21 October 2021
With groundbreaking performance in both still and movie recording, the α7 IV is the ideal hybrid, providing breathtaking imagery along with on-the-spot delivery and distribution. The α7 IV is a camera designed to bring to life the artistic visions of today's creators
Newly developed 33MP full-frame back-illuminated CMOS image sensor
Delivering outstanding performance and excellent image quality in both stills and movies, the α7 IV's new 33.0 megapixel Exmor R™ CMOS image sensor provides high-speed readout, high sensitivity, low noise, and highly accurate colour reproduction.
Flagship-level image processing with BIONZ XR™
The α7 IV uses the latest image processor to offer greatly enhanced performance, with improved image quality and colour reproduction. Fast processing speeds facilitate comfortable continuous shooting as well as responsive operation while performing data transfers.
Still photography without compromise
Higher resolution, better colour reproduction
The new 33MP image sensor and processing engine raise the bar for image quality. In addition to boasting a larger pixel count and higher resolution than the α7 III, the α7 IV and its powerful Exmor R sensor represent a significant evolution of Sony's original image technology, for improvements that go beyond mere numbers. Experience new levels of colour gradation and detail rendering as well as soft, natural-looking human skin textures.
Beautiful images with reduced noise
Building on the capabilities of the back-illuminated image sensor, the BIONZ XR engine reveals even higher subjective resolution combined with exquisite detail and texture even in medium and high sensitivity ranges. Impressively low levels of noise are achieved throughout the standard range of ISO 100-51200 (expandable to ISO 50-204800 for stills and ISO 100-102400 for movies).
Wide, 15-stop dynamic range
Taking advantage of the camera's full dynamic range of 15 stops, the α7 IV uses image data from the sensor's 33.0 megapixels to render remarkably delicate detail in landscapes and scenery. This stunning image quality is based on Sony's unrivalled experience at the front lines of both still-image and movie creation.
Enhanced resolution and colour
Low noise, Wide dynamic range
Quickly set the visual mood with ten Creative Look presets
A selection of ten Creative Look presets and eight parameters can quickly craft a mood for your still images, movies and live streams. And since no post-editing is needed, you can share your vision immediately after shooting.
10-bit HEIF still-image format for smooth gradations
Along with conventional RAW and JPEG, you can choose the HEIF (High Efficiency Image File) format for still-image capture. Smooth 10-bit colour depth provides realistic reproduction of skies and portrait subjects where subtle, natural gradation is essential.
5-axis optical image stabilisation
Up to 5.5-step shutter-speed compensation from the in-body stabilisation unit. The α7 IV's high-precision stabilisation unit and gyro sensors work together with image-stabilisation algorithms to achieve up to 5.5 steps of shutter-speed compensation, to maximise the high-resolution performance of the camera's 33.0MP image sensor.
Sony's flash units coordinate with the camera's face-detection system
Sony's latest flash units communicate fully with the α7 IV, leveraging its powerful face detection capabilities to adjust exposure to produce natural-looking skin tones. Precise white balance synchronisation and P-TTL metering, at up to the ‘Hi’ level of continuous-burst speeds, reliably expose even fast-moving subjects with quick lighting changes, for unmatched dependability and creative possibilities.
External control of flash units
For greater convenience during shoots, compatible flash and radio wireless commander units connected to the α7 IV can now be controlled directly from the camera interface.
Fast Hybrid AF, evolved
The Fast Hybrid AF system, combining phase-detection AF and contrast-detection AF, has evolved even further to achieve greater speed, accuracy and tracking performance. With Sony's 4D FOCUS, a wide, dense AF area covers roughly 94% of the image area for both stills and movies with 759 phase-detection AF points.
10-frame-per-second continuous shooting with fast buffer release
Both the mechanical and electronic shutters allow you to shoot more than 800 frames at up to 10 fps with AF/AE tracking, thanks to the α7 IV's high-capacity buffer memory, speedy BIONZ XR processor and improved memory-card writing speed.
Sony's smart AI-based Real-time Tracking
Sony's unique subject recognition algorithm uses colour, pattern (brightness), and subject distance (depth) data to rapidly process spatial information in real time. AI is used to detect and track the eyes and face of the subject (human, animal or bird) with extremely high precision. Just select the subject to track, then leave it to the camera.
Improved Real-time Eye AF
Keeping the targeted eye in focus so you can concentrate on composition. The high speed of the latest image processing engine provides a significant boost to Real-time Eye AF performance, even when the subject is looking up, down, or sideways. It is also possible to use Touch Tracking to initiate Real-time Tracking of any subject in the frame, simultaneously initiating Real-time Eye AF if an eye is detected, simply by touching the screen.
