Sony Alpha 7 IV | Full-Frame Mirrorless Camera ( 33MP, Real-time autofocus, 10 fps, 4K60p, Vari-angle touch screen, Large capacity Z battery ), Black

Product Information

But there's a lot more to talk about with image quality, so let's move onto the next section. Visiting a new location with the newest Sony camera

The Sony A7 IV and A7R IVA do two different jobs. It would be wrong to say one is 'better' than the other. (Image credit: Sony) It's supplied with the FE 28-70mm f3.5-5.6 OSS Standard Zoom Lens. Compact and lightweight, it's the ideal all-round lens for landscapes, portraits and snapshots, with a wide zoom range for honing in on your subject. And built-in Optical SteadyShot keeps your imagery sharp and stable.We’ve no such complaints about the autofocus. The eye AF is just uncannily good, and Sony’s remarks about fast refocusing are justified. Lab results The Sony A7 IV offers a range of 11 Picture Profiles which are available when shooting JPEG and/or Raw files. There’s a third option: Sony’s free Catalyst desktop software, which uses gyroscope data captured during filming to digitally stabilise the footage post-production and it also crops the image slightly. Catalyst stabilisation obviously requires a bit more work to achieve, but I think it offers a much better result than Standard and slightly better than Active. If you’re looking for the smoothest handheld footage, don’t discount it.

The a7 IV also offers the ability to live stream video over its USB connection using the audio and video standards (UVC/UAC) that are part of the USB standard. This allows a choice of HD or FullHD resolutions with FullHD available at up to 60fps. There's also a 4K option but this only supports 15 frames per second, which gives a dreadful stop-motion look to the footage. Connection is designed to be as simple as possible, using the Imaging Edge Webcam software for Mac or PC. A connection via smartphone is also possible, though audio may not be available at resolutions above HD (720). HEIF 10-bit stills The Sony A7 IV and A7R IV/A are so close in size and weight that they can be hard to tell apart. The body of the A7 IV is very slightly wider and the A7R IV/A is marginally heavier, but you’re unlikely to notice. The A7 IV does have some differences in the controls and interface that improve its usability for video. 8. Price The a7 IV uses the same NP-FZ100 battery as the a7 III and other more recent Sony cameras. It's a usefully hefty unit that, combined with the relatively modest viewfinder res, lets the a7 IV achieve a CIPA battery life rating of 580 shots per charge using the rear screen and 520 shots per charge using the EVF.In the space of eight years, the a7 series has gone from being a low-cost full-frame camera with rough edges and autofocus that lagged its DSLR peers to producing one of the most all-around capable cameras we've ever used. There are few photo or video activities the a7 IV can't turn its hand to, comfortably. The Alpha A7 IV offers the fastest 5GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity, in-camera USB streaming, dual UHS-II SD-cards and CFexpress Type A memory card slots, 610-shot battery life and USB-C charging.

Let’s take a closer look at that new collar control on the A7 IV which lets you select between stills, movies and the S&Q mode. By default each mode shares the same exposure settings, but delve into the Customisation in the Setup menus and you’ll find options to enable separate settings for stills and movies, which saves lots of time for anyone who regularly switches between them. Note if you push the movie record button during stills mode though, the video will inherit the stills settings. However, Sony's habit of keeping older models in its lineup means they're both still available. And, because the a7 IV is new, and still commanding its full MSRP, whereas the a7R III has been marked-down to sit below the fourth 'R' model, it seems like they'll be comparable in price, at least at the moment.Full-width 4K video takes around 27.4ms, which is comparable with the other models in its class. Like most of its rivals, it's likely the camera is dropping to 12-bit readout for video mode, but the process of downsampling from 7K to 4K should reduce noise and hence prevent DR dropping to ~12EV. 60p footage has a rolling shutter rate of around 12.8ms, which is low enough to avoid distortion of all but the fastest movement. Both of the a7 IV's slots accept SD cards (up to UHS-II type), with the top slot also having an inner recess that accepts CFexpress Type A cards. There's only one slow-mo video mode that requires the use of CFexpress cards: everything else can be written to V90 SD cards.