The second big upgrade is in ISO. I am one of those people who will shoot up to 25,000 ISO if I need to to maintain my shutter speed and aperture where I want them. Maybe this is an old-guy film-shooter thing, but changing ISO still seems like a miracle to me, and it’s my favorite thing about digital photography—when it works. With the A7V, I was completely comfortable pushing ISO as high as 32,000. With the noise-reduction algorithms in postproduction software these days, the images still look great even at these insane ISOs. And yes, I try to keep ISO down when I can, but it’s nice to know that I can go that high if I need to to get the shot.
The third upgrade is not so much an upgrade as a change for the better. Sony’s color science has improved dramatically, especially with skin tones, which are much truer to life across the range of skin tones in this world. Auto white balance is also significantly better, though I am still a fan of shooting in good old sunlight white balance 95 percent of the time.
Finally, a bonus thing I loved. I’ve always wanted to get better at bird photography, but that generally requires expensive lenses and extensive time in the field. It still requires both of those things, but with 33 MP to crop into, and the pre-burst capture, and 33 images-per-second RAW capture … even someone like me, with next to no wildlife photography skills and only a 200mm lens, can get some pretty decent images, which was fun to experiment with.
Photograph: Scott Gilbertson
The one thing that still sucks about the A7V and has sucked about every Sony camera I’ve ever used, and it’s only getting worse: the menu system. They are disorganized, confusing, and difficult to navigate. The only thing that saves you here is the number of programmable hardware buttons, which allow you to control things the way you want to without having to dive into the menus. Sony, seriously, hire a UX designer and fix this. Even better, steal Leica’s menu designer.
Is the A7V worth the upgrade? Yes, if you’re coming from a camera that’s below the A7IV. If you already have the A7IV, it’s less compelling. The new features are impressive on a specs table, but whether you need them depends on what you shoot.
If you’re a wildlife or sports photographer, it’s worth the upgrade to get the pre-capture and higher burst rates. If what you shoot doesn’t benefit from those features—say you mostly shoot travel images, landscape, street—the A7V is a less-compelling prospect. It’s incredibly nice for all those scenarios, but if you already have the A7IV, it might not be worth the money to upgrade for a bunch of new features you won’t use.
