Sony A7R V for PHOTOGRAPHY review: 61MP, Pixel Shift, AI Autofocus

hi I'm Gordon from camera labs and this review is all about the photo quality and photographic features of the Sony a7r5 a full frame mirrorless camera with 61 megapixels 8K video and a brand new autofocus system which uses AI to better detect and track subjects if you're interested in the video capabilities of this camera check out my separate review which I'll link to here when ready announced in October 2022 the R5 arrives just over three years after the original mark IV version and costs around 3 900 or 4 000 pounds at the time I made this review the previous r4a model could be picked up for around three thousand dollars or pounds so the big question is whether it's worth spending the extra Grand on the new version or bagging a bargain on the older one to find out I spent some quality time testing a final production a7r5 and in this review I'll show you what's new how it performs in practice and ultimately if it's the right camera for you let's start with the weather seal body which shares a similar troll layout to the earlier R4 with the minor refinements of subsequent models as before the R5 continues to miss out on any controls on the upper left surface while on the upper right side dedicates one of the two function buttons now to movie recording it converts the earlier EV dial to a blank customizable control and it simplifies the main mode dial the earlier movie in s and Q positions from the older R4 dial Now find themselves on a separate and more sensible color control around the base and that allows you to switch between them and still photos while maintaining the main exposure mode this is the same approach as the A7 IV around the back the previous record button to the right of the viewfinder has now become a custom function button while the finger thumb and wheel controls along with the joystick remain present but while the R5 may look similar to its predecessor at first glance Sony has made some big changes on the composition the evf inherits the 9.44 million dot OLED panel of the Alpha One with 0.9 times magnification making it both bigger and potentially more detailed than the 5.76 million dot panels of either the R4 or the Canon EOS R5 it may lack the optional 240 frames per second murder the alpha one but it can still deliver a tremendous view when composing or playing back images or indeed videos note to exploit the full detail though you will need to set the display quality to high and you'll also need to accept a temporary reduction in detail as the camera actually focuses and obviously this is going to become limiting if you're continuously Auto focusing on a moving subject but it's actually a common restriction across multiple mirrorless cameras and again in single autofocus modal when playing back it looks absolutely great note that the evf resolution will also reduce if you choose the top 120 frames per second refresh the screen now Sports a larger and more detailed 3.2 inch 2095k dot panel although the interim r4a was also better than this previous accessor in this regard but what makes it really special on the R5 is the articulation switching the vertical tilt of the R4 screen for a new four axis mechanism this attempts to satisfy the desires of both tilt and flip fans by effectively mounting a tilting mechanism atop one that flips as such you can perform a quick simple and discrete vertical tilt up by 98 degrees or down by 40 or angle the entire unit out to the side using the hinge to flip forward for framing pieces to camera or folding back on itself for protection you could even tilt the unit and then flip the screen out to the side thereby avoiding getting in the way of the side ports it's such a good idea you wonder why no one's thought of it before oh hang on they have Panasonic offered something similar on the Lumix s1h three and a half years earlier and again on the gh6 after that in practice though it really does offer The Best of Both Worlds on the R5 although with a hinge upon another hinge it can't help but lack their ultimate solidity of a simpler solution as you Wrangle it to the desired angle that said I did very much enjoy using it and I assume it'll also end up on future Alpha bodies sticking with the displays Sony's also redesigned its user interface with new menus and wide support for touch control too it's interesting to remember that the earlier R4 had barely any touch control at all Beyond repositioning the AF area but thankfully Sony has since caught up with rivals in this respect in addition the R5 also inherits the main menu views from the fx30 showing a bunch of settings that glance with the chance to adjust some by touch as well as traditional controls it's a useful view but to me feels a lot like an expanded version of the existing function menu which also remains available here do we really need both of these going forward before moving on to the sensor and the quality a quick update on connectivity the R5 keeps the microphone and headphone Jacks to the R4 along with both USB C and micro USB ports for simultaneous power and tethering for example but in a welcome upgrade it switches the old micro HDMI port for a full size version take