ACJC.S
Autumn dreamscape
Deep crimson maples against a soft autumnal background of more red leaves and branches.
Light and shadows.
Wide opened with FE 85mm f1.4 GM.
A7R5 is finally out after a 1 year delay, it does tick a lot of boxes for me even if some of the new features already existed in other brands.
As expected, it retains the same 61mp from the preceding A7R4. The biggest improvements to me are listed below from (a) to (c).
(a) 8 stops IBIS measured at 50mm, up from 5.5 stops of the preceding A7R4. Sony IBIS has always been pegged at 50-55mm since the A7R2. I thought this improvement isn’t due till Sony brings out a 100mp camera, looks like the next iteration A7R6 will probably have the 100mp sensor; www.flickr.com/photos/86145600@N07/50937613287/
Sony IMX555CQR 102mp sensor already exists. Highly likely Sony will wait for Canon to launch a 100mp camera then respond.
(b) Subject recognition AF, this could be similar to the OM System’s new OM-1 Subject Detection mode which apparently makes a bigger difference to the AF than its new m43 quad-pixel stacked sensor. However, A7R5’s Ai AF goes one further as it runs on a dedicated AF processor unlike the OM-1. This separate AF chip in the A7R5 should finally match and perhaps surpass DSLR AF which relies on a separate PDAF module like the one in Nikon D850, without resorting to an expensive stacked sensor.
(c) Fully-articulated rear screen on tilt-out cradle (hence +58g vs A7R4?), very thankful that Sony didn’t go the A74 route with the annoying off-axis flippy screen. Really disliked the flippy screen on my OMD E-M1 Mkii.
(d) Ultrasonic sensor cleaning, a truly effective sensor cleaning function that has been available since my Olympus OMD E-M5 from 2012. The conventional sensor cleaning functions in Nikon and older Sony cameras are utterly useless, for placebo effect only!
(e) Focus bracketing function, the older A7R and A7R II could perform focus bracketing via Playmemories Apps, Olympus also has this since OMD E-M1 Mkii as well.
(f) Movement compensated pixelshift, Panasonic G9 already had this since 2017.
(g) As usual, no mention of sensor readout speed, likely no change since it’s the same sensor and as such slow as molasses. The workaround is to revert back to mechanical shutter for faster paced subjects.
(h) 10fps with mechanical shutter but as usual no mention of bit rate. Unusually with electronic shutter, it's only 7fps. The buffer is more than sufficient at RAW (Lossless Compressed) & JPEG: 159 frames.
(i) $3,898 full retail for 61mp A7R5 vs A7R4 at $3,500 and $5,000 ($6,500 at launch) for a 50mp used A1.
Probably time for me to buy this new camera although the A7R6 might arrive sooner with an improved sensor and possibly 100mp assuming the pandemic is truly over after another year. Those who have bought every A7R iteration will likely face upgrade fatigue.
Going forward, if the sensor can expose the highlights and shadows separately, DR can increase. Currently auto metering averages out the exposure unless one shoot exposure brackets and merge in post-processing.
Autumn dreamscape
Deep crimson maples against a soft autumnal background of more red leaves and branches.
Light and shadows.
Wide opened with FE 85mm f1.4 GM.
A7R5 is finally out after a 1 year delay, it does tick a lot of boxes for me even if some of the new features already existed in other brands.
As expected, it retains the same 61mp from the preceding A7R4. The biggest improvements to me are listed below from (a) to (c).
(a) 8 stops IBIS measured at 50mm, up from 5.5 stops of the preceding A7R4. Sony IBIS has always been pegged at 50-55mm since the A7R2. I thought this improvement isn’t due till Sony brings out a 100mp camera, looks like the next iteration A7R6 will probably have the 100mp sensor; www.flickr.com/photos/86145600@N07/50937613287/
Sony IMX555CQR 102mp sensor already exists. Highly likely Sony will wait for Canon to launch a 100mp camera then respond.
(b) Subject recognition AF, this could be similar to the OM System’s new OM-1 Subject Detection mode which apparently makes a bigger difference to the AF than its new m43 quad-pixel stacked sensor. However, A7R5’s Ai AF goes one further as it runs on a dedicated AF processor unlike the OM-1. This separate AF chip in the A7R5 should finally match and perhaps surpass DSLR AF which relies on a separate PDAF module like the one in Nikon D850, without resorting to an expensive stacked sensor.
(c) Fully-articulated rear screen on tilt-out cradle (hence +58g vs A7R4?), very thankful that Sony didn’t go the A74 route with the annoying off-axis flippy screen. Really disliked the flippy screen on my OMD E-M1 Mkii.
(d) Ultrasonic sensor cleaning, a truly effective sensor cleaning function that has been available since my Olympus OMD E-M5 from 2012. The conventional sensor cleaning functions in Nikon and older Sony cameras are utterly useless, for placebo effect only!
(e) Focus bracketing function, the older A7R and A7R II could perform focus bracketing via Playmemories Apps, Olympus also has this since OMD E-M1 Mkii as well.
(f) Movement compensated pixelshift, Panasonic G9 already had this since 2017.
(g) As usual, no mention of sensor readout speed, likely no change since it’s the same sensor and as such slow as molasses. The workaround is to revert back to mechanical shutter for faster paced subjects.
(h) 10fps with mechanical shutter but as usual no mention of bit rate. Unusually with electronic shutter, it's only 7fps. The buffer is more than sufficient at RAW (Lossless Compressed) & JPEG: 159 frames.
(i) $3,898 full retail for 61mp A7R5 vs A7R4 at $3,500 and $5,000 ($6,500 at launch) for a 50mp used A1.
Probably time for me to buy this new camera although the A7R6 might arrive sooner with an improved sensor and possibly 100mp assuming the pandemic is truly over after another year. Those who have bought every A7R iteration will likely face upgrade fatigue.
Going forward, if the sensor can expose the highlights and shadows separately, DR can increase. Currently auto metering averages out the exposure unless one shoot exposure brackets and merge in post-processing.