Sony A7R V: Bird Photography / Birds In Flight Review (+ Bird Eye AF Explained)

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Birds in Flight Test:

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:40 Design
3:18 Image Quality
5:06 Autofocus
7:48 Subject Recognition Settings
12:47 Birds In Flight
16:33 Drive Speed
17:37 Video
19:10 IBIS and Conclusion

[michaelchan]

started shooting the A1 at intro. certainly an upgrade over the A7r4 I was using. shoot mainly wildlife, so the autofocus was game changing. spent about one second debating the upgrade to the a7r5 at intro. yes, I consider it an upgrade for not just the sensor size, but the other features you mention in your video. today the field kit is the 200-600 on the A7r5 and the 100-400 on the A1. birds in flight is a specialty that has many variables and the autofocus/tracking falls pretty to many of them. flight with a bright sky background is wildly different from an owl flying in a dark barn. my latest experience with the A7r5 was pretty remarkable. owl flight from the back of the dark barn to the lighted door. no time to bring the body up to frame a shot. just pointed the lens like a shotgun and followed the bird shooting one burst. 59 shot burst had 12 printable owl images, 20 unprintable, rest had no owl in the frame. what was amazing was once tracking was established, it recovered after scanning past rafters with the owl behind it. you don't go into a barn planning to shoot like this, but with the A7r4, I would have gotten zero printable shots. congratulations on a fine video. it was very informative.

[nat-ljkt]

I did a very simple test with eye af on A1 and 7R5. Close range wide open continuous focus on eye then rapidly move the camera and shoot a burst. Beyond a certain speed, sensor read time causes missed focus on A7R5. I think AI cannot predict direction and if it did, it could compensate slightly and adjust after missing. The A1 burst has 90%+ keeper rates on this test. A1 much better when you have relatively fast focus changing action towards or away from camera camera. A7R5 is fabulous but sensor readout is the achilles heel and depending on subject matter it will affect you.

[DanielSymphonies]

i heard that for birds in flight on the a7rv it’s best to set it to “locked on” and to turn ON aps-c cropping. apparently when using aps-c cropping you got focus points covering the entire frame and it should perform much better

[vergrachtr]

I hope you will make a similar video about the Sony A1M2 soon, your way of explaining how the AF and related settings work is top

[goswamidhaval]

I am going for a small trip for wild life photography.
Itwas great to understand the modes for bird eye auto focus...Thank you for the amazing video.

[pedroespinal]

Thank you for a great video that explained many details in a manner that I was able to follow. The charts presented have very good information for making comparisons. The Photos also made a great presentation. I will apply many of your recommendations for setting up a menu for bird, animal and sports action photography.

[davidleakenneyphotography]

Did you upgrade the 200-600mm firmware for this? made a big difference for me once I installed the new update.

[FocusRocus]

13:35 please explain why ibis was turned off, if it’s so good with eight stops of stabilization. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and advice.

[kilik]

Would love to see a review of the sony 600 F4. And maybe a test vs the 200-600

[Zhorellski]

I have my AR7V AF settings on default and I have quite a few soft shots of birds and not detecting eye. I will adjust them to your recommendation, thank you!

[tucos]

Thanks for this video I found it useful

[philipgowdy]

Think I will keep on using my A9. Interesting that you and many others think that its no better on BIF, it will be interesting if you get a firmware upgrade for that but Sony dont do many upgrades as with the A9. Fingers crossed for all the new Sony owners, it could be a long wait..regards.

[agrs]

I bought this camera after owning the A7r3 and the A7rv. I think at close range the camera is good but at any distance it struggles. I am actually thinking about selling it to get the A7iv. I know id lose a lose a ton of resolution but to me its over hyped. I use the 200-600 for birds and sometimes it takes an age to focus. I am thinking about upgrading both thd lens and camera firmware but unsure.

[pyroMaximilian]

Thank you for another great review. I was waiting for it to decide whether to upgrade from my A7R4 for birds/wildlife. On a separate note, is it just me, or do modern mirrorless cameras suffer more and more from false positive focus? I'm seeing this problem across several camera systems too with blurry photos of even static subjects. That, or subject detection modes that detect a subject's eye then focus on the background around its head and draw a green box around the eye!

[PhilT]

Very well done review. Thank you. Disappointing results for BIF. Waiting to see what the A9iii brings.

[DCFotographs]

Surprised the A7RIV had better results. Do you have a video or article on that camera with your testing? Curious what settings worked best

[rickymcc]

Thanks for a useful comparison, so I liked and subbed. I'm more a generalist, but did attempt red kites at a Welsh feeding station with my new a9iii. AF lock-on and sharpness were excellent with a Sony 200-600G but I would have liked a few more pixels for cropping. But it sounds like 'swings & roundabouts' what you gain in croppability you lose in AF accuracy and visa versa?

I have an a7iv, FX3 and recently an a9iii. All good for specific use cases. I had considered buying an a1 (price dropping) but went for newer a9iii (better screen, AF, speed, ergo, global shutter etc etc). Also I'd been missing my old a9 (sold) for sports action. I guess an a1 upgrade (a1 mkii?) will deliver new screen, better AF accuracy again plus other benefits befitting a 'flagship' but that won't likely appear before end 2025? So, a9iii was an easy decision.

I'm now considering buying an a7Rv and selling my otherwise excellent a7iv. Previously I had an a7Riii, upgraded that to a7Riv, but was disappointed with AF accuracy on a7Riv with my 200-600G. A7Rv offers new screen and hi-res EVF (as on a9iii) plus croppability options not afforded by my a7iv and FX3 (really video only). AF with AI is generally reported as better, but maybe the 200-600G is a difficult lens to drive vs say a 70-200 GM mkii? Perhaps I also need to consider their 300mm f2.8 GM with 1.4x & 2x TCs?

Any views on merits of switching a7iv for a7Rv and a 200-600G for a 300GM?

[Cheese-Head]

How does the autofocus compare to canon R6 mk 2?

[momchilyordanov]

In short - it's more expensive, the settings are more complicated, the AF is the same (or worse) and there is no change in IQ. Doesn't sound like a great deal, with only advantages being a new hinge for the back screen and higher resolution EVF.

[cameraprepper]

I am surprised to see you got fewer sharp photos than the A7RIV ! Would it be the same with a fully side-by-side comparison !? I can also see you had steadyshot off and Hi speed setting, there must also be some of the other settings that can be better !? If the Lens was the Sony 200-600mm 5.6-6.3 G, then it is know that there are problems with stabilizer for the R-series cameras !