ProfHankD
Veteran Member
After being very happy with Sony A7RII bodies as my high-end cameras for some years now, the A7RV finally checked enough additional boxes to make upgrading worthwhile. Overall, the A7RV is a serious contender for best FF camera built thus far by anyone. So, why am I giving it just 4.5 stars?
Let's start with the good stuff in comparison to the still-great A7RII:
Let me rain on the parade a bit by continuing the comparison to the lowly old A7RII:
In summary, Sony seems to have improved a lot from generation to generation in the A7 family, but there are still quite a few things that are more awkward than they should be. The A7RV with a faster electronic shutter readout (and perhaps even dropping the mechanical shutter) and supporting the various firmware/app features that Sony used to have would be a nearly perfect camera. I appreciate that sensor cost might have kept fast readout out of reach, except it didn't blow the cost for the Nikon Z8, and I see no financial benefit to Sony's decisions to continue to omit other firmware features they had in earlier models. Thus, I have to give the A7RV a 4.5/5 because there's important stuff it easily could have done that Sony simply didn't do. I hope, but don't expect, that a firmware update will bring back the missing features, at which time, even without the fast electronic readout, I'd give this a 5/5...
Let's start with the good stuff in comparison to the still-great A7RII:
- This camera handles way better than the A7RII in almost every way; the tilt/flip-out rear LCD, the improved EVF, the much-reduced mechanical shutter sound (and presumably less vibration), stunningly great AF, improved IBIS, a better menu structure, dual card slots, etc. -- the AF in particular is almost magically good even with Tamron lenses like my 28-200mm and 150-500mm
- It can shoot 8K video and does 4K better than the A7RII
- In addition to various raw formats, it can make HEIF (.HIF) image files that compress better than JPEGs while maintaining more detail (except as noted below)
- The sensor is 60MP and pixel shift can deliver up to 240MP using a decent tripod, electronic shutter mode, and a computer to merge the pixel-shifted captures
- The camera can be used as a UVC USB webcam!!! This isn't what you'd buy an A7RV for, but in these post-pandemic days, it's really inexcusable that any camera with a USB interface doesn't allow driverless use with Zoom (and most competitors don't).
Let me rain on the parade a bit by continuing the comparison to the lowly old A7RII:
- The last A7RII I purchased new cost just $1200 -- this camera is 3X the price!
- The A7RV is noticeably larger and heavier than the A7RII
- Aside from 60MP vs 42MP and a couple of awkward pixel-shift modes, the image quality is darn similar to the A7RII -- and rolling shutter isn't reduced, because electronic shutter here isn't faster like it is on competing Nikon and even Canon models (yes, in readout speed, Sony's non-stacked BSI sensor is actually inferior to Canon's latest FSI sensors!)
- The .HIF files are not recognized by most software that handles images, including some that supposedly understand HEIF files; beyond that, the larger dynamic range encoded doesn't use enough bits to retain shadow detail, and Sony's DRO which manages to keep such details in JPEGs barely does anything with .HIF files until around the Lv4 setting -- it seems that Sony didn't appropriately tweak the DRO algorithm for the new HEIF file format, and thus DRO Auto JPEGs retain more shadow detail than HEIF files do!
- The A7RV firmware is actually missing a lot of capabilities the A7RII firmware had, most notably PlayMemories app support and apps (except they did finally bring back the intervalometer app functionality), and it is also missing things like the excellent in-camera panorama modes that were in earlier models
In summary, Sony seems to have improved a lot from generation to generation in the A7 family, but there are still quite a few things that are more awkward than they should be. The A7RV with a faster electronic shutter readout (and perhaps even dropping the mechanical shutter) and supporting the various firmware/app features that Sony used to have would be a nearly perfect camera. I appreciate that sensor cost might have kept fast readout out of reach, except it didn't blow the cost for the Nikon Z8, and I see no financial benefit to Sony's decisions to continue to omit other firmware features they had in earlier models. Thus, I have to give the A7RV a 4.5/5 because there's important stuff it easily could have done that Sony simply didn't do. I hope, but don't expect, that a firmware update will bring back the missing features, at which time, even without the fast electronic readout, I'd give this a 5/5...
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