Sony’s New A7 V Uses A Partially Stacked Sensor So You Can Shoot Silently

From astir angles, it looks conscionable for illustration nan last-gen A7 IV.

Sony is announcing nan A7 V, its first camera pinch a partially stacked sensor and various features borrowed from pricier Alpha models. It will beryllium disposable body-only successful precocious December for $2,899, and a kit including a caller 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS II lens is coming successful February. 

The A7 V is 1 of Sony’s astir versatile all-purpose full-frame cameras, for enthusiasts and pros not looking to walk astir $7,000 connected an A1 II. The caller A7 retains a 33-megapixel sensor for illustration nan A7 IV earlier it, but pinch a partially stacked creation for illustration Nikon’s Z6 III. Thanks to this tech, nan A7 V tin beryllium utilized afloat clip pinch its physics shutter for wholly silent shooting and blackout-free 30fps continuous bursts. While nan Nikon Z6 III, arsenic awesome arsenic it is, had some controversies complete its partially stacked sensor’s reduced move range, Sony claims nan A7 V’s sensor has 16 stops of latitude.

Other features of nan A7 V see a caller Bionz XR2 processor pinch a dedicated AI spot for search autofocus and taxable discovery (like nan A7R V), a caller tilt surface (also first introduced connected nan A7R V), improved five-axis image stabilization (rated up to 7.5 stops), up to 1 2nd of pre-capture successful continuous burst shooting, and a velocity boost fastener that allows on-the-fly faster shooting (borrowed from nan A9 III). The A7 V’s OLED physics viewfinder is nan aforesaid 3.68-million dot solution arsenic its predecessor, but it now supports a faster 120fps, and nan unrecorded position provender switches much quickly from nan LCD erstwhile you put your oculus to it. Sony besides managed to compression a spot much life retired of nan caller exemplary utilizing nan aforesaid NP-FZ100 artillery — rated for an estimated 630 shots utilizing nan EVF aliases 750 pinch nan LCD (an summation of 110 and 170 complete past gen).

The A7 V is designed arsenic a hybrid for some stills and video, and its video chops person a important betterment complete nan A7 IV. The caller exemplary records successful oversampled 7K solution to output 4K 60p full-frame video, fixing 1 of nan A7 IV’s biggest issues and oversights. The last-gen exemplary relied connected a 1.5x harvest for its 4K 60p footage, whereas nan A7 V now crops only to deed a high-speed 4K 120p for slow-motion work.

As personification who owned and utilized nan A7 IV professionally for astir 2 years (before trading it to upgrade to different model), nan A7 V has overmuch of what I wish that camera could do for me. I sewage to usage 1 for a very little period, and being capable to sprout silently successful astir situations for illustration my different cameras is incredibly adjuvant for shooting freely successful a quiet situation — for illustration a wedding ceremony. One of my biggest gripes pinch my A7 IV was nan hold while waiting for nan unrecorded position to move from nan LCD to nan EVF. The split-second infinitesimal of impermanent blindness wasn’t egregiously long, but nan A7 V’s faster switching brings it person to nan super-speedy consciousness of nan pro A1 and A9 III cameras. I’m spoiled, I know, but erstwhile you set to it you don’t want to spell backmost to a slower consequence clip each clip you propulsion up your 2nd body.

The A7 V’s caller surface and ergonomic improvements are besides invited changes. I still don’t emotion Sony’s grip feel, moreover though they’re my cameras of choice, but Sony makes nan best articulating screens around, offering nan champion of some worlds for photograph and video. Up until now, these fantabulous screens person been reserved for pricier models, and I’m excited for much group to person entree to them.

It’s easy for nan Sony A7 V to look for illustration a spot of a ho-hum update, benignant of for illustration past year’s A1 II upgrade was for pros. But Sony did a bully occupation focusing connected refining and improving each of nan guidelines A7’s bread-and-butter features. It’s a top hits medium of galore of Sony’s caller new features. It’s a shame this statement keeps getting pricier, arsenic it’s launching astatine $500 much than nan A7 IV’s original value and $200 much than nan IV’s existent tariff-inflated price, but caller sensor tech is costlier sensor tech. 

Sony was speedy to innovate and iterate connected its Alpha cameras for years, giving it a monolithic caput commencement successful nan mirrorless world up of Canon, Nikon, and others. But it’s been emotion for illustration that invention has stalled a spot successful caller models. Now that Sony has played each its latest cards crossed its existent harvest and fixed its A7 V samples of its latest tech, we’ll person to spot if Sony’s adjacent procreation of cameras tin make immoderate of nan large jumps guardant for illustration it’s been antecedently known for.

Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge