I have been told the A7IV has basically the same A7SIII body. It means it also has the same heatsink and a HDMI type A port and can take both UHS-II SD-cards and CF Xpress A cards
Sony A7IV rumored specs:
launch in October (if chip supply permits this)
Newly developed 33MP sensor
4k30 video is oversampled from 7K
5.5 stops of IBIS (+ AS)
Same A7sIII body design
Full size HDMi
UHS-II SD-cards and CF Xpress cards
Yes, the A7SIII body sounds all reasonable. And maybe plastic back part of the body as the A7III has to reduce weight and cost and lower spec EVF and LCD etc. Maybe just one Bionz XR processor as well.
The only outstanding question is if the sensor will have the same Phase difference tech as the new Sony m4/3 sensor has that (from what I understand) gives AF on all pixels. A rumor is out that the A7IV will have extremely good AF so that might match. Also the new Sony m4/3 sensor has a HDR mode, I understand that as the same as the Canon R3 now has, taking three images extremely quickly and combining them into one video frame.
And the last question is if they will pop in a stacked sensor or not. A stacked sensor with a read out speed at around 1/250 and also flash sync in that region would make them not need to put in a mech shutter and they can then spend that money on the more costly stacked sensor instead. It would also give it very good video rolling shutter suppression and make the body lighter.
The A7 series has A7II-A7III and A7III-A7IV been living 3+ years on the market. If the A7IV shall be able to do that, they must have something in it that feels fresh still 3 years from now and the above should do that since they would be first out with this.
All above are my speculation from some rumors, some real news, and some semi intelligent guess work to combine the dots.
It has almost zero chance of having a stacked sensor. Therefore it will never have 1/250 readout which is as fast as the A1. It will probably readout somewhere around the A7SIII. Remember even the A1 only reads at 1/60 in video mode.
It is going to get the updated body (probably the A7SIII flip screen as I'm sure it will be video centric), it will get the XR, it will get the new menus, it will gain the nice responsivness of operation like SIII and A1. It will get the dual SD/CFe-A slots. It will probably get the A7RIV EVF (but even the A9 EVF would be an upgrade). I doubt it will get the A7SIII EVF, but maybe. It will get the RIVa LCD as there must be some production issue with the old one. It will get the new video specs as rumored.
I think it will be very interesting to see how it stacks up against the A92. Although an almost 2 year old camera but none the less will be interesting.
vipergts831 wrote:
I think it will be very interesting to see how it stacks up against the A92. Although an almost 2 year old camera but none the less will be interesting.
The A9II is in much a 2017 camera. The version II add ons to the original A9 are things that did matter to pros but did not enhance image quality, speed or AF in any significant way on the sensor/processing side.
I don't see a problem with having the A7IV having A9/A9II quality on AF but lower fps and buffer and no RJ45 port etc that pros likes and even having a better sensor image quality, the A7III already has that.
There is most likely also an A9III coming at some point that would be better than the A7IV. Maybe also Sony then dicommisions the A9II as they seems to have made with the A9 and they then don't need to make that sensor anymore.
a7III is Sony’s bread and butter camera. They will want to protect it from Canon and Nikon so i expect it to be much more camera than its price would indicate.
I'm seriously debating an upgrade from my A7r2. Yes I would lose some megapixels, but I've made large prints from 16mp and been perfectly happy, so I'm okay with that. And I feel like the improvements (ergonomics, battery life, screens, etc.) would be very appreciated. Gonna depend a lot on pricing.
If they can give me a nice increase in resolution (33 MP rumoured), generally snappier use, updated AF, updated IBIS, a better EVF and LCD and the updated body and menus I'll get one for sure. Any other tricks and surprises would just be a bonus.
nandadevieast wrote:
a7III is Sony’s bread and butter camera. They will want to protect it from Canon and Nikon so i expect it to be much more camera than its price would indicate.
Yes and the A7II-A7III and also A7III-A7IV has been on the market 3+ years so if the A7IV shall be on the market and make sense to about the 2024/25 shift - it needs to punch rather hard.
arbitrage wrote:
It has almost zero chance of having a stacked sensor. Therefore it will never have 1/250 readout which is as fast as the A1. It will probably readout somewhere around the A7SIII. Remember even the A1 only reads at 1/60 in video mode.
It is going to get the updated body (probably the A7SIII flip screen as I'm sure it will be video centric), it will get the XR, it will get the new menus, it will gain the nice responsivness of operation like SIII and A1. It will get the dual SD/CFe-A slots. It will probably get the A7RIV EVF (but even the A9 EVF would be an upgrade). I doubt it will get the A7SIII EVF, but maybe. It will get the RIVa LCD as there must be some production issue with the old one. It will get the new video specs as rumored....Show more →
Regarding your comment of having zero chance of having a stacked sensor:
I am not really knowledgeable enough to say if the A7IV sensor has a chance to be stacked or not, but my thought process on the "It has a chance to be stacked" alternative goes like this:
* Most/many/all smartphone sensors are stacked these days.
* The latest RX100 versions use a stacked sensor.
* The recently announced m4/3 sensor from Sony is stacked (will most likely come in the GH6 and rumored early 2022 body from OM/Olympus).
On the cost side:
- Stacked sensors are more expensive to make.
+ Stacked sensors have components in the stacked layer that don't need to sit on other circuit boards.
+ A stacked sensor with enough high read out don't need a mech shutter in the body (that is an outside of Sony made component).
I have no idea how the real numbers for the above business case will look.
But, if the A7IV shall be on the market 3+ years as Sony has done with the A7II-A7III and now A7III-A7IV it needs to be a good seller and stand well until the shift 2024/25.
The new m4/3 stacked sensor seems to have on all pixels the possibility for HDR and also for "Phase difference". Sony seems to call that All-pixel-AF. And it then has no holes in the sensor so no image quality impact.
That technology would resonate well with the rumor that the A7IV will have very good AF so chances are that the A7IV sensor will have it too. But maybe one doesn't need to have the sensor stacked for that tech, I can't really say.
As for price, all new Sony models are more expensive at their launch than what the previous model was at its launch so I guess that the A7IV will cost what the A7III costed at launch plus 500 USD or so.
The A7III sensor Sony also use in the A7C and sold to others. It sits in Nikon Z6/Z6II, Panasonic S1, Leica SL2S and Sigma fp.
And Sony might count on the new A7IV sensor to also do that over time, making the volume higher.
If that is enough to sustain the business case for a 3+ year model on the market, I can't really say so the above is just guess work.
This stacked sensor thing will trickle down fast because of competition. When Canon and Nikon have it in their flagship models, Sony can spoil their party by selling it in mass market models.
