Upgrayedd'ed?


Upgrayedd spells his name U-P-G-R-A-Y-E-D-D. The two D's are for a "double-dose of pimpin" First off, if you've not seen Mike Judge's 2006 film "Idiocracy" stop what you're doing right now and watch it. That movie started as a comedy and is rapidly becoming a documentary. Cinematic recommendations aside I chose that title as I've done a bit of an upgrade to my gear and I couldn't be more excited about it!!!


Sony announced that they were updating the venerable A7iii in 2021 and would be releasing the A7iv late in the year. The update was set to address many of the things that Sony users had been clamoring for (some of us more loudly than others) and be the "perfect" camera. 2020-2022 have been odd years for those of us who love electronics like mirrorless digital cameras as the chip shortage has delayed many releases and prices on some things haven't dropped as much as they have in the past so I didn't order one immediately upon its release.


There are a number of features and improvements that this newer version addresses which I'll talk about a bit here. To begin, here are the things that always annoyed me about the A7iii:

  • Sensor dust! The Sony mirrorless bodies have historically been magnets for dust which becomes apparent when you're shooting narrower apertures against solid(ish) backgrounds and then you've got to remove all the spots in your favorite RAW processing program.
  • Resolution. Don't hate here but it's 2022 and 24 MP is enough for most stuff but having previously shot with the A7 R2/3 I got to really like having a higher (42 MP) resolution. This allows you to capture more detail or crop in to an image for better composition.
  • Limited touchscreen implementation. Basically you could only touch the screen to select a specific focus area. We're all used to smartphones so this seems limiting.
  • No separate modes for audio/video. I don't shoot a ton of video but it's nice to have a camera that remembers where you were for each
  • Fixed tilt screen. The Sony cameras have historically tilted either up or down which are okay for shooting in landscape orientation either up high or down low. I often find myself wanting to shoot in portrait orientation up high or down low and not having an articulating screen makes that tough.


Second body backup for furrin' countries?


If you've ever shot any events you'll observe that most photographers shoot with two (or more) cameras to cover a wider variety of shots (using varying focal lengths), reduce lens swapping, and (hopefully) eliminate failure as the second body works as a backup. For the past few months I'd been flying with a single camera and I'll be honest in saying that it stressed me out a bit when I was doing an event.


So with Tracy and my 20th wedding anniversary trip to Europe (England and France!) coming up in April I and already wanting to have a second camera I used that as my excuse. Plus, she's a pretty darn good photographer in her own right so who am I to deny her artistic expression? I'd been watching for an A7iv for a while and thanks to a nice bonus at work (plus some paid work over the past few months) I was in striking distance of purchasing....now I just needed to find "the one". Thankfully, I was able to locate one at a fair price in almost new condition and pulled the trigger (or maybe that's "pressed the shutter"?) shortly thereafter.


I've had an opportunity to play around with it a bit now and I think I can provide a pretty decent assessment. Here are the things that I think are really solid improvements:

  • Shutter closes when powered off. This should be such a major improvement for keeping dust off the sensor. I try not to change lenses in the field if possible but this should definitely help.
  • 33 MP resolution. That's an improvement of over 30% which is a big deal
  • Lossless compressed RAW files.
  • Remember when I said I liked the files from the A7R2/3? Those things (especially uncompressed) are ginormous and will EAT hard drive space. Lossless compressed SHOULD maintain high quality and reduce needed space.
  • Tilting flipping screen. So helpful for interesting angles in all orientations.
  • Live streaming with no software required. I occasionally use my camera as a webcam for client meetings and this really improves things.
  • Variable EYE-AF.
  • Sony's Eye Auto Focus is amazing as it goes-this new one goes further and allows you to choose which eye to target and what's more if you assign a custom button like I did you can quickly change it on the fly.
  • Deeper hand grip. I've got larger hands so having a deeper grip is appreciated
  • Mode switch for photo/video


Wrapping up


To finish this post up I'm thankful to be able to enjoy this hobby and I'm very pleased with the purchase thus far. It really is incredible to me how much the Sony Alpha system has progressed in the (almost) 6 years I've been using it because I thought it was (and still do) pretty awesome even back then. Below, you'll find some of the images I've shot with this in the short time I've had it. In conclusion, if you're in the market for a new camera-especially if that camera is a "professional" one (Sony calls it their "basic" model) I'd whole heartedly suggest the A7iv. The camera, the lens lineup, and the images are second to none. Well done Sony.