You know, one of the biggest problems I've had with the a7R III is that, there just wasn't enough megapixels.
Yeah, right.
But if in fact you do crave lots of megapixels and the a7R III just didn't cut it, well, now you've got the a7R IV.
Oh yes.
I mean, the truly crazy thing is, this doesn't have just a mere 40-something megapixels,
not even a mere 50-something megapixels.
This has got 61 megapixels on the full frame sensor.
And you know what? I think it makes more sense to sell megapixels to the mess consumers than it does medium format.
It's easy to understand why you might need more megapixels than it does medium format.
What medium format digital cameras or medium-ish format digital cameras,
some of the sensors are not exactly the same size of medium format film,
is that involves a bit of geekery to explain the true benefits of a sensor size that's bigger
than full-frame, whereas a megapixel count,
it's a number, the bigger the number, the better, right?
And by using that logic, the a7R IV is better than any other full-frame camera out there right now by a long way,
even more megapixels in some of Fuji's medium-ish format cameras.
Might need memory card.
That's a good start, right?
While we're on the topic of memory cards...
Now for all you slot happy people out there, this has changed.
Look, it's this, this flappy bit, instead of a switch here.
You've got something which is more akin to something you'll find on a DSLR.
Now the benefit of that is that you don't actually knock the switch and then, boom! Your flap's opened, rain, snow, goes in,
whatever, the SD cards have ruined. And talking about the SD card slots, number one is up there now.
number two down there. Guess it makes sense. and both of them now are UHS II.
And although it looks pretty much unchanged, it looks quite similar to the a7R III.
There have been some subtle improvements. Check this out.
This bit's flat, that's round, and it's bigger, bigger stuff.
This, this is nice. This feels better to use.
On your thumb, it doesn't feel like you're being attacked by your D-pad.
And buttons just seem bigger which is good if you're operating it with gloves, or you've got sausage for fingers.
And then up top we've got dial here and exposure comp dial with a lock now.
Brilliant!
This bit, this bit's new. New flappy bits all around.
This is much better than before. Before it just kind of flaps about all over the place.
This is a nicer set of flaps, that's for sure.
Flap happy.
Those improved flappy bits also mean the mark 4 is better dust and weather resistance,
and off on a tangent, that grip feels deeper, a bit more spacious between lens and grip.
Okay, that's done. Now this has also got 5 gigahertz Wi-Fi connection,
useful for fast and reliable connection which is handy because I'm going to be using this to control the camera,
because I'm getting up here.
Parkour. Okay. Still on! Pull my trousers up. All right.
Sweating like a bastard now.
It's dis, discon - okay it's connecting now.
Here we are, but yeah, that's a nice pose. That's very Instagram.
Keeps disconnecting. It's a little bit slow.
Now don't know if it's because I'm under the train line, or that's too far away.
Or what.
Maybe a mix of both!
Okay, all right. Let's try taking a shot.
Let me try that out.
I'm getting all artistic now.
Has even taken a shot there.
Can't hear it.
Yes, you deaf idiot.
Image is shot in JPEG as no converter at time of shooting this but nonetheless the JPEGs are nice to work with.
But Sony mentioned that this has got 15 stops of dynamic range,
which is one stop more than the Fuji GFX 50 and 100.
And without wanting to sound too obvious, but those 61 megapixels provide a heck of a load of sharp crispy details.
The negatives? Well, could be a bit overkill for Instagram.
Still, I'm gonna post this one on the IG though.
With such a high resolution camera, you really need to be careful with the exposure.
You need to have it on something stable, or a faster shutter speed.
When I was using this Manfrotto tabletop tripod, there's some blurring of the details, thanks to some vibrations, I assumed.
Alternatively with good light and a fast enough shutter speed, you get some superb amount of detail, even when you crop in.
For high ISO stuff, it looks pretty good all the way up to ISO 12800,
details still look nice and sharp.
ISO 25600, you start to see some chroma noise in the shadows,
which becomes problematic at 51200, and obviously, higher than that.
Another thing, when you've taken a large number of shots in quick succession,
you'll have to expect that the camera has to sometimes play catch-up writing those huge files to the card.
The craziness just keeps going on, because this has got pixel shift multi shoot. What does that mean?
It takes more than one shot, and then combines into one high resolution shot,
as if 61 megapixels is not high resolution enough.
You can take either 4 or 16 shots.
16 shots gives you effectively 963 recorded pixels.
Those extra pixels aren't just for a higher resolution.
It gives you better colour accuracy, and at the end, you get a lovely 240 megapixel shot, just a mere 240 megapixels.
I can't show you these shots yet also because there's no converter available to put those images together yet.
But it's perhaps not even for landscape users because even grass moves about.
So that's it, yeah, a nice high-res full-frame mirrorless camera that slowly chugs out those crispy pics, right?
Well, not quite.
Well, look at this. We've got a nice lovely landscape, but now
we've got BMXes going all over it.
And I'll be photographing some moving BMX people, because this is no slow high-res camera,
because this can take 10 frames per second at full resolution
10 fps, 60 megapixels. Let's take a second to let that sink in.
Okay, let's shoot. Boom. Let's go. Here they, here they come. Oh yes.
This just doesn't feel right.
That many megapixels, that burst rate. It's a bit naughty really.
Now one thing I do notice is that, the square, the focusing square is red now.
It's so easy to spot. Before, it's in grey, so it's a lot harder to spot when you're looking at permanently dull, grey skies.
Oh... right here in the UK.
Okay, here we are.
This is when action gets serious.
Cap back to front.
