quantumloop wrote:
One fascinating aspect of his career and all of the other greats from earlier eras, is that they used equipment that is primitive by today's standards, and yet their photos hang on museum walls.
Reminds me of Daido Moriyama. Uses the likes of Nikon Coolpix and Ricoh GR; creates a whole new style of street photography. One of his most symbolic creative choices is using bright lights and shadows that exceed the camera's dynamic range to create striking contrasts.
Seems like a great upgrade, but it also gives me pause on third party lenses. If a resolution monster like this one hits 30 fps, this will probably be the standard for Sony's lineup moving forward. Not saying all lenses need more than 15 fps or have the ability to do so of course, but the arbitrary limitation is now even more annoying than before.
But still excited to see a potential A7CRII with this new sensor.
quantumloop wrote:
The photographer was Henri Cartier-Bresson and he published a landmark photobook titled "The Decisive Moment."
He primarily used Leica rangefinder cameras, which of course were manual focus.
One fascinating aspect of his career and all of the other greats from earlier eras, is that they used equipment that is primitive by today's standards, and yet their photos hang on museum walls.
Yes that's it!
Anyways, I'm pretty sure those folks in the mid-century would have happily used modern MILS and had a higher keeper rate.
lowtek wrote:
Seems like a great upgrade, but it also gives me pause on third party lenses. If a resolution monster like this one hits 30 fps, this will probably be the standard for Sony's lineup moving forward. Not saying all lenses need more than 15 fps or have the ability to do so of course, but the arbitrary limitation is now even more annoying than before.
But still excited to see a potential A7CRII with this new sensor.
Depends on what you buy the lens for. Surely a 35mm lens has much little use at 30fps than say a 400mm lens.
ZeeMike wrote:
There's probably a lot of people here following the YouTube camera nerds space (or just online camera talk in general) and I bet all of us can't help but notice that there's is this notion right now that "cameras are solved". I feel it's true.
They still have plenty of work to do. It is absolutely ridiculous that we still, even in 2026, getting no help from our gear with finding compositions. We're still manually pressing the shutter like medieval peasants! Pathetic...
quantumloop wrote:
The photographer was Henri Cartier-Bresson and he published a landmark photobook titled "The Decisive Moment."
He primarily used Leica rangefinder cameras, which of course were manual focus.
And that book (his second) was shot entirely with a Leica screwmount camera since the M3 did not yet exist. The frame rate for a Barnack (unaccessorized) is about 0.2 so getting the decisive moment is about preparation, anticipation, and luck. HCB had prior experience as a hunter.
old-gregg wrote:
They still have plenty of work to do. It is absolutely ridiculous that we still, even in 2026, getting no help from our gear with finding compositions. We're still manually pressing the shutter like medieval peasants! Pathetic...
AI-based auto-framing has been a feature on Sony PTZ cameras, some Alpha cameras and camcorders, and Xperia phones. The technology is ready for features like giving composition suggestions to stills shooters.
That said, I don't know how to implement the feature without being intrusive or disturbing, especially for non-professionals who probably prioritize enjoyment more than anything in photography. Maybe the journalists will mind it less.
JadedWriter wrote:
What would you define as a video centric camera in 2026? That goal post is so weird in this day and age.
Wild guesses? (I do little video) Some features may get addressed somewhat differently?
Seldom, if ever, used in "portrait?" That might change connectivity considerations. A second shutter release near the right bottom corner or other controls on the body or add-on grip less needed. Maybe drop flash connections or have more video related connections, like the larger sized hdmi connectors,
I see three things often added to the top of the camera - mikes, carry handles and larger monitors. Connectivity considerations for sound especially and sometimes with added hardware, cages and the like. Maybe added batteries?
An evf is often deleted, using the rear panel or monitor. A rear panel that can be moved into position to be seen from the front. Many stills photographers like the panel to tilt for viewing from below or above more readily. to the side and twist/til helps shooting from portrait.
A record button placed better?
Even more concern about power use and heat dissipation? A video user might prefer a thicker/deeper, heavier body, maybe with a fan.