that Canon oh and the USB port has also been updated to support the faster charging speeds of power delivery sources with Sony claiming it's now three to four times faster than before for recharging and you can also run the camera on USB power too if you like the USBC Port supports 3.2 Gen 2 for 10 gigabit per second speeds as well as optional gigabit Ethernet adapters making it quicker for tethered shooting the built-in Wi-Fi is also faster than before another welcome albeit unsurprising upgrade Sony's equipped the R5 with the twin dual format card slots of recent Alpha bodies with each slot able to accommodate either SD or faster CF Express type A cards sadly the latter is still slower and more expensive than the CF Express type B cards that I use by pretty much everyone else but in cerny's favor their solution means that you can at least still use a pair of SD cards if you like whereas cameras with type B card support typically sacrifice one of their SD slots so there's pros and cons to both approaches although I should note that Sony's dual format slots do require that SD card to be inserted with their tops facing away from you which is opposite to the way it works on other cameras and it constantly catches me out meanwhile power is still delivered by the NP fz100 lithium-ion pack good for between 450 and 550 shots under super conditions and which again can be quickly charged over USB using power delivery the R5 is also compatible with the optional VG c4em grip which can accommodate two battery packs moving inside the R5 employs what appears to be the same 61 megapixel back illuminated full-frame sensor as its predecessor but now paired with the latest bion's XR image processor and the brand new AI Processing Unit Sony's also added a a visible light and IR sensor from recent bodies to improve Auto exposure which coupled with the AI processor should also make Auto white balance more accurate you can see how it does my sample images the latest image processor means the R5 now gains hiff as well as JPEG options and for the raw Shooters out there there's now the choice of three lossless compressed sizes in addition to lossy compressed and uncompressable formats there's also now four compression levels for jpeg or hip files from super fine to light as before the maximum resolution Remains 9504 by 6336 pixels and two low resolutions are also available with all three sizes available in a choice of four aspect ratios like the R4 before it the sensor has so many pixels to start with that even when cropped to the aps-c format there's still a respectable 26 megapixels remaining now before going any further it's interesting to note that nobody has challenged Sony on resolution in the full frame format the earlier R4 and introduce their 61 megapixel sensor back in July 2019 but today both Canon and Nikon still offer no more than 45 megapixels on their most detailed mirrorless cameras so if you're after the highest resolution in a single frame in the full frame format the alpha R4 and 5 will be on your short list but which one to get let's start with pure image quality and this landscape for you that I shot with the R5 at 100 ISO fitted with the Fe 2470 G Master Mark II Lancer f8 in my review of that lens it proved to be one of Sony's sharpest zooming in for a closer look reveals a tremendous amount of real-life detail with huge potential for big prints or tight crops but in terms of pure resolution not really much different from the R4 if you desire even more detail the R5 inherits the pixel shift mode of the R4 capturing 4 or 16 frames with the electronic shutter and using the stabilizer to subtly shift the sensor between each one these are then come combined in Sony's Imaging Edge software later on to generate an image with reduced column wire artifacts and in the case of the 16 frame version up to 240 megapixels worth of detail now at the time of making this review Canon did not offer a pixel shift mode now I've tested multiple pixel shifting modes across a variety of different cameras and while they all boosted the detail on static portions of the frame anything that was in motion resulted in undesirable artifacts this is why they're great for archive or Studio based product photography but less suitable for Landscapes or architecture where a surprising amount on the frame can actually be in motion however Sony's now released a new version of its Imaging Edge software which supports motion correction to better deal with parts of the composition which move during pixel shift capture this is built as a new feature for the R5 but since it's applied in software running on your computer afterwards I personally wondered if it could also benefit old the models well I've got good news and bad news for you motion compensation is available for the older alpha one but sadly not any other earlier models I'm not sure why or how this restriction Works in practice but the bottom line is you can apply motion compensation to pixel shift files that you've captured with the R5 but not by those that you've captured with the R4 sad face to see how well it works in practice I reach on my Central Park landscape view with the 16 frame pixel shift mode on the R5 selected the files later