After three years, Sony has finally announced the latest upgrade to their A7 series—the Sony A7 IV. This long-awaited camera has been rumored and talked about for quite some time and we are here to divulge all the nitty-gritty details. For the last three years, the Sony A7 III has been the standard mirrorless camera for hybrid shooters. Now, the A7IV is the perfect middle ground between the A7S III and the A7R IV.
Resolution & Processing Power
The full-frame resolution in the A7 IV has jumped from the industry basic 24.2MP to a 33MP back-illuminated Exmor R CMOS sensor. This 33MP sensor delivers improved color reproducibility, low-noise performance, 15+stop dynamic range and increased AF (autofocus) performance.
The new BIONZ XR processing engine provides up to an 8x increase in processing speed. This new processor will improve autofocus, image recognition and image quality. Due to the increase in buffer capacity it can process over 800 uncompressed RAW+JPEG, and allows for faster write speeds. When it comes to continuous shooting, users can shoot up to 10FPS with either mechanical or electronic shutters while using AF tracking. Users will also find a faster interface, network and file management process.
4K 60p, 4:2:2 10-bit Recording
Video has been improved with 4K 60p, 10-bit depth and 4:2:2 color sampling. For clearer video, there is 7K oversampling at 4K 30p 10-bit 4:2:2 with no pixel binning. Videographers will be happy to know it comes with S-Gamut3 and S-Gamut3.Cine color which makes it easy to match Alpha 7 IV footage with footage from VENICE digital cinema cameras or Cinema Line cameras like the FX6 and FX3. It also comes equipped with S-Cinetone made famous on Sony's cinema line of cameras for beautiful and natural skin tones and highlights while simplifying the post production workflow by processing the video in camera. Webcam functionality is also made easy with a simple USB connection.
Fast Hybrid Autofocus
Sony has been known to lead the industry in autofocus performance and the A7 IV follows suit. This new AF system comes from Sony's flagship A1 camera. It comes with improved real-time Eye AF for humans, animals and birds by simply setting the detection type. Real-time tracking is also available for video.
Camera Ergonomics and Design
The form factor is similar to the recent A7S III but with a few changes to some of the dials. Some of these changes include the replacement of the exposure compensation dial to the fully customizable rear R-dial. Instead of including the Still/Movie/S&Q settings to the top MODE dial, Sony has added a lower layer for these settings. Like the Sony A7S III and A1, it features a 1.03 million dot vari-angle touchscreen.
It has 5-axis optical image stabilization and a robust magnesium alloy body for high-performance weather sealing. It comes with dual card slots, supporting UHS-I and UHS-II SD cards and CFexpress Type A cards. For videographers concerned with overheating, efficient heat dissipation is provided by Sony's proprietary Σ (sigma)-shaped thermal mounting and allows for an unlimited video recording.
The Sony A7IV is available for pre-order and priced at $2,499.99 body only. It's estimated to ship out December 30th.