If you need a new camera and you are confused about what camera to buy today I’m going to give you a hands-on review of the Sony A7 IV. I can say this is the long-awaited Sony Alpha A7 IV.

Maybe it’s not the resolution monster like the Sony A7R IV not a speed demon like the Sony A1 and no video powerhouse like the A7S III but it is a camera wrapped up into one.

So many people switched from Canon and Nikon DSLRs to the Sony mirrorless cameras and that’s a big reason why Sony is the number one mirrorless camera company.

So, you’re considering a new camera purchase and you think that a new camera will make you a better photographer I can say that isn’t true.

So, a few years ago Sony announced the replacement of its popular A7 III in the form of the A7 IV and it was a really big camera.

I got a chance to test and try to use the camera in several different shooting situations. I have been shooting with this camera for the past couple of weeks and I want to show you all the scenes and my thoughts on this camera.

I have been waiting for this for so long and finally, I can show you the new A7 IV the long-awaited successor.

If I go over the differences with the previous version of the A7 III and whether I think it’s worth the upgrade it’s fixed pretty much it’s one of the best value-for-money hybrid cameras you can buy today.

This is my Sony A7 IV review since I have been using it so that is a long-awaited successor to the Sony A7 III there were so many people moving to sony because A7 III was so affordable and so powerful.

So in this blog, I’m helping you figure out is A7 IV right camera for you I will go through the specs and features of this camera.

1. Sony A7 IV Review

A7 IV has the touch operation very angle high-resolution monitor it has three memories on the shoot mode dial instead of the two that the A7 III had. It has a customizable exposure compensation dial.

It has dual fn menus the focus area color and an anti-dust function, it has a new higher resolution 3.6 million dots EVF, and a faster wi-fi connection up from 2.4, 4.5 gigahertz wi-fi.

There is a faster USB 3.2 double the speed of the USB on the A7 III camera. It has 4k 60p 200m or 600m 422 10 bit video files. It has live streaming including the camera’s digital microphone.

there is a digital audio and active steady shot, touch tracking AF assist focus map separated movie settings, the news cine picture profile, and breathing compensation.

The A7 IV has a cool feature called focus map that visualizes the in focus area and helps users see the appropriate iris for their expected depth of field similar to what was found on the Sony fx6. the AF assist function offers manual focus operation even during autofocus shooting.

the new A7 IV boosts the resolution to 33 megapixels without compromising noise levels it improves the menus and controls increases the viewfinder resolution sports a more comfortable grip and allows the screen to flip out and twist at almost any angle or back in itself with protection.

the A7 IV gains 10 bit video 4k up to 60p or be cropped long recording times not hampered by overheating or half-hour limits full-size HDMI and the chance to work as a USB webcam.

the A7 IV has a deeper grip and it is mostly similar to the grip on the Sony A1.

the A7 IV has two memory card slots both can accept sd s2 cards but only the top one can also accept the new cf express type cards.

shooting speed on the A7 IV is a very interesting topic the official shooting speed of the A7 IV in the compressed raw mod is 10 frames per second just like the A7 III.

And that makes it kind of slow compared to cameras like the 20 frames per second like Canon R6. So, in my testing, I got lower speeds even with a generous one frame per second.

Sony A7 IV Specs

• cf express type a card
• 15 stops dynamic range
• higher resolution 3.6 million dots EVF
• unlimited record time
• real-time tracking autofocus
• focus breathing compensation
• focus map
• weather sealing
• 4k usb streaming

Sony A7 IV Weight

A7 IV is 12 grams heavier than the previous version A7 III because of its new 656 grams battery, I have shot with Canon R6 a couple of days with my friend and realize that the R6 is 40 grams heavier than the A7 IV.

Sony A7 IV Screen

the A7 IV features a fully articulating flippy screen with the same camera body as the A7S III the same touchscreen menu from the A7S III and I think the touchscreen response is much better than the A7 III.

In comparison with A7 III, the A7 IV has a fully articulated touchscreen on the A7 III is vertically tilting in comparison with R6 the screen looks bigger than A7 IV.

the back of the screen looks pretty clean its higher resolution, as well as the viewfinder, is an upgrade in resolution.

The electronic viewfinder is now 3.68 million dots with a 120 frame per second refresh rate certainly a big improvement over the A7 III.

However, for me, the screen looks better on the A7S III and there’s a little bit more contrast on it as well.

the rear screen has a huge upgrade so it’s still by far not the best LCD screen on the market but it works perfectly the colors are good the sharpness is a little bit better.

