Sony A7iv Set Up Guide

While the Sony A7iv is the current “base level” camera for Sony, this really is not accurate. My readers know I’m primarily an enthusiast but do some professional work. For the last several years, my main cameras have been the A9 and A7riii, and they have served me well. While theoretically, the Sony A7iv is “below” those cameras, I find it absolutely to be an upgrade. The Sony A7iv is capable of serving the most demanding enthusiasts and professionals. To a large degree, it performs pretty well out of the box but I’ll take this opportunity to share my customizations and set-up as a primarily advanced enthusiast stills photographer. I have some suggestions for how I shoot video, but an advanced videographer should look elsewhere. The suggestions below can optimize the camera for the stills shooting enthusiast.

The Sony A7iv has a menu system that is vastly improved over prior iterations but can still be confusing at times. Hopefully, we cover some of the areas you will want to dig in and adjust. 

In this post, we will concentrate on what to do after you take the camera out of the box. After you charged it, picked the language and set the clock. This post will address default menu settings you may wish to change, setting up a customized function menu, assigning custom buttons and setting up the MyMenu system.  We will then discuss some of the best accessories and lenses for the Sony A7iv. The recommended settings are for hobbyists and enthusiasts. It assumes you want to maximize the potential of the camera, you likely intend to shoot raw.  Critically, you intend to take the camera out of “auto.”

 

First, let’s talk autofocus, one of the highlights of the Sony system:

Sony A7iv Autofocus setup

 

Over the last decade, advanced cameras have added more and more autofocus modes, autofocus areas, etc. A skilled photographer had to understand which mode would work best for each situation. For the casual photographer, there was frustration that “auto” focus was not truly completely automatic, often failing to initiate and keep focus on the correct subject.

The newest generation of Sony autofocus brings us wonderful simplification. There are still a dizzying array of focus modes and focus areas, but there is one setting which is appropriate for almost any situation. Set your focus mode to AF-C (autofocus continuous). Above, you see the focus area menu which appears on the left side of the frame, when you enter your focus area adjustment. The last selection is “Tracking.” By toggling left and right, you can change the size of the focus box. I recommend toggling until you get to “Tracking: Flexible Spot S.”

This setting will give you a small focus box which can be moved around the frame with the thumbstick or with the touchscreen. Once you lock focus on the subject, it will continuously track the subject with high precision and reliability. If your subject is a person, it will automatically seek out the face and eyes. Whether your subject is moving or standing still, the focus will stay locked. 

In other words, you can use AF-C and Tracking:Flexible Spot almost all the time. By keeping the flexible spot set to small, you’ll be able to precisely pick smaller subjects. You can move the focus spot in the frame to the subject, or you can simply lock focus on the subject and then re-compose. 

If you are shooting a person and eye-AF is enabled, then the focus system will seek out the human eye when you place the spot over a person. (Within the menus, you can change it to recognize birds and people). 

Digging In To the Sony A7iv Menu

Shooting Menu – Red – Image Quality

As illustrated in the photos below, the very first menu selection is “Shooting” which is depicted in red in the A7iv. The first sub-menu is image quality, where we should make some adjustments from the defaults:

• Assigning Slots: Within the Image Quality sub-menu, the first item should be set to JPEG. We should then dig into the second item, Image Quality Settings. From here, we assign our two memory card slots. I recommend recording Raw files in Slot-1 and JPEG back-ups in Slot-2. Thus, for every image you take, you will have the option of a RAW file you can process yourself as well as an already-processed JPEG. 
• RAW File Type: Within this same sub-menu, you can click the Boxed “Raw” next to “Raw file type” and assign the type of Raw file. Essentially, the three types are different file sizes. Uncompressed are massive files, retaining all of the image data. Compressed is a smaller file, but loses a small amount of potentially important image data. Lossless Compressed keeps all of the important image data while compressing the file into a smaller size. Unsurprisingly, I will highly recommend Lossless Compressed. 
• Long Exposure Noise Reduction (NR) to Off: If you shoot very long exposures on a tripod, this feature will attempt to reduce the noise by taking a second purely black image and combining the files. Thus, when this feature is on, if you take a 10 second night-capture, the process will take over 20 seconds, as it will snap a second 10-second photo. I hate this. I’m planning on processing the noise myself. And the great thing about a long exposure is that it shouldn’t have a lot of noise anyway. So turn this off.
• Movie Settings / File Format:  I have no specific recommendation here, as it will depend on whether you shoot video and how seriously. I simply felt I should include this, because you should go here to determine whether you want to shoot 4k or HD, and what default frame rate. 