on in the latest version of Imaging Edge and made two new versions one without motion compensation in order to represent the older R4 model and one with motion compensation to see what if any benefit the R5 could enjoy over it so on the left we have the single 61 megapixel frame which you saw earlier and on the right you can see the 16 frame pixel shift version processed without motion compensation when examining a static portion of the frame the pixel shift version on the right definitely has created real-life detail but if I move to a different portion of the frame you'll see the undesirable artifacts around any areas that were in motion and with water foliage and people all moving during the capture that's a big issue for this particular shot now let's return to the static area again with a single 61 megapixel frame on the left but now the pixel shift version on the right has motion compensation enabled this unsurprisingly has absolutely no impact on the building details but moving to the areas with portions in motion show how much better the software has dealt with the compositing problem Sony wouldn't reveal to me how this works in practice but I'm assuming it's comparing the frames in the burst and only taking detail from say one frame for any areas that move between them thing is this would result in a high-res image overall but with holes of lower resolution portions where motion had occurred but when you compare the single frame with the composite on the rides it shows that that's not the case some additional processing is clearly taking place so that the areas of motion at least lack the jagged edges of the single frame on the left probably just plain interpolation here's another example starting with a single 61 megapixel frame before zooming in on a detailed area where again the image looks absolutely great but now here's the single frame on the left and the 16 frame pixel shift version on the right processed this time without motion compensation where you can see a boost in detail for the static regions but again those undesirable artifacts for areas which move during the capture just have a look at that rope hanging down and now switching the crop on the right for one with motion compensation enabled which is again dealt pretty well with the areas of motion quite effectively here's another portion of the frame showing pedestrians walking along obviously captured just fine on the single frame version on the left but looking very odd on the right for the pixel shift version without compensation applied but now here's the version with compensation and it's looking much much better obviously your mileage is going to vary but for my own tests I'd say that the latest version of Imaging Edge has greatly expanded the subjects and situations where you really can exploit the benefits of pixel shift it's effectively allowed it to move out of the studio and more into the real world and become a tool that I would certainly consider using for landscape and Architectural photography so while the R5 is no better than the R4 in terms of pure resolution on a single frame or indeed when capturing static subjects with pixel shift the ability to deploy motion compensation to effectively capture more Dynamic scenes gives the R5 a quality edge of its predecessor plus you're also getting more foul options including hif and those three lossless raw sizes next we'll run through the extended sensitivity range from the lowest 50 ISO to the highest 102 400 ISO and in the absence of RAW support from Adobe at the time I made this video I'm going to be be showing you out of camera jpegs like most cameras I've tested the extended low sensitivities of 50 64 and 80i ISO are really only there to achieve specific exposures and actually suffer from reduced dynamic range the best quality as always starts with the bass sensitivity which on the R5 is 100 ISO in this test the R5 maintains most of its detail right up to 800 ISO and only loses a little to noise and processing at 1600 but from 3200 ISO onwards I'd say there's a significant drop in detail due to the smearing effect of noise reduction you can really see it here on the leaves which steadily lose their surface detail up to 12 800 ISO after which the R5 lets noise Speckles become pretty apparent on the image to be fair the R5 really isn't designed to be used at high isos most of the landscape architecture and portrait photographers that is primarily aimed at will be able to deploy the lower sensitivities for the best results but if you need them the high isos are at least there the R5 also becomes a more practical camera to shoot handheld thanks to improved sensorship stabilization or Ibis for short Sony claims the five axis system is now good for up to eight stops of compensation versus the 5.5 stops on the R4 you're looking at two photos that I took handheld with the R5 at 70 mil both at a shutter speed of 10th of a second on the left without stabilization and on the right with Ibis alone enabled there wasn't any additional Optical stabilization on this lens now a shutter speed of 10th of a second was the slowest that I could hand hold a sharp image at 70 mil when Ibis was enabled and is clearly far superior to the result