A real world comparison of the Sony A7SIII and the Sony A7IV. On paper these two cameras are nearly identical, with only a few minor differences. But how much do these differences matter in the field?

This review isn't your standard tech review where I compare decimal points on a dynamic range chart, or compare noise, corner sharpness or image quality of a downsampled sensor vs a native one. If that's your jam, there's plenty of very technical reviews out there that'l have you covered. This review is simply a hands on, real world comparison of these two cameras and how they hold up in the field, in a professional setting. What are the things I like about the A7IV and what are the things I dislike about it?

Despite on paper being nearly identical to the A7SIII, there are a few important differences that I believe really change the use case and the ideal photographer or videographer this camera is targeting.

Firstly, It's built to be more of a hybrid photo and video camera. They've added a new 33 megapixel sensor into the Sony A7IV, which does two things. Firstly, you'll have much more detail in your images when compared to the likes of the A7SIII, and secondly your 4K video will be downsampled from 7K, vs the 4.2K downsample in the A7SIII.

But do i think this will really improve either your photos or video? No. Not really. If you've watched any of my other videos on the Sony A7SIII i absolutely love the images that come out of that 12MP sensor, and firmly believe that megapixels are one of the least important specs when determining what a good photo camera is. The A7SIII is epic, even for large prints up to about A1 in size, but having said that, I am not a photographer who does a lot of cropping. Yet in all other respects such as, focus and tracking, eye detect, dynamic range, highlight roll off, colour, and practically speaking every other spec, the Sony A7IV handles identically in photo mode to the A7SIII. The only difference is that it has 33MP. Which in every scenario other than low light means that yes, it is a better stills photography camera. Not a game changing difference, but it has got a leg up here.

The video side of things as well is very impressive. We have 10bit colours and 10bit 4:2:2 at that in every frame rate and resolution, even 4K60P. This is huge as it resolves one of my largest issues with the Sony A7III the older one, which only had 8bit colour making filming and grading Log footage and SLOG 3 much more difficult. Personally I never used the A7III in S Log simply due to the fact that it was very noisy, very unforgiving and would fall apart in post production far too easily. Having 10bit colours means we can comfortably edit in SLOG on the new A7IV without any issues.

On this note however, the colours in SLOG 3 did appear slightly different on the A7IV to the A7SIII, and for me the appeared a little more unnatural. The blues were almost teal. It's a minor difference likely due to the new sensor, but its something worth noting if you're looking to colour match these two cameras. But honestly, this is probably just something that I found because I haven't used the camera anywhere near as much as the A7SIII and I'm sure it's something very easy to fix with a bit of practice.

My biggest issue however is of course, the apsc crop in 4k60P. If it weren't for this, I would say this camera could very well be a better camera than the A7SIII. Personally I rely on 4K60P, and having to change lenses every time I swap from photo to video mode, and having to carry around additional lenses, full frame and APSC lenses was a huge hinderance in production in the field for me. It really slowed down shooting scenes in a hybrid sense. Particularly if you plan on using the A7IV on a gimbal, having to constantly change lenses from full frame to APSC really slowed us down shooting. You also get far less depth of field on APSC crop lenses than when shooting on full frame which does result in slightly less cinematic footage.

Personally, this is why I will be sticking to my A7SIII, which I believe is probably the best camera on the market today.

If you are however a videographer or filmmaker who doesn't rely on 4k60P as much, then this really changes things. If I only really used 4K25 24 or 30 frames per second, and the occasional 4K60P, then the Sony A7IV is probably the perfect camera for you if you're a hybrid shooter. It does everything the A7SIII does realistically other than the crop in 4K60, but if this isn't a feature you would use then you may have just found your dream camera.

For more visit my website: www.tomparkphotography.com
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Camera Gear Used:
- Sony A7SIII
- Sony A7IV
- Atomos Ninja V
- Sony 16-35mm f4
- Sigma 24-70 f2.8 Art
- Sony 12-14mm G
- Sony 50mm f1.8
- Sony 18-105mm G F4

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