Leaked: Full review of the Sony A7 IV goes live prematurely

mdcmdcmdc

EOS R7, M5, 100 (film), Sony α6400
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Sep 4, 2020
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Good point. I do not know how you would enforce it, but say a $10K fine for each offense might deter some. Currently, the viewer uses their Brian and know who are good reviewers and decide for themselves.
Never mind enforcement, who would even make such a policy?

- Certainly not elected lawmakers, who are often the first ones to unabashedly play fast and loose with facts (and otherwise) when it suits them.

- Certainly not the online video sharing companies (not naming names), who make their money on showing you ads and don't really care what you watch.

- Certainly not social media sites. Their own leaked research shows that their profits are directly tied to "engagement", which goes up when there is division and controversy.

- Certainly not the various photo clickbait sites (definitely not naming names!) who likewise make their money from showing people ads while hanging out in forums regarding the most inconsequential of "news".

Caveat emptor.
 
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dlee13

Canon EOS R6
May 13, 2014
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A good option for Sony a7iii users wishing to upgrade to better AF, better menus and a moderate increase in resolution, but it’s not likely to tempt anyone away from Canon.

Nice try Sony, but a bit of an “also ran”.
Funny enough in Dec last year I owned the A7III and made the decision to swap to the Canon R6 and I was unsure if I would still think it would be a good decision when this A7IV came out.

Seeing the specs the only advantage I can see is the 33mp which isn't even a factor for me so I'm glad I made the choice to swap back to the R6.

I will say that I wish Canon here in Australia would be more aggressive with their pricing.
 
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pauloancarvalho

Skimboard athlete from Portugal.
Jan 3, 2020
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I currently own an EOS R and a GH5. I will sell my GH5 to get a camera that supports ProRes RAW. I would love that camera to be the R6 but seems likes Canon won’t be adding it to the R6. The R5 is out of my budget, if the A74 supports ProRes RAW I’m in, if not, I’m upgrading to the GH5S or GH6. I still prefer my Canom EOS R for photography though. :)
 
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Jun 27, 2013
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I'll be curious to see how the camera does, but I feel like Sony's penchant to keep producing older bodies may steal some thunder here. If this retails for $2500, I wonder how many people would instead opt for an a7RIII at $2800? Certainly not everyone would, but I would think a number would be ok moving up to that depending on the final specs.
Given A1 was scalped on ebay, if this camera is heavily pre ordered expecting it also will be scalped for much higher prices like other electronics.
 
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Dec 25, 2017
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Would such a policy be simple to enforce?
No, completely impossible.
Also "reviews" are all by now nothing but commercials. ALL of them have affilliated links under their videos. There main source of income are these affilliated links. The YouTubers will allways bless the product so that you get an overall good feeling about it. Even with some "minor" flaws, which the mention so they can name their videos "the honest truth about..."
Keep in mind, these YouTube-"reviewers" make a living by selling cameras to you through their affilliated links. Whenever someone buys anything from these links, they geht 0,5 - 3% of the product price. They have no interest to give honest or brutal reviews. Some exceptions may apply, like when they want to start a controversy to get more clicks and a heated discussion.
 
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Andy Westwood

EOS R6
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Dec 10, 2016
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This video comes as a surprise to me, because on several occasions The Northrup’s have clearly stated they wont review pre-production model cameras, and insisted on waiting for the retail version to arrive, but now, here they are on launch day with a A7 IV in their hands reviewing it.

Is this because previously manufacturers wouldn’t give them a camera body before launch day.

Or as I suspect, Tony and Chelsea finally figured out by not doing reviews on pre-production camera bodies on launch day, they were losing out on so much traffic to other popular and competing YouTube reviewers.
 
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It is stunning how reviewers (including Gordan Laing) gloss over the R6's 20fps advantage over the a7iv, and it is a curious omission by Sony not to have a faster silent shooting option. 10fps versus 20fps is SIGNIFICANT. It is much more significant than 20fps versus 30fps. It's the difference between getting a fast-moving shot or not, almost the speed difference between an M6 from 2017 to the current 1DXIII. The R6 was a game-changer to introduce this speed with AF at its price point. (yes there is distortion with electronic shutter, but it is certainly far from unusable)
 
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It is stunning how reviewers (including Gordan Laing) gloss over the R6's 20fps advantage over the a7iv,
It’s the logical extension of ‘the best camera is the one in your hand’. In this case, it’s ‘the best camera is the one that will earn me affiliate link money’.

These ‘reviews’ are really just infotainment (or in the case of TN, misinfotainment).
 
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AlanF

Desperately seeking birds
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It’s the logical extension of ‘the best camera is the one in your hand’. In this case, it’s ‘the best camera is the one that will earn me affiliate link money’.

These ‘reviews’ are really just infotainment (or in the case of TN, misinfotainment).
And in the TN case, Mrs infotainment.
 
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Good point. I do not know how you would enforce it, but say a $10K fine for each offense might deter some. Currently, the viewer uses their Brian and know who are good reviewers and decide for themselves.
"The viewer uses their Brian. . ."
Typo or not, that really made me laugh :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

I pictured everyone's good mate Brian sitting next to them while watching YouTube and asking, so what do we think? Yay or Nay?