Shooting – Register Custom Shoot Set

Still within the Red Shooting menu, #4 is the shooting mode which includes one of the most useful features you may find. You can create a customized over-ride button that immediately over-rides many of your settings. I previously did a whole post on the creation of this Instant Reaction Button.  This button will instantly switch the camera to a high shutter speed, wide-autofocus, and burst shooting. So, if you’re in the middle of shooting a scenic landscape at a slow shutter speed and suddenly a bald eagle flies overhead, you and your camera can react instantly without the need to change settings. You can set up multiple types of custom buttons but this is my use for it. For more detail, read my post on setting it up, and/or follow the illustrations below (Red – Shooting Mode (4) – Reg. Custom Shoot Set):

 

Other “Shooting” Settings:

Just a few more things I’d like to comment on in the shooting menu:

• Anti Flicker: Within Shooting mode, #7, you have shutter settings. Turn on anti-flicker which can help prevent some types of banding with artificial lighting.
• Shooting Display – #10 — Go Into Live View display settings. A great thing about mirrorless is that the live view can simulate the final image (though beware the simulation is not always perfect). So make sure the setting effect is “on” which will simulate the final image.
• Live View Display – Exposure Effect: Located in the same sub-menu, you will find exposure effect. The camera can’t truly simulate the final image if you are using a flash. When set to “exposure set & flash,” the whole frame will simply go bright whenever you have an attached flash turned on. This will still allow you to view the whole frame brightly, but won’t let you judge the ambient exposure. When set to “exposure setting only,” you will only see the ambient exposure. A great way to judge the background exposure, while you manually control the flash power to illuminate your subject.

Exposure / Color Settings – Pink

The next menu set is colored pink and focused on exposure and color settings. Most of these settings are really a matter of personal use and taste, but I do have a couple of suggestions:

• Pink #3 is the Metering subsection, pictured above. Metering is essentially how the camera measures the correct exposure, it can determine the right level of brightness based on just one spot, based on the whole frame, etc. Typically, you will want to adjust metering from the camera controls based on the precise situation. But, when I do want spot metering, I want it to use the spot where the camera is focused, not simply the center of the frame. Thus, as illustrated, I link the spot meter to the focus point.
• D-Range Optimizer (below): This setting (Under Pink #5) can control the amount of dynamic range (detail in shadows and highlights) in the final jpeg. But if you shoot Raw, this is something you will control in post processing. So I turn it off:

 

AF/MF Settings – Purple

At the top of this article, I addressed basic focus mode which can be controlled from the menu or dedicated buttons. Now, let’s look at a few more adjustments in the section:

• AF w/ Shutter: “Point and shooters” typically just press the shutter button and let the camera do the rest. An enthusiast can get more precise control over the camera operations with Back Button AF, for which the Sony A7iv is optimized with a big “AF-on” button. If you are taking repeated shots from the same distance, you can focus just once and then take repeated shots, for example. So to use back button AF, you need to turn “off” the “AF w/shutter” or else the camera will focus when you press the AF-on button and then focus again with the shutter button.
• Focus Assist, Focus Magnifier to x5.5: As noted above, you can use AF-C/Tracking for autofocus almost all the time. But in some low light cases or where you want extreme precision on a small subject, you may want to use manual focus or AF-S with magnified focus. When using AF-S with focus magnifier at 5.5x, you get an extremely precise single autofocus point to place over your subject. 

