Sony Alpha A7R

More megapixels than you could ever possibly need

Sony isn’t a company that tends to do things by halves when it comes to camera releases. Sensor resolution may have taken something of a back seat to improvements to performance in other areas in recent years, but the ‘R’ line has always been about resolution, and it’s unquestionably the main pull of this new model.

The 63MP sensor outputs 61MP images as standard and, as with the sensor inside the previous A7R III, boasts a back-illuminated design for better light-gathering. Sony promises up to 15EV of dynamic range from the sensor, which is also what it promised for the A7R III.

As is now standard on Sony models of this calibre, SteadyShot Inside image stabilization has also been incorporated into the body. This promises a maximum 5.5EVstop compensatory effect and is a happy soldier on whether you’re shooting stills or capturing videos.

This system is also behind the Pixel Shift Multi-Shift shooting mode, a feature we saw previously but one that’s been given a significant boost here. This captures a series of images that can be subsequently merged to create a single, super-high-resolution file.

So what’s different? Whereas the A7R III was able to capture images destined for 169.6MP composites, with its higher-resolution sensor the A7R IV promises to deliver files at a staggering 240MP. The catch is that this can’t be done in-camera; you need to use the Imaging Edge software suite that’s bundled with the camera.

Processor and screen

The latest iteration of Sony’s BIONZ X Processing engine allows the camera to capture images at a rate of 10fps with autofocus and auto-exposure enabled; while not quite class-leading, that’s still very impressive when you consider the higher sensor resolution here.