Review: Sony A7R VI
As a conservation and animal welfare photojournalist, I must admit to not being 100% sure I’m the best person to review the new Sony A7R VI.
I generally don’t need more than 3000 pixels on the long edge, I don’t really shoot landscapes, I’m not a pixel peeper, and usually I don’t crop my images that much either.
However, after trying out the Sony A7R6 for the last few weeks, if I was given this camera, I might just rethink some of that.
To begin at the end, the A7R VI offers a crazy 67 MP stacked sensor, an impressive 8.5 stops central image stabilisation, 16 EVs of dynamic range (on mechanical shutter), and up to 30 FPS with pre-capture.
It also seems to handle ISO better than I thought such a high mega-pixel camera would, has cool features like low light AF and back lit buttons. And whilst this isn’t a video review, it’s worth noting it also allows things like 8K 30fps, 4k 60 fps without cropping, and dual gain shooting.
Sounds pretty good you say. Well, it is. But it’s probably not for every genre of photography and all situations, but more about that later.
Body/design
The A7R VI is almost identical in size to its predecessor, the A7R V, measuring 130.2 × 96.9 × 72.6 mm compared with 131.3 × 96.9 × 82.4 mm. At 735g, however, it is 12g heavier than the A7R V.
Dust and moisture resistant like its predecessor, the grip is now about 2 mm wider and 1 mm deeper, providing better ergonomics, and like the A7RV, has a four axis multi-angle (i.e. flip and tilt) screen with a resolution of about 2.1 million dots.
The viewfinder resolution remains the same at 9.44 million dots (which I thought should have been increased given the sensor MP jump) but now doesn’t black out in between shots during high-speed bursts.
It also has a wider colour gamut and can go brighter than its predecessor: things that might be useful for those previewing HDR images.
The 5-axis body image stabilisation is also improved to 8.5 stops in the centre, 7 stops at the periphery.
Is that good? Yep! I took a hand-held image at 50mm using a 1/8th second exposure with no noticeable hand shake.
A cool addition is the ability to have back-illuminated buttons, a first for Sony and infers low light/night photographers being a considered target for this camera.
It has dual card slots with CF Express Type-A or UHS-II SD compatibility (and if you’re are shooting fast RAW, you’ll need the FC Express cards).
The sensor
OK, this is where this camera really starts to get interesting.
The new sensor provides a big 66.8 MP of resolution using a fully-stacked CMOS Exmor RS image sensor.
Matched with a new BIONZ XR2 processor with improved algorithms to drive it, this means you now get greater image resolution (i.e. in more pixels), up to 5.6x faster readout speeds, and the ability to shoot bursts up to 30 FPS.
Add to this increased phase-detection points (759 vs 693 on the A7R V) and you get improved AF/AE performance, improved subject recognition and reduced rolling shutter distortion on fast-moving subjects when using electronic shutter.
A big word of caution however, rolling shutter distortion is not eliminated and nor does it feel as reduced as on the A1II or even A7V.
However, these are very different cameras, and I suspect partly explains why I haven’t seen Sony promoting the A7R VI as a sports camera.
Autofocus
The AF has also been improved for low light, with Sony stating a base -6EV capability, but with ‘Bright Monitoring’ enabled, and impressive -11EV capability. That’s impressive.
Add to this the cool feature that AF can be limited to just long-distance range low-light distant scenes, this is something some night landscape photographers will really like (although I know many will still focus manually).
Additionally, the A7R VI now also comes with up to 1 second pre-capture which is great for anticipated action. And if you don’t know about pre-capture, it’s pretty cool.
It’s a feature which is turned on by pressing the shutter button down half way, and doing this the camera continuously records images into a temporary buffer.
Then, when the shutter button is pressed all the way, the buffer images get saved to the memory card. Something that can be a life saver if you are waiting for some action to happen and you just miss it.
And speaking of buffer, if you are shooting RAW Lossless Compressed (with some file sizes creeping to around 100MB) at 30 FPS electronic shutter, you'll probably get about 2 seconds worth (60-70 frames) before it starts to fill.
This of course is not an issue if you are shooting in short bursts or using the fast CF Express Type A card or if shooting with greater compression (like the new HQ RAW* format).
