This is an excellent camera. I am a Sony man and also own a Sony a1 and a7rIVa. There are some significant upgrades from the 7rIV such as frames per second continuous shooting and in the video capability shooting 8k @24p. The most significant upgrade is the swivel screen. You can pretty much articulate it to any angle you need versus any other Sony camera. I am sure this will likely become standard on the performance tier models. The pictures are crisp and at 61mp, shooting full raw, you can easily get a 5′ poster size print when shooting full frame. The 7rV is very close in capability to the a1 with some minor nuances that make the a1 a better camera overall (faster fps, video are just a couple). The only reason I didn’t give the 7rV 5 stars is the camera can be finicky when selecting a focus area depending on if you are shooting manual or auto…particularly in auto. While I am fully capable of setting the camera to manual, sometimes that shot you are trying to nail is better done in auto, particularly with fast moving wildlife where you are focused on tracking and not adjusting the camera settings to the conditions in your shot. Most focus areas are LOCKED so you can’t choose the best focus mode in auto. Additionally, I didn’t care for the fact you have to manually switch back and forth between mechanical or electronic shutter. For instance, if you are in single mode, it will shoot mechanical, but if you go continuous mode, you have to remember to change it. Mechanical can slow your fps down due to cycling whereas electronic is fast and efficient. Electronic ALSO will not show up in a shutter count and preserves the life of your camera body. Sony’s mechanical shutter is good for at least 500,000 releases and can go well beyond, but you may start to have issues around this mark. I shoot a lot of rocket launches primarily with my a1 in electronic shutter and I can easily have between 1000-1200 images shooting continuous for one launch. Generally I use my 7rV and 7rIV to shoot long exposure for the launches which I provided a picture. If those were all mechanical, you see how I could quickly reach that 500k mark! I just wish the 7rV would default to electronic when I switch to continuous like my a1 does. Lastly, if you want to unlock this cameras potential for fps and 8k video, you HAVE TO BUY the expensive CFExpress type A card. Do some research on this card and you’ll see what I am talking about. You will pay a small fortune for a type A. Type B cards which Canon and Nikon accept are a fraction of the cost and FASTER but NOT compatible with Sony!! Sony is the ONLY brand that uses type A cards. You can get away with 1 type A card in slot 1, then use a SD uhs-II card that is v90 in slot 2 if you set the camera up to shoot full raw and video for slot 1 and jpg in slot 2. The slots are configurable to different formats so you may need 2 type A cards if you choose raw for both slots or you may hit the buffer in the camera and be unable to shoot until it clears the data. I do suggest if buying type A cards to go with something no smaller than 160gb and that is if you plan on transferring the card after each shoot. I recently went to Alaska and shot over 500gb on a 1tb CFExpress type A card over a 10 day period. If you shoot a lot of 8k video, that will take ALOT of memory, roughly 26gb for every 15 mins of video. A caveat to 8k video, you need a computer that is fast enough to play it back, such as a gaming computer with a fast processor, oodles of RAM and either a 3080ti, 4080 or 4090 graphics card. I found this out the hard way and dished out another $3k for a computer so I could play and edit the video. Although this camera has a few shortcomings in my opinion, it is probably the BEST camera available, especially when price and megapixels count! The competition isn’t even close to 61mp and it makes a world of difference at the end of the day. There are so many other technical features that make it a great camera as well that I didn’t touch on, but I did want to talk about where some improvement is needed. The menu is semi intuitive, just a lot of options to scroll through and choose, which can make changing on the fly cumbersome. The menu in the 7rV is the same as the a1 with a few options missing, but nothing that drastically takes away from it. Setting up your memory buttons is key to making fast, critical changes to your cameras menu instead of scrolling through all the settings. You won’t be disappointed if you buy it and I highly recommend if you are willing to spend the money, to get this camera.

I was looking for decent reviews on this camera for a while, and if you are looking for one – here it is. With it you can make both great photos and great videos. Tried it with different lenses, Sony 24-70 f2.8 GM2, Sony aps-c 70-350mm and Sigma 35mm f1.2, so the last one is a perfect lens for an extreme light video, used s-log3 profile with iso 800 (didn’t run lower iso yet) on it and after grading it has no noticeable noise, even without using de-noisers. For photo – it works amazing, check out couple of pictures I’ve made in the last couple of weeks.

The Sony Alpha 7R V Full-frame Mirrorless Camera is a game-changer for professionals and enthusiasts alike, delivering unparalleled image quality with its 61MP sensor and advanced AI-driven autofocus system. Its dynamic range and incredible low-light performance make every shot stunningly detailed and true to life, whether you’re capturing landscapes, portraits, or fast-moving subjects. The 8K video capability and impressive in-body stabilization add versatility, allowing for both cinematic video and razor-sharp stills. With its robust build, intuitive controls, and cutting-edge features, the Alpha 7R V is a powerhouse that redefines what’s possible in mirrorless photography.

The 60 Megapixels offers photographers plenty of room in the editing process to crop into the best frame of every shot. Paired with the AI autofocus and dedicated subject/eye tracking processor, the speed and accuracy of the autofocus is top tier. Not many consumer level cameras even come close at the accuracy and speed, even in tough environments like forests or two stops below ideal exposure.
The subject tracking has been extended to humans, animals, insects, birds, planes, and even trains.
I use for weddings, the option to record at lossless L, M, snd S MP equivalent sizes is amazing. If you don’t need the full 60MP, no problem, save file size and memory by choosing the M format (roughly 26MP).
Video is amazing too! It’s not a dedicated video line camera, but it holds its weight with 4:2:2 10-bit and 4k60 and 8K.
Admittedly not ideal for low light overall, but it holds its dynamic range pretty close to its smaller MP counterparts like the A7iii, actually boasting a slight edge l across iso values, especially its second native iso of 320. Mind the increased noise in lower light situations, it’s still very useable up to 3000 with no problem in photo mode. Video is even a stronger contender with Slog3 with surprisingly useable noise levels almost reaching 10,000.
As always use lights and wide apertures if available, but even without it is a strong contender.
The low-light crop-in photos attached shows how the low-light, crop-in, and post-processing noise reduction all work together to make otherwise impossible situations possible without additional light.