What Does the Future Hold for a Sony A7R V?

2021-07-15 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: digital sensor, Sony, Sony A7R, Sony A7R II, Sony A7R III, Sony A7R IV, Sony A7R V, Sony mirrorless

The Sony A1 is the world’s best 35mm-format camera, a technological tour de force with the best usability available. Ultra-responsive in every way with a superb 9MP EVF, it was hard for me to temporarily go back last month to my lightly used Sony A7R IV (for sale, $2500). The A7R IV felt crude by comparison.

Sony A1

The A1 is priced at a serious premium to other cameras. I think it’s worth it for the serious shooter, even if 8K video and 30 fps is not needed. But there is no getting around the price tag.

For the wallet-conscious looking for much of what has arrived in the Sony A1, it might be that a 6 to 9 month wait will satisfy. Namely, a Sony A7R V that would likely sport much of the technology found in the A1.

Even better, my guess is that a Sony A7R V will move to a high-res sensor, perhaps 80 to 100 megapixels. That would explain why it is apparantly delayed until next year, and why Sony for now has offered a slightly upgraded Sony A7R IVa (already discounted $500). Sony has never before delayed this long in upgrading the top of its A7R lineup; this would make sense because surely the holdup is not necessary parts, as those are already shipping in the A1. So a high-res sensor using A1 sensor technology could well be the gating factor.

I would expect the following to appear in a Sony A7R V:

• Faster processor, one that supports higher-speed autofocus as well as lossless-compressed RAW.
• Improvement in responsiveness in all areas.
• The A1 covers the sports/wildlife/8K video segment so Sony could focus on high-res imagery in an A7R V.
• High-res EVF as in the A1.
• Support for CFExpress cards.
• 80 to 100 megapixel sensor.
• Dare we hope for focus stacking support?

In a nutshell, a Sony A7R V might be a high-res Sony A1, less performant for the most demanding scenarios, but less expensive and higher resolution. Maybe. A long shot is a Sony medium format system which we badly need so as to poke Fujifilm to sorely needed advances in its Klingon-designed user interface.

Will a 100MP Sony A7R V compete with medium format?

Given what I see on Fujifilm, where lenses strain to deliver resolution to the sensor, we cannot expect full capture resolution on a 100MP 35mm sensor. However, lens performance on Sony is very high with many lenses, enough that I suspect that it would compete favorably against the Fujifilm GFX100S. It should be an interesting 2022.

Sony Mirrorless

Sony Mirrorless wish list • Deals on Sony

$998 SAVE $600 = 37.0% Sony a7 II Mirrorless Camera with 28-70mm IN STOCK in Cameras: Mirrorless	$6498 Sony a1 Mirrorless Camera BACK IN STOCK in Cameras: Mirrorless	$2998 SAVE $200 = 6.0% Sony a7R IVA Mirrorless Camera IN STOCK in Cameras: Mirrorless	$648 SAVE $100 = 13.0% Sony ZV-1 IN STOCK in Cameras: Point and Shoot	$2898 SAVE $100 = 3.0% Sony 12-24mm f/2.8 FE GM IN STOCK in Lenses: Mirrorless	$1898 Sony 16-35mm f/2.8 FE GM IN STOCK in Lenses: Mirrorless
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