without indeed thanks to the unforgivably high resolution of this sensor the slowest I could actually hand hold a sharp Resort on the R5 at 70 mil without Ibis was actually 3 20th of a second so on the day Ibis on the R5 gave me roughly five stops of compensation but Sony claims up to 8 stops now so let's put my unstabilized result at 320th of a second on the left with my stabilized one at 10th on the right this is the five stops I achieved on the day now let's switch the crop on the right for one taking a stop slower at a fifth of a second so this now represents a six stop difference and some wobbling has now become visible next here's the image One Stop slower still at 0.4 seconds for a seven stop difference between the images and the motion is more apparent now and finally at 0.8 seconds for an 8 stop difference where the shake has now become quite apparent obviously like all stabilization systems your mileage will vary not just influenced by the lens that you're using but also your own technique and the environment on the day I may not have personally achieved more than five stops at 70 mil in this test but that's still more than I previously measured from the earlier R4 and it allowed me to hand hold the R5 that respectably slow shutter speeds while exploiting its full resolution okay now for argument be the biggest new feature certainly a headliner on Sony's own marketing materials the new AI Processing Unit which allows the R5 to support AI based autofocus with improved subject recognition this now adds insects cars trains and planes to the basic detection list while refining existing Bird and Animal Eye detection by adding grazing animals like sheep as well as head and body recognition for them this should in turn allow the camera to identify and keep tracking a subject when an eye isn't always in view but most importantly it can now have a go at estimating human poses which should allow it to better track people when they're turned away or maybe wearing a mask or a helmet or when they're not the dominant subject on the frame even when face on with eye detection enabled the camera will now try to prioritize on the actual surface of the eyeball rather than the eyelashes which are a bit in front of it and while I believe the Imaging sensor is the same as before the R5 employs a different shaped array of phase detect auto focus points now covering 93 of the frame vertically and 86 percent horizontally compare that to the array on the earlier R4 which covered an area 99 vertically but 74 horizontally so while the R5 still doesn't offer the 100 or thereabouts coverage of most of the models in the range I'm happy to trade a little bit of the earlier vertical coverage on the R4 for a slightly wider array plus you're still getting contrast detect in the borders just try to keep anything in motion away from the far left and right edges if possible so starting with humans I filmed the back of the screen to show the autofocus system in action notice how distant subjects are now identified by their torsos which then switches to head then face and then I when they get closer if the subject turns away the R5 switches back to head or torso this is the AI part in action using what it's learned about human bodies and poses to better track them in a variety of situations be on screen tracking boxes certainly stuck with the desired subject better than the previous R4 which may have had pretty good eye detection but lost human recognition as soon as subjects turned away here you can see the R5 tracking the eye as the subject turns to profile and back again but it's important to remember that Sony's Rivals have also become pretty good at this here's fujifilm's latest xt5 also tracking me pretty well in profile and briefly switching to a box around my head when turned away Canon's face Knight detection also works well in practice let's now take a closer look at some portraits that I shot with the R5 when coupled with a sharp lens like the Fe 50mm 1.2 G Master the potential for detail is again pretty amazing at least when the AF system delivers the goods now while the AF box during composition stuck fast to the subject's eyes here I still captured a few images where the eye was a fraction out of focus or the eyelashes were sharper than the eyeball behind them to be fair this was with the lenser F 1.2 with its unforgivably shallow depth of field and it was also no worse than the best of its Rivals but equally not the jumping performance that I expected moving on to animals here's a brief test at a Sony event showing how the AF system can now recognize the bodies and heads of dogs as well as other animals so even if an eye isn't visible you should still get an image of the animal itself in sharp focus and this seemed to work pretty well in my brief tests new to the R5 is insect detection and here it is again at a Sony event sometimes placing a box around the subject but at other times not I found its success varied hugely depending on the actual inserts in question and to be fair they certainly do come in an enormous variety of shapes and sizes later on I tried it outdoors with bees on flowers where it successfully identified and followed the subject I expect this to improve