Sony A7riv Recommended Lenses and Accessories

Sony A7r4 Lens and Accessory Recommendations

The Sony A7riv (or A7r4) is Sony’s newest high-end camera. Sony truly has two flagship cameras for professionals and high-end enthusiasts, the Sony A9 for sports/action shooters and the Sony A7riv for the ultimate in high resolution and image quality. Meanwhile, a camera like the Sony A7iii remains a very capable professional and enthusiast instrument but it doesn’t press the boundaries of a flagship. 

I previously made recommendations for the Sony A7iii. While there is overlap in uses between the A7iii and A7riv, they ultimately are different instruments, attracting different types of users, and ultimately leading to some different recommendations in building out a kit.

The two biggest differences between the A7riv and A7iii are price and resolution. As of fall 2019, you’re starting to see Sony A7iii bundles for around $1800. (See Sony A7iii bundles on Amazon / Adorama). Meanwhile, the Sony A7r4 is nearly double the price. There are quite a few benefits of the Sony A7r4 over the SonyA 7iii (and the Sony A7riii), but the standout difference is the resolution, at 61 megapixels compared to 24 megapixels. This difference leads to much much bigger file sizes and the high resolution is more demanding on lenses. This can be a factor of confusion at times: No lens ever looks worse on a high resolution sensor when viewed at normal sizes. But more resolution gives more opportunity to pixel peep, print larger, crop more. Without a great lens, you waste this extra resolution.

Benefits of the Sony A7riv

Apart from the high resolution, briefly, the Sony A7riv gives the following benefits over the Sony A7iii and A7riii:

• High resolution EVF, especially compared to the Sony A7iii
• Pixel shift mode for 240mp files (even more resolution!)
• Improved ergonomics, deeper grip, bigger buttons
• Dual UHS-II slots for faster buffering. 
• Real-time autofocus

Recommendation of Which Sony A7x camera:

• If you want the newest and best features and resolution, get the Sony A7riv (Amazon / Adorama)
• For an EVF better than the A7iii, and noticeably more resolution, the Sony A7riii is still a great camera, now at a great price of under $2500. (Sony A7riii on Amazon / Adorama). As of 9/2/19, this link on Amazon gives the Sony A7riii as a bundle for just a little over $2300. An amazing value.
• If your priorities are shooting silently or shooting sports/action, the Sony A9 is a unique instrument, priced about the same as the A7riv. (Sony A9 on Amazon / Adorama)
• If you don’t need the speed or the silent shooting of the Sony A9, you want to save quite a bit of money, the Sony A7iii remains a great all-purpose shooter. (Sony A7iii on Amazon / Adorama). If you look carefully through the Sony A7iii search results on Amazon, you’ll find opportunities to purchase the Sony A7iii for around $1800, so it seems Sony has quietly unofficially started discounting the Sony A7iii.  

Recommended Accessories For Every Sony A7riv Owner:

There are a few items you will find to be critical, or at least very helpful, to get the most out of the Sony A7riv.

• SD Cards: If you shoot with dual slots simultaneously, prior Sony cameras were limited by their slower slot. Now, to maximize performance, you will want fast UHS-II cards in both slots. Given the massive file size of the Sony A7riv, I would recommend 128gb cards, which should give you enough room for some pretty extensive shooting without having to change cards. I’ve had card failures with both Sandisk and Sony cards, but I’ve never had an issue with Amplin memory cards, which are blazingly fast as well as cheaper. So I recommend getting two Amplin 128gb UHS-II cards. 
• Battery: Older Sony cameras ate through batteries. If you are a professional wedding shooter, for example, a camera like the Sony A7rii could go through 4 or more batteries in the course of the day. With the Sony A7riv, you’ll typically be fine with a single battery. But I’d make sure you have at least one back up FZ100 battery. 
• Camera Strap: Don’t even take the included Sony strap out of the box. To get the most out of the Sony A7riv, you probably won’t be using the tiniest lenses. Even if you keep your kit fairly light weight, the included neck camera strap isn’t ergonomic. If you want to carry your camera kit comfortably for hours, get a good cross body strap. I’m a big fan of Peak Design slide camera strap and the Black Rapid Breathe Cross Strap. 
• Rocket blower: Sony mirrorless cameras are dust magnets. Always keep a rocket blower in your bag, give the sensor a blow each time you change lenses. See Rocket Blowers on Amazon. 
• Portable Tripod: Everyone should own a tripod and I won’t tell you which one. You’ll need a tripod for long exposures, for using pixel shift, etc. A nice benefit of mirrorless is the smaller size and therefore portability. To keep my kit small and portable, I often travel with a Gorillapod. They come in different sizes, but the Joby Gorillapod 3K is very portable and can handle the Sony A7riv with small to medium sized lenses. 

