Sony A7C vs. A7 iv

The Electric Squirrel · Jul 3, 2022

Brownie said:
Yes, but the OP's question is asked as a comparison to his experience with the A7R-III. I can say without question the A7-IV beats it hands down, by a lot.

Even the a7C beats the R III hands down when it comes to AF. I was reminded of this just this week when I had the R with me on a family trip instead of the C.

Brownie · Jul 3, 2022

I've heard the 7C's AF was upgraded even from the 7-III. That supports the fact they improve it with each iteration. The R-III was released in '17, the III in '18, the RIV in '19, and the C was in '20. The A7-IV has the same AF as the A1 less the speed of the stacked sensor. So far that hasn't hurt me much, and with an 800+ image buffer I don't expect it ever will. The other thing the A1 and 7IV bring to the table is bird eye focus which works both in stills and video. Not sure the A1 even did that on release, I think it's available with a firmware upgrade, though that's not the case with the other models. I figure they're going to leave that feature for the rumored releases of the A1-II, A9-III, A7c-II and A7R-V.

If the rumored A9-III hits the market next year with a sensor between 30 and 40MP and has the A1/A7-IV focusing, I may take a look at it.

mnhoj · Jul 3, 2022

After the VIIIs they added Real Time tracking.
I had the RIV, C and IV altogether for a short time.
For my use(no birds) I don't think there was a difference in ease of use or stickiness between them.

LightSpeed · Jul 3, 2022

Brownie said:
The tracking on the A1, A9II and A7 IV is superior to the A7R-IV and its predecessors. You can dismiss that if you want, but it's fact. Are they still faster/better than most other cameras? Yes, but the OP's question is asked as a comparison to his experience with the A7R-III. I can say without question the A7-IV beats it hands down, by a lot. Is the A7R-IV better than the A7R-III? Probably, Sony has improved it with each iteration.

In wildlife photography , it depends on where the lens is when you throw the camera up and try to lock on. The A9, A9II and the A1 and possibly the A74 will acquire focus faster from a dead blur to sharp focus..
If you're counting on that for birds in flight , you will miss the shot. By the time the camera acquires focus, the bird is gone or not where you wanted it to be when you released the shutter.
Real world, the tracking is nearly indistinguishable.

Brownie · Jul 3, 2022

LightSpeed said:
In wildlife photography , it depends on where the lens is when you throw the camera up and try to lock on. The A9, A9II and the A1 and possibly the A74 will acquire focus faster from a dead blur to sharp focus..
If you're counting on that for birds in flight , you will miss the shot. By the time the camera acquires focus, the bird is gone or not where you wanted it to be when you released the shutter.
Real world, the tracking is nearly indistinguishable.

We'll have to agree to disagree.

Brian · Jul 3, 2022

Given a choice between the A7c and an A7IV, the extra resolution in the viewfinder would do it for me. I would have bought an A7c for the size and position of the viewfinder- then saw it had a 2.36m finder in it. Not much better than my Olympus EP2 finder of 12 years ago.

Adding lossless compressed Raw is a plus. Sony lossy compression is chaotic, knowing that I would never use it. Lossless compression has been in use for a long time with other manufacturers, I'm surprised it took Sony this long to implement it. Like someone came up with the Lossy algorithm, thought it was cool, and kept it in the firmware for far too long.

A $700 difference, you are buying a better viewfinder and newer sensor.

Brownie · Jul 3, 2022

Here's a sample of one of the series I was talking about in post 24. This was made today at the track. It is a 19-frame burst, so 3 seconds on the A7-IV @ it's max of 6 FPS shooting uncompressed RAW. It starts with the focus on both cars. As they launch, I move to the red car in the near lane and track it until it gets too close and too fast for me to follow. I then drop back to start shooting the car in the far lane. There is one shot where the camera picks up the sponsor signs on the lane divider, then it finds the second car. As the car moves down the track one shot is slightly out of focus. I believe it's the only one.

This is every frame that was shot in the burst, I didn't cull any because it's meant to be an example of the tracking and AF. Feel free to ignore my lousy panning skills, but note how the camera tracked even when the subject got way to the side.
I only shoot RAW, so these are all processed as I normally would.
They are downsized to 2000 pixels on the long side to make them faster to upload on my crappy internet.

And here's the fun part. The lens is the Minolta Maxxum 80-200/2.8 APO HS G A-Mount with Sony's LA-EA5 adapter. Based on what all the experts say this is impossible. Screw Drive lenses don't focus fast enough to use like this. :laugh1: