Should I upgrade to the Sony A7riv?
Like virtually all my readers, I did not attend the Sony press event. I have not used the Sony A7riv. (Sony A7riv on Amazon / Adorama). But as a camera gear lover, blogger, enthusiast photographer, sometimes professional photographer, I am asking myself whether I want to spend $3,500 to update my less-than-2-year-0ld Sony A7riii to the Sony A7riv. My Sony A7riii still works wonderfully and I have absolutely no complaints about the image quality. Feel free to click and pixel peep this below image taken with the A7riii…
Highlights of the Sony A7riv and Reflecting on the Questions
Sony A7r4: High Resolution Beast
Resolution 61mp!!! WOW. That blows past the 46mp of the Nikon D850 and Nikon Z7. Blows past the 50mp of the Canon 5dsr. In a pure statistics battle, it wins by a landslide. Canon is rumored to be introducing a new high resolution model soon but it’s doubtful that it would go much behind this standard.
But is that much resolution a good thing?
I’ve primarily been shooting with the 42mp Sony A7riii for the last 2 years, having stepped up from the 24mp Nikon D750. And the truth is, I rarely use all those extra megapixels. They are occasionally nice for the huge landscape print I may make a couple times per year. They also sometimes give me more room to crop. But in most of my images, the extra megapixels make no positive difference. On the negative side, my hard drives fill up super fast, I’m constantly moving files to external drives. Lightroom runs slower when editing a 42mp image. My whole work flow is slowed down.. and that’s at 42mp.
So do I need 61mp???
In theory, a nice advantage would be the ability to crop substantially and still get nicely sized final images. It could save the size of your kit by lessening the need for a long telephoto. But if you crop significantly, it will show off any weaknesses in the lens. How many of Sony’s lenses can really resolve 61mp of detail?!?! I suspect if you massively crop on a lens like the Sony 70-300mm, you’ll end up with a soft final image.
My biggest question and concern about 61 mp…
It’s easy and honest to conclude that nobody needs 61mp — After all, it didn’t even exist till now. But for me, and many other shooters, there are limited advantages to increasing to 61mp. The large files will slow down my workflow, eat up hard drives, and rarely provide a noticeable benefit. But what if I could use it just when I want to?
On the Sony A7riii, Sony raw shooters could only choose between compressed and uncompressed files. The uncompressed files are massive: over 80mb apiece. The Sony A7riv uncompressed files will easily top 100mb. Compressed raws are still large at 41mb.
To date, Sony has not offered a lossless RAW option, which would allow reduction of file size without quality loss. On their high resolution cameras, Nikon and Canon allowed users to shoot in various raw sizes, effective small and medium raw. The Sony A7riv would be much more appealing to me if I could choose different file size options: if I can shoot raw 61mp for some of my shots, but switch to 24mp files for the majority of my shots.
Maybe the final firmware will have this type of option, so my question:
Will the Sony A7riv allow for different raw file sizes below 61mp?
Image Quality Questions and Concerns
As an advantage, Sony is boasting that even in aps-c crop mode, you get 26mp files. While that’s impressive, it raises other questions. Most modern aps-c cameras are around 24mp, including every Sony A6xxx camera. Meaning, the Sony A7riv has great pixel density (smaller pixels) than aps-c cameras. So I question whether this will impact the image quality in a negative way. At 1:1 magnification, the smaller pixels will likely lead to lesser image quality but 1:1 doesn’t really matter. The question is what happens when you look at the image in comparable sizes. It’s possible that the massive 61mp resolution will bury the noise and outperform prior cameras but it’s also possible that it will lead to resolution a step below the Sony A7riii.
Sony promises 15 stops of dynamic range, an impressive number. But it’s effectively the same as the Sony A7riii.
Why I don’t care about Pixel Shift
According to the press conference, Pixel shift has been improved. When shooting still scenes on a tripod, this technology allows the camera to automatically record multiple images that are shifted by a fraction of a pixel. When these images are combined, it produces an image with the quality of a 240mp capture.
So if 61mp is astounding… 240mp is ummm……
But other than testing it out, I’ve never used pixel shift on the Sony A7riii. There are probably times when it would have produced a slightly better final image. But you can’t compile the raw file in the camera. Instead, you need to use Sony’s clunky imaging edge software to combine the files into a final image.
That’s the improvement Sony should have focused on: Sony should have made it possible for the camera to automatically compile the separate images into a single raw file inside the camera.
Welcome Autofocus Improvements
The Sony A7riv gets the newest autofocus technology first offered in the Sony A6400 and Sony A9. I previously demonstrated real time tracking in the Sony A6400 in videos. I own the Sony A9 as well, and I love the real time tracking combined with real time AF. It effectively changes how I use autofocus. I find myself changing AF modes far less often on the Sony A9. On the Sony A6400, the technology works but the slower process creates a jerky experience in the EVF.
So first question, is the Sony A7riv processor fast enough to handle real time tracking like the Sony A9 or is it jerky like the Sony A6400?
I’m not super concerned. Given this becomes a flagship model, I suspect the real time AF will perform much like it does on the Sony A9.
Other AF improvements are iterative but still good news. The Sony A7riii had 399 phase detect AF points and frame coverage of 68%. AF coverage at the edges of the frame is contrast-detect only, which sometimes causes continuous AF to struggle at the edges of the frame. It appears the Sony A7riv offers over 75% frame coverage with 567 hybrid AF points. This should allow better continuous AF over more of the frame. Sony points out that in aps-c crop mode, you effectively get nearly 100% frame coverage.
Sony also offers a new improvement for video shooting: Real time eye-AF in video. This will likely prove a popular feature with enthusiast and casual videographers.
Body Improvements Sound Good…
A couple specs are almost certainly positive improvements. The EVF improves to 5.76mp resolution. I’m pretty sure that makes it the highest resolution EVF on the market, by far. A question is whether the high resolution will slow down the EVF refresh. But assuming the same EVF speed, the increased resolution should make for an even better user experience.
Dual UHS-II slots is a major improvement. UHS-II SD cards can be much faster than regular SD cards. But if you are simultaneously recording to both card slots, the camera effectively is slowed down to the speed of the slower slot. With the ability to use UHS-II cards in both slots, the camera should become much more responsive, especially when shooting bursts.
There have been questions about the weather sealing on current Sony cameras. Sony claims they have improved the weather sealing. I look forward to seeing testing and analysis of the weather sealing improvements.
The body appears pretty similar to the Sony A7riv but it seems there are some iterative ergonomic improvements. The grip has been re-designed. The AF-on button size has been increased. Hard to tell but it appears other buttons may have been a bit more raised. A new custom dial has been added to the top of the camera.
At first glance, the ergonomics still don’t look as good as the Nikon Z cameras, but still noticeable improvements over the the current generation.
Other things that were fixed.. and some things not?
- One annoying thing on the third generation A7 cameras is that the AF point doesn’t light up, except when focusing. Instead, the focus point is a light gray outline — which can be very difficult to see in the viewfinder. As a result, it can be difficult to find the AF point when using single point autofocus. Early reports suggest this has been fixed.. hoorah….
- But what about a REAL touch screen?? Consumers are used to performing all functions on a responsive touch screen since the first iPhone 12 years ago. Canon and Nikon have adopted touch screens that can access menus, edit photos, fire the shutter, etc. It’s 2019 and on the newest Sony A7riv, the touch screen still has little functionality besides moving the focus point. Considering Sony enjoys the reputation of being the industry innovation leader, their touch screen is stuck in 2005!
- Still no effort to fix the menus? Sony’s menu system is a disorganized mess. Even experienced Sony users can have trouble finding features. I attended a Sony “Be Alpha” event, where the Sony representatives had trouble finding the face detect and eye-AF features in the menus.
Will I personally upgrade to the Sony A7riv?
As a Sony camera blogger, I might consider it, primarily to stay current with the newest Sony cameras. But as a photographer, I’m not too enthusiastic about upgrading at the current time. $3500 is a lot of money for a camera especially if the improvements are minor over my existing camera. I could probably sell my used Sony A7riii for $1800 to $2000. So the update would cost me $1500 to $1700… What would I be getting for that money?
The improvements to the body, from the EVF to the improved grip to the AF-on button and the dual uhs-ii card slows are all factors in favor of upgrading. But none of those factors are big enough to justify the update. The AF improvements look meaningful. Real time AF tracking is excellent, it’s the best subject tracking currently on the market. It definitely simplifies getting excellent autofocus over the current Sony A7riii. But for the most part, AF is quite good on the Sony A7riii.
The real issue is the resolution. If my mouth was watering for 61 megapixels of resolution, I would be pulling out my wallet to pre-order. But as noted above, if I can’t shoot at smaller file sizes, the negatives of 61mp outweigh the positives.
So I implore Sony… 61mp is useless to me, unless I can shoot at smaller size raw, much of the time. Give me the ability to shoot Small-Raw and Medium-Raw, in addition to the 61mp for when needed, and I’d be much more likely to pre-order.
The Sony A7riv can be pre-ordered from Amazon and Adorama.
Finally, with the announcement of the Sony A7riv, the price of the Sony A7riii has been reduced to under $2,500. Considering the Sony A7riii is less than 2 years old, and it was the technology leader at the time of introduction, it is still relevant and one of the best cameras on the market. The Sony A7riii is probably the best camera on the market for under $2500. In fact, with likely similar image quality, the 42mp of the Sony A7riii may be preferable to the massive files of the Sony A7riv. You can see the Sony A7riii on Amazon with extras for under $2400 and on Adorama with extras for under $2500.
Discussion is open below.. Should I upgrade? Do you plan to upgrade?