Pet photos made easy
Fast, accurate focus for difficult animal shots. By setting the camera's subject detection type to "Animal" in advance, you can automatically detect and track an animal's eyes, for greater success in both wildlife shots and photos and movies of your pets at home. Animal-eye detection has been improved, with reliable tracking and accurate focus even when the animal's face is upside down.
Real-time Eye AF for birds
Bird-eye detection supported for both still shots and movies. For the first time in the α series, bird-eye detection is available in movies as well as still shots – simply preset the subject to "bird". The camera's astonishing speed and precision allow automatic tracking of a specific bird, whether it's perched somewhere or in flight, keeping the eye in steady focus despite any fast and unpredictable movements.
Movie imagery, moving ever forward
4K 60p movies with smooth, natural-looking capture
It is now possible to record movies at up to 4K 60p with full pixel readout and without binning, taking advantage of the α7 IV's brand-new image sensor and wide dynamic range for smooth images of fast-moving subjects.
7K oversampling for beautifully expressive, richly detailed images
When recording 4K movies at up to 30p, full-frame 7K oversampling is possible, resulting in high-resolution, highly detailed 4K. Select the mode that best suits your purpose, and let the camera deliver.
Next-level image quality with 10-bit 4:2:2 recording
Make in-camera recordings with the amazing richness of 10-bit depth and 4:2:2 colour sampling, with either Long GOP or All-Intra frame encoding, for far greater flexibility in image grading, post-processing and compositing.
All-Intra encoding supported in addition to Long GOP
All-Intra recording encodes every frame independently, at bitrates of up to 600Mbps, capturing complex motion more accurately and allowing more efficient editing workflows.
Superior quality and smaller file sizes with XAVC HS
The XAVC HS recording format uses HEVC/H.265 encoding to achieve twice the compression efficiency of AVC/H.264 encoding, for superior image quality and smaller, space-saving file sizes.
Choose your look, for more expressive movies
Support for S-Cinetone™, Creative Look and S-Log3. The S-Cinetone colour matrix, based on technology acquired through development of CineAlta cameras such as the VENICE, produces an impressive look with beautiful skin tones without post-editing. The Creative Look presets create other interesting visual moods in-camera, or you can use S-Log3 gamma to access the camera's full dynamic range (15+ stops) for smoother post-production workflows.
New Breathing Compensation
The a7 IV leverages our parallel lens and camera development to provide innovative Focus Breathing Compensation, exclusively for Sony’s E-mount lenses. By minimising the field-of-view shift that can occur, during movie shooting, when you rack focus with some lenses, you can achieve impressive results – for new creative possibilities from a diverse range of Sony’s E-mount lenses.
Focus Map to visualise depth of field
Answering a request from professional creators, the brand-new Focus Map feature lets you easily visualise depth of field when you're shooting . In use, focus (depth map) information is overlaid on a display of the live view in real time, so you can easily see which areas are in or out of focus.
AF Assist supports focus transitions when using AF
Inherited from the Cinema Line FX6, the AF Assist function smoothly switches between auto and manual focus. Rack focusing is possible by rotating the focus ring to switch into MF and shift focus to a different subject, with AF resumed when ring rotation stops.
Focus fine-tuning for true creative freedom
Fine-tuned focus features, also used in higher-end models like the α1 and the α7S III, enable creative movie options like rack focus, quick switches of AF target, and highly customisable subject tracking sensitivity.
High-performance ‘Active Mode’ image stabilisation
Reliable support for handheld movie shooting. Active Mode stabilisation for movie shooting is built on the camera's highly accurate stabilisation unit, gyro sensors and sophisticated algorithms. It precisely detects the required amount of compensation and applies stabilisation, providing stable 4K movie shooting without compromising the α7 IV's compact size and mobility.
Beautiful imagery with better image stabilisation
Because the α7 IV records gyro and lens data as metadata, you can use Catalyst Browse/Prepare software to further smooth camera shake and make adjustments to image stabilisation even after shooting.
Digital audio interface for excellent sound quality
The Multi Interface (MI) Shoe enables cable-less connection, directly transferring the digital audio signal for high-quality sound without degradation, while also supplying power and eliminating concerns about mic batteries.
Integrated microphone wind noise reduction
Using newly developed signal-processing technology, when wind-noise reduction is set to "Auto" and wind noise is detected, the noise will be greatly reduced without affecting other sounds.
A new era of image communication
Instantly turn your α7 IV into a web camera
All it takes is a USB connection to turn the full-frame α7 IV into a high-performance webcam. There's no need for complicated advance setup, just connect the camera to a computer or smartphone via USB, select "Live Stream (USB Streaming)", and you're set.
4K / Full HD Live
The α7 IV supports UVC (USB Video Class) / UAC (USB Audio Class) standards that are usually included in USB cameras, so there's no need to prepare dedicated software in advance. Just connect via USB and get ready to go live at up to 4K resolution.
Quick and easy setup for live streaming
The α7 IV makes live streaming easy. When you connect to a computer via USB, the USB function selection menu will pop up on the camera display. Simply select "Live Stream (USB Streaming)" and you'll switch to that mode immediately, without needing any advance setup.
Soft Skin Effect
The α7 IV's built-in Soft Skin Effect makes skin look bright and beautiful, softening wrinkles, blemishes and dull-looking areas while adding emphasis to the eyes and mouth. This feature is available for still shots, movies and live streaming.
Share your still images and movies immediately
The α7 IV is designed to make sharing easy, so you can share your fresh images, and your vision, with the world immediately.
5GHz Wi-Fi
Wireless LAN functionality is available, with a 5GHz band in addition to the conventional 2.4GHz band (IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac standards are supported). The benefits of 5GHz communication include faster data transfer.
Background FTP file transfer
This feature lets you transfer still-image and movie files to a specified remote FTP server via wireless LAN, high-speed wired LAN (via a compatible USB-Ethernet adaptor cable to the camera’s USB Type C® port), or a USB-tethered smartphone.
Improvements in selection and editing workflow
The α7 IV incorporates a number of individual improvements to image selection and editing, adding up to smoother overall workflow that allows large amounts of data to be efficiently managed.
Create Divider Frames for faster access and selection
Still-image Divider Frames can be inserted between images in order to quickly locate desired scenes; a black background with a grey arrow indicates a new scene or section.
Easy, reliable operation
Dedicated Still/Movie/S&Q dial
Switch the Still/Movie/S&Q dial and the camera will instantly change menus, button assignments and settings like aperture and shutter speed to correspond to your chosen mode, making it easy to take advantage of the hybrid nature of the camera.
Improved menu structure
Responding to feedback from professional photographers and videographers, we have adopted a menu structure similar to that used in the α7S III and α1 in order to allow better visibility with a single glance.
High-resolution 3.68 million-dot Quad-VGA OLED viewfinder
The camera's Quad-VGA OLED viewfinder has roughly 1.6x the resolution of the α7 III viewfinder, with a 37.3° FOV and a 23mm high eyepoint.
Side-opening vari-angle rear monitor for flexible shooting
Broad positioning and framing freedom for both still and movie shoots is provided by the 3.0-type 1.03-million-dot LCD touch-panel monitor, with convenient side opening and 3:2 aspect ratio.
Intuitive touch operations
Touch operation is now possible for AF operations such as Touch Tracking during shooting. Along with pinch-to-zoom during playback, this translates into more intuitive operation.
Customisable "Rear dial R" for convenient access to features
The α7 IV incorporates a freely customisable rear dial in place of the previous exposure compensation dial, giving you quick access to features such as ISO control, Creative Look or other settings.
Better dust and moisture resistance
While maintaining its compact dimensions, the design of the α7 IV has be refined for further dust and moisture resistance.
Durable magnesium-alloy chassis
Magnesium alloy is used for the camera's highly durable body, and the mount is firmly attached with six screws to support heavy lenses.
USB PD (Power Delivery)
USB PD (Power Delivery) is supported for fast in-camera battery charging and more efficient power supply, plus compatibility with external USB batteries and AC adaptors to extend recording times without battery drain.
Dual slots, CFexpress Type A support
The α7 IV's dual media slots support UHS-I and UHS-II SDXC/SDHC cards (both slots) and CFexpress Type A cards (one slot), for high-speed high-volume data recording.
Improved grip
The α7 IV's grip has been substantially redesigned to make it easier and more comfortable to hold securely during long shoots.
Efficient heat dissipation by design
Sony's unique Sigma (Σ) shaped graphite heatsink is built into the image stabilisation unit to efficiently shift heat off the sensor, without adding bulk or reducing stabilisation performance.
Consideration for the environment
Aiming to achieve a zero environmental footprint
Inspired by the beauty of the world, Sony is doing its part to help preserve the Earth, while still allowing creators to produce even more beautiful and creative imagery. With a goal of achieving a zero environmental footprint across the entire Sony Group by the year 2050, we are accelerating numerous initiatives for the environment.