Sony A7 IV Sony a7 IV Images and First Impressions

[Tim Mayo]

With the a7 IV now being delivered in Europe I thought I'd create a thread where early owners can share their first photos and impressions.

My own a7 IV arrived today and fortunately the sun managed to shine long enough for me to grab a few shots of Frank. All shots are SOOC JPEGs taken with the 70-200 F2.8 GM II lens.

The animal eye tracking is a big improvement over the a7III which rarely locked onto the eyes when Frank was running. It now locks on from quite some distance already and tracks really well. That said, it still missed his eyes a few times, more so when the light dropped. The orange ball would also grab the focus sometimes. But I think dog shooters will be quite happy, although milage may vary depending on your dog!

I used a CFexpress Type A card and it cleared the buffer almost instantly, even after a burst of 10-20 shots. It's just a pity these cards are so expensive and only slot 1 supports them. If you aren't shooting a lot of continuous bursts then I'd definitely stick with the much cheaper UHS-II cards.

I think it's going to take me a while to get used to the new menus, but they seem to be pretty intuitive.

The buttons and grip are similar to my a7R IV, but a big improvement over the a7III body.

The flip out screen is useful and makes taking low vertical shots a lot easier. You can also rotate it to help protect the screen whilst it's in your bag.

So, just a quick first impressions really as I've only used it for about an hour so far. Hopefully if the weather plays nice I'll be able to test the eye af on some birds over the next few days.

Please ask if you have any questions and I'll do my best to answer them. I also created an a7 III vs a7 IV comparison over on the blog if you are interested in all the differences between these two cameras.

 

[Jeff A]

Well, unless your subject was the Dude in the second row, It looked like you chose the correct tool for the job. Do you recall what Focus Area that you used?

 

[Reciprocum]

Well, unless your subject was the Dude in the second row, It looked like you chose the correct tool for the job. Do you recall what Focus Area that you used?

Spot-M with eye-AF assist, placed on the girl on the front row.
If using zone focus area the eye-AF will tend to pick the closest eye witch, with the shallow DOF of the f1.2, would leave almost everyone else hopelessly out of focus like here

• ILCE-7M4
• Sony FE 50mm F1.2 GM (SEL50F12GM)
• 50.0 mm
• ƒ/1.2
• 1/250 sec
• ISO 640

But for more face-on situations I toggle (focus areas custom assigned to the control wheel on both cameras, so just one rotation click away with the thumb) to zone focus and let the machine pick the focus point.

• ILCE-7M4
• Sony FE 50mm F1.2 GM (SEL50F12GM)
• 50.0 mm
• ƒ/1.2
• 1/250 sec
• ISO 640

 

[Jeff A]

Spot-M with eye-AF assist, placed on the girl on the front row.
If using zone focus area the eye-AF will tend to pick the closest eye witch, with the shallow DOF of the f1.2, would leave almost everyone else hopelessly out of focus like here
View attachment 15457

But for more face-on situations I toggle (focus areas custom assigned to the control wheel on both cameras, so just one rotation click away with the thumb) to zone focus and let the machine pick the focus point.
View attachment 15458

Thanks for the info. Being a Rookie, I was thinking Zone might have done the trick.

 

[Reciprocum]

Thanks for the info. Being a Rookie, I was thinking Zone might have done the trick.

For not so lateral situations as first example (up to 60deg off to any side I would say), if you pre-registered the face(s) of 1 or 2 persons (normally bride and groom or the birthday person) then you can get away with using wider focus areas as the camera (even M3 was able to do this) will recognise the priority person(s) and focus on their eye even in a line-up and even if they are not the closest one.

 

[Reciprocum]

Example of the croppability (without loss of quality) that the 33mpx sensor allows
Full frame

• ILCE-7M4
• Sony FE 135mm F1.8 GM (SEL135F18GM)
• 135.0 mm
• ƒ/1.8
• 1/160 sec
• ISO 400

100% crop

• ILCE-7M4
• Sony FE 135mm F1.8 GM (SEL135F18GM)
• 135.0 mm
• ƒ/1.8
• 1/160 sec
• ISO 400

So, after 3 weeks of moderate M4 use (and previous 3y of M3 use - 60k shots) it is my opinion that the M4 is a totally worthy upgrade over the M3.

Weak points: sports, loud m-shutter, rolling shutter with e-shutter.
Strong points: resolution, ergonomics, improved EVF, the new LCD tilting mechanism, more customisable than M3, much better AF than M3.
Tied with M3 on ISO performance

 

[Reciprocum]

M4 vs A1 studio comparison. Absolutely same camera, lens and flash settings, both on tripod, same positions, both manually focused and triggered with 2s timer.

Can you tell witch is witch without looking at the Exif ?

• ILCE-1
• Sigma 85mm F1.4 DG DN | A (Sony E)
• 85.0 mm
• ƒ/7.1
• 1/250 sec
• ISO 100

• ILCE-7M4
• Sigma 85mm F1.4 DG DN | A (Sony E)
• 85.0 mm
• ƒ/7.1
• 1/250 sec
• ISO 100

 

[Jeff A]

M4 vs A1 studio comparison. Absolutely same camera, lens and flash settings, both on tripod, same positions, both manually focused and triggered with 2s timer.

