Sony a7 V Review

The a7 IV was a fine camera with one real flaw. Its sensor read out slowly enough to bend a golf swing, and it capped bursts at ten frames a second. The a7 V keeps the same 33 megapixel resolution and adds a layer of readout circuitry underneath it, and that single change cascades through the whole body. Bursts now run at thirty frames a second in full 14 bit raw rather than Sony's lossy compressed format.

Rolling shutter is no longer something you plan a shoot around. Video comes off a 7K readout downsampled to 4K at sixty frames, with 4K 120 available in the APS-C crop, and the BIONZ XR2 drives the subject recognition that is still the best autofocus anyone ships: it finds an eye through a chain link fence and does not let go. The shell is the familiar refined shape, with one SD slot, one CFexpress Type A slot and a screen that tilts and articulates on four axes.

Two complaints stick. The viewfinder is a 3.68 million dot panel, which was competitive three years ago and is not now on a body costing 2,898 dollars. And that is four hundred dollars above where the a7 IV started, so this is an upgrade you buy for the readout rather than an obvious default. For weddings, events, and anything that moves, it is the default anyway.