Sony A7R V Review After 6 Months: A Marvelous Mirrorless

I've been using the Sony a7r5 for the past six months since it came out and I've shot a destination wedding in Peru and taken it to Colombia and used it for client shoots and a lot of these YouTube videos this video isn't going to be going over the specs so this is my review of the camera based on the past six months I was using it just a little background where this camera falls into my camera lineup this is my dedicated photo camera but I also really need to have a b or a c camera that can keep up with my video cameras like the fx6 and the Sony a7s III so this doesn't overheat like my a74 did not to get two in the weeds right out of the gate but this is where this camera falls into my lineup of cameras if you don't know me my name is Keith and I'm a videographer and designer from Cleveland Ohio and if you like either of those things be sure to check out some of my other videos after this one starting off with shooting photos of this camera the 61 megapixel elephant in the room is the huge photos that this camera produces the Raw photos have been a complete joy to work with and you even get to choose between uncompressed or three levels of compression with Raw photos I've shot both and the uncompressed photos have a lot of room to crop in and adjust levels but just be prepared to store about 130 megabytes per raw photo I shoot medium compressed and that seems to be about the happy medium for me of shooting Raw photos I shot an entire wedding and I did have to deal with some levels in the back of the bride was actually it was back lit and it was a pier and there was a lot of sunlight reflecting off of water and the pier actually had a roof on it the medium compressed Raw photos were able to bring back some of those levels without making it look like a faked HDR image and make it look like a very clean and aesthetically pleasing photo I'll talk more about autofocus in the video section but for photos the autofocus has been an absolute dream to work with it is incredibly locked on and the biggest upgrade I noticed with this camera was when it came to autofocus jumping around between subjects whenever something else passes in front of another subject so if I'm shooting the bride at a wedding and someone walks in front of my camera like it always happens the autofocus on this camera actually stayed locked onto the bride I didn't Tinker around with any of the autofocus settings and right out of the box it works very well when it comes to video with the a7r5 this camera is actually able to hang with my other cameras and be a b or a c camera and I can put this on a tripod not have to worry about it overheating and I can reliably use the autofocus and not have to worry that the autofocus will be confused if the subject is using eye detect but then they suddenly turn their head and and it goes to face detect it will anticipate the subject turning and snap back to eye autofocus and it won't be hunting all around to test out the overheating I shot 4K 30 for 14 hours with a massive v-mount battery and this camera didn't overheat once however I was only able to get about a half hour to an hour of 8K footage and that really depended on the ambient temperature if it is a little warmer in the room you will get significantly less recording time with the 8K out of this camera when I recorded for an hour in a cool room the camera overheated I immediately turned it back on and hit record and I was able to get 20 more minutes out of it before it overheated again and then I did that again and I was able to get about 20 minutes again so in the best case scenarios I was able to get one hour of 8K footage and then 20 minute chunks after that so if you will be filming in 8k that might be something to keep in mind but again I can't see myself filming long form content in 8k I mostly shoot in 4k or I even deliver in 1080P sometimes so shooting long form content in 8k for me isn't that big of a deal but just keep that in mind if that's something that you're buying this camera for speaking of 8K the file size is enormous the rolling shutter is pretty bad and you're stuck only shooting in 24 frames per second these are limitations in 8k and if you're moving the camera around at all you'll notice the rolling shutter pretty easily but filming in controlled environments locked off the 8K can actually look very nice just know there is a slight crop when you're filming with this camera in AK I'll get into more of that in a little bit but just know that those are the limitations of the AK the 4K features of this camera definitely make it feel right at home with my other more video Centric cameras the HSS and I codec options coupled with the 10-bit color and the high megabit per second readouts that are coming off of this camera really make it fit right in with all of my other cameras but that being said also when I'm traveling this is the camera I'll be taking so I'm very comfortable shooting 4K 60 or the 8K even even if there is some weird binning going on if I'm not going to be using this in a very high production I don't think I would really notice it that much I would notice the rolling shutter more but when it comes to the technical details this camera can shoot uh you know that 4K 60 even though it's a little cropped but it can deliver really great results in a pinch speaking of crops when it comes to the 4K 24 30 or all of the 1080p options there is no cropping going on on this camera however when it comes to the 4K 60 or any AK option there is a 1.25 crop and if you're using active stabilization there's a 1.1 times crop and if you're using Focus breathing compensation there's an additional crop so be sure if you're filming in those High frame rates or 8K that you keep that in mind that being said also you can send 4K raw to an external recorder but you won't be able to get higher than 4K 60 with the ninja 5 plus you can't do AK raw with this camera