Now this has real time AF, a real time eye face AF.
It has real time tracking too, like the a9 and it's so sticky like poo on porcelain.
I had the a7RII before it wasn't a bad focuser, a7RIII, pretty good at focusing.
But there's something about this that just feels...
Phenomenal! Freaking phenomenal.
It's incredibly reliable for tracking subjects moving in all directions.
You've just got to love those little dancing, green focusing squares.
How many are there? 567, that's 1.4 times more than before.
So in terms of the coverage, 74% vertically, sorry horizontally.
I get my horizontals and verticals mixed up. 74% horizontally, 99% the other way.
That's 1.6 times more than before, the coverage.
I don't know how they keep doing this, they just keep offering more, which is quite different to some of the competitors.
I think you know who.
And if more is simply too much, if 61 megapixels is just too damn much for you,
you can crop it super 35 mode, 26 megapixels.
And for those who want the camera to do its work quieter, there's a completely silent mode that uses electronic shutter.
Silent shooting. It does silent shooting in 7 fps.
Where is it?
Here we are.
Confusing, this. Okay.
Check.
Providing you a soundtrack, just you know that I'm taking photos.
Right, let's check that rolling shutter in electronic shutter mode.
It's evident. You can see that, that's, that's some very deformed action going on there.
Silence shutter for sports.
I'm sure you could use it for stuff like golf, but, but, well, is it actually sport?
It's like walking around the park with a stick and hitting your ball into the river for fun.
Here we go, we're gonna burn up this buffer, but saying that, it's got a bigger buffer than before.
You can shoot 68 JPEGs or compressed RAW consecutively,
If you're happy to shoot in a 26 megapixel APS-C crop, you get a three times bigger buffer shot buffet.
This seriously is a nice camera to grip.
It, weirdly, it looks exactly the same.
I just don't understand where the space has come from.
But it's got more space, plus these dials, that exposure comp, not as easy,
to knock accidentally, when I say not as easy, it won't knock accidentally, because you've got that lock button right there.
It still manages to pick out his face. There we are.
It still manages to pick up the eyes and faces, they've got helmets on.
Like it needs emphasizing anymore but the focusing is bloody brilliant.
So it's got real time tracking face, eye AF.
Animals? There's no animals here, maybe that's a health and safety thing.
Probably not good to let animals roam around the hotel.
They'll probably end up in spa, right?
Having a little massage.
Yeah, don't know if you can see it.
But still works, even with sunglasses on.
Look at that, even with sunglasses on, even tiny window of opportunity.
Look! It works! It's great!
With the way it performs, it's quite easy to forget what the R is all about.
I mean, aim here, is to take on medium format but this offers something that medium format doesn't give.
Try this medium format.
There's a little jump there. That's a bit of surprise, they just come up.
You'll see it right last minute, so when you focus, it's got to be quick.
Be able to detect the subject.
Split second.
And this thing is responsive.
I don't remember having a problem with the Mark III autofocus, although I don't think it left a bold impression on me.
The Mark IV's focus feels sharp and tight, ready for any kind of action you chuck at it.
Let's not forget this do takes 4k video from a 61 megapixel sensor.
Down sample from 6a.
This is a beast, a beastly kitten. It's weird. It's wonderful. It's Jekyll and Hyde.
It does things that have seemingly been mutually exclusive up until now,
to have the high resolution and the ability to deal with speedy things were burst and focus fast enough to keep up,
It's a threat to medium-ish format digital and the high FPS cameras.
It's as much a camera for the casual shooter,
as it is for the working photographer with high-speed wired or wireless tethering.
So we've got Wi-Fi tethering with the a7R Mark IV, so you can see a wallpaper.
That looks a little bit different to seeing that I think. Little, little bit of lag.
But as they said, good for product photographers, right?
Suit the professional work.
I'm trying to think about some negatives to say about this and I'm really struggling here.
Maybe perhaps it might be too many megapixels?
Hmm... Nah...
This is the medium format killer without the compromises of medium format.
So here I am at the Sony event - with this puppy right here, a7R Mark IV.
We've got things going on. We've got a ghetto blaster over there.
Look at that, he's, that's a DJ right there, mixing up some tunes, can't hear anything right now.
But it doesn't matter. We're in Ireland, so of course, whiskey.
We're just gonna slam some stuff into the glass,
and see what we can get.
It's a nice sharp 61 megapixel shots.
Let's see what's that here. Wow look at that. Whiskey by the bucketload.
That guy's definitely had too much whiskey.
Drink responsibly, kids.
Kids, you shouldn't be drinking anyway.
So we've got this on 33,200 per second.
10 FPS, 61 megapixels.
Should be able to get the shot. That makes sense. Okay, 3, 2, 1, go.
Oh, sposh, yeah.
Should've, tell you what? Can I drop the ice?
You press the shutter button. It doesn't matter who takes the picture. It's on tripod anyway, all right?
We've got somebody's car, car key here. Don't know if that's a wise idea.
Just...that's why he's in, in the ice driving seat.
[Close enough.]
Close enough is good enough.
Big, big ass sprinter. Obviously not a Canon, that wouldn't make sense, right?
Damn. They gave me, they gave me really long, they gave me a 135.
I don't understand.
I've, I've got everything in there.
And go crazy with that.
Just cuz I can! Hope they're not epileptic..
He's craze... There's like, there's like models here and he's, he choose...Okay.
Holy crap!
Does the, does the eye, eye AF work now?
This, this guy, you look exactly like my friend, PJB.
That's PJB right there.
He's a legend, he's a legend in his house.