Autofocus is such a broad subject, with different subjects requiring different modes and different photographers preferring different approaches, that it's almost impossible to give a comprehensive and definitive assessment of its performance. We have used the camera in a variety of situations and with different lenses but cannot cover every aspect of the camera's performance. Social and everyday photography Still images: 1/8000 to 30 s, Bulb, Movies: 1/8000 to 1/4 (1/3 steps), up to 1/50 in AUTO mode (up to 1/25 in Auto slow shutter mode) So perhaps it comes down to this: how much of the A7 IV’s extra capabilities do you need, and is it worth the big jump in price to get them? How we test cameras The Sony A7 IV has big shoes to fill as its predecessor, the A7 III, is/was a terrific all-rounder. It is better than the A7 III in just about every respect – however, given current A7 III prices, the A7 IV is also considerably more expensive.

Sony A7 IV review | Digital Camera World

In addition, even with subjects the camera hasn't been trained to recognize, the a7 IV uses pattern detection, subject color and brightness to help it stay focused on the subject you selected.Video is similarly impressive, with a host of tools to support high-quality video capture. While video industry-standard features such as waveforms are absent, the a7 IV makes solo shooting easier by extending its impressive AF capabilities to video mode. Only the slightly jerky stabilization counts against what is otherwise a very powerful camera. XAVC HS compatible editing software is required. XAVC HS format uses the MPEG-H HEVC/H.265 high-efficiency codec. But if you do shoot a fairly balanced mix of photos and video, and need a powerful hybrid camera that'll last you for years, then the Sony A7 IV should be right at the top of your shopping list. However, we did find that the a7 IV can tend to very slightly front-focus when using Face/Eye detection, leaving the eye-lashes perfectly in focus but the pupil very slightly soft. This isn't going to be an issue for everyday social photography, but if you're trying to shoot portraits with shallow depth-of-field, the a7 IV doesn't seem to be quite as dependably accurate as the previous generation of Sony cameras.

IV vs A7 III: the 12 key differences | Digital Camera Sony A7 IV vs A7 III: the 12 key differences | Digital Camera

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. As always, these figures are more useful for comparing cameras, rather than getting an idea of exactly how many shots you'll get (in our experience, getting double the rated number isn't unusual with a new battery). We tend to find a rating of over 500 shots per charge means not really having to worry about battery life in anything but the most intensive pro sports or wedding shoots. USB charging and power delivery are only supported via the USB Type-C® terminal. A battery must be installed in the camera when supplying USB power. The internal battery may drain even if USB power is supplied, depending on the adaptor used and camera operating conditions. The a7 IV's extensive customization and power come at the cost of complexity, though. Once you've explored the camera and configured it the way you want, you can ignore much of what lurks in the menus and just get out and shoot. But the ability to define virtually every behavior can be overwhelming. Even as an experienced enthusiast shooter, it was the simplicity of the AF system I appreciated much more than the extensive (excessive?) level of customization the camera offers.The divider frame is a still image and will not be visible when only movie files are being displayed. Divider frames are created in JPEG format, even when shooting RAW, RAW+JPEG, or HEIF images. For me the camera is a gold because it gives me the tilt-and-swivel screen, the battery, the twin card slots and the lifeline to carry on using all my legacy A mount glass via an affordable adapter. The Sony A7 IV is an extremely powerful, extremely advanced camera with state of the art autofocus, a huge buffer depth and very good video features. It can also be quite complex to set up and use. The A7 IV makes extraordinary things possible, but it doesn’t necessarily make them easy.

Sony Alpha 7 IV Full-frame Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens Sony Alpha 7 IV Full-frame Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens

And the point is - this products are not essential, compared to the smartphones or petrol for example! If you shoot video with this camera all the time, you’ll soon have it eating out of the palm of your hand, but if you’re a once-a-month video dabbler, you’re going to have to put some time in learning exactly what’s what, and where it is. Much has changed in the eight years since the original a7 was launched: with Sony now far from alone in offering a modern full-frame mirrorless camera. Technology has made huge leaps forward, too, with autofocus, in particular, improving in terms of speed, sophistication and simplicity, to the point that no one would now suggest DSLRs retain the upper hand. The a7 IV offers two levels of stabilization: Standard and Active. Standard uses the camera's in-body stabilization (or lets a stabilized lens take over some kinds of correction), whereas Active crops in and adds a level of digital correction as well. Sony says that the new A7 IV has better noise control at high ISO settings than the older A7 III. Nevertheless, the maximum (expanded) ISO setting is the same at ISO 204800 for stills. Interesting, the A7 IV offers an expanded maximum for video that’s 1EV lower at ISO 102400, where the A7 III’s stills and video ranges were the same. We look forward to testing the new camera to see if there are visible real-world differences. 3. Continuous shooting

Design and Build Quality

Battery life is, again, solid rather than spectacular. The official CIPA rating is 520 shots per charge (when using the electronic viewfinder). While that's actually a 15% drop from the Sony A7 III, we found that estimate to be a little conservative and it can shoot 4K video for around two hours. In our tests, it managed to shoot 4K/60p for two hours and 20 minutes with no overheating, and a few minutes longer in 4K/24p mode before the battery died. Sony A7 IV review: image and video quality Still, while the Canon EOS R6 is likely a better choice if you spend a lot of time holding down the shutter and shooting speeding objects, the A7 IV is still more than good enough for wildlife shooting. Both cameras have twin UHS-II compatible SD card slots, but the A7 IV has a crucial difference – one of these slots can also take even faster CFexpress Type A cards. These are smaller (and ultimately slower) than the CFexpress Type B cards used by other cameras, and so far it’s only Sony that has used this smaller format – but this does help give the A7 IV its significant performance advantages over the A7 III. 12. Connectors Full-width 4K video takes around 26.5ms, 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.