Network Settings – Green

Networking is vastly improved on the Sony A7iv, I found the connection far more stable than my prior Sony cameras. In addition, the Sony A7iv adds support for an entire new app that supposedly will create galleries as you shoot, perfect for the wedding photographer who wants to provide immediate images to their clients. 

All users will want to at least do a basic networking set up:

• Download the Imaging Edge Mobile App on your phone. This app will allow you to use your phone as a remote, allow you to download select jpeg images, and synch settings. It works through Bluetooth.
• Using bluetooth, pair your phone and camera;
• In Wi-Fi settings, pair your phone to your camera Wifi.
• Download “Transfer and Tagging Add-On”: This will transfer images as you shoot to the phone.  This app is primarily for photo journalists and professional sports photographers who need to quickly deliver a final image to their publisher, but it can be used by any enthusiast who wants photos automatically uploaded to their phone. Follow the on-screen directions but beware that using wifi set up is far more stable than hotspot set up.
• Download the new “Visual Story” app from Sony, which creates a shareable gallery of images as you shoot. Follow the on-screen directions. As above, beware that using a wifi set up is far more stable than personal hotspot. 

Set-Up Menu – Yellow

While there are many areas to customize in this section, the most important is to assign functions to our hard dials and buttons. For the most part, the default settings are good but I’ll suggest some changes for the photo enthusiast. These should be the functions you need most readily available, that you can adjust based on muscle memory without removing your eye from the viewfinder. Nearly every button on the Sony Ariv can be and should be customized. So go to Yellow-3, operations customize:

 

As shown above, the first submenu assigns custom keys for stills shooting. A nice feature is that you can have entirely different customization for shooting videos, which is the second submenu. The third submenu can customize functions for when you are playing back images.  We will start with the Custom Keys for stills shooting, which is broken down into 5 further submenus as illustrated below:

 

Rear 1:

1. Metering Mode: Quickly switch between metering modes. For me, that may mean switching between multi, spot and highlight weighted. Highlight weighted can be very valuable for landscapes or quickly evolving scenes. 
2. AF-on: As described above, this is back-button autofocus. It’s a large comfy button. 
3. Recall Custom Hold 1: I call this the “Instant Reaction” or “OH SH%$” button. It’s essentially an alternative AF back button that recalls a bunch of other settings instantly. Use it as an alternate back-button AF that overrides other manual settings. 
4. Focus Mode: Switch from AF-S to AF-C and manual focus
5. Focus Magnifier: When in AF-S or manual autofocus, fine tune your AF with a 5.5X magnification. 

Rear 2:

1. Eye-AF: As described above in the AF system, I primarily use Small Spot tracking for AF, to precisely select my subject. But if I’m shooting people, I can simply press Eye-AF to select the nearest eye/face instead of having to move my focus point to the person’s face. This is also the joystick that moves the AF point. So I have the choice of moving the AF point, or pushing straight in to just select the nearest eye. 
2. Finder/Monitor Select: Gives you the ability to turn off the LCD monitor, which can save battery when the camera isn’t at your eye.
3. Drive Mode: Keeping the default setting, to switch self-timer, burst modes, etc.
4. Exposure Compensation: This is a significant change. By default and body label, this is the ISO function. But I have found that when I’m wearing a crossbody strap, the camera sometimes bangs against my body and it ends up changing the ISO, and it takes me a while to realize that all my images are suddenly ISO 12,800. I’m less worried about Exposure compensation changing by accident (I’ll notice it in the EVF), and as shown below, I’m modifying the traditional exposure compensation dial..
5. Not set: When the camera is on a strap on your side, I find this can get accidentally pressed too often, so I stopped setting it.

Top

The red button can switch to video, but I found I’m accidentally switching the camera to video when it’s on… So we will keep it as the video-start button when in Movie Modes, but in Stills mode..

1. My Menu: Immediately bring up your “favorite” menu items. 
2. Focus Area: Switch from AF tracking to other modes

Lens

Many Sony lenses have a customized focus hold button. It’s useful for eye-AF on portrait lenses that have the button. While regular focus modes should automatically seek out the eye, it’s not 100% reliable. A dedicated eye-AF button will tell the camera that it definitely is looking at a person and should seek out the eye. 

