Sony Introduces a7R IV

E.J. Peiker wrote:If I can get one of these in time for my October/November trip to Tasmania, I will conduct a thorough field test of 20 days of shooting everyday in all sorts of conditions and including landscapes, wildlife/birds, and culture.  Crossing my fingers!

This answers a question I was going to ask you "Now that you're using the a7R3 as a travel/hiking camera will you upgrade?"

rene wrote:Not a bad price considering but I do not see for now the need for a camera with 61mio pixels for wildlife photography. Besides the camera investment, you will also need significant investments in computer hardware to deal with the files.
Rene

With all respect, I've been reading this exact comment since cameras went above 6 mpixels

Sample images (full size):

Sony Alpha A7R Mark IV Full-Size Sample Photos

Surprised that they still don’t have a fully articulated display. Personally, I would have preferred a mkIV with a A9 focusing system and an updated 42 MP sensor.

Joerg

I no longer own a Sony camera but if I did the lockable Exposure Comp dial would be on my list of things that Sony needed to listen to. As usual they did.

I'm holding out for the cropped "mini-A9" that they've hinted at before I'll consider this camera. Although if the AF is top-notch and viewfinder blackout isn't a problem, this camera will probably work well left in crop mode for birds and such.

Kudos to Sony for really pushing the envelope.

I guess the query for Nikon users is when will a decent adapter be available to use Nikkor lenses with Sony bodies......

According to Adorama a7R4 will be available for pre-order July 18th at 10AM EDT for those interested. I would assume that the same holds true for all stores. Remember this is for pre-order there is no mention of when these cameras will start being delivered.

There's still one problem. According to some chatter (not really confirmed since not many people at the presentation
commented about it) that when buffer clears you still can't do anything.
I'd like to know if this is true and if yes how long it takes to clear the buffer.
You would think that this camera would operate at least like Nikon D500 when it comes to clearing buffer or at least
like D850.

signgrap wrote:According to Adorama a7R4 will be available for pre-order July 18th at 10AM EDT for those interested. I would assume that the same holds true for all stores. Remember this is for pre-order there is no mention of when these cameras will start being delivered.

a7R4 first shipments are currently scheduled for Sept. 12, 2019.

Andrew_5488 wrote:There's still one problem. According to some chatter (not really confirmed since not many people at the presentation
commented about it) that when buffer clears you still can't do anything.
I'd like to know if this is true and if yes how long it takes to clear the buffer.
You would think that this camera would operate at least like Nikon D500 when it comes to clearing buffer or at least
like D850.

What do you mean you can't do anything?  That issue was largely solved with the a7R3.  It was a big problem with the a7R2...

E.J. Peiker wrote:

Andrew_5488 wrote:There's still one problem. According to some chatter (not really confirmed since not many people at the presentation
commented about it) that when buffer clears you still can't do anything.
I'd like to know if this is true and if yes how long it takes to clear the buffer.
You would think that this camera would operate at least like Nikon D500 when it comes to clearing buffer or at least
like D850.

What do you mean you can't do anything?  That issue was largely solved with the a7R3.  It was a big problem with the a7R2...

I thought I heard that big issue with A7r3 was that when buffer was clearing you couldn't really do anything. You had to wait until it's finished.
Isn't that true ? How long does it take for buffer to clear on A7r3 ?

Andrew_5488 wrote:

E.J. Peiker wrote:

Andrew_5488 wrote:There's still one problem. According to some chatter (not really confirmed since not many people at the presentation
commented about it) that when buffer clears you still can't do anything.
I'd like to know if this is true and if yes how long it takes to clear the buffer.
You would think that this camera would operate at least like Nikon D500 when it comes to clearing buffer or at least
like D850.

What do you mean you can't do anything?  That issue was largely solved with the a7R3.  It was a big problem with the a7R2...

I thought I heard that big issue with A7r3 was that when buffer was clearing you couldn't really do anything. You had to wait until it's finished.
Isn't that true ? How long does it take for buffer to clear on A7r3 ?

That was on the a7R2.  There are some things you can't do on the 3 but you can certainly keep shooting, just at a slower frame rate just like a Nikon camera.  There are some menu items that are locked out.  The problem with the 2 was that you literally could not do anything.  As for buffer clearing speed, it's about on par when taking into account the resolution for the time that the camera was introduced.  The D850 being introduced a year later is a bit faster in that regard largely due to using XQD cards.  The a7R3 was saddled with one of the slots being UHS 1 so if you had a second card in the UHS 1 slot, the entire camera slowed to UHS 1 speeds.  Since the a7R4 has two UHS 2 slots, that shouldn't be as big of a problem if you are using really fast cards like the 250 to 300MB/s cards.

E.J. Peiker wrote:

Andrew_5488 wrote:

E.J. Peiker wrote:

Andrew_5488 wrote:There's still one problem. According to some chatter (not really confirmed since not many people at the presentation
commented about it) that when buffer clears you still can't do anything.
I'd like to know if this is true and if yes how long it takes to clear the buffer.
You would think that this camera would operate at least like Nikon D500 when it comes to clearing buffer or at least
like D850.

What do you mean you can't do anything?  That issue was largely solved with the a7R3.  It was a big problem with the a7R2...

I thought I heard that big issue with A7r3 was that when buffer was clearing you couldn't really do anything. You had to wait until it's finished.
Isn't that true ? How long does it take for buffer to clear on A7r3 ?

