By Yadira B. Arnold 
Sony’s full-frame A7R IV was one of the best mirrorless cameras I’ve ever tested, so its successor has been under a lot of pressure. The company’s answer is the 61-megapixel A7R V, which offers maximum detail for portrait and landscape photography.
Although it uses the same sensor as the A7R IV, the new model has been improved in almost all other respects. The processors have been updated with the same ones as those of the 50-megapixel A1, allowing faster autofocus and AI tracking, as well as superior video specifications. Sony has also improved the stabilization, the rear screen, the electronic viewfinder and more for the same price of 3,900 as its main competitor, the Canon EOS R5.
Sony’s cutting-edge technology has always been its superpower, but competing models from Canon, Panasonic and others have begun to catch up. To find out if the A7R V is worth it compared to other cameras and even the recent model, I took it out for detailed tests. Spoiler Alert-it’s an impressive camera.
Bodywork and handling
Sony has made some changes to the design of its full-frame hybrid cameras, starting with the A7S III, and the A7R V continues in this direction. In addition to a slightly larger handle, it offers a number of improvements over the A7R IV, such as a new dedicated selector for video, photos and slow motion mode (s&Q).
By removing this feature from the mode selector, it is relatively easy to switch in the middle photos and videos, and then switch in the middle each mode. It is also possible to share some, all or none of the parameters such as shutter speed and ISO in the middle photo and video modes via the setting menu. Sony has also moved the recording catch from the back to a superior position at the top.
Sony a7r V camera test
Like other Sony cameras, it is intuitive and easy to use. However, some people may find it uncomfortable to hold all day, especially those with larger hands. That’s because the handle has hard edges and a less fluffy material than, say, Canon’s R5.
A great addition to the A7R V is the rear display. Instead of a simple tilting screen as before, Sony has created a completely new system. Not only does it turn over, but it tilts – not only upwards like Panasonic’s similar system on the GH6, but also downwards and outwards.
In addition to being more suitable for vlogging and selfies, you can also move the screen without using microphone or monitor cables. It’s also superior for photographers. Some people prefer a tilting screen (for taking photos from high and low angles), so the A7R V offers the best of both worlds.
The A7R IV already had a very good electronic viewfinder with 5.76 thousand points, but Sony has improved it even more. The resolution on the OLED panel can reach 9.44 thousand dots, but it decreases when you focus or increase the refresh rate to a maximum of 120 Hz. Yet it is now close to what you would see in an optical viewfinder.
Like the A1 and A7S III, it has two card slots in double format. Everyone accepts faster but much more expensive UHS-II SD cards or CFexpress type a cards. the latter are necessary for 8K video and allow you to take photos in bursts for a longer time before the buffer fills up.
Since the A7R V is now a much superior video camera, Sony has seen fit to replace the tiny, fragile Micro HDMI jack with a full-size one. Although it still does not meet professional standards, it offers a relatively secure connection and allows more robust cables because micro HDMI models are prone to breakage.
It has the same battery as the A1 and provides exactly the same number of maximum strikes with one power, 530. it’s in lab conditions, though, and I have about double that in the real world. The USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port is PD compatible, so you can power the battery while powering the camera. It also comes with mic and headphone jacks, as you would expect, as well as a wired LAN port and the ability to make zoom calls or live stream via USB-C via the UBC webcam standard.
The A7R V has about the same burst speeds as its predecessor, 10 frames per second in mechanical and electronic mode that take c-RAW and JPEG photos. This drops to 7 FPS when saving uncompressed RAW folders. Although it is not very fast compared to Sony’s A1 or Canon’s EOS R5 (both have stacked sensors), it is not bad at all for a 61 megapixel camera. You can save about 104 c-RAW+ JPEG folders before the buffer is full, although it takes less than two seconds.
Sony is known for its brilliant autofocus, and the A7R V is perhaps the best camera in this field to date. With 693 phase detection AF points (compared to 567 on the A7R IV), regular autofocus (without subject tracking) is incredibly accurate in all five area modes, offering a large majority of sharp images even with fast-moving subjects.
Things get even superior when you start AI. In addition to excellent face, head and eye tracking, Sony has introduced a new body tracking mode. It works in the same way as a 3D motion tracking software used for animation that predicts the position of your head and your eyes based on the structure of your skeleton. If he does not follow the face of the subject, he can also switch to his body while taking sharp photos.
In addition to people, it can also track people, birds, animals, insects, cars, trains and airplanes. However, you have to select them manually-it would be nice to have an automatic mode that allows the AI to select the subject like the Canon EOS R6 II. It also has a touch mode that locks subjects more accurately than competing models.