First Impressions of the Sony A7RV
I’ve had this camera now for a couple of months and have been using it quite a bit, from street photography in LA, to travel photography in Hawaii, to a friend’s graduation. I’ve had a great time with this camera and the positives far outweigh the very minor annoyances BY FAR with this camera.
Starting with the positives of the A7RV, the main feature that interested me was having a camera that was versatile in terms of megapixels. The ability to crop in and still have enough resolution is such a nice option to have. It’s definitely not a NEED as you don’t need this to get great photos, but it is something I love to have just in case. Let me give you a scenario of how I like to use the additional megapixels of this camera when shooting in real time. When I was in Hawaii, I went on a “Jungle Jeep Expedition” tour. I didn’t really know what to expect, but I did know that I probably wouldn’t have any chances or opportunities to change my lens on the tour so I went in with my Sony A7RV and my 24-70. And I was especially right as it was SO bumpy and even rained on us quite a bit. The 24-70 already gave me a lot of versatility, but having that extra megapixel count let me expand that range around 105 when going into ASPC crop mode, and of course, I’d be able to zoom in even more if I needed to in post, all without sacrificing the resolution of the picture. And that really helped me get some shots during the tour that were still too far, even when zoomed all the way to 70 mm. Now, some may ask, why not just get the 70-200 if that were the case? And that is true, I could’ve just rented the 70-200 for the trip. But that would mean I would have to bring an extra lens for the trip and during that tour, I wouldn’t have any access to the 24-70 portion of the focal length, which I ended up using as well. The ability to get more range just by cropping is such as great tool to have. I love having that option in my backpocket without having to really carry anything extra, which is important to me, the ability to keep everything as lightweight as possible. It’s like having two lenses in one, especially when using a prime lens. There were quite a few of instances where this happened before getting this camera and due to that, those photos ended up being pretty low resolution just because I cropped in quite a bit, which is definitely a big part of the reason why I decided to upgrade to the Sony A7RV.
Related to the megapixels, the Sony A7RV also gives you the option of picking smaller raw files. I don’t always need to have 61 mp photos, especially if I know I’m not going to crop or if I’m just out taking photos on the street. This lets me still get great resolution for my photos as the medium sized raw files still give me 26 mp photos while at the same time, gives me the ability to have more space on my computer and external SSDs for more photos or videos.
It’s really an effortless switch if I ever feel like I need to crop in as well. If I’m shooting with lossless medium, but I see a composition where I’ll potentially need to crop in, because I have the raw file menu as a shortcut, I can access it from the main menu, quickly change to uncompressed, and push my button that I have set for APSC, and I’m ready to snap the photo. It’s a simple system that again, allows me options for when I’m out shooting.
Another big feature of this camera is the amazing versatility of the LCD screen. With the Sony A7IV, Sony finally brought the flip screen to their other cameras besides the A7SIII. It wasn’t needed, but it definitely is appreciated, especially when it comes to the video aspect of using the camera. But with the flip screen, while it does give you positives, there are certain things you are sacrificing as opposed to using tilt screens which I mentioned a bit in my A7IV vs A7III video. But in the A7RV, you don’t have to worry about sacrificing anything at all. Because with the A7RV and it’s fully articulating screen, you can actually tilt AND flip your LCD screen, giving you both the positives of having a tilt and flip screen. Not only that, but it brings other possibilities where you’d be able to view your LCD screen in all sorts of ways. I probably won’t be using it like this, but having both the tilt and flip screen is a huge W in my opinion. No longer are the days where I have to feel like I’m sacrificing anything when looking at the type of LCD screen a camera has when there is a camera that has both, and I hope Sony continues to implement this in their newer models. I won’t be buying them as I already feel like the A7IV and the A7RV are way more than enough for me, but it’ll be a better experience for the people who are looking to upgrade to whatever those cameras may be.