Can you tell witch is witch without looking at the Exif ?
View attachment 15575

View attachment 15576

M4 vs A1 studio comparison. Absolutely same camera, lens and flash settings, both on tripod, same positions, both manually focused and triggered with 2s timer.

Can you tell witch is witch without looking at the Exif ?
View attachment 15575

View attachment 15576

Well I thought maybe a single hair on her left eye might show the difference, but no. Can you tell without looking at EXIF, Afonso?

 

[Reciprocum]

Well I thought maybe a single hair on her left eye might show the difference, but no. Can you tell without looking at EXIF, Afonso?

No I can’t, not even doing A/B comparisons on a 32” 4K monitor. So far A1’s extra resolution has only benefitted me on achieving more reach trough aggressive cropping on my surf shooting sessions. For everything else (Non-action) the M4 results (Not the usage experience - because A1’s EVF is amazing) are equivalent or superior (Smaller files, better ISO performance, longer lasting batery).
For pairing with fast lenses like the 50 f1.2 A1 also has the edge over M4 because it can go to 1/32000 on bright outdoors. I don’t do landscape or architecture at all, Wich are 2 other areas where A1 probably delivers better results than M4. If I already had the M4 on A1 release day I would probably had gone to a 2x M4 kit instead.

 

[Jeff A]

No I can’t, not even doing A/B comparisons on a 32” 4K monitor. So far A1’s extra resolution has only benefitted me on achieving more reach trough aggressive cropping on my surf shooting sessions. For everything else (Non-action) the M4 results (Not the usage experience - because A1’s EVF is amazing) are equivalent or superior (Smaller files, better ISO performance, longer lasting batery).
For pairing with fast lenses like the 50 f1.2 A1 also has the edge over M4 because it can go to 1/32000 on bright outdoors. I don’t do landscape or architecture at all, Wich are 2 other areas where A1 probably delivers better results than M4. If I already had the M4 on A1 release day I would probably had gone to a 2x M4 kit instead.

Interesting comments, thank you. I just received my M4 this afternoon and loaded it with Mark Galer's CAMSET file. Boom, instant M4, fully programmed. Now I can think about Christmas with full attention. Thank you for your testing and Merry Christmas.

 

[Ed Bray]

Interesting comments, thank you. I just received my M4 this afternoon and loaded it with Mark Galer's CAMSET file. Boom, instant M4, fully programmed. Now I can think about Christmas with full attention. Thank you for your testing and Merry Christmas.

Hi Jeff, what CAMSET file did you use please?

 

[Ed Bray]

Found it now

 

[Jeff A]

Found it now

Are you a Mark Galer Patreon?

 

[Ed Bray]

Yes I am, but I couldn't find the A7iv version, then I clicked another heading and there it was.

 

[Jeff A]

Yes I am, but I couldn't find the A7iv version, then I clicked another heading and there it was.

Excellent. Press on. BTW, don't forget to participate in Mark's monthly forum. I have asked numerous questions and always get insightful answers, and usaually in less than 24 hours.

 

[Gionni]

Hi, I'm reading and seeing a lot of unboxing video of the a7iv and noticed that Sony don't supply the battery charger but only a power brick.
I'm a bit confused, since I always used a battery charger for my Pentax, how does it work with the Sony? You have to charge the battery inside the camera and plug the camera to a usb port of a PC? How long does it take to fully charge this way?
Would you recommend to buy an external battery charger?

 

[Ed Bray]

I bought a dual battery charger with a couple of batteries from Amazon cost was £46 (NP-FZ100 Battery Powerextra 2 Pack Camera Replacement Batteries and Dual LCD Battery Charger Compatible with Sony A9 A9R A9S, Alpha9 9R 9S, sony a7iii battery A7RIII A7R3 Digital Camera), I have used them a couple of times and all is good, They recharge the Sony battery in about 2.5 hrs.

My wife bought me a Grip for the camera which also had a couple of batteries with it for about £90.

 

[Gionni]

I bought a dual battery charger with a couple of batteries from Amazon cost was £46 (NP-FZ100 Battery Powerextra 2 Pack Camera Replacement Batteries and Dual LCD Battery Charger Compatible with Sony A9 A9R A9S, Alpha9 9R 9S, sony a7iii battery A7RIII A7R3 Digital Camera), I have used them a couple of times and all is good, They recharge the Sony battery in about 2.5 hrs.

My wife bought me a Grip for the camera which also had a couple of batteries with it for about £90.

Sony is frigging cheap. I cannot understand for the life of me how they think it's acceptable to sell a camera for this price and not include a charger. My battery was 100% DEAD when it came and it took quite a while to come up to full charge. While it was charging I ordered a set of Wasabi batteries and a charger. I couldn't survive with in-camera being the only way to charge.

Thanks for your response! It's indeed shameful that Sony don't include a proper charger.

 

[Reciprocum]

Example of shadow recovery from M4's RAW files

• ILCE-7M4
• Sigma 85mm F1.4 DG DN | A (Sony E)
• 85.0 mm
• ƒ/1.4
• 1/8000 sec
• ISO 50

• ILCE-7M4
• Sigma 85mm F1.4 DG DN | A (Sony E)
• 85.0 mm
• ƒ/1.4
• 1/8000 sec
• ISO 50

 

[Jeff A]

Example of shadow recovery from M4's RAW files

View attachment 17364

View attachment 17365

You have to love that Dynamic Range!