Thanks!!
 
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No, completely impossible.
Also "reviews" are all by now nothing but commercials. ALL of them have affilliated links under their videos. There main source of income are these affilliated links. The YouTubers will allways bless the product so that you get an overall good feeling about it. Even with some "minor" flaws, which

It worse than that. Many of them are promoted videos. Every so often the FTC in the US or the UK equivalent fines an "influencer" for not disclosing this.

In general the affiliate links aren't really about the product. An Amazon link for example is for anything the consumer buys in the next 24 hours. Other companies have even longer times. That means you can roast a product and send somebody to Amazon to check the price and still make money.
 
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entoman

wildlife photography
May 8, 2015
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It’s the logical extension of ‘the best camera is the one in your hand’. In this case, it’s ‘the best camera is the one that will earn me affiliate link money’.

These ‘reviews’ are really just infotainment (or in the case of TN, misinfotainment).
Completely agree, but there are a handful of honest, trustworthy reviews out there, such as this comparison between the Sony a1 and Canon R5 by Jan Wegener:

 
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Completely agree, but there are a handful of honest, trustworthy reviews out there, such as this comparison between the Sony a1 and Canon R5 by Jan Wegener:

The problem I find with even the very few reviewers I trust, and I include Jan amongst them, is that case use and personalization makes such a difference to user experience and subsequent results as to nullify the small differences we see in systems now.

For instance it seems all reviewers are very keen on back button focus, I hate it, using a camera optimized for BBF that reviewers love just doesn’t work for me. Or a better example would be AF settings, if you take the time to find custom settings appropriate for your personal acquisition speed etc then it will gel, if not you will always wonder how others get ‘better’ results than you.

On a completely different point, I am one of the few who consider 20mp ‘enough’ 99% of the time as I am never focal length limited. Yesterday I made my first commercial customer prints at 30” x 20” using Photoshop Enhance, and wow! What a difference, it might be the subject matter but I now have pin sharp detail in 30”+ prints at close up viewing distances from 20mp files, freaking awesome!
 
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entoman

wildlife photography
May 8, 2015
1,998
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The problem I find with even the very few reviewers I trust, and I include Jan amongst them, is that case use and personalization makes such a difference to user experience and subsequent results as to nullify the small differences we see in systems now.

For instance it seems all reviewers are very keen on back button focus, I hate it, using a camera optimized for BBF that reviewers love just doesn’t work for me. Or a better example would be AF settings, if you take the time to find custom settings appropriate for your personal acquisition speed etc then it will gel, if not you will always wonder how others get ‘better’ results than you.

On a completely different point, I am one of the few who consider 20mp ‘enough’ 99% of the time as I am never focal length limited. Yesterday I made my first commercial customer prints at 30” x 20” using Photoshop Enhance, and wow! What a difference, it might be the subject matter but I now have pin sharp detail in 30”+ prints at close up viewing distances from 20mp files, freaking awesome!
Haha, I’m so glad that I’m not the only wildlife photographer who hates back button focus. I’ve tried it a few times as all the top bird photographers tell you how good it is, but I just can’t get on with it.

FWIW, my AF set-up for birds and animals with my R5 is this:
  • AF case 2, but tracking set to lock-on, and acceleration set to maximum.
  • Default AF method SERVO = C-AF in Sony/Nikon speak
  • Default AF zone is “face and tracking” with with eye-AF turned OFF
  • Animal AF
  • Shutter button normal (AF and metering start)
  • AF/ON button - eye-AF
  • *button - switches to spot AF and ONE-SHOT = S-AF in Sony/Nikon speak
  • Mfn button to switch between AF zones.
With the above set-up I only hit the AF/ON (eye AF) button if the bird/animal is filling about a third of the frame width.
I hit the * button (spot AF and ONE SHOT) when the subject is half-hidden by twigs or foliage.

I have all the above saved as a custom mode, and I meter manually.

I agree that 20MP is “enough” if you are able to compose tightly, but for fast-moving subjects I need a safety margin around the subject, and I enjoy experimenting in post with different crops and aspect ratios.
 
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The problem I find with even the very few reviewers I trust, and I include Jan amongst them, is that case use and personalization makes such a difference to user experience and subsequent results as to nullify the small differences we see in systems now.

For instance it seems all reviewers are very keen on back button focus, I hate it, using a camera optimized for BBF that reviewers love just doesn’t work for me. Or a better example would be AF settings, if you take the time to find custom settings appropriate for your personal acquisition speed etc then it will gel, if not you will always wonder how others get ‘better’ results than you.

On a completely different point, I am one of the few who consider 20mp ‘enough’ 99% of the time as I am never focal length limited. Yesterday I made my first commercial customer prints at 30” x 20” using Photoshop Enhance, and wow! What a difference, it might be the subject matter but I now have pin sharp detail in 30”+ prints at close up viewing distances from 20mp files, freaking awesome!
+1 here!

PS enhance is now part of my editing process for all the keepers and I'm yet to be disappointed with the result.
I had tried Topaz Gigapixel before but that didn't get along well with the files and introduced loads of artefacts.
 
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