Sony A7 IV Sensor

A7 IV has a brand new 33 megapixel backside illuminated CMOS sensor if you have using the A7 III this is going to give you a substantial boost in resolution.

This sensor is powered by a bionz xr processor this is the same one that you’re going to find in the Sony A1 and the A7S III but it is not stacked as the Sony A1 has. In comparison with the A7 III, it has 24 megapixels.

It’s not going to be as fast of a scanning sensor but it is paired with 5 stops of image stabilization and 759 face detection autofocus points and the same kind of autofocus algorithms that are found at the Sony A1.

It’s a big improvement for stills photographers which is one-third more than Sony A9. In comparison with A7 III, it has 24 megapixels.

33 megapixels is excellent it enables you to crop in quite a bit more than 24 megapixels on A7 III you could use the aps-c mode and raw with this camera.

the sensor is up from 24 to 33 megapixels with a much more generous aps-c mode size with the fast reliable AF tracking using the newer AF tracking algorithms.

the latest user interface revised controls improved dvf 10-bit 4k up to 60p webcam capabilities and finally a flip out screen that can face forward. It does shoot 10 frames per second but it does only on compressed rose.

the A7 IV can shoot 828 continuous raw and jpeg photos and has real-time eye autofocus for humans animals and birds.

you can shoot 10bit 4 2 2 or 4 2 0 in every resolution and every frame rate with s log 2 s log3 and even s cinetone made it to this camera which is pretty amazing.

the A7 IV sensor captures images measuring 7008 by 4672 pixels you can save images in jpeg or hif the latter in 420 or 422 spaces.

the A7 IV doesn’t have a stacked sensor so it can’t come close to the rolling shutter performance of the alpha 9 or Sony A1 but it’s not worse than the Canon R5 or Canon R6.

A7 IV Autofocus

When it comes to autofocus is one of the biggest improvements over the previous generation. It has the latest real-time autofocus tracking with 759 phase detection autofocus points that are going to give you 94 coverage eof the frame

So it doesn’t do the same 100 coverage as the Canon R6 but 94 is still really good.

A7 IV has a massive upgrade to autofocus the performance coming out of this camera is amazing as well as high-res image quality.

the A7 IV has 40 percent more sharp shots than A7 III because of its improved autofocus system.

So if you’re an action shooter the A7 IV is worth the upgrade focusing on the A7 IV is definitely faster than on the A7 III.

It also does a good job of sticking to the subject whereas the A7 III will wander off to random unrelated things.

the resolution of the A7 IV is actually quite a bit higher than some of the other models that are at a similar price point in comparison with Canon R6 has 20 megapixels, Nikon Z6 II has 24 megapixels it’s almost 50 increase in resolution.

Autofocus Tracking

When it comes to autofocus tracking A7 IV jumps to the eye faster than the A7S III because it has better autofocus and low light compared to the A7S III.

A7 IV has advanced AI based AF real-time tracking iaf lock-on tracking animal AF touch pad focusing and touch to focus.

There is a human iaf in both stills and video mode I found iaf works as well as stills mode it just tracks a subject in the frame.

If you want a much better autofocus system then A7 IV go all the way with GFX 100s or just get a cheaper and frankly much better Sony A7R IV.

It supports eye-tracking for human subjects as well as animals and birds and it does it in stills and video.

Native ISO

when you get to iso 12800 you start to see a little bit more noise on the A7S III and the A7 IV the color is great and they’re actually pretty similar at iso 12800.

when it comes to noise the A7 IV has more detail because that oversampled 4k so the A7 IV competes really well with the A7S III at high iso. If you are shooting s log the A7S III is better at high iso.

A7 IV Menu

speaking of the menu system sony updated the menu system much easier to navigate it’s easier it’s more intuitive looks a little more like the canon menu system.

The A7 IV does have a touch menu which is nice and clean you can bring up your menu from your function button and change your exposure compensation.

there are also dual fn menus and a very angle touch screen for accessing the menus as well as controlling focus settings as well.

the buttons and the dials all feel really nice they’ve had some subtle adjustments to them and the fourth dial is now customizable which is great to see.

Sony A7 IV Body

the sony A7 IV camera body is pretty much the same body as the Sony A7S III except with a bigger grip it even has the same heat dissipating structure.

the A7 IV offers 18 custom buttons and a new rear dial rt hat users can assign 169 different functions to make this body super customizable.

All the buttons are essentially the same as A7S III the only significant thing is that’s a little bit different is the mode dial. It has a bigger grip than its competitors like A7 III, and Sony A7R III but is also slightly tiny bigger than Sony A9 II.

