If you’ve found that 42.2-megapixels isn’t quite enough resolution for your landscape and wildlife shooting, then Sony has some good news – its new A7R IV is the first full-frame camera to have a 61-megapixel sensor.
Its predecessor, the Sony A7R III, was a trailblazer for high-res mirrorless cameras when it arrived in 2017, combining powerful hybrid autofocus with the kind of resolution demanded by pro landscape and wildlife snappers, all in a body that was significantly smaller than DSLR rivals like the Nikon D850.
The A7R IV continues that theme, bringing the highest ever resolution on a full-frame camera, though Sony’s keen to stress that it’s not just flexing its specs muscles and breaking records for the sake of it.
One of the benefits of this huge resolution is the cropping flexibility you get – for example, if you’re a wildlife photographer and need a bit more reach, you can crop to an APS-C size image and still get a 24MP frame with autofocus.
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Sony has also apparently packed over 50 improvements into the A7R IV to turn it into a “beast” of an all-rounder. These include a greater number of phase detection AF points (567) covering more of the scene (74%), a new 5.76-million dot UXGA OLED viewfinder, and an incredible 15.5-stops of dynamic range.
Naturally, autofocus promises to be as sharp as ever, with Animal Eye AF and Real-time Eye AF for movies for the first time, and the two card slots now both support speedy UHS II cards.
But potentially as important as the spec highlights are the physical changes Sony has made to the A7R IV. One of our main criticisms of its predecessor was its slightly awkward handling, but Sony has bulked up the grip and moved it a little further from the lens.
Of course, the A7R IV’s tricks won’t come cheap – at £3,500 it’s around £300 more expensive than the A7R III was at launch, but the long list of new features could well justify that pro-level price tag. It’ll be available from August 2019 – look out for our hands-on first impressions very soon.