Dials / Wheels

1. AV/TV – When in Aperture priority, Shutter priority, Manual, use for controlling aperture / shutter speed.
2. AV/TV – When in Aperture priority, Shutter priority, Manual, use for controlling aperture / shutter speed.
3. ISO – On all prior Sony cameras, this was the exposure compensation. But if you like to shoot with manual controls (which is very easy with live view on mirrorless cameras), then it’s helpful to have the entire exposure triangle in the same location. With 3 dials on top of the camera, quickly adjust your shutter speed, aperture and ISO. And as this dial locks, you can keep it locked in Auto-ISO without fear of accidentally changing it, when you aren’t manually changing ISO. (I use manual ISO during flash photography, auto-ISO at other times). 
4. Not set – Again, I find this dial too easy to accidentally move when the camera is strapped to your body.

Custom Keys for Video

I will defer to a more serious video shooter for recommendations. For the most part, I select “follow,” keeping the same functions as for stills. Certainly, for the red button in “Top 1,” I now have it set to movie shooting. I also no longer need my custom “instant reaction” button so I assign it to another function. 

Custom Playback Menu:

We will stick to the default keys here except for one, we will add a function on the top of the camera:

To button 1, we are assigning the “Rating” function. This allows you to rate photos as you review them, 1-5 stars. These ratings are preserved if you import your photos into lightroom. 

Customizing the Function (FN) menus

Your most frequent functions should be assigned to dedicated buttons. At the next level, menu items that may need to be changed under specific shooting situations, we can go to the FN menu. You now get 2 different function menus: one function menu for stills and one function menu for videos. 

Starting with the Still function menu set up:

 

Stills Menu

• Drives Mode: Repeat of a hard button, but quick access to timer shooting, bracket shooting, etc. 
• Focus Mode: Another repeat of a hard button, switch between AF-S, AF-C, etc
• Focus Area: Another place to switch between focus areas. 
• Face / Eye Subject: Switch between recognizing humans versus birds or animals. 
• Exposure Compensation: Another place to adjust the exposure compensation. 
• Metering Mode: Another default function, repeated from a hard button, but easy access to the metering. 
• Flash: Settings including slow synch flash, etc.
• Silent Shutter: To switch to completely electronic shutter for total silence. (Just be warned that it can lead to banding in artificial lighting and can use to rolling shutter with moving subjects).
• White Balance: A commonly used feature. Raw shooters can primarily stick to AWB, but if you are gelling a flash in mixed lighting, it can be helpful to customize the white balance.
• Steady Shot – Image Stabilization: In camera image stabilization. While you typically want to leave it on, it’s helpful to turn it off when using a tripod or very fast shutter speed.
• ISO Auto Min SS: For those that prefer to shoot in Aperture priority but still want to avoid shutter speed going too low, you can set a minimum shutter speed here.
• Record Media Settings: Change you file types, compression, etc. 

Video Function Menu

There are numerous functions I use for video but not stills photography..

• Audio Record Level: Self explanatory…
• Focus Mode: Another repeat of a hard button, switch between AF-S, AF-C, etc
• Focus Area: Another place to switch between focus areas. 
• Picture Profiles: You can choose SLOG if you do your own video color grading, or one of the other color graded profiles.
• Zebra Lines: A display setting to measure whether you are blowing out highlights.
• APS-C/Super 35mm: Whether to shoot video in full frame, or with a 1.5 “Super 35mm” crop.
• File Format: 4K or HD, with numerous subtypes
• Frame Rate: Typically, you will play back video at 24 or 30 frames per second. But you can record at 60 fps, allowing you to post-process the shot into smooth slow motion. 
• Steady Shot: In camera image stabilization is helpful for video but turn it off when using a gimbal or other type of stabilization system. When handheld, you can also opt for “active” stabilization which will shoot with a bit of crop but provide a final video with greater stabilization. 
• Focus Map: A new feature to the Sony A7iv, giving you a depth of field map to show what areas of the image will be in perceived focus. 
• Peaking: Using color outlines to precisely show you what part of the image is in focus, ideal for shooting video with manual focus. 