So, when it comes to the physical build the only difference is that the A7S III has exposure compensation markings where the A7 IV doesn’t.

So A7 IV has a very comfortable grip with improved and bigger buttons very comfortable in the hands and this back wheel is improved like on A7R III.

so in this camera, everything is more clicky and it feels great in the hands there’s like few new things regarding the body design itself. So first of all there is a new dial that used to be an exposure compensation dial like it still is set up as default as exposure a compensation dial.

the A7 IV features a full HDMI port a mic jack a headphone jack a USB c port and a micro HDMI port.

the A7 IV features one dual function card slot which is slot one you can use cf express type a or uh s2 sd cards. the second is sd only and for those of you who use cf express type A cards much like the A1.

So the back of the camera is identical to the A7S III custom buttons are in the same place, and they both have a flippy screen.

Storage

So with this camera, you get two SD card slots, but only one of the slots is a CFexpress Type A. Whereas on the A7S III, both of the slots can be used with the CFexpress Type-A. And then on the bottom is located the 1/4″-20 and battery door for the FZ100.

There is a new dial also underneath the mode dial which showed the classic pasm and now there are three custom operations instead of At III which has just only two.

There is a regular microphone input the headphones input or the USB c and a micro USB, there is a full HDMI and two card slots both of them are SDS two card slots.

Mechanical Shutter

With the A7 IV, you’re getting 10 frames a second with the electronic but you’re also getting 10 frames a second with the mechanical shutter. So there’s not 20 frames a second with the electronic shutter it’s 10 and 10.

the new mechanical shutter of the A7 IV can stick with flash up to 1 to 400 of a second so you can get more output from your flash when shooting outdoors during the daytime.

The mechanical shutter of the A7 IV is louder than that of the A7 III and in my testing much louder than that of the Sony A1.

A7 IV has the same variable shutter option as the Sony A1 so if you like to shoot events like in silent shutter you can fine tune the shutter to avoid banding from artificial light in your shots with the same lighting setup.

Rolling Shutter

The Rolling shutter performance on the FX30 is incredibly great it’s a 6K sensor that down samples to 4K it’s not going to be good surely like the A7 IV because of its downfall but they’ve done very well.

Sony A7 IV Image Quality

when it comes to image quality with its new brand sensor and zooming in at 100 is the most beautifully crisp image.

the image quality is very good in the photo and video the images look fantastic I’m surprised at how good the high iso performance is at 50000 iso raw images look great.

the A7 IV has improved ibis with 5.5 stops of image stabilization just like the Panasonic Lumix GH5 the original one had 5.5 stops of ibis. A7 IV has a new active mode for the video which add gyroscope data but crops into 1.1 x which can be problematic especially in 4k 60 when the camera is already cropped in.

in terms of photo colors, looks definitely better than the A7 III it looks similar to like the A7R IV in terms of colors.

the colors of the A7 IV handles in low light the skin tone looks great and there are no crazy color splotches anywhere especially with noise reduction on the lighting.

A7 IV is much more able to focus reliably in low ambient light than the A7 III it has almost a limitless buffer sony is quoting 800 plus raw and jpegs in continuous burst using that cf express type a card.

the stabilizer of the A7 IV stills feels a little better than that of the A7 III despite the increased resolution of the A7 IV the image looks a bit cleaner in higher isos the new screen looks good indoors and outdoors even in sunlight.

Sony A7 IV Video Specs

when it comes to video specs the Sony A1 may be a better option instead of the A7 IV if you’re a hybrid shooter you can go with the Canon R6.

the a74 records in 422 10 bit the footage looks really beautiful and matches the video quality from the A1 and A7S III. So, in 4k I saw that I can record 30 frames per second in full frame 16×9 which makes use of 7k oversampling which is a huge improvement over the A7 III.

it does it in super 35 so there is a crop but the readout is oversampled from 4.6k and it doesn’t use any pixel binning.

If you need full-frame 4k 60 then the Canon R6 gives you that the sony does that with a slight little crop with the Nikon just like the Sony you can get 4k 60p in super 35.

Burst Rate

the A7 IV has 10 fps with both the electronic and the mechanical shutter so when you are shooting compressed raw with A7 IV and going into uncompressed or lossless raw it actually slows down to six frames per second.

So, if you do want to get to 10 frames a second or if you shoot jpeg you will get 10 frames a second in jpeg and you’ll get 10 frames a second in compressed raw.