Flash System for the Sony A7riv

I see no reason to pay a premium for Sony branded flashes, when Godox is the better and cheaper system. Experienced portrait shooters know that proper use of flash is more important than an expensive lens. I would mix and match the following to build a full lighting system:

• Godox V860ii-s: A powerful general purpose flash with built-in wireless capabilities. 
• Godox V1-S: Powerful general purpose flash, wireless capabilities, with large rounded flash head. 
• Godox AD200: A super portable off-camera strobe. Not the most powerful strobe on the market, but it is the most portable, with re-chargeable battery and built-in wireless ability to communicate with all other Godox flashes and accessories. 
• Godox Xpro-S: The trigger/commander to control a whole array of Godox flashes and strobes. 

Lens Recommendations for the Sony A7riv

I’ve extensively used, tested and reviewed almost every Sony FE lens, as well as quite a few third party lenses. You shouldn’t expect to spend $3,500 on the Sony A7riv, just to pair it with a couple cheaper kit lenses. While there are some value lenses, which I’ll cover below, you’ll want to concentrate on lenses that really exploit the 61 megapixel goodness. There are some lenses I might recommend for a casual shooter using the A7iii, I’m assuming buyers of the A7riv are pros and enthusiasts who want the best. 

I’m confident that every lens I recommend will sing on the Sony A7riv. 

Before I get into specific lens uses, let me go through some of the bargains, relatively speaking:

Best Bargain Lenses for the Sony A7riv

Most of the best lenses are priced above $1,000. Each of the lenses listed below are priced well under $1,000, but will still show amazing sharpness on the Sony A7riv. 

• Rokinon/Samyang 35mm F/1.4: My review of the Rokinon 35mm F/1.4 found it to be sharper than the much more expensive Sony Zeiss 35mm F/1.4. The website Opticallimits.com recently came to the same conclusion. See the Rokinon 35mm F/1.4 on Amazon. 
• Rokinon/Samyang 85mm F/1.4: Sticking to the Samyang/Rokinon brands, you find some real values. Their lenses are rapidly improving, becoming competitive if not

  

  better than the first party Sony lenses. As explained in my review of the Rokinon/Samyang 85mm F/1.4, it’s much cheaper than the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM, very competitive in image quality, while being even lighter. With more formal testing, the website lenstip.com recently found the lens offered near record breaking sharpness, superior to the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM. See the Rokinon/Samyang 85mm F/1.4 on Amazon.

• Sony FE 35mm F/1.8: As of this writing, I have just started reviewing and testing the new Sony 35mm F/1.8 from Sony. While it’s “only” a 1.8 aperture lens, I’ve been floored by the sharpness of this lens. It is much sharper than the Sony Zeiss 35mm F/1.4 or the Rokinin 35mm F/1.4 mentioned above. I find it superior overall to the Sony Zeiss 55mm F/1.8, while being priced lower. It’s not exactly cheap, but it’s well below the $1,000 threshold for this section. See the Sony 35mm F/1.8 on Amazon. 
• Tamron 28-75mm F/2.8: It won’t deliver prime-like sharpness, but it’s the best standard zoom you will find for your Sony A7riv under $1,000. As indicated in my review of the Tamron 28-75/2.8, it’s very competitive with the Sony 24-70mm F/2.8 GM, at much lower price and weight. See the Tamron 28-75mm F/2.8 here. 

