WHAT’S NEW
SONY’S 4TH GEN
A7R TOPS 60
MEGAPIXELS
SONY HAS JUST upped the ante in ultra-high
resolution cameras by installing a 62.5 mega-
pixels back-illuminated, full-35mm CMOS in the
Alpha 7R Mark IV. What’s more, Sony claims
its new ‘Exmor R’ sensor delivers a massive
15 stops of dynamic range. The effective pixel
count is 61 million, giving a maximum image
size of 9504x6336 pixels. The sensitivity range is
equivalent to ISO 100 to 32,000, expandable to
ISO 50 and 102,800.
And the big numbers don’t stop there. The
A7R IV also boasts 10 fps continuous shooting
with full AF/AE adjustment (and for up to 68
best-quality JPEGs), a hybrid AF system which
uses 567 phase-difference detection points and
425 contrast-detection points, an OLED-type
EVF with a resolution of 5.76 megadots (and
a 120 fps refresh rate), and a new ‘Pixel Shift
Multi Shooting’ mode which combines a total
of 16 shots to give a 240.8 megapixels image
(that’s19,008x12,672 pixels in size). The in-body
imagestabilisation(IBIS) operates over five
axesandgivesupto 5.5 stops of correction for‘APS-C’ crop applied, the
ers26.2 megapixels resolution,
with a tripling of the burst
continuous shooting. The AF
s Sony’s ‘Real-Time Eye AF’
which works with both humans
alsand uses an AI-based
recognition algorithm for more
subject tracking.
heoutside, the A7R IV has a
iumalloy bodyshell with what
ysis “upgraded” sealing against
sionof dust and moisture. This
additional sealing at all body
attery compartment cover and
s. The stainless steel lens mount
enupgraded to six fixing screws,presumably to deal with the increasing number
of big supertelephoto lenses in the Sony FE
mount system. Additionally, there’s a new
focal plane shutter assembly which is rated to
500,000 cycles.
There are two slots for SD memory cards,
both with UHS-II speed support, and Sony is
claiming an improvement in battery life with
the NP-FZ100 lithium-ion pack, up to 530
images when using the EVF or 670 when using
the camera’s monitor screen. For extended
shooting, there’s a new vertical grip – the
VG-C4EM – which accepts two battery packs –
or the optional NPA-MQZ1K Multi Battery
Adaptor which accommodates four batteries.
In-camera battery charging is possible via USB-C.
The monitor screen is a 7.62 cm LCD panel with
a resolution of 1.44 megadots, faster-responding
touch controls and adjustable for up/down tilt.
On the video side, the A7R IV records 4K
UHD (i.e. 3840x2160 pixels) at either 25 or 24
fps from across the full width of the image sen-
sor, and using the full pixel readout without pixel
binning in the ‘Super 35’ format. The S-Log 2
and S-Log 3 gamma profiles are also available to
maximise the dynamic range for colour grading
flexibility. Additionally, Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG)
is provided to support an HDR workflow. Full HD
recording is possible at full range of speeds from
1.0x to 100 fps for both fast-action and slow-mo
effects. The ‘Real-Time Eye AF’ is available for
the first for video shooting, and ‘Touch Tracking’
functionality automatically initiates ‘Eye AF’
when a human subject is selected. The ‘Multi
Interface Shoe’ has been upgraded to include
a digital audio interface to enhance the audio
quality when using the new ECM-B1M shotgun
microphone or the XLR-K3M XLR adapter.
The WiFi receiver supports both the 2.
and 5.0 GHz bands and is supplemented by
Bluetooth 4.1.
The Sony A7R Mark IV is priced at $5699 for
the body only and it’s available in Australia now.
For more information visit http://www.sony.com.auaxesandgivesu
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LENS JOINS
NIKKOR Z SYSTEM
THE LATEST ADDITION to Nikon’s Z
mount mirrorless system is an 85mm f1.
short telephoto which has been designed
primarily with portrait and people photo-
graphy in mind. The new Nikkor Z 85mm
f1.8 S is a premium ‘S Line’ series lens and
similar in styling to the existing f1.8-speed
primes, the 35mm and 50mm models. It has
a 12-element optical construction – in eight
groups – which includes two elements with
extra-low dispersion (ED) characteristics to
minimise chromatic aberrations. Nikon says
the optical design also delivers exceptional
sharpness across the entire frame, even
when shooting at f1.8. Additionally, it’s
designed to minimise focus breathing, which
is particularly advantageous when shooting
video. A nine-blade diaphragm gives smooth-
er out-of-focus effects to complement the
shallower depth-of-field at 85mm and f1.8.
Nikon’s ‘Nano Crystal’ multi-coating reduces
both ghosting and flare.
Externally, the barrel tubes are magnesium
alloy with sealing against the intrusion of
dust and moisture. There’s a multi-function
control ring which can be set to manual
focus, manual aperture control or applying
exposure compensation settings.
The new Nikkor Z prime’s autofocusing is
performed via a stepping motor (STM) with
Nikon’s high-speed ‘Multi-Focus System’
which employs two actuators to move two
focus groups simultaneously, enabling the
lens to achieve focus rapidly from nearly any
distance, including for close-up shooting.
The minimum focusing distance is 80 centi-
metres. The STM focusing drive is quieter
and also allows for smoother, more linear
adjustments, especially when shooting video.
The seventh Nikkor Z mount lens (and
the fourth prime model), the 85mm prime
measures 99 millimetres in length and
weighs in at 470 grams. It accepts 67
millimetre screwthread filters.
Local availability is from September,
and for more information visit
http://www.nikon.com.au