Additional Set Up Menu Items:

Just a few other things (not pictured) that I would go in and adjust:

• 3 -Operations Customize – Different Set for Still / MV: This further differentiates video and stills shooting so certain functions do not carry over. Personally, I check off white balance, picture profile and focus mode. For example, I may use a picture profile when shooting video but I do NOT want it to carry over when I switch back to stills.
• 7 Finder / Monitor – Display Quality – Set to high for the sharpest possible EVF image.
• 7 Finder / Monitor – Finder Frame Rate – If you are shooting action, switch to High for the smoothest live view. But it will impair the image brightness and sharpness. So I keep it set to standard unless I’m shooting fast action.
• 10 Sound Options – Audio Signals:  Unless you want you camera beeping every time you take a photo, turn off the audio signals here. 

Sony A7r MyMenu Settings

Apart from your custom buttons and FN menu, the Sony A7iv lets you create your own custom menus alongside the default camera menus. While the Sony menu system is vastly improved in the A7iv, it is still help to reach some functions immediately without deep menu diving. Thus, for settings I may use on occasion, but not frequently enough for a custom or FN button, they make it to the My Menu.

My Menu Page 1 — Common settings

• Format: Format your memory cards between uses to delete all images and start fresh
• Bracket Settings: Whether bracketing just to protect your exposure or for HDR editing, access the settings here.
• Interval Shooting function: If you are going to do timelapse shooting, you’ll want easy access either in your FN menu or MyMenu.
• e-Front Curtain Shutter: By default, the mechanical shutter is only used to end the exposure but an electronic curtain is used to start the exposure. I have noted that this sometimes leads to banding in some off-camera lighting situations. So I will occasionally want to quickly shut off the e-front curtain. 
• SteadyShot: Don’t forget to turn it off when using a tripod..
• Prior Set in AWB: A relatively new feature, you can set the white balance to priortize a warmer or cooler look. 
• Aperture Drive in AF: In older models, when shooting AF-C, focus was acquired at shooting aperture. You can now set the camera to behave like a dSLR and acquire autofocus with aperture wide open. It slows down the camera slightly, so I’d stick to the normal standard drive. But if the camera is struggling in low light, you may want to make the switch.

My Menu Page 2 

While not pictured above, I include a couple more settings in my second My Menu page:

• Airplane Mode: Quickly turn off all networking features, which conserves battery power. By default, I tend to try to keep Airplane Mode on.
• S&Q Settings: I’m not a huge fan of Sony S&Q video, which is a quick and easy way to so quasi-slow motion and quasi time lapse. But if I’m going to shoot it, I need to be able to adjust those settings easily. 

 

While these are my custom settings, you should set up your settings based on your own needs.  If you utilize video extensively, you will probably have very different needs than me.  

 

Recommend Accessories for the Sony A7iv 

Camera Strap:

The included neck straps are not the most ergonomic way to carry your camera.   There are much better straps that allow for much better distribution of the weight and more comfortable camera carrying.

Some recommended strap options:

• BlackRapid Cross Body Strap [Amazon/ Adorama]
•  Op Tech Classic Strap [Amazon/ Adorama]
• Peak Design Slide Strap (My current Strap) [Amazon / Adorama]

Extra Batteries / Charger

The Sony A7iv comes with one battery and without a charger, expecting you to charge the battery in-camera. It is useful to have both an external charger and extra battery. A professional wedding photographer will want at least 2 extra batteries:

• Official Sony FZ-100 Battery [Amazon / Adorama]
• Official Sony charger [Amazon / Adorama ]
• Third Party Battery and Charger [Amazon / Adorama]

Memory Cards:

Lagged buffering really is no longer an issue with the Sony A7iv as long as you use the right memory cards. Both card slots accept very fast UHS-II cards, which are considerably faster than regular UHS-I cards..