I know a production team that my job hires to make commercials for them that uses a Panasonic S5II. My job uses a Z9 primarily as an interview camera because it packs down better than the C70 we also have. We also use a Z8 and Z6III for video work. I personally squeeze in an XH2S for video work as well. Even with the thing you qualify as a video camera could be partnered with what you'd qualify as a stills camera as the B or C cam. You're basically splitting hairs and it basically depends on overall project and budget size for what gets used for video work. Also a lot of content is being asked for being made in portrait mode, which might be why Sony catches heat for not having anything that shoots in open gate. If you don't do video you don't know anything about the hellscape that is cropping for social, because I do it for my job and I hate it. Not everybody is going to rent an Arri to do something, this is why competent hybrid cameras are becoming and are more in demand. Sony really in my opinion hasn't been class leading for this stuff, it's just the popular brand. Panasonic has been doing a lot in that space for years. They really just got hampered by weak AF and couldn't contend with Sony's marketing. Canon has always been a viable option and even Nikon is catching up. Craig Gillette wrote:
Wild guesses? (I do little video) Some features may get addressed somewhat differently?
Seldom, if ever, used in "portrait?" That might change connectivity considerations. A second shutter release near the right bottom corner or other controls on the body or add-on grip less needed. Maybe drop flash connections or have more video related connections, like the larger sized hdmi connectors,
I see three things often added to the top of the camera - mikes, carry handles and larger monitors. Connectivity considerations for sound especially and sometimes with added hardware, cages and the like. Maybe added batteries?
An evf is often deleted, using the rear panel or monitor. A rear panel that can be moved into position to be seen from the front. Many stills photographers like the panel to tilt for viewing from below or above more readily. to the side and twist/til helps shooting from portrait.
A record button placed better?
Even more concern about power use and heat dissipation? A video user might prefer a thicker/deeper, heavier body, maybe with a fan.
EB-1 wrote:
The difference between 12FPS mechanical to 30FPS electronic was HUGE. Maybe you are not used to that.
Wasn't it that European guy Jean Luc Bedard or somebody made famous for capturing the devisive moment?
You can capture better the exact timing you want of the legs or wings. 20FPS is enough for most species not too rapidly moving.
All that is assuming a decent shutter traverse speed. In the old days we had lens shutters up to 1/500 or focal planes from 1/60 to 1/250. And yes it made a difference; even back then your balls could be ';squashed" in some direction.
It's a really impressive camera, but I'm in the market for a second body to compliment my RIV, so I'll probably go with the A7V instead. Maybe the next A1 would be the one to blow everything out of the water, but that's just GAS talking.
Minor piece of information: the camera does come with the new BC-SAD1 battery charger but you need to supply your own USB PD power supply and USB C cable.
Single-battery charging requires a USB PD power supply that can deliver 27 W or more. For charging two battery at once, the requirement is 45 W or more.
Sounds reasonable enough to me as most of us have a number of USB C chargers, but I'm sure it will enrage one or two somewhere.
My general take on this camera when I compare it to the A7r V that I used to own is that you get a small upgrade in the core of what that camera did well--a very small bump in resolution and a small bump in base ISO dynamic range. It will still be the among the best (and arguably the best) FF camera for shooting things that don't move and moves slowly for genres like landscapes, architecture, macro, still life, and nature photography. I would shoot those types of things with the manual shutter and I doubt I would notice the small improvements in resolution and dynamic range much if at all, but it is still a fantastic camera for that sort of shooting.
What this camera adds is a lot more capability to use the electronic shutter and even decent video performance. With my A7r V, I never used the electronic shutter, I just kept it in mechanical shutter mode for all my shooting, but sometimes shooting silently is nice or even mandatory. For wildlife the click of the shutter can scare animals away. At concerts, for example, sometimes it is required to make no noise at all. This camera can do that sort of shooting reasonably well and when it does the viewfinder will be blackout free and present a really nice image. You will get great wildlife shots even if the animal is walking around and or hopping. You can use precapture to respond to the animal moving rather than anticipate the movement. No, it won't work well for many animals when they are going at full speed, but that will depend on the exact circumstances and it will work some of the time. For me I would appreciate that extra capability in silent shutter mode. Of course, I could still shoot that stuff (and even animals moving at top speed) with the mechanical shutter as well just subject to a less than blackout free EVF, limited fps, and a shutter that clacks and makes noise. So for that type of shooting the A1 or A1 II or maybe even an A9 or A9 II might be better. Still this camera adds significantly to the capabilities of my A7r V and that would be valuable to me and probably a bit more valuable than the small bumps in the core of what I used that camera for.
