Unless you’ve lived under a rock in the last month, you should know that the long-awaited Sony A7R IV is here and it’s a monster! This camera, in fact, shoots some amazing 60.1 megapixels photos, an absurd resolution that rivals even some high-end medium format cameras costing tens of thousands of dollars. “How about the video side, though?”, you may ask.
Well, it has many improvements, but, spoiler alert, it lacks 4K60p. That’s right! We have yet another camera lunched in 2019 that tops its frame rate at 30fps. We all thought that kind of limit was going to be surpassed quickly, but it seems that’s not the case here. Anyway, if you’re in the market for a new camera, and don’t consider the absence of 4K60p recording as a deal-breaker, Jason Vong has put together a list of ten features on this new camera that may be worth considering.
#1 – Ergonomics and Build
Sony’s cameras have never been praised for their form factor, at least not from those who have bigger hands. In fact, the footprint of these cameras tends to be quite small, and the A7R IV is on the same boat. Somehow, though, the grip on the camera feels improved, and a couple of details are with no doubt better.
We have better traction on the joystick, the shutter dial has better positioning outside of the main camera body, the exposure compensation dial has a lock, all small details that make handling the camera easier. The slot covers seem to be better too.
#2 – Dual UHS-II
With a sensor that packs 60.1 megapixels you can only shoot on UHS-II cards, that’s out of the question. If you aim at the pro market you need redundancy, hence, dual UHS-II card slot. Sony has made a good choice or else we would probably have seen angry mobs surrounding the headquarters.
#3 Focus Frame Color
Have you ever shot something in a dull environment, or where your subject tones matched exactly the color of the AF box? Well fear no more, now you can change the color of the frame and choose the one that is better suited to your shooting conditions.
#4 – Sharpness
Some of us like to thinker with all menus and sub-menus, going to change all the values to get a custom picture that looks exactly as you wish. Well, be warned, in the Creative Style menu you can now set the sharpness of the image to +5 as opposed to the +3 you could top before. If it’s a more granular control or a new higher intensity remains to be seen, more testing will tell us what is the case.
#5 – MyMenu Acess
If there’s one flaw we all can agree about on Sony’s cameras it’s the menu system. It’s messy and complicated, but many overcame this problem by saving the most used settings in the MyMenu page. Now you can set it to appear as soon as you press the menu button, as the first item. Nice time-saving feature.
#6 – Quick Function Menu
As a hybrid camera, it makes sense to have separate functions set for either shooting mode. Now you have one Quick function menu for video mode and one for the photo mode, keeping separated the two makes a ton of sense since you easily end up using different features in the two modes.
#7 – Custom Names
If you like to keep tabs on your projects beginning from the moment you shoot, you’ll enjoy this new feature. Now you can, in fact, rename the files to custom choices, making archival of footage much easier, also thanks to the fact that changing cards does not reset the naming counter anymore.
#8 – Eye AF
There has been some misconception in the past, but it seems that this time we have real Eye autofocus while shooting video. There’s almost no need to explain how important this feature is, and what game-changer it is. We shall see how accurate it is at the moment, but in any case, this makes us keep high hopes for the future development of this kind of technology.
#9 – External Monitors
Indeed, many of us were bothered by the choice Sony made in the settings of HDMI ports. Some speculated that the move was made in order to move the video-oriented consumer to the FS series, but be it as it may, now we finally have the face AF working on external monitors, and most of all, recording does not blackout the screen anymore.
#10 – Custom User Settings
This feature will be one of the most appreciated by those who work in a team, those that are used to swap gear around on a daily basis and are forced to keep the standard menu settings or lose every day a ton of time to change back what a coworker may have modified. Now each user can save and load his custom settings on the camera!
There you go, a list of some of the features that struck the eye in this new announcement from Sony. Should we add other items to the list? Let us know in the comments below.
[source: Jason Vong]
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Sony Alpha a7R IV Mirrorless Digital Camera (B&H, Amazon)
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