Sony finally announced the next-entry to the now-popular Alpha series 7 line. Meet the new A7 IV full-frame mirrorless camera that fixes some of the limitations of the now-3-year old A7 III by adding things from the Alpha 1 & A7S III.
In regards to its looks & body size, its more like the A7S III than the A7 III BTW. You got options to choose between photos, video, & S&Q (Slow & Quick) mode dial, they moved the video record button, a 3.68 million dot EVF w/ 120Hz refresh rate upgrade, a flip-out LCD touchscreen display, 5-axis in-body stabilization w/ 5.5 stops of shake reduction, a dedicated Active mode for get closer to a gimbal for recording while walking, a full-sized HDMI port, and 2 card slots (SDXC up to 300MB/s or a CFexpress Type A up to 800MB/s).
It’s powered by their latest BIONZ XR processing engine to help its new 33MP sensor do even better in low-light & more auto-focus abilities. This pulls off the same 10fps shooting speeds w/ the mechanical & electronic shutter like on the A7 III. You’ll have 759 phase-detection AF points w/ 94% sensor coverage to process image tracking in real time at high-speeds. This will make for faster & better eye AF for humans, birds, & other animals. You also have a wide ISO range expandable to ISO 50 – 204,800 w/ 15-stop of dynamic range.
And yes, you have the new touchscreen menu from the A7S III.
Now for what many of you want to know about: its video abilities. So you can pull off 10-bit 4:2:2 in 4K@60fps as it pulls it form a 7K oversampling to eliminate any pixel binning. You’ll be able to capture XAVC S up to 600MB/s as you’ll be able to do most of this on a SDXC as you’ll need the CFexpress Type A for a few of the new settings though. You’ll have support for S Log3 + S-Cinetone out of the gate as Sony added 10 Creative Look presets to the mix as well. You’ll have the latest Sony Z batteries to get you over 2 hours of video on a single charge claims Sony.
Autofocus for video will be faster & more accurate as well. The A7 IV is Sony’s 1st camera to support human/animal/bird eye tracking for video. They also have a new Focus Breathing Compensation system that utilizes digital zoom to make transitions when pulling video focus from the foreground to background smoother. However, you’ll need a G or G master lens to pull it off though. For those of you who prefer to focus manually, they have a new feature called Focus Map. This will allow you to view overlay colors on a scene to show parts within, behind, & in front of the depth of field. There’s something called AF Assist that allows you override AF for manual focus.
Sony updated their livestreaming abilities here to shoot in 4K@15fps w/ the ability to record simultaneously and their Imaging Edge app will now use Bluetooth to maintain a more continuous connection. Unfortunately, don’t look for 16-bit RAW video support to an external recorder though. Not that you should be but if you’re worried about overheating, don’t be. Its has a heat-dissipating body structure to pull off 4K@60fps 10-bit for over an hour as Sony claims. As they’ve previously have been able to live up to them.
So Sony has done it again by adding their high-end features/specs to their newer entry-level shooters. So the new goodies make the A7 IV the new must-have camera to buy from Sony. It retails for $2,500 for the body only & $2,700 w/ f/3.5-5.6 28-70mm kit lens. You can pre-order yours now as it will go on sale at the end of December.
Will you be upgrading to this?