Purchase at least  UHS-II cards.  (At least 64gb) [Amazon / Adorama]

But card slot 1 also accepts CF Express-A cards. These cards are very expensive but lightening fast. To capture a burst of raw files with absolutely no perceptible buffering, invest in a CF Express Type A card.

CF Express Type A [Amazon / Adorama]

 

Sony A7iv Flash Options

As with most professional level cameras, the Sony A7riv does not have a pop-up flash. Proper lighting is more important than a great lens. 

Flash used properly is still an essential tool.  There are three very affordable flashes that I can highly recommend over the Sony-branded lenses. Note they are branded “Godox” but at Adorama, they are branded “Flashpoint.” They are identical flashes and cross-compatible. 

• Small portable and cheap:  Godox TT 350s,[Amazon / Flashpoint on Adorama]
• Large and very powerful:  Godox V860iii-S [Amazon / Flashpoint on Adorama]
• Large powerful Round Head: Godox VS-1 [Amazon / Flashpoint on Adorama]

I own all three of these flashes in addition to a couple of Godox strobes.  I  use them together wirelessly for great off camera lighting situations.  They are much cheaper than the Sony branded flashes but actually are more powerful with more features.

Tripod

The Sony A7iv is capable of fantastic landscapes with amazing dynamic range.  But if you want to maximize that dynamic range, you want to keep the ISO low.  If you’re shooting in the evening or night, you will need a tripod with reduced shutter speeds in order to get that low ISO. 

Read my article on how to use tripods for night landscapes.  

Tripods can be very cheap or run hundreds of dollars.  Balancing price, durability, portability and size, I’m a big fan of the Manfrotto BeFree Tripod, [Amazon / Adorama] but my newer favorite for light weight and full features is the Peak Design carbon fiber tripod [Amazon / Adorama]. 

For ultra small, portable and affordable, I love the GorillaPod and never travel without it. The 3K GorillaPod [Amazon / Adorama] can safely hold up to 6.6 pounds, enough for a Sony A7r4 and medium-sized lens. It’s small enough to squeeze into most smallish camera bags. 

The 2 second shutter speed for this image required a tripod

Lenses

If you own an interchangeable lens camera, then you should interchange the lenses! The Sony A7IV will be as powerful and versatile as the lenses you pair it with. Stick to the kit zoom lens, and you’ll have an [overpriced] amateur snapshot worthy camera. But paired with the appropriate lenses, the Sony A7iv is a hobbyist/professional level portrait camera, travel camera, landscape camera, sports camera, wildlife camera. 

Having spent $2,500 on a Sony A7iv, you can’t expect to optimize the camera spending just a few dollars on lenses though you can build a very high quality lens kit in a wide budgetary range. Generally, I would say that a serious photography enthusiast should expect the camera body to be about 50% of their budget meaning a $2,500 camera should usually bring an expectation of pairing it with about $2,500 worth of lenses. But this is definitely not a hard and fast rule, one can build a budget kit for $1,000-$1,500 that meets all of their needs, while another enthusiast may appreciate a lens collection that can exceed $10,000.  The lenses listed below run the entire budgetary spectrum, with some excellent value options as well as more premium luxury options. 

So some very basic lens recommendations from someone who has tried and shot with dozens of Sony and third party lenses:

Best basic upgrade lenses:

• Sony 24-105mm F/4. (Reviewed here)(Amazon / Adorama): Major upgrade over the kit lens, covering a good range.
• Alternatively, the Tamron 28-75mm F/2.8 (Amazon / Adorama), for an affordable fast aperture zoom. (Older version reviewed here). 
• Sony FE 35mm F/1.8 (reviewed here)(Amazon / Adorama): A fairly affordable, light weight, very high quality prime for general shooting. 

