Sony a7R V: is it worth upgrading from an a7R IV?

Hi everyone,

I’d be really interested to hear from people that have (or have extensively used) the Sony a7R IV and have now upgraded to (or again, have extensively used) the Sony a7R V.

What I’d really be keen to hear about is peoples’ experience and opinions of the “the real world” performance improvements of the autofocus of the a7R V over the a7R IV. Have you noticed a significant improvement in autofocus speed, accuracy, and reliability with the a7R V? Or are the improvements more subtle?

I'm currently using an a7R IV and I'm toying with the idea of upgrading to the newer a7R V. In so many ways the a7R IV has been, and is, a fantastic camera for my uw photography. But, macro photography can be a bit frustrating at times with autofocus hunting when using the Sony 90mm macro.

If you have any insights or experiences to share, I would greatly appreciate it. Also, if you upgraded from the a7R IV to the a7R V, do you think it was worth the cost?

Thanks in advance for your help!

I some of the forums on DSLR and mirrorless cams they are excited about the huge improvements of the af-system. But GAS seems to play a major role. The RV is definitely better than the RIV.

As the housing is often at 5k I would try to use the most up-to-date camera body I can afford. So better go for the RV.

I only own the A7 IV - and am quite happy

I, too, am on the riv.
The housing upgrade is that pain that is stopping my upgrade. I wish they ( nauticam) can do an upgrade kit like the nexus do. That will 'shift' some of them buttons to aline. Hahah.. wishful thinking..

I have seen the rv performance. And all signs point to it being able to focus better on the 90mm. About that 90mm... can sony make it 'better' ?? Haha

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@Champers

Just finished a week of diving with my daughter, who recently upgraded from the A7RIV to the A7RV. Shot almost all macro for a week in various conditions (incl. low light).

The move from the A7III to the A7RIV (using the Sony 90mm) was a reasonable improvement. However the lens still would hunt in low light or low contrast situations. The move to the A7RV is significant - much less hunting in the vast majority of situations...

It will still hunt on occasion, but much less than  before. By her estimate, she didn't miss any shots she was trying to get over a week (except during the blackwater dive - still not comparable to my D850 + 60mm ).

I was very impressed as well. If the Z8 (or Z9+) isn't what many are expecting, I could see moving to this camera.

 

just realised you were looking for comments from owners of the A7RIV, hopefully my comments were relevant!
 

Hi,

I upgraded from an A7III to the A7RV. I’ve only used the new rig for 9 recent dives in Bali, all macro shots with the 90mm lens and a +18.5 diopter.

I had some freezing issues which I discussed in another thread on this forum, but my overwhelming conclusion was that it was a reasonable improvement in autofocus, but not the massive improvement I was hoping for.

It still hunted a bit, although I think some of this was down to the positioning of my focus light - when I lit the subject it would lock on quicker. I experimented with different options for subject selection and concluded that it was more accurate when I selected animal/bird than when I selected insects. I assumed this was because the camera couldn’t recognise the eyes of a hairy shrimp (for example) when zoomed up so close.

All in all I’m happy with the upgrade, in my case the extra pixels alone mean I can crop much better than I could with the A7III, but with a bit more practice I’m hoping I will still get to see the big improvements in autofocus speed and accuracy which were the no 1 reasons I upgraded.

Cheers,
Paul

On 4/5/2023 at 8:57 PM, oneyellowtang said:

@Champers

Just finished a week of diving with my daughter, who recently upgraded from the A7RIV to the A7RV. Shot almost all macro for a week in various conditions (incl. low light).

The move from the A7III to the A7RIV (using the Sony 90mm) was a reasonable improvement. However the lens still would hunt in low light or low contrast situations. The move to the A7RV is significant - much less hunting in the vast majority of situations...

It will still hunt on occasion, but much less than  before. By her estimate, she didn't miss any shots she was trying to get over a week (except during the blackwater dive - still not comparable to my D850 + 60mm ).

I was very impressed as well. If the Z8 (or Z9+) isn't what many are expecting, I could see moving to this camera.

 

This is really interesting and it's good to hear about someone's experience between the two systems. Obviously, the cost of the upgrade from the a&RIV to the a7RV would have be significant, but it sounds like your daughter was happy, and felt like it was worth the investment!(?). 

And yes, from my experience, I really don't think that the Sony 90mm macro is an ideal choice for blackwater. Fingers crossed Sony and the third party lens manufacturers start to put to put a bit more effort into producing some new macro lenses. 

On 4/5/2023 at 10:47 PM, Crowie said:

just realised you were looking for comments from owners of the A7RIV, hopefully my comments were relevant!
 

Hi,

I upgraded from an A7III to the A7RV. I’ve only used the new rig for 9 recent dives in Bali, all macro shots with the 90mm lens and a +18.5 diopter.

I had some freezing issues which I discussed in another thread on this forum, but my overwhelming conclusion was that it was a reasonable improvement in autofocus, but not the massive improvement I was hoping for.

It still hunted a bit, although I think some of this was down to the positioning of my focus light - when I lit the subject it would lock on quicker. I experimented with different options for subject selection and concluded that it was more accurate when I selected animal/bird than when I selected insects. I assumed this was because the camera couldn’t recognise the eyes of a hairy shrimp (for example) when zoomed up so close.

All in all I’m happy with the upgrade, in my case the extra pixels alone mean I can crop much better than I could with the A7III, but with a bit more practice I’m hoping I will still get to see the big improvements in autofocus speed and accuracy which were the no 1 reasons I upgraded.

Cheers,
Paul

Thanks Paul, 

This is still super informative... I've never tried using the animal AF modes on my camera and so I wouldn't have a clue as to how well it works, and thus, be able to compare performance (I've always used spot targeting continuous AF mode.) I'm guessing it would be asking an awful lot of any camera AI technology to recognise eyes on the funky small critters we find when doing macro shooting.