and if you have the ninja 5 like I have you're only able to do 4K 30 out of the HDMI with this camera I autofocus works great with this camera and you can even select between animal bird car trains and planes I've used mostly human for the eye detect and have had fantastic results particularly with the eye and face to body tracking if your subject is facing the camera with the eye detect and then turns away it'll go to face and then it'll anticipate where the subject will be going and it will go to body and then the crazy part when the subject turns back around it'll immediately snap to eye or face detect autofocus which seeing that on the camera has been pretty awesome and when you pair it with the Sony linear XD Motors they have really great performance and you have Focus breathing compensation on most of the newer Sony lenses so that's another great addition that I love to see in this camera when it comes to battery life for the Sony a7r5 5 you get some great battery life I went all day with a wedding and my camera was on for the majority of the day and I only went through two different batteries I had more with me just in case but it is nice to know that the battery life is very great especially when you're in a chaotic scene working at a wedding the last thing you want to be worried about is your battery life the screen has really grown on me I didn't notice how much I actually relied on this until I picked up one of my other cameras that only had a flip screen and it sounds silly going from a flip screen to a flip and tilt screen whenever I rig up my camera or I'm sitting on a tripod for a long period of time I'll always put a USBC power delivery connection into my camera so I don't have to worry about battery life but I never realized how much the screen actually interferes with that USBC cable I would always have to like move the screen in move it around and then put it out but with this camera you can just take the screen all the way out and then flip it around and it will go in any position even if you have that USBC Cable in the camera the other scenario I used this screen like this was whenever I was using this as a top-down filming camera getting the screen a little farther away from the body allowed me to get more clearance over this grip and I was able to see my screen a little clearer so I've been really loving this screen and I didn't know how much I loved it until I went to a camera that didn't have one also the evf is really clear coming from the Sony a74 to this camera was like night and day so I love having high resolution viewfinders on my camera and I wish the FX series had viewfinders on them but that's out of the scope of this video the new menu system was something I was familiar with with my a74 and fx3 and fx30 but I like the tile menu but I really want the ability to put Luts onto this camera like my FX cameras have I really miss when I'm shooting s-log to actually be able to monitor what my Lut will look like after I use it to transform my footage in my editor I got completely spoiled on my other cameras and then coming to this camera I have to like rely on zebra stripes and it's just more of a pain than it has to be when you can just bake a lot into the preview of this camera and see what you're actually going to get I also really love the mode dial that all the new Sony cameras are having between photo video and snq mode but I also like the one two and three custom dials on the top switch here that allow you to preset for me I do 4K 24 4K 30 and then 4K 60. so if I need to switch between these quickly I just go to one two or three and all of my shutter speed and everything is already set up for me so I love the speed that comes with this dial in video mode most of the text is not on the actual screen of the camera it's off the screen but there are still some menu options that are on the screen I have been getting used to my FX cameras and now this a7r5 and then going back to my A7 S3 it honestly feels like I'm looking through a ton of menu options to actually see my feed and I find myself clicking up to clear everything off adjust my frame and then get all of my menu options back on my camera so I like that the trend Sony is going with of actually getting all of the text off of the frame so you can have a more clean feed to actually judge what you're doing a quick second to say if you're liking this video please give it a thumbs up it really does make a huge difference in the algorithm you guys are awesome on to stabilization and the enhanced active stabilization in this camera really does make it easy to get quick shots without a tripod or Gimbal and I've been actually using this and reaching for this camera instead of getting my gimbal out to get quick shots especially b-roll tight macro shots this is actually easier to use than setting up my entire Gimbal and using you know the very slow motions that comes with macro shots on a gimbal this camera is actually able to get very good results straight out of the box with just the active stabilization and a steady hand so I've been using my gimbal less and less with this camera when it comes to the a7r5 it takes all of the good things from the a74 and it just improves upon them further it's not the greatest in low light the 8K needs some work but the features and lack of overheating make this a very great video camera and the photos speak for themselves the photos coming off of this camera are unrivaled with any of my other cameras I've used in the Sony lineup if you like this video make sure to like and you'll probably like this video on screen now that goes over my 10 tips to get the best results out of the a7r5 thank you guys for sticking around to the end and I'll see you in the next one thank you

Channel: Keith Knittel

Views: 10,828

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Id: a-lHVhw10R8

Length: 11min 58sec (718 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 24 2023