Sony a7RV (a7R5) Definitive Review: the Maturation of 61MP

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Table of Contents:
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0:00​ - Intro to the a7RV
1:07 - Build and Features
8:30 - Autofocus
14:20 - Image Quality
32:00 - Video
34:40 - Conclusion and Pricing
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Keywords: Sony a7R5, Sony a7RV, ILCE-7RM5, Sony a7R5 review, Sony a7RV review, Review, Telephoto, Action, Tracking, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Sony a9, sony a7III, sony a7RIV, a9II, Sony Alpha 1, Sony A1 let the light in, #letthelightin, DA

[bluecheese]

I've had this for 2 months or so now. .The most honest thing I can say is that it's like having a cheat code on. Video, autofocus...image quality are sensational. Makes me think the a1ii and the a9iii are gonna be stupidly gd too.the a7r5 is incredible imo

[youuuuuuuuuuutube]

I remember some of your older videos where we both agreed that Sony needed to implement a smaller RAW option. I'm very glad to see that not only they listened, but that the result is really good!

[andymiles]

Totally agree Dustin. Not only has Sony added some great features to this camera such as the rear screen and AI focusing, it’s the fact that it’s implemented and tidied up so many minor things that really makes it feel complete. I feel like I’m using a camera from a camera company rather than an electronics company. I’ll mostly use medium raw reserving the large raw for landscape/architecture/macro. I love that I can use medium raw and then use APSC mode to get extra length from the lens with the resolution staying the same.

[meta]

Dustin, thanks for the best body and lens reviews (on YouTube or anywhere for that matter). Your reviews are comprehensive, meticulous and always spot on.

[FilmyDawidK]

Thank you Dustin for the review, as always very nice and through! Probably worth mentioning that Sony added few welcome futters like focus stacking, expanded bulb mode and improved pixel shift mode.
Looking forward for review of new Sony lenses - 70-200GM II and 24-70 GM II :)

[RickAtlanta]

Excellent video. I just purchased this camera and your video helped to better understand it. Thanks for taking the time to make it.

[NeXMaX]

This camera came out 6 months too late for me.

I liked the a7RIV, but it was missing too many QoL features that I was looking for. Hence why I went for the Nikon Z7II and have been very happy with it thus far (albeit without the nice selection of third party lenses on Sony, at least for now).

But it's fantastic to see Sony address pretty much all of my complaints with this revision. They've finally done it.

[davidromano]

Nice job on the review, as always! I've just spent some time with the camera and have been looking closely at the underexposure recovery, comparing it to the A7rii I also have. Even though the noise is about a half stop worse in the new camera, I'm really pleased with the ability to recover underexposed images. I've found that it's better to underexpose by 4 stops at ISO 100, than it is to correctly expose at ISO 1600. The A7rii could only benefit from a 3 stop push.

[gwilliams]

Update for me 9/5/23. Sony is running a sale with rebate and trade-in bonus for a total of $900 USD off om the A7RV, so today I traded my A7RIV in and bought the A7RV, a really nice upgrade to a high-resolution camera I have used around the world and loved the images I have made with it. . Looking forward to all the better features and performance. Have the Viltrox 16mm f1.8 coming too, both from my favorite mom and pop dealer Allen Camera, outside Philadelphia, Pa. Thanks for your always comprehensive and superb test/reviews. This will join my A1 and my A7SIII. Cheers and best to you.

[echoauxgen]

Have to add something I did a test of: I like to do Bracketed captures for sunrise and sets. i went out to a favorite spot and tried the 5 at +/- 2EV Hand Held and got 30 separate shots 5 images each put together in both Lr and ON ONE Photo Raw all came out perfect. I guess the Pixel shift capture hand held development roiled over to bracketing-- So you can leave your sticks at home!

[zacharymoran]

The full size RAW to Medium RAW was exactly what I was hoping to see. It could be useful to configure one of the custom dials to a Medium RAW high burst rate setting. At full size RAW it's a bit rough dealing with strings of 123mb files. That works out to over 1gb per second of shooting.