over time and new to the R5 subject detection list to cars trains and planes and here you can see the system recognizing cars with ease concentrating on their hoses at the front this also worked well with trains and planes in my tests concentrating on their front windows when sufficiently closed again it's useful but it's also present on many rivals too as before though to help the AI system know what you'd like it to prioritize on the R5 still asks you to select the desired subject type from what's become quite a long list and while animals and birds now have an additional joint option you know for times when you might photograph animals and birds what I really wanted was a fully auto option now I realize this would greatly slow down a recognition system plus of course there's the potential for confusion if there's someone driving a vehicle or perhaps a human with a pet in the same frame for example but Canon's already had a go at this offering an auto subject option on the EOS R6 mod 2 which I look forward to trying out and also have a system on the EOS R3 which can track your eye to see what you're actually looking at allowing you to directly tell the camera what kind of subject to focus on now right now that is an expensive system them and it Demands a chunky viewfinder head but it does work in practice I guess what I'm saying is that when Sony says it now has an AI based autofocus system with a dedicated processor I personally hope for greater actual Automation and results that were significantly better than the competition sure it's better than the R4 definitely but not better overall than say the EOS R5 I was also bewildered by the number of Sub menu options available some of which appeared slightly contradictory or conflicting again I understand that they're all there to allow you to drill down to specifics to improve the recognition system but I just found them all very confusing I also wonder whether the R5 sensor is the best made for this new technology with its fairly modest readout and burst speeds I suspect once the same AI system is deployed on a body with a faster stack sensor better readout and quicker bursts like a future Alpha One or nine it will really come into its own but for now while I I can definitely say that the R5 autofocus is a big step up from the R4 in terms of subject recognition it's not hugely different to many of its Rivals moving on to bursts the top speed Remains the Same as before so you're getting 10 frames per second with a mechanical shutter slowing to 8 frames per second if you want Auto exposure and autofocus or seven frames per second when you're using the electronic shutter but thanks to support for faster CF Express cards the buffer can now be cleared much quicker than the R4 before it allowing up to 583 compressed raw 547 lossless raw or over 1000 jpegs in a burst I confirmed this in my test with a compact flash type a card where I could effectively shoot unlimited bursts at 10 frames per second in any format with little to no delay for the buffer to clear afterwards but like other cameras that support dual card formats shooting bursts with SD cards will incur penalties even with one of Sony's quickest tough SD cards I only managed a burst of 39 lossless Roars at the full resolution before the R5 slowed down and once I let go of the shutter the camera took about 20 seconds to fully write its buffer to the card of course at a top speed of 10 frames per second that still gets you almost 4 seconds of action in raw and if you're happy to shoot in jpeg you'll enjoy longer bursts with SD cards here's some bursts of bikes cycling towards meatball driving towards me as many of them were powered and going pretty quick and as you can see the R5 is quite capable of tracking and grabbing some action shots or beer at eight frames per second these were taken with the mechanical shutter again at eight frames per second due to autofocus and if that's sufficient for you then the R5 certainly gives you plenty of resolution for cropping in later if desired this sounds tempting for some Wildlife photographers but I personally found models like the Alpha One far more effective at capturing action thanks to its much faster sensor which in turn was reflected across the overall handling of that camera of course the alpha one is also a much more expensive camera but if you are already investing in big pricey lenses for Wildlife Shooting that's the body that I'd currently pair them with to illustrate one of the differences here is a pan that I made using the R5 and its mechanical shutter whereas you'd expect the buildings are standing straight and vertical but for comparison here's the R5 using its electronic shutter where the modest readout speed has resulted in visible skewing now to be fair this plagues most cameras without stacked sensors to some degree but definitely limits the usefulness of their electronic shutters in Sony's own range this effect is greatly reduced on the stack sensors of the alpha 1 and Alpha 9 models moving on in a long overdue upgrade the mark 5 becomes the first Alpha interchangeable lens camera to sport Focus bracketing and a bulb timer I've been requesting both of these features for years now so I'm