For the portrait photographer

 I consider myself primarily an outdoor portrait photographer. When I shoot professionally, I’m mostly doing engagement sessions. Personally, I strongly prefer primes when shooting portraits for their sharpness and ability to deliver beautiful bokeh, though there is certainly value in the convenience of  a zoom.  For environmental portraits and tighter settings, you may want something in the 35mm to 50mm range but I’ll focus more on the telephoto choices which are most flattering. So depending on your budget and preferences:

• Sony 85mm/F1.8, (review here)(Amazon / Adorama): If you’re looking for a capable portrait lens on a budget, this is a great choice. A more serious dedicated portrait shooter may want to look at the below choices.  A high quality compact budget choice. 
• Rokinon/Samyang 85mm F/1.4 (review here)(Amazon / Adorama): Great value, this is actually one of the best portrait lenses you will find for Sony. At a similar price to the Sony 85mm F/1.8, this is the lens to get to help you bring your portraits to a higher level. For those looking to elevate portraits on a budget, I HIGHLY recommend this lens. 
• Sony 100mm STF GM (review here)(Amazon / Adorama): A rather

  

  unique portrait lens. For bokeh/depth of field purposes, it is a F2.8 lens but it’s a 5.6 lens for purposes of light gathering. As a result, you need plenty of light or off camera flash. But the results are worth it: Ultra sharp images with the softest creamiest background blur.

• Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM(Review here)(Amazon / Adorama): Probably the most common lens to find among professional Sony portrait shooters. The image quality is outstanding. Focus isn’t the fastest, but build quality surpasses the Rokinon/Samyang. Additionally, bokeh will be rounder and smoother than the Rokinon/Samyang, but I would consider saving money and getting the Rokinon/Samyang. 
• Sony 135mm F/1.8 GM (Review here) (Amazon / Adorama): THIS is my favorite portrait lens that I’ve ever used. It is rather expensive. The longish focal length means you need to be outdoors or in a large studio. But the results from this lens are simply magical. Some sample shots are below. 

• Sony 70-200mm F/2.8 GM: (older model reviewed here)(Amazon / Adorama):  This would be the truly professional portrait lens for zoom shooters, giving you the range for flattering telephoto portraits. I did not love the original version of this lens but it was recently updated greatly improving the image quality and autofocus, while actually significantly reducing the weight. 
• Tamron 70-180mm f/2-2.8: [Amazon / Adorama]: Full disclosure, I haven’t tried this lens yet but it is extremely intriguing as an alternative to the Sony lens listed above. Just sacrificing 20mm on the long end, you save a ton of money and weight. 

Landscape lenses

For most landscape shooting, wide angle lenses are most prevalent. Fortunately for Sony shooters, this is an area with many exceptional first and third party choices. This list could be over 10 lenses long but I’ve tried to trim it to my top 4:

• Sony 16-35mm F/2.8 GM(Review here) [Amazon / Adorama]: This is one of Sony’s best zoom lenses, period. Small and

  

  compact for a 2.8 zoom, it delivers incredible sharpness and contrast. Great for landscapes or for wedding photographers. 

• Sony 12-24mm F/4 G(Review here) [Amazon / Adorama]: My personal favorite travel and landscape lens. See my examples at Universal Studios and Paris. It’s one of the widest lenses you can find, giving your images a more unique look.  Sony now has a 2.8 version but unless you really need the faster aperture (which you usually don’t for landscapes), I’d save some money and weight with the F4 version. 
• Sony 14mm F/1.8 GM [Amazon / Adorama]: I’ve just recently started shooting with this lens and fallen in love. It may replace my 12-24 when I travel. Compact, ultrawide, fast aperture with incredible image quality. It’s expensive but I highly recommend. 
• Sony 24mm F/1.4 GM [Amazon / Adorama] As discussed in my review of the Sony 24mm F/1.4 GM, it is one of the best prime lenses offered by Sony. Relatively affordable for its class, very compact, with stellar image quality. 

 Sports and Wildlife

You will need long telephoto lenses for either sports or wildlife. Particularly for sports, you’ll also want to concentrate on fast aperture so you can shoot faster shutter speeds. 