That was on the a7R2.  There are some things you can't do on the 3 but you can certainly keep shooting, just at a slower frame rate just like a Nikon camera.  There are some menu items that are locked out.  The problem with the 2 was that you literally could not do anything.  As for buffer clearing speed, it's about on par when taking into account the resolution for the time that the camera was introduced.  The D850 being introduced a year later is a bit faster in that regard largely due to using XQD cards.  The a7R3 was saddled with one of the slots being UHS 1 so if you had a second card in the UHS 1 slot, the entire camera slowed to UHS 1 speeds.  Since the a7R4 has two UHS 2 slots, that shouldn't be as big of a problem if you are using really fast cards like the 250 to 300MB/s cards.

That's great to hear. I hope menu items which you can't access are not the ones which are changed the most.
If AF is really the same as on A9 then only one thing remains.
Is new 600mm f4 good with 1.4x and 2x teleconverters? And then how it stacks against Nikon 800mm FL.
Because if it's close then it's no brainer it's a setup to get for wildlife and bird photography.

Andrew_5488 wrote:

E.J. Peiker wrote:

Andrew_5488 wrote:

E.J. Peiker wrote:

Andrew_5488 wrote:There's still one problem. According to some chatter (not really confirmed since not many people at the presentation
commented about it) that when buffer clears you still can't do anything.
I'd like to know if this is true and if yes how long it takes to clear the buffer.
You would think that this camera would operate at least like Nikon D500 when it comes to clearing buffer or at least
like D850.

What do you mean you can't do anything?  That issue was largely solved with the a7R3.  It was a big problem with the a7R2...

I thought I heard that big issue with A7r3 was that when buffer was clearing you couldn't really do anything. You had to wait until it's finished.
Isn't that true ? How long does it take for buffer to clear on A7r3 ?

That was on the a7R2.  There are some things you can't do on the 3 but you can certainly keep shooting, just at a slower frame rate just like a Nikon camera.  There are some menu items that are locked out.  The problem with the 2 was that you literally could not do anything.  As for buffer clearing speed, it's about on par when taking into account the resolution for the time that the camera was introduced.  The D850 being introduced a year later is a bit faster in that regard largely due to using XQD cards.  The a7R3 was saddled with one of the slots being UHS 1 so if you had a second card in the UHS 1 slot, the entire camera slowed to UHS 1 speeds.  Since the a7R4 has two UHS 2 slots, that shouldn't be as big of a problem if you are using really fast cards like the 250 to 300MB/s cards.

That's great to hear. I hope menu items which you can't access are not the ones which are changed the most.
If AF is really the same as on A9 then only one thing remains.
Is new 600mm f4 good with 1.4x and 2x teleconverters? And then how it stacks against Nikon 800mm FL.
Because if it's close then it's no brainer it's a setup to get for wildlife and bird photography.

Don't expect the AF to be the same as the A9...it may be similar but the A9 is faster at everything because of less resolution and faster read out speeds of the stacked sensor.

That's just speculation Mike, there is nothing published on the readout speeds of this new sensor.

Andrew, the Sony TCs so far have been found to be exceptional, even on zoom lenses like the 100-400 which can not be said for TCs from Canon or Nikon. I think that is mostly due to the fact that focus is done on sensor rather than somewhere else which allows all of the various tolerances including the two new mount interfaces when a TC is introduced from adding inaccuracy to the shot. Just as an example, there is literally no comparison, not even in the same galaxy, in image quality between a Sony 100-400+1.4x and the Canon 100-400+1.4x. I have absolutely no fear that the 600 f/4 + 1.4x won't be excellent. However, I also have no idea how it would stack up to the $17K Nikon 800 that you mentioned. I can't say anything about the Sony 2x as I have never used one and in general think 2x TC's are a waste of money. In virtually every case, the same shot taken with a 1.4x and then cropped is sharper than a shot taken with a 2x.

E.J. Peiker wrote:That's just speculation Mike, there is nothing published on the readout speeds of this new sensor.

Andrew, the Sony TCs so far have been found to be exceptional, even on zoom lenses like the 100-400 which can not be said for TCs from Canon or Nikon.  I think that is mostly due to the fact that focus is done on sensor rather than somewhere else which allows all of the various tolerances including the two new mount interfaces when a TC is introduced from adding inaccuracy to the shot.  Just as an example, there is literally no comparison, not even in the same galaxy, in image quality between a Sony 100-400+1.4x and the Canon 100-400+1.4x.  I have absolutely no fear that the 600 f/4 + 1.4x won't be excellent.  However, I also have no idea how it would stack up to the $17K Nikon 800 that you mentioned.  I can't say anything about the Sony 2x as I have never used one and in general think 2x TC's are a waste of money.  In virtually every case, the same shot taken with a 1.4x and then cropped is sharper than a shot taken with a 2x.

In the reviews, rolling shutter is a constantly mentioned draw back which is indicative of slower readout speed compared to the A9.  With the bump in resolution, the crop factor in video is increased compared to the A7rIII.  It has been mentioned that the bionz X and the lsi are the same as the A7rIII.

That doesn't mean it has a slower readout speed, it needs to move 3 times as much data... The readout speed could be exactly the same and it would take three times as long but I guess whether or not it's slower would depend on your frame of reference - are you measuring it in time to read out the frame or in data rate... The readout speed and AF performance aren't necessarily linked on PDAF as they would be on CDAF. If they were linked the AF on the bottom of the sensor would lag the AF on the top of the sensor by as much as 1/15sec - that's clearly not what is happening in any camera that has on sensor PDAF.

Here is a quick rundown from Dpreview: https://www.dpreview.com/videos/0481323 ... sneak-peek

One side consideration is that 61MP file sizes will push one to have to look at newer and more expensive memory storage cards, external drives, and larger storage backup systems to manage all those photos taken.  But its part of the cost evaluation.