relieved that they finally made an appearance here thanks Sony Focus bracketing allows up to 299 mm edges to be captured with finely shifted Focus although you will need separate software to stack them afterwards on your computer I personally use Helicon Focus for stacking because I couldn't find an option for it in imaging Edge to show what you can do here's a single frame taken at F4 where the lens is delivering optimal sharpness here but obviously with two shallower depth of field to get it all in Focus now here's a version of the minimum lens aperture of F22 which has certainly increased the depth of field but is still not sufficient to have the whole note in focus and the small aperture has also resulted in diffraction softening the overall detail but now here's a version where I use the new Focus bracketing feature to capture 100 frames at intervals which would cover the entire note during the sequence I then stacked these in Helicon Focus software using the default settings since each frame was taken at F4 the lens was working close to its optimal aperture while the Stag has in turn taken care of the very large depth of field to be fair certainly should have had folks practicing a long time ago but at least it's now here and it provides the R5 with a new string in its bow for high resolution macro photographers moving on to the bulb timer the R5 now lets you preset an exposure between two seconds and 900 seconds which allows you to easily make long exposures beyond that usual arbitrary 30 second limit without the need for a cable release just put the camera into its bulb mode choose the exposure time in the menu set the self timer to avoid touching the camera and wobbling it and you're all set here's a shot I took using the bulb timer on the R5 for a 60 second exposure it works in pretty much the same way as the bulb timer on Canon cameras and again it's a feature I feel Sony really should have had a while ago but again at least it's here now and finally while this review is dedicated to the photography side of the R5 and I do intend to make a separate review all about the video capabilities I just wanted to show you three very quick clips to demonstrate the potential resolution before my final verdict so from top to bottom you're looking at 1080 4K and 8K all filmed at 24p and with the lens Zoom adjusted so that the field of view is matched 8K is a key new feature for the R5 and here you can clearly see how much more detail is capturing than 4K and especially 1080. once I've finished my review the video capabilities I'll link to them here right now it's time for my final verdict during which I'll show you a selection of images that I took with the A7 R5 as always if you'd like a closer look at any of them you can access many of the original files via my review page for the R5 at cameralabs.com the Sony a7r5 may share the same 61 megapixel sensor as the R4 and as such the same pure resolving power but this Remains uncontested by arrivals and the R5 now couples it with a raft of upgrades the R5 inherits the industry leading viewfinder of the alpha 1 and 7s3 along with the dual format card slots white balance sensor full size HDMI USB 3.2 refined control layout and broader touch controls of recent models and it can now record 8K video 2 or be it cropped and only available at 24 25 p in the brand new to Sony Camp are a screen with a cutting mechanism that can both vertically tilt and flip out to the side pixel shift Composites which successfully address portions in motion and the long-awaited well by me anyway inclusions have a bulb timer for easy long exposures and focus bracketing for the macro photographers out there but the major new feature is the AI autofocus system this genuinely improves recognition and tracking of a wide variety of subjects over the earlier R4 although in my own test it wasn't that much different to the best of its Rivals indeed action and Wildlife Shooters will still feel held back by Modest burst speeds and sensor readout making stat models like the Alpha One More desirable overall for Action I feel the new AI system won't really come into its own until it's employed on a future Alpha One or Alpha 9. the older R4 is also looking like a bargain right now essentially matching the detail of the new five and saving you a grand but by becoming more practical for long exposures macro photography and pixel shift Composites the R5 definitely broadens its overall appeal while also giving you the flexibility of a tilt and flip screen the joy of the most detailed viewfinder around the bonus of 8K video and Sony's most cunning autofocus system to date is that all worth an extra thousand only you can say and that's it for this video if you found any of it useful please do consider giving it a like and my channel will follow and if you loved it there's links below to tip me a coffee or treat yourself to a camera Labs t-shirt or my in-camera Photography book thanks for watching let me know what you think in the comments and I'll see you next time bye

Channel: Gordon Laing

Views: 105,740

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Id: Igay_6_KFNg

Length: 30min 51sec (1851 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 28 2022