Best Landscape Lenses for the Sony A7r4

• Sony 16-35mm F/2.8 GM: This is one of Sony’s best lenses, period. Small and

  

  compact for a 2.8 zoom, it delivers incredible sharpness and contrast. No question it can handle the Sony A7riv. 

• Sony 12-24mm F/4 G: 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. 
• Sigma 14mm F/1.8 ART: While I haven’t personally used or tested this lens, it has an amazing reputation. It’s the ideal lens for astro photography landscapes. 
• Tamron 17-28mm F/2.8: This is the “value” entry in the bunch, giving you 2.8 aperture for just under $1,000. It’s not as wide as the other options, but still a very useful range for landscape shooting.
• Sigma 14-24mm F/2.8 Art lens: This is the first Sigma zoom lenses that is specifically for full frame mirrorless. I generally never recommended earlier Sigma lenses because they were unnecessarily large for mirrorless. But the Sigma 14-24mm F/2.8 is a reasonable 795 grams. 
• Sony 24mm F/1.4 GM:  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. 

 

General Purpose / Normal Zooms and Primes

“Normal” for a focal range is typically considered in the ballpark of 30 to 70mm for full frame. While many people like to use a zoom lens as a “walk around,” it can also be freeing to just use a normal view prime lens, capturing the same perspective you are generally seeing with your own eyes.  For most shooters, the lenses on this list may get the most use.

• Sony 24-105mm F/4 G: The Sony 24-70mm F/4 isn’t sharp enough to really get full value out of the Sony A7riv, but the Sony 24-105mm F/4 G shouldn’t disappoint. Relatively affordable with a convenient 4x zoom, the Sony 24-105mm F/4 G is a good general purpose zoom. 
• Sony 24-70mm F/2.8 GM: Simply the best standard zoom you can get for Sony; nothing else to say. 
• Tamron 28-75mm F/2.8: From our value section above, it’s not as good as the Sony 24-70mm F/2.8. You also lose the 24mm wide angle, but if you want to save a ton of money, it’s an acceptable choice. See the Tamron 28-75mm F/2.8 here. 

Normal Focal Length Primes:

• Sony Zeiss 50mm F/1.4: In many ways, I consider this Sony’s first GM lens, but released before they started the GM moniker. The downside is focus is a bit slow, but it offers unparalleled image quality in the focal length. 
• Sony Zeiss 55mm F/1.8: This is a fan favorite of Sony shooters, offering amazing sharpness in a tiny package.  It’s not flawless, particularly suffering from bad color fringing. It’s a bit overpriced. But it’s an excellent lens for the Sony system and Amazon even has it used for under $700. 
• Rokinon/Samyang 35mm F/1.4: From our value section above. It might be cheaper,

  

  but the image quality will shine on the Sony A7r4. See the Rokinon 35mm F/1.4 on Amazon. 

• Sony FE 35mm F/1.8: Also from the value section above: The lens has the same strengths and weaknesses as the Sony Zeiss 55mm F/1.8, but the strengths are even stronger. It may be the best 35mm lens I’ve personally used for Sony, despite only being 1.8 aperture. It’s also very low weight, making it great as a walk around lens.
• Sigma 35mm F/1.2 Art: This lens falls into the special category. I haven’t tested it yet. It’s pretty big and heavy, which isn’t appealing to me. But it’s the only 1.2 aperture lens available for Sony with autofocus. You want 61mp images that standout, this may be the lens that helps you get there. 