A7 IV Weight

The A7 IV weighs 656 grams with a battery 12 grams more than the A7 III except the Canon R6 is 40 grams heavier than the A7 IV. The biggest difference is the screen mechanism vertically tilting on the A7 III and fully articulated on the A7 IV not to mention using a slightly wider panel on the A7 IV.

A7 IV Battery Life

A7 IV uses the Sony NP FZ100 battery much-improved battery from the last generation same battery as the A7S III.

So, the battery life of the A7 IV with the NP FZ 100 battery is lower than that of the A7 III at around 580 shots per charge with the LCD and 520 shots using the EVF.

I think you can shoot between an hour and a half and 2 hours of 4K video per charge with the A7 IV depending on the bit rate and other settings.

Sony A7 IV Firmware Update v1.01

• Eye AF feature improvements
• Improvements when not taking photos if you use a sel2860 lens
• Improvement of the stability of the camera

Sony A7 IV Release Date

A7 IV is announced in October 2021 and released 3.5 years after Sony A7 III. A7 IV costs 2500 or 2 600 pounds for the body alone and gently ripping its status as the entry-level model in the time into the A7 III. The A7 IV should start selling in late 2021 for $2500.

Sony A7 IV Price

A7 IV is coming in at $2500 for somebody who’s serious they want to have a full-frame camera. It’s coming with the same price as the Canon R6 and become the first model in this series to sport a side-hinged fully-articulated screen and these cameras are quite comparable.

So, both cameras give a nice log profile 10 bit 422 video where the Canon R6 the 4k 60 is uncropped then it falls behind with its overheating issue especially at 4k 60 and its record limitations of the 29 minute variety.

If you have one of the older cameras it’s a pretty big price jump with a brand new menu system, brand new hardware, brand new sensor with a processor from the Sony A1.

the A7 IV arrives three and a half years after the A7 II which changed the market for full-frame cameras certainly packed into the A7 iii gently ripping its status as the entry-level model in the series but priced it aggressively.

Wrapping Up

the A7 IV is a jump forward in almost any respect compared to the A7 III anything from usability performance features and ergonomics have been improved even compared to the A1.

the A7 IV is a near perfect hybrid full-frame camera that can shoot stunning 33 megapixel photos and beautiful 4k video equally well it’s really right down the middle you should definitely get it.

the 15 stops dynamic range 7k over sampling 4k 60 frames per second, 10 bit 422 video s cinetone 5-axis stabilization, and new features make this camera perfect.

Advantages

the A7 IV has a setting called lens breathing compensation which is basically just fixing this problem with some digital cropping so this is the sony 20 millimeter 1.8 breathing compensation.

• the focus breathing compression
• Real time Eye AF for humans 30% improvement in detection accuracy
• the focus assist
• Smooth White Balance Change
• Stable port doors lugs
• Dial and double decker Switch
• Active stabilization
• Visual Cues
• Loose Ends
• Soft Skin Effects
• Sensor Curtains
• Focus breathing compensated digitally
• Focus Map
• S & Q with 4K
• Touch Menu
• menus with touch capability
• live streaming capabilities
• the streaming with the camera’s microphone
• unlimited recording
• Ergonomics
• Loose Ends
• Stable Lugs and Doors
• Dial and Double Decker Switch

Disadvantages

• Slowing down when shooting raw with two cards
• going from compressed into uncompressed or lossless raw it slows down to six frames per second
• slower readout when shooting with the electronic shutter
• might see some issues with some of the electronic shuttered images

Why You Should Buy Sony A7 IV?

A7 IV has a built-in fan if you want to do some photography if you’re planning on doing lots of long interviews or long shooting then that fan is really important then although the A7 IV can be okay.

A7 IV includes functions such as log shooting mode which allows you to shoot in three different modes when recording an s-log-3 cine eye, cine eye quick, and flexible ISO.

Is Sony A7 IV Great For Video?

the A7 IV isn’t a video camera it does well with video of course it does well with photos it’s a hybrid camera it’s not a cinema camera that has a fast readout sensor or a global shutter sensor but if you need really fast great rolling shutter performance you can stick with the Sony FX3 or you can get the FX6.

Conclusion

the A7 IV is simply enough to shoot pretty much anything the color science on the A7 IV is just amazing you’re getting that over-sampled 7K into that 4K video the autofocus has been really nice as well.

In my experience maybe A7 III is not a camera for wildlife but the A7 IV is great the bird and animal iaf work awesome pictures coming of this camera are sharp and detailed because it’s 33 megapixels enough for wildlife photography.

A7 IV provides the best output of all hybrid cameras in the category and it is quite future-proof thanks to the new 33-megapixel sensor.