So, I would say this is a quite decent upgrade for a lot of people, but whether it replaces an A1 or A1 II depends on what you shoot. If you shoot a lot with the silent shutter and you often target fast moving targets, then it clearly isn't a replacement. If you shoot primarily still or slow moving subjects it is only a modest at most upgrade for that. If you shoot a mix of both a lot of still subjects and some fast moving subjects, it is a pretty major upgrade if you don't have a second camera like the A1 or A1 II, if you do, however, I suspect that most will want to kep that A1 or A1 II and this camera will just be a minor upgrade for shooting slower moving stuff, but as secondary camera for fast moving stuff it will be much more useful than the A7r V. I can imagine, for example, a lot of wildlife shooters who will use a two camera setup with an A1 II for capturing their targets when they are moving at their fastest (e.g., birds in flight), but also an A7r V for when the target is still or just walking or hopping around (e.g., birds hopping around in a tree) for some added cropability and or resolution.
Of course these are early days and very few people have actually used the camera. We will learn more and more people get the camera in their hands and tell us what it can and cannot do.
Steve Spencer wrote:
What Gerald is reporting is for shooting video. Sensor scan speeds for video can be markedly different that sensor scan speeds for stills. See snapsy's database to see how much they can vary:
Yep. A little known fact about sensors with stacked DRAM is they can't use the stacked DRAM for video modes, apparently due to thermal concerns based on hints in Sony's sensor data sheets. You can read my thoughts about this in my dpreview thread here.
However partially-stacked sensors don't have this limitation, which you can say is an odd thing to say since partially-stacked sensors don't have stacked DRAM to begin with, so both partially-stack and stacked with DRAM sensors will have similar video readout speed restrictions vs their max respective speeds, since they're both using "slow" DRAM, right? But this actually isn't true - the partially-stacked sensor in the Z6 III has the fastest, full-sampled video readout speed of any 24MP+ camera on the market. The S1 II shares the same sensor as the Z6 III but Panasonic chose to run it slower to support more DR.
So where does that put the A7RVI with its fully-stacked but non-stacked DRAM - same as the partially-stacked sensors? Based on my viewing of the Gerald Undone video it appears so, although I don't usually like to rely on someone else's rolling shutter measurements. The A7RVI does 8k video with a 1.2x crop at 13.6ms (1/73), as compared to the Z6 III's 6K full-sensor at 9.37ms (1/106), which puts them about equal when normalized for the resolution 25% 8K vs 6K row count resolution difference.
Interestingly the A7RVI's 4K modes appear to all be subsampled in some form (either from a binning algorithm or from a smaller area), which suggests those modes are BIONZ-limited rather than sensor-readout limited (ie, BIONZ can't keep up with the amount of compute and bandwidth required to downsample the full sensor width to 4K). This is supported by the fact that some modes require turning on Sony's "angle of view" priority, which disables in-camera NR, which reduces computational demands.
We're probably talking something liquid cooled or using quantum physics or something crazy like that "The megpixel is there but also simultaneously isn't" kind of stuff!
Rialto wrote:
And here I am daydreaming, wouldn't it be neat to have a ZV-E1-sized 8K-capable global shutter camera that never overheats
Douglas L wrote:
Some unscientific A7RVI vs A1II AF and rolling shutter comparison, starting at 10:45.
Appreciate the link!
Definitely significant rolling shutter in ES. I think anyone still hanging onto the notion of it possibly replacing a 1 series body needs to recalibrate their expectations
What also surprised me was the tracking vs. the A1II they first showed. Not sure if the settings were suboptimal on the RVI. Or if that fake bird wasn’t the best target. But the RVI wasn’t doing too great
Definitely significant rolling shutter in ES. I think anyone still hanging onto the notion of it possibly replacing a 1 series body needs to recalibrate their expectations
What also surprised me was the tracking vs. the A1II they first showed. Not sure if the settings were suboptimal on the RVI. Or if that fake bird wasn’t the best target. But the RVI wasn’t doing too great
I think as long as folks know the A7RVI's limitation and use the camera as it was designed for, it's an amazing camera. I may get one at some point but not now.
Douglas L wrote:
I think as long as folks know the A7RVI's limitation and use the camera as it was designed for, it's an amazing camera. I may get one at some point but not now.
Absolutely. I think a lot of folks, myself included, may have got swept up in the “A1II killer” hype a little. But if you look at the camera for what it is. A turbocharged A7RV. It is indeed an impressive camera!
Personally, its strengths aren’t enough for me to replace my current bodies. But for someone looking for the ultimate R series camera, they should definitely take a serious look
My GAS for the 100-400mm f4.5 GM hasn’t completely dissipated though 😉
"The megpixel is there but also simultaneously isn't" kind of stuff!