Among telephoto lenses, the Sony A7riv owner should skip the Sony 24-240mm and the Sony 70-300mm G. While the 70-300 is not a bad lens, I find it overpriced for the image quality it delivers. I would recommend the following:

• Sony 70-200mm F/4 G (Review here)[Amazon / Adorama]: The cheapest lens on the Sony-branded telephoto list. Only F4, but very sharp through the zoom range. It may not be class valedictorian, but it’s a straight A and A- student. 
• Sony 70-200mm F/2.8 GM  [Amazon / Adorama]: See above in the portrait section; this lens has been significantly upgraded in a newer version. 
• Sony 100-400mm F/4.5-5.6 GM(Review here) [Amazon / Adorama]: This was Sony’s first truly professional long telephoto lens. It exhibits “prime like sharpness” with fast autofocus and fantastic overall image quality. The only negatives of the lens are the price and weight.
• Sony 200-600mm F/5.6-6.3 G OSS[Amazon/Adorama] A truly long lens. I personally didn’t love this lens, a bit heavy and expensive for “okay” image quality, but if you are a bird photographer, it may be your best option under $3,000. 
• Sigma 100-400mm: [Amazon / Adorama] My review of this lens is forthcoming. It’s a great alternative to the Sony 100-400, much lower weight and much more affordable. The aperture is slightly slower, but it’s worth it for me to save the money and weight.  As the cheapest lens on the list, it would be my value recommendation for those who want to do some birding on a budget. 
• Sony 400mm F/2.8 GM: This $12,000 lens is outside my price and weight budget. If you’re a professional sports shooter, you don’t need me to tell you that you want this lens. So PLEASE buy it with my link and let me earn a commission. Sony 400mm F/2.8 GM on Amazon / Adorama. 
• Sony 600mm F/4 GM: Maybe 400mm isn’t long enough with you, even after a teleconverter. I guess if you’re a professional bird photographer, you might want to put the teleconverter on the Sony 600mm instead. In fact, I think you should use my links to buy the Sony 400mm F/2.8 AND the Sony 600mm F/4 GM, on Amazon / Adorama. 

. . .  And the Rest

I tried to touch on the categories that might be of the most interest to the enthusiasts who own the Sony A7iv. Wedding photographers and those who want the best general purpose should definitely consider lenses like the Sony 24-70mm F/2.8 GM, Sony 35mm F/1.4 GM, Sony 50mm F/1.4 GM. Serious video shooters may want to consider the Sony 40mm F/2.5 G or 50mm F/2.5 G. Macro shooters, getting those ultra-closeups of bugs, flowers, etc, would appreciate the Sony 90mm F/2.8. And that still leaves a long list of great lenses that I haven’t even touched upon.

My overall advice: Avoid becoming a collector of lenses, you don’t need to own 5 to 10 or more lenses. But do upgrade from the basic kit, focus on your interests and shooting style and upgrade to 2 or 3 lenses that will help your images shine. In the near future, I’ll post an article with my recommendations for a complete high-quality kit for under $1,500. 

Photography Education

Learning photography will pay greater dividends then the investment in any lens or accessory. 

• Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson:  The bible for beginner enthusiast photographers to break down basic rules of exposure and composition.
• Access unlimited eBooks from Amazon including many great photography titles
• Learn to Use Lightroom for organizing and processing your images.  I learned a lot about using Lightroom to process landscapes from YouTube videos by Serge Ramelli.

Post Process

You should shoot RAW, at least some of the time.  The Sony A7iii does produce some very nice jpegs but optimal image quality requires processing images yourself.  Learn how to use Lightroom or another good raw processing software.   I prefer Lightroom as it is intuitive to use and very powerful when used in conjunction with Photoshop.  Lightroom and Photoshop are available as an affordable monthly package.

Thank you for Reading

In the near future, we will be posting our comprehensive review of the Sony A7iv. Though this blog has been quiet for the last year, in early 2022, I expect to post reviews of the Sony 200-600mm, Sigma 100-400mm, Sony 20mm F/1.8, and Sony 14mm F/1.8 GM. I’m always looking for contributors, so if you’d like to write for this blog, please contact me. 

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