Sure you lose the cropping power, but on the other hand smaller files with some better color performance. If you shoot a static subject you can always swap back to full size image and drop the shutter speed and burst rate. I'm satisfied.

What I'm eager to see is if some of the improvements in the A7RV make it into an A9III.

[sgpork]

I upgrade my A7Rii to A7RV after 7 years of using only the A7Rii.. I cant be happier. I still shoot my A7rii but man o man... technology move so fast in 7 years time.
Especially the AF.. AF has advance so much over the years.

[shiragikumusic]

I have this an the fx3… perfect combo. I like it a lot better than the A7IV. Not that it’s bad, it’s just if you want the extras and they have value to you. No brainer.

[RM-hyso]

Thanks for the comprehensive photo focused review. It would be a real help to know the limits of the A7RV and operate within the best range for this camera.

[donaldstuckey]

Excellent review Dustin. I certainly agree with your conclusion that the A7R5 is a very complete camera. My first Sony body was the original nex-7. This is when Sony first to introduced the e-mount system.
Since then many of the Sony cameras have suffered with autofocus and image quality issues and actual camera performance. The A7R 5 demonstrates years of r&d that has produced a excellent result. Looking over a recent event shoot that I did I found that I had so many of the profile shots where you could hardly see the eye many of them the subjects had on glasses were perfectly and focus. Even in a recent partridge shoot with my mother the autofocus nailed her eye threw a pair of dark sunglasses. Not to mention how impressed I have been with the cameras ability to quickly transfer images onto my phone. It's not perfect but it is one of the best somebody cameras that I have ever used.

[TheNathanMChannel]

Watching this at 1440p on an iPad Pro 12.9 inch and I am blown away at the noise performance. None of those look unusable to me, even the higher ISOs have a pleasing grain. I might change my mind if I saw them for myself in a desktop monitor and maybe the 240ppi is helping, but that’s not obnoxious. Maybe you have Lightroom noise reduction switched on? In any case we’ve come a LONG way from what my old digital camera can do, where by the time you hit 1600 it’s utter trash and in practice you don’t want to stray beyond 200 if possible.

[echoauxgen]

There are a lot of areas to cover like a book I got over 900 pgs. I have the A7s iii and this camera I found noise the same when doing Milky Way capture. This camera was way more sensitive to light at night, Siii 3200 but V had to come down to 800 and a faster SS of 2s vs the 8s both getting excellent sharp stars using NPF for accurate for each model. I only wish for the old playmemories Digital Filter I had on my A7S and A7rii (will never get rid of)- yes in camera processing a sky and foreground of different settings processed in camera with a RAW output. A lot of in store SONY reps never knew about, just bring it back!

[petereprice]

Hey Dustin! I just wanted to thank you for your definitive review of the A7rV. I've watched a lot of them on YT, but yours is by far the best when going over the photography features of this camera. I'm really glad you went over the MRAW and SRAW options. I totally agree with you, that this camera is a very complete system. I admit I was at first very dismissive of the the A7rV especially being an A1 owner myself, but after I was able to get my hands on one to test, I completely underestimated the capabilities of this camera. The flexibility of essentially a tri-resolution sensor, mixed with its AF improvements, rear screen design, and overall improved processing compared to the A7rIV, makes me really think about making this my secondary or B camera to my Sony A1.
I'm curious, to see how it compares in dynamic range and high ISO performance when comparing it to the A7IV. I'm considering selling my A7IV to replace it with the A7rV if I can get similar or better high iso performance compared to the A7IV. I know that the A7IV has a larger ISO range, but I am curious about how they compare within the normal ISO range. This camera was a lot better than I had thought!

[Jeo-What]

Thank you for the detail review of this camera. As tempting as the A7R V is after you showing the mRAW quality at 26MP, I am still going to hold back the upgrade from A7 IV and hoping for A1 II to have the 61MP and more features over the A7R IV.

[nafnaf]

25:00 I learned something new here. That is a good trick. If I need to go really high ISO, I'll use 26MP mRAW