Portrait Prime Lenses for the Sony A7riv

Sony shooters are spoiled by a plethora of choices for dedicated portrait lenses. Most of the choices are exceptional lenses. Ideally, I like shooting portraits between 85mm and 135mm, for proper compression and working distances. Most of my part-time professional work is portraits, and I’ve used almost every Sony portrait lens. Pretty much every prime lens made by Sony (and some third party options) will hold up well on the Sony A7r4, but I’ll share some subjective thoughts. While you can get decent results with the affordable Sony 85mm/F1.8, if you’re a serious portrait shooter, I’d pick one of the lenses below to make the most out of the Sony A7riv and the 61mp resolution sensor:

• Rokinon/Samyang 85mm F/1.4: Straight from the value section above, 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.
• Sony 100mm STF GM: This is a rather unique lens and has become my favorite

  

  portrait lens lately. 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: 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: My testing and review of this lens is pending. By all reports, it’s the most perfect portrait lens made by Sony to date. Expect faster autofocus than the 85mm F/1.4 GM. The downside of a 135mm lens is that it can require quite a bit of working distance. 

Best Telephoto Lenses for the Sony A7riv

Telephoto lenses are most typically thought of for capturing sports, wildlife and distant detail. Even though they lack the aperture of prime lenses, longer telephoto lenses make excellent portrait lenses, with the telephoto focal length creating flattering compression and background blur. Many landscape shooters even enjoy the look of compression for telephoto landscapes. 

Among telephoto lenses, the Sony A7riv owner should skip the Sony 24-240mm and the Sony 70-300mm G. The latter being the only “G” lens not really up to the standards of the Sony A7riv. While it’s not a bad lens and can be useful, you will be wasting the superb resolution of the Sony A7riv. That leaves the following telephoto lenses that I would indeed recommend:

• Sony 70-200mm F/4 G: The cheapest lens on the 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: I have some question marks after my review of the lens,

  

  but sharpness isn’t one of the questions. The Sony 70-200mm F/2.8 will sing at 61mp. This is standard gear for sports photographers and many wedding photographers. 

• Sony 100-400mm F/4.5-5.6 GM: It’s not coincidence that Sony announced this lens alongside the Sony A9: 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: A truly long lens. For a bird photographer shooting with the Sony A7riv, this is the lens to get. I haven’t tested it yet, but as a brand new Sony “G” lens, I’m confident in its ability on the Sony A7riv. As of this writing, it’s unavailable on Amazon, but you can see the Sony 200-600mm on Adorama. 
• 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. 

Macro Lens

Sony only has 2 native macro lenses. Standing for professional build and image quality, get the Sony 90mm F/2.8 G Macro. 

Unmentioned Lenses

There may be some excellent lenses I didn’t mention. Feel free to comment below and yell at me. While there may be some oversights, for the most part, if I didn’t mention a lens, it’s for a good reason. For example, most current Sigma ART lenses are unnecessarily heavy for the Sony system. Zeiss Batis lenses are exceptional but they tend to be overly expensive for moderate aperture lenses. For example, I see no reason to spend over $1,000 on a Zeiss Batis 40mm F/2 when I can get the exceptional Sony 35mm F/1.8 for around $750. I excluded a few first party Sony lenses, where I have doubts about their ability to stand up to 61mp sensors, or because the lenses just aren’t up to the standards that should come with buying a $3,500 camera.

 

My Personal Dream Sony A7riv Kit:

I’m fortunate to many of these pieces already. Being realistic about my personal shooting style and needs, my ideal lens kit to match with the Sony A7riv:

• Sony A7riv – Amazon / Adorama
• Sony 12-24mm F/4 G – Amazon /Adorama
• Sony 24-105mm F/4 G – Amazon / Adorama
• Sony 100-400mm F/4.5-5.6 GM – Amazon / Adorama
• Sony 35mm F/1.8 – Amazon / Adorama
• Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM – Amazon / Adorama
• Sony 100mm F/2.8 GM STF – Amazon / Adorama

If budget wasn’t a real issue, those are the lenses I would keep for my personal use. 

Final Recommendations

The Sony A7riv, all the lenses on this page, will not make you a better photographer. Even the most experienced and best photographers should always be learning. I’ll assume that most Sony A7riv buyers are already quite experienced advanced photographers, but if you do need a primer, I fully recommend the book Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. And of course, I recommend following this blog!

Thank you for reading, comments welcome below.