Sony A7r IV New Release - Who's excited?

[BluewaterPhoto]

The Sony A7R IV is set to be released in September! It features a 61 megapixel full-frame sensor – the most megapixels of any mirrorless camera to date. 61 megapixels should allow macro photographers to crop as much as their heart desires. The well-roundedness of this camera makes it perfect for macro, wide angle, supermacro, pelagic shooting, and pretty much any other type of underwater photography you can think of.

Is anyone thinking about purchasing this camera for underwater photography? We think the Sony A7R IV is the mirrorless camera of the future, and certainly a top choice for underwater photographers. Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions about this camera, I will be taking it out for testing as soon as it's released!

Sony A7R IV: Initial Thoughts

 

[runsongas]

when are they going to confirm the a7s iii?

 

[bvanant]

I suspect that the S III will be a much tougher technology to get to this stage. So much data moving around it will need lots of cooling to keep things going well. I wonder about the 61 MP, since the pixels are smaller won't they be noisier?
Bill

 

[Chris Ross]

Noise is the least of the problems when they are that small, diffraction comes into play - diffraction becomes an issue on the pixels at about f7 - so if you are stopping down to f16-f22 as seems to be routine for full frame macro you are well into diffraction. Arguably you are no worse off than now if you use the whole frame, but as you crop to try to use those pixels you start to run into loss of detail which becomes progressively worse as you stop down. You will certainly see it at f11 when the airy disk covers around 3.5 pixels. (airy disk is the calculated diameter of the point source of light on a sensor at a given f ratio)

Noise in fact would be about the same for the full image as what you enjoyed on the 41 MP version at the same crop and final image size, it's the total light gathered that sets your noise at a given image size and a 35mm full frame sensor gathers the same light regardless of the pixels. At 100% crop on a pixel level each pixel will be noisier because it has less signal and the same noise being smaller it gathers less light. All assuming equivalent electronic noise generation - each new sensor there is an incremental improvement in noise generated on chip.

Don't get me wrong - in many circumstances the image will be better - but don't expect to crop as much as you like up to a point the pixels help but as you go further noise and diffraction creep in, so the benefits of the pixels for cropping are limited if you are stopped right down for depth of field/ dome issues etc.

 

[Interceptor121]

I think Sony cameras have great effectiveness on land but less so underwater this is due to two reasons:
1. Lens and port choice is cumbersome and complicated
2. White balance accuracy is a significant issue almost all images I see from Sony even after RAW balancing have inaccurate colors - in some cases people like what Sony does but it bothers me

I do however appreciate the efforts as this will push others to do more so come on Sony!

 

[CZS]

I’d be far more excited if they’d release a proper a6500 replacement

 

[Hoag]

I’d be far more excited if they’d release a proper a6500 replacement

There are rumors that might be "just around the corner". It is beginning to look like an "A7000" might be announced very soon with a form factor similar to the Gen1 A7 series but with an APS-C sensor and performance similar to an A9 (10-20 FPS, world class AF, Real Time Eye AF, etc.)

For now, I am just (not so) patiently waiting for my new 200-600mm f5.6-6.3 OSS G Lens to arrive (in theory on Friday)!

 

[CZS]

There are rumors that might be "just around the corner". It is beginning to look like an "A7000" might be announced very soon with a form factor similar to the Gen1 A7 series but with an APS-C sensor and performance similar to an A9 (10-20 FPS, world class AF, Real Time Eye AF, etc.)

For now, I am just (not so) patiently waiting for my new 200-600mm f5.6-6.3 OSS G Lens to arrive (in theory on Friday)!

I really hope they keep the same (or very similar) a6400/6500 form factor. If I wanted a a7 size camera, I’d buy a full frame a7Riv.

 

[Hoag]

I really hope they keep the same (or very similar) a6400/6500 form factor. If I wanted a a7 size camera, I’d buy a full frame a7Riv.

I have an A6000 that I use underwater and an A7iii as my main ("real") camera. I hate the tiny EVF on the A6000.

 

[tarponchik]

I think Sony cameras have great effectiveness on land but less so underwater this is due to two reasons:
1. Lens and port choice is cumbersome and complicated
2. White balance accuracy is a significant issue almost all images I see from Sony even after RAW balancing have inaccurate colors - in some cases people like what Sony does but it bothers me

I do however appreciate the efforts as this will push others to do more so come on Sony!

I do not have problems with white balance with my A6000 since I correct it in LR anyway. But I wonder how big the 61 MP image, RAW+JPG is in MB? How many can you store on, say, 1 TB drive?