Moving on, the next thing that had caught everyone’s attention or at least sparked their interest, is the autofocus capabilities of the A7RV. Sony has been known for a while now for how well the autofocusing has been in their cameras. And the A7RV is no different. What is different or surprising I guess for me, is the number of different ways and options you have for autofocusing. For example, in the Sony A7IV, you have the option of picking between Human autofocus, Animal autofocus, and Bird Autofocus. And I feel that was already already at the pinnacle of options for autofocusing. But the A7RV just trumps that with the amount of options they give. Not only do they give you the option of human, bird, and animal autofocus, they also give you insect autofocus, car/train autofocus, and airplane autofocus. Now I’ve never used them before, but it’s a nice thing to have whenever I do have to end up getting some photos of cars. Even after going through all that, that still wasn’t the main reason why I brought up the autofocusing. The main reason is because this camera is unbelievably good at focusing on a subject’s eye, even when it’s not visible. This can probably be described better by other people here on youtube, but basically, even when the eye isn’t showing, this camera can still track and guess where the eye is, giving you the ability to focus on your subject. It’s definitely not a feature that made me buy the camera, but it’s a good help for whenever it does lock on a subject when I’n walking around on the streets.
The last feature that isn’t really anything new, especially if you own any of the newer Sony cameras like the A7IV, is the video capabilties of this camera. I appreciate that you can record in 4K 10 bit 4:2:2, basically keeping a lot of the same video capabilities that the A7IV has. That way, I have two cameras in the A7IV and the A7RV that are pretty similar in the video aspect that I don’t have to worry about bringing any of them in particular for when I do video work. Whatever camera I have when I’m out shooting, I can use that same camera to do video work and have the same workflow when editing. The only difference that is somewhat annoying on the A7RV compared to the A7IV is that you cannot do APSC crop mode when shooting 4K60, whereas for the A7IV, you can only do APSC crop mode on 4K60. That small difference is annoying to have, but it’s not a dealbreaker or anything like that. Whichever camera I have on a particular day is good enough for the type of work I need to do. It also helps that the layout matches with the A7IV as well. The only thing that is different is that for the A7RV, you have to press this button right here to change from manual to aperture priority or to your personal settings and what not, but again it’s not too big of a deal.
One small negative is when you look closely at your pictures on the back of the LCD screen, you can see pixels of your photo. I don’t know what causes this and I’ve googled searched this to try and see if it was a sort of malfunction with my camera, but it seems many others are having the same issue with their A7RV too. It isn’t too big of a deal because you really have to look really closely at the LCD screen to notice it. When I go out for a walk and take photos, I don’t notice it anymore as I’ve gotten quite used to it. As regard to the actual issue, I doubt it’ll be updated so if you do plan on getting this camera, just know you might have to deal with it.
Those were the main features that first caught on eye before I ultimately purchased and bought the camera. But before that, I was aware of the talks that people were having who were also interested in the A7RV which was: Sony A7RV or Sony A1? And that definitely passed through my head, but ultimately, I decided to pick up the A7RV, obviously since I’m making this video haha. But some may ask why? Well, you can find one of the answers just by looking at the difference in price alone. You can basically buy the A7RV and the 70-200 GM II and come around close to the same price as the A1. And while that is a big part of the reason why I chose the A7RV, the features that are lacking in the A7RV compared to the A1 just wasn’t worth the money for me in my opinion, at least not right now. I don’t need 4K 120 for video, even that’d be super nice to have. I don’t need the 30 fps burst shooting (I actually don’t shoot burst 99% of the time anyways). Combine those with the fact that Sony has yet to really update the A1 with a lot of features that it lacks compared to the newer models like the A7IV, as a lot of people are talking about, it was a pretty easy choice to go with the A7RV. Like I mentioned before, the big reason why I wanted a camera with more megapixels was to have options to crop and basically have multiple “focal lengths” at my disposal even if I only have one lens or so during a shoot, whether that be a zoom or a prime, letting me be as minimalistic as possible when traveling and moving around.
At the end of the day, for the way I like to use it, the A7RV has been a great camera for me. It’s definitely not something you absolutely NEED in your kit or should you think like that. These cameras are tools for us to use to take photos. For photography, my A7III worked perfectly and I could’ve easily kept it and still produce the photos I wanted, but for my workflow and the options the A7RV gives me when traveling around, it makes life easier for me, so it was worth upgrading.