Am I nuts for considering "downgrading" my A7Rv to an A7Riii or A7iv? I love the features of the R5 (autofocus, video streaming, and flippy screen in particular) buuuuuut I don't find any substantial benefit or difference in its image quality. I've loosely considered a Canon R5 but FE mount lenses are so much more available and affordable. Anyone had a similar experience?
I feel like the biggest thing is when I'm looking at the images I'm not seeing that they're any more detailed/sharper than either my R2 or R3 ones were. I concede, that's probably more with my technique but either way it's what I'm seeing. It would also be nice to re-coop some cash but that's less of a concern. I do also feel like the R2 and R3 had better noise performance?
I went from an a7r III to a7r V. I would agree that the real world image quality feels very similar and that the a7r III probably has slightly better noise performance.
I wouldn't go backwards though because I really like the new LCD panel, much better EVF and the AF is excellent on the a7r V, and that increases the versatility of the body a lot (for me). Nothing wrong with going backwards if you don't appreciate or enjoy any of those improvements. Even the a7r II is an excellent landscape body.
What are you taking pictures of?
Maybe you need or don’t need the more advanced feature of the newer camera?
IQ-wise my old A7R.2 was great, but it was too slow for BIF and hummingbirds.
I missed too many shots, so I got an A1 and an A9.3 and handed down my A7R.2.
But I am still attached to my A7R.2 and miss it.
But I could not justify keeping it as I did barely use it after I got newer cameras.
So giving it away was the right move.
I made the move from my a7rv to the a7riv to save a bit of money but the screen with its touch functions were nice and maybe the image stabilisation but that was about it. You won't notice any difference in IQ if that's what you're worried about it also depends on what you shoot as well. For sports or birds maybe slight difference other than that there's nothing. Maybe better performance with the phone apps l.
The A7IV would be most similar to the A7RV in performance and handling. Same body, same buttons, same menu. Going back to the A7RIII would be stepping into the wayback machine.
mfenske wrote:
I do also feel like the R2 and R3 had better noise performance?
If you upscale the A7RR III files to 61mp, or downscale the A7R V files to 42mp, you probably won't see a noticeable difference in noise - especially if you expose and process the files properly.
If you don't need any of the functionality the A7rv offers, why not recoup some money and get a nice lens with it. I don't see what would be wrong with that.
genjy wrote:
The A7IV would be most similar to the A7RV in performance and handling. Same body, same buttons, same menu. Going back to the A7RIII would be stepping into the wayback machine.
But crucially missing the AI autofocus.
Not to hijack this thread, but I was kind of excited for the AI white balance, but for me is a bit of a dud. Night shots are way to warm and the tint is off in either direction somewhat unpredictably. It is not awful and is better than my OG A9, but it isn't nailing white balance consistently. I realize I can "fix this" in RAW, and I do. I guess the AI needs more training!
I downloaded some high ISO RAW files from a A7RV and compared them to RAWs from my A7III (yes, the 24MP one).
When I zoomed the images to the same size, noise performance was significantly better in the A7RV files. After applying some Lightroom AI denoise, an ISO 6400 shot was awesomely clean and detailed.
The misconception that "noise is worse on the 61MP sensor" comes from not realizing that when zooming to 100% you see a smaller part of the image than with a 42 or 24 MP sensor, so that the noise gets enlarged and thus more visible. But that's not a correct comparison. You have to zoom the images from the compared cameras to the same actual size (say, 60 x 40 centimeters) and then see which looks noisier. The higher MP image actually will win.
mfenske wrote:
I feel like the biggest thing is when I'm looking at the images I'm not seeing that they're any more detailed/sharper than either my R2 or R3 ones were. I concede, that's probably more with my technique but either way it's what I'm seeing. It would also be nice to re-coop some cash but that's less of a concern. I do also feel like the R2 and R3 had better noise performance?
There's an argument to be made that the camera manufacturers beg us not to maximize their cameras' potential quality. Who needs tripods when you can see what you can get away with using IBIS? Why bother with exposure bracketing when you can just lift the shadows in post and still produce a clean image? Why worry about keeping the ISO down when modern software clears it right up? Why worry about copious amounts of lens distortion robbing us of full resolution when we've got plenty to spare?
Anyway, I don't think you're crazy. It's good to evaluate your gear and see if you're where you feel you should be. Noise performance, though, is not the strongest argument. Downrez your 61MP files to 42MP in post and you'll see a bit better performance over an original 42MP file.
i owned the a7r2 and went for the a7iv. love the image quality from the a7iv, i shoot studio portraits and the images from the a7iv are just as detailed as the a7r2, but the skin tones and auto focus are much better with the newer camera. the a7iv has AI auto focus and is just as good as the a6700(which i own as well) which is the same as the a7r5.
At the time, I bought an A7RIV, had it for a week, and traded it back for an A7RIII. the noise was horrible. 42mp sensor is the sweet spot. I wish Sony would bring it back in something else.
I used to have 2 A7r3 and one went when the A1 came out and the other I only upgraded to the R5 earlier this year. If the R5 had the same sensor as the R3 I would have bought it all the same as I think it's a real sweet spot for the sensor and don't need more mp's but there are significant improvements in AI autofocus, considerably better IBIS and improved EVF, easier firmware upgrades and vertical flick screen. The only operational thing I don't like about it is not have a compensation dial with analogue markings on it which you can see at a glance even with the camera off (something I have bought up with a Sony rep and has been common complaint)
3catsinky wrote:
At the time, I bought an A7IV, had it for a week, and traded it back for an A7RIII. the noise was horrible. 42mp sensor is the sweet spot. I wish Sony would bring it back in something else.
You haven't read the other answers here, right? Otherwise you would have read my explanation that your observation ("A7IV has horrible noise") is based on wrong assumptions.
