Sony Sony A7IV v Sony A7RIV ..... or A9

christilou

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Thinking about getting either the Sony A7IV or A7RIV. I had the A9 and the A7RIII. Nothing wrong with the A9 but I missed the extra pixels sometimes. Seems to be no happy medium at the moment. 33 or 60! It's primarily for getting eye focus on our 4 year old granddaughter but would also be for travel photography, scenic etc. What I need to rationalise is the focus speeds of each and also whether 33 megapixels will be enough for me. Any input welcome :)
 
Yeah, get out the violins please.
I got the A9 when faced with a similar decision. With the focus it has from the latest software update I don't think it can be beat, other than with an A1.
In my search for the best camera for my needs I think I may settle on an A7RIIIA. I don't really want to mess with the files of an A7RIV as they must be HUGE seeing it's a 60meg camera. If I sold my A7III and A7II I could probably convince myself to get an A1, but, I'd still want the Sony 100-400 lens. I expect the Blue Angles to be back this summer for the air show and I really want to BE there, if you know what I mean.
 
I had both briefly together.

AF speed - I think for kids a wash. Real time tracking on the R4 is very good. The A4 has a new processor?(bird AF) and potential for firmware upgrades is greater.
I like the extra res and cropping ability of the R4. It'd be my choice.

What lens? GM35?
 
Coming from M-4/3 I'm used to 20MP, so 33 is a pretty good step up for me. I can tell you the AF on the A7 IV is incredible. It finds eyes and locks on fast, it finds birds animals and people and locks on, and it does it in video too, if you shoot video.

We have a pretty large congress of turkey vultures in the neighborhood, we've had as many as 60 overhead at one time with 20-30 being normal when they kettle in the evening. I have stood out there in years past and shot hundreds of photos to find only a handful in focus. The camera would hunt and hunt, sometimes never focusing on anything. I recently went out on one of the rare decent days we had and shot a bunch of photos with the A7 IV and found only one or two not in focus.

Yesterday I bought a nice used R III to use as a backup. I don't expect the AF to be as good as the IV since it's a few generations back, behind the R IV and the III, but am not all that concerned. It'll be fun in APS-C mode with the 200-600 for birds at the feeder and 18MP images as opposed to the <14 from the IV.

I didn't move toward Sony for IQ or MP, I was perfectly content with what the G9 provided. I went to Sony for AF, and since the IV had the latest and greatest (same as the A1 but slower sensor read) it was my target. If top-drawer AF is your goal, get the IV. On the other hand if you want/need the crop advantage offered by 60MP, then the R IV is the choice.
 
Coming from M-4/3 I'm used to 20MP, so 33 is a pretty good step up for me. I can tell you the AF on the A7 IV is incredible. It finds eyes and locks on fast, it finds birds animals and people and locks on, and it does it in video too, if you shoot video.

We have a pretty large congress of turkey vultures in the neighborhood, we've had as many as 60 overhead at one time with 20-30 being normal when they kettle in the evening. I have stood out there in years past and shot hundreds of photos to find only a handful in focus. The camera would hunt and hunt, sometimes never focusing on anything. I recently went out on one of the rare decent days we had and shot a bunch of photos with the A7 IV and found only one or two not in focus.

Yesterday I bought a nice used R III to use as a backup. I don't expect the AF to be as good as the IV since it's a few generations back, behind the R IV and the III, but am not all that concerned. It'll be fun in APS-C mode with the 200-600 for birds at the feeder and 18MP images as opposed to the <14 from the IV.

I didn't move toward Sony for IQ or MP, I was perfectly content with what the G9 provided. I went to Sony for AF, and since the IV had the latest and greatest (same as the A1 but slower sensor read) it was my target. If top-drawer AF is your goal, get the IV. On the other hand if you want/need the crop advantage offered by 60MP, then the R IV is the choice.


I did consider the A7RIIIA as I had already had one before but as you say, it's not so great for eye focus.
 
I did consider the A7RIIIA as I had already had one before but as you say, it's not so great for eye focus.
I don't expect it to be near the IV, but for my purposes it should be fine. I know there have been some firmware updates, not sure what all they did. Panasonic has been very active in firmware updates to address focusing, not sure about Sony, but maybe there were some improvements after you sold yours?
 
I don't expect it to be near the IV, but for my purposes it should be fine. I know there have been some firmware updates, not sure what all they did. Panasonic has been very active in firmware updates to address focusing, not sure about Sony, but maybe there were some improvements after you sold yours?
Don't thinks so, think they just upgraded the screen etc.
 
Looks like the most recent was 3.10 in Dec 2019. V 3.0 added animal eye focus and changed the functionality of the real-time eye focus.

v3.00 (04-11-2019)
  • Adds real-time Eye AF for animals
    NOTES:
    • It is not possible to detect human and animal eyes simultaneously
    • Eye detection may not be possible and depends on the environment, animal type, and movement of the animal
  • Allows you to operate the real-time EYE AF by half-pressing the shutter button or by pressing the AF-ON button
  • .....
Probably nothing new since you had yours, but here's a link to the updates just in case.

 
I believe the upgrade to the A9 software puts the AF on par with some of the latest cameras. I know the AF works just fine as it tracked some jets I was shooting even when they went behind a tree that got in the way. I haven't had much chance to test it with my granddaughter, unfortunately, but it work well with her too when I did. I believe DP even raised their evaluation rating of the camera based on the upgrade to the AF.
 
If AF is priority, I'd go with the a7 IV probably. I currently have the R III A and the C, and the latter already has much better autofocusing. Although the R III A is no slouch either, but progress has progressed between the two. Also, if you really don't need the mega-pickles for cropping, I'd say you'd be hard pressed to see the difference between 33 and 42mpix on an A2 sized print. I have two A3+ prints on our dining room wall, one shot with a 20mpix EOS 6D and the next one to it shot with a 30mpix EOS R. Any difference I might be able to see in sharpness might come down to lens choice, with the 20mpix image maybe looking a tad sharper... Maybe, I couldn't tell if I didn't know.
 
A7R4-A or the A1. Currently shoot the A7R4-A ( updated version) I switched to this because the auto-focus blows away the E-M1X that I shot for 2 years. Keeper rates of in focus images skyrocketed.
My next body will be the A1..........sometime this year, before the migration starts.
 
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