I’ve been shooting stills on my Sony A7 III for roughly four years now. And when you combine that with the fact that I spend my days researching and writing about cameras, I think it’s fair to say I know a thing or two about them – at least Alpha cameras.
However, sometimes, even photographers in my position need a little help choosing the right gear. This time, I’m not switching to a new brand, like I did when I upgraded from my Nikon D3500 – an excellent beginner’s camera, by the way – to my current A7 III.
I’m sticking with an Alpha model, but, as one of the main reasons for the upgrade is that I’m planning to get into videography, I can’t decide between the Sony A7R IV or A7 IV.
Now I know that, according to Sony, the A7 lineup is the true hybrid series geared toward both shooting stills and filming. And I’ve also taken the time to read my colleague Rod Lawton’s expert opinion on the whole A7 IV vs A7R IV debate.
But despite Sony’s and Rod’s respectable thoughts, I need more to make my decision. So, I’m asking all who read this plea and who have real-world experience with the A7R IV and/or A7 IV to chime in with your thoughts in the comments section below.
To some people, it might seem obvious: if I want to shoot both stills and video, then go with Sony’s own guidance and get an A7 IV. But my predicament is that I don’t want to forgo the A7R IV’s monster 61MP sensor, even more so as the two cameras are now priced fairly equally.
Sensor resolution isn’t everything for me. After all, I’ve happily been making do with my 24MP A7 III for some time now. Plus I shoot with top-tier G Master glass; lens quality arguably being the more important factor in this respect.
But I do want to take advantage of the monster image fidelity on offer, especially as this would enable me to crop images aggressively while retaining the quality, something 61MP would much better enable than the A7 IV’s 33MP.
Although, as I’m planning on getting into video, I also know that I need to consider how a 61MP sensor would affect filming.
I’m aware that higher MP counts degrade video quality, as downsampling can produce visual artifacts and slower sensor readout speeds can introduce harsh rolling shutter distortions. I also know that forcing a 61MP sensor, for example, to compress resolution into a 4K stream 60 times per second can strain camera hardware and cause overheating.
And then there are the LCD screens. Obviously, the A7R IV only boasts tilting, rather than the A7 IV's vari-angle movement. This is something that, at the moment, I don’t think would bother me too much when it comes to recording video, but perhaps I’m being naive.
Hopefully, though, as people with real-life experience of shooting videos with either of these cameras, you can tell me how often the potential issues I’ve mentioned occur and how much they affect your workflow.
Will I really see negative artifacts and degraded performance in all of my videos if I buy the Sony A7R IV? Or am I living in a fantasy land even thinking about risking it? I’d appreciate your first-hand, experience-based thoughts below.
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