Sony has announced a new full-frame mirrorless camera, the Sony A7 IV, price tag £2,400 / $2,498, which boasts a new 33-megapixel sensor, 4K video at 60fps and much more.
In a major update to the A7 III, the Sony A7 IV adds a host of new features and capabilities the popular all-rounder model in Sony’s A7 series of cameras. Chief among these is a newly developed 33-million-pixel backside illuminated Exmor R CMOS image sensor which offers a sensitivity range of ISO 50 up to 204,800.
Sony says the new camera’s colour science is inherited from the Sony A7S III and the A7 IV will deliver less noise than its predecessor, the A7 III.
The new sensor is combined with Sony’s Bionz XR processing engine to deliver speed and resolution, with a host of new AF modes. New to the Sony A7 IV is an Eye AF Birds mode and Eye AF for video. These join the existing Eye AF and Animal Eye AF modes.
Like the A7 III, the Sony A7 IV can shoot 10fps in burst mode; however, continuous shooting is now unlimited unless you set the camera to shoot uncompressed raw and JPEGs. In this scenario it is limited to 828 shots. Sony says the buffer also clears quicker on the A7 IV compared to the A7 III.
Like previous Sony cameras with IBIS, the A7 IV boasts 5-axis image stabilisation providing compensation up to 5.5EV.
AF Improvements
Sony has also upgraded the autofocus system on the A7 IV with the same AF system as the flagship Sony A1, which offers 759 phase-detection AF points, real-time tracking, Eye AF for humans, animals and now birds.
In fact, Sony says the detection accuracy for human face and eyes is approximately 30% better than it was on the Sony A7 III.
The camera’s AF-S performance has also been improved. It’s now faster and can lock on to subjects down to -4EV. What’s more, AF Tracking works at f/22, just the same as the Sony A1, which makes it ideal for long lenses with teleconverters.
There is also now real-time AF for humans, animals and birds in video, and real-time tracking in Movie mode.
Video
Like previous Sony A7 cameras, the Sony A7 IV has been built with video in mind. The camera can shoot 4K video at 60p in APS-C or 4K video at 30p oversampled from 7K in full-frame mode. Slow motion fans can film Full HD footage at 120fps.
Sony says users can record 4K 60p 10-bit 4:2:2 video continuously for more than one hour without the camera overheating thanks to a new heat-dissipating body structure. Meanwhile, a new Optical Active Mode image stabilisation is designed to make filming easer.
The Sony A7 IV also features 10-bit depth 4:2:2 colour sampling, XAVC S-I encoding and XAVC HS for compression efficiency.
As a hybrid stills and video camera, Sony has also introduced a new dual layer mode dial for switching between different settings quickly. The lower layer is for selecting Still/Movie/S&Q and the top layer for Auto/P/A/S/M and MR (Memory Recall).
Sony says its S-Log3 filming mode has also been improved, offering more than 15 stops of dynamic range. The Sony A7 IV also adopts S-Cinetone from its range of cine cameras.
Other Key Specs
Sony has added a number of connectivity options to the A7 IV with vlogging and streaming in mind. First, Sony has simplified the connection between the camera and its Imaging Edge Mobile app via Bluetooth, while 5 GHz/2.4 GHz WiFi enables faster data transfers.
UVC and UAC functionality let users live stream from the camera when connected to a computer or smartphone, transmitting footage such as 4K at 15p and 1080 FHD at 60p. The Sony A7 IV’s digital audio interface can also be paired with a range of mics and accessories to deliver high quality sound.
Another new feature called Shot Mark aims to make it easier for you to mark and access scenes in a video clip.
Sony is also soon launching a new cloud service called AI Video Editing Studio which will harness AI technology to make your fist round of editing for you.
New breathing compensation helps compensate for the change in framing when focus distance changes. This is currently compatible with 15 lenses and works by applying a slight crop according to the lens to avoid the change in framing.
Body Design
New to the Sony A7 IV is a 3-inch, 1.03-million-dot side-opening vari-angle touchscreen. This should appeal to vloggers or stills shooters looking to shoot from unusual angles.
The Sony A7 IV body is made of magnesium alloy to reduce its weight. What’s more, Sony has redesigned the camera’s structure and lens lock button to give it an enhanced dust- and moisture-resistant design.
The camera uses recycled plastic, SORPLAS, which does not depend on non-renewable resources and is produced at the sites using renewable energy such as solar power generation. The product packaging also adopts recyclable plastic-reduced materials, all as part of Sony’s Road To Zero effort.
Sony A7 IV Price & Release Date
The Sony A7 IV price tag is £2,400 for the body only. The price rises to £2,600 for the A7 IV body and FE 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS.
The Sony A7 IV release date will be in December 2021 when sales start.
The Sony A7 IV is available to pre-order from Wex Photo Video in the UK and Adorama and B&H Photo Video in the USA.
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