* Sony state the new HQ RAW format provides “…lightweight RAW files that enable continuous shooting while maintaining high image quality”
Another upgrade is found in the A7R VI’s dynamic range. It is up from around 15 for to 16 stops, actually exceeds Sony’s flagship Sony A1 at 15, and this will create better image quality for the highlights and shadows.
Finally, ISO noise is not as bad as I would have predicted. Indeed, its good up to about 2000 and depending upon the background and subject, I was generally comfortable shooting up to 2,000 (with 3,200 being my limit – although for tests, I shot higher).
Battery
I used to say you could never have enough battery life, but that view can come at a cost.
The A7R VI comes with an upgraded higher-capacity 2670 mAh NP SA100 battery: a battery Sony claims will give you approximately 600 shots (viewfinder) and 710 shots (LCD monitor).
That’s an impressive 35% more shots than the A7RV at 440 and 530 shots viewfinder/ monitor respectively. More image capture ability is generally is a good thing, however the downside is this new battery is larger (8% by volume) meaning it won’t work with the old Sony NP FZ-100 charger, it can’t fit into other Sony bodies, and you can’t use it’s charger for the older style NP FZ-100 battery.
That of course is fine if this is your only Sony camera body, but for those of us with others, it means we now need to carry two chargers (unless charging through the body).
With all technology changes there are winners and losers, however I wonder (like with memory card slots) why they didn’t make everything backwards and forwards compatible. It’s annoying.
Connectivity
If wireless workflows are important, the A7R VI supports 6GHz wi-fi (in addition to 5 and 2.4GHz) which meaning faster transfers rates. The primary port is a USB type C socket which allows up to 10Gbs transfers, but can also be used for power.
The wrap-up
The A7R6 is a big megapixel, high EV camera with great image stabilisation.
If you need lots of pixels for printing large, need to crop in, or shoot genres like landscape, studio/portrait work, architecture, or even some type of wildlife where the subject isn’t moving that fast or have great light, this camera is something to consider.
However, if you want a camera for sport or fast-moving wildlife, I’d still recommend the A1 II or the A7v - still my go-to camera when I don’t need the pixels.
Results
Handling: ★★★★ 1/2
It has a solid feel and the layout all made sense. I didn’t give it a 5 because I didn’t like the feel as much as I do the A1 II of A7V, but that’s really just me, not a camera issue.
Features: ★★★★ 1/2
For the price, for the pixels, and for what I think this camera is designed for, I’m not sure if portrait/landscape/architecture photographers could reasonably ask for much more - but I know some will.
Autofocus: ★★★★ 1/2
In daylight, with clear backgrounds, it’s generally good to grab focus ‘most’ of the time even with fast moving subjects, and seems to hold focus pretty well once it has. When the background gets cluttered, it’s not as strong and I didn’t feel as comfortable as I would with more sports-focused cameras.
What is nice is its low light focus base of -6 Evan its’ -11EV capability with the Bright Monitoring enabled, as well as its ability to limit AF to long-distance ranges in low-light distant.
Image quality: ★★★★ 1/2
With a 66.8MP sensor, image resolution is pretty amazing. With 16 stop dynamic range (on mechanical shutter) and solid performance on up to middle range ISOs, excluding the possibility of rolling shutter artifacts on fast moving objects (electronic shutter), image quality is really good.
Value For Money: ★★★★ 1/2
Value for money depends on what you compare it to, what it’s going to be used for, and with such a high megapixel camera, what lenses you have. Why do I say this?
Well, if you don’t have great glass, the flaws in your lenses will start to show up and it’s going to cost you to start upgrading.
If this doesn’t make sense, let me give an analogy. It’s like having surgery to get amazing 20/10 eyesight, but wearing low quality sunglass. The investment is wasted, you’ll get frustrated and you’ll need to upgrade.
Also, with file sizes sometimes creeping over 100MBs, you may need to look at your storage as well as the processing speed of your computer.
So, with a RRP of $6,999, if you already have great glass, a fast computer, plenty of storage and plan to use it for the ‘right’ projects, it’s good value for money.
Otherwise, what you end up spending may well be much more than just the initial investment in the body.
Final word
If you like to print large, like or need to crop in a lot (like many birders do), or are a pixel peeper, this is a great high megapixel camera for many styles of photography. If you use it for what I feel it was built for, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
