My first serious camera was a DSLR that shot at 3fps and required thoughts and prayers plus an insane amount of luck to get sharp action shots. When I first saw the new Sony A7 V and its 30fps bursts with subject detection autofocus, I had one clear thought: I want to try this so-called “entry-level” camera out with wildlife photography.
I was able to get my hands on an early review sample of the A7 V before it hit store shelves – and I didn’t just get to try the new mirrorless at birding. I took the Sony A7 V birding in the middle of an intense Midwest winter snowstorm.
The Sony A7 V could technically be described as an “entry-level” full-frame camera, depending on how you look at it. The A7 series is Sony’s more affordable full-frame option behind options like the high-resolution A7R and the high-end A9 and A1 series.
But I put quotes around “entry-level” for a reason, as the Sony A7 IV will stick around as a budget alternative and, really, giving that title to a camera with a 30fps burst feels almost blasphemous.
I had a key question that I wanted to answer when the A7 V arrived at my door: How does it perform in real action scenarios?
Most mirrorless cameras can do pretty well at genres like portraits and landscapes, but I wanted to put the Sony A7 V to test with one of the more challenging genres to keep up with: birds. Unpredictable movement, fast flight and a rather small subject combine to make birds one of the more challenging subjects for a camera’s autofocus.
But when I spotted the massive snowflakes coming down outside my window so perfectly that they looked like fake Hollywood effects, I knew I had to throw in another test of one of my all-time favorite camera features: weather sealing.
The Sony A7 V is surprisingly good for birds and wildlife, but not perfect
For the test, I used the Sony A7 V with the FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS. I started out with the A7 V in all automated focus modes, including auto subject detection, auto area and AF-A.
The A7 V couldn’t read my mind, though, and I very quickly switched off the auto area and used zone and spot area modes to help tell the subject detection which bird I wanted to focus on. Selecting the bird mode rather than the auto subject detection also seemed to significantly improve performance.
I primarily shot with the H burst speed, which is 20fps (and was already fast enough to make my hard drive cry). Turning on Pre-Capture, which captures some photos before the shutter is fully pressed, was instrumental in getting birds in flight rather than empty branches.
On clear backgrounds, the Sony A7 V’s subject detection autofocus easily picked up not only birds but often even the tiny black eyeball. What’s even more impressive, it was still able to pick up eyes even against the dark-colored feathers of a dark-eyed junco.
But the subject detection had a bit more difficulty in messier shots, particularly with branches between the camera and the bird. Sometimes, even the smallest twig would throw it off; other times, it managed to lock on despite a few branches.
Using the autofocus limiter switch on the lens helps, as does focusing on a larger nearby object (like a tree trunk) first, as an out-of-focus blob is hard for the subject detection to recognize as a bird.
The subject detection autofocus worked well most of the time, but it’s not the best that I’ve seen. I’ve tested some cameras that are a bit higher-end, and cameras from other brands that were a bit better at looking at a tangled mess of branches and finding the bird.
Impressively, the Sony A7 V managed to snag clear shots of birds in flight. I had the highest hit rate with birds that were moving parallel to the camera. Shots of birds flying towards the camera proved a bit tougher, but not impossible, as you can see with this series of a cardinal that has both some sharp and some soft shots.
The Sony A7 V and the lens survived shooting wet in the heavy snow with no issues. I dried it off as soon as I came indoors.
Equally impressive is the fact that I took the A7 V out for three different shoots, all in below-freezing temperatures, and I still have around a third of the battery left. That’s quite something, considering when I shot with the original A7 I felt like I needed a new battery every hour – and cold tends to drastically decrease battery life.
The A7 V has some competition, however
The Sony A7 series has come a long way from the original. I won’t go as far as to call the A7 V a baby A9 III, but the A7 V performance is highly impressive for the price point.
Lower-tier models are often not the best at action, but the A7 V is proving that it can hold its own. Expect some soft shots from the fastest movement towards the camera, and reduced accuracy for the bird detection among a mess of tree branches. It’s a significant upgrade over the A7 IV, with three times the burst speed.
I was there for the launch of the original A7, and when I got my hands on an early sample of the A7 V, I was impressed by the speed and performance, along with the weather-sealing and improved ergonomics.
That’s not to say that the A7 V doesn’t have competition, however, particularly when looking at cameras at a similar price point. The newly announced Canon EOS R6 III can shoot with AF-C at 40fps and has 7K 30p open gate video.
The Nikon Z6 III’s autofocus can practically see in the dark, with an autofocus sensitivity down to -10 EV compared to Sony’s -4 EV. This was, perhaps, the most disappointing line item on the A7 V spec sheet for me, as the low-light sensitivity on the A7 V remains the same as on the A7 IV.
I took it to photograph the holiday lights with a 24-70mm f/2.8 lens, and the autofocus did occasionally lag a bit.
I happened to be lucky enough to watch the launch of the original Sony A7 as a tech journalist, and the original full-frame mirrorless camera has made massive leaps forward in the last dozen years. The Sony A7 V isn’t perfect – and it certainly has some competition – but it has an excellent balance between price, performance, and image quality.
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Read the full early hands-on Sony A7 V review. Or, browse the best Sony cameras or the best Sony lenses.
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