopefully the AF performance will be just as quick if not quicker. The buffer is certainly small but then with the two UHS-II slots it should clear pretty fast. I think I’d be rather cautious with the shutter anyway with those huge files! I’d also prefer a 36mp mini a9 so fingers crossed! 🙂
Like you Tim I love using my A7R III for shooting wildlife, so the additional megapixels are most definitely welcome. So I am tempted to upgrade but it may require a divorce first! Can’t wait to see your images with the 200-600 as I’ve also got my eye on this lens!
I only picked up the A7RIII 6 months back so as much as I’d love this new mark 4 I’m going to have to restrain myself!