The site Photo Rumors has leaked a full list of specifications of the upcoming a7R V. This is a camera many landscape photographers, including myself, have been anxiously awaiting. Not that the a7R IV is a bad camera. But there are a few things I have had on my wish list for photo and video that I hope will be fulfilled in this upcoming camera release. As of today, The Canon EOS R5 ($3899.00) rivals the specs of Sony's flagship camera in many ways. The Sony Alpha 1 is $6499.99, making the EOS R nearly half the cost. If these leaked a7R V rumors are true, Sony is going to be making a lot of a7R customers happy, and possibly some Alpha 1 owners a little bummed that they didn't hold out slightly longer for this upcoming release. Let's take a look at these rumored leaks and break them down. Please keep in mind that these are rumors, and they should be taken with a grain of salt.
Sony a7R V Rumored Specs
- 61MP full-frame Exmor R CMOS sensor, 26MP APS-C Mode, BIONZ XR processor
- New menu that is on Sony a7S III
- 10 fps continuous shooting
- 759 points PDAF, real-time tracking eye focus for birds/animals/humans
- ISO 40-81920 (native 80-32000)
- 5.5-speed 5-axis image stabilization
- 9.44 million pixels EVF, 2.36 million pixels flip LCD screen
- Dual CFexpress Type A & UHS-II SD card slots
- 10-Bit HEIF photos support, lossless compression RAW photos support
- Shake music mode is updated to four (2 photos/4 photos/8 photos/16 photos)
- 16-Bit RAW photos in Shaking Music support
- Full-frame oversampling 8K/24p, 4K/24p video
- Super35 oversampling 4K/30p video
- 1.24 times crop mode 4K/60p video
- XAVC HS/S/SI encoding video color depth up to 10-Bit 4:2:2
- Supports multiple creative modes, including S-CineTone
- Flash sync interface, no full-size HDMI
- Launch price: USD $3,500
- The release date is expected min to late 2022
Here are the rumored specs I hope make it to the a7R V
I am sure that my wish list of features will differ from others, considering that I am primarily a landscape photographer. Everyone will have features that they rely heavily on for their specific type of photography. It seems that no matter how impressive the specs are of any camera release, most of us will be disappointed with a few. Here I will list the rumors I feel most excited about and the rumors I would be disappointed with if they were true.
- The Sensor
I don't think there is enough information about the sensor for me to form a solid opinion yet. I think there will be people who will be disappointed if Sony doesn't increase the megapixel count in their next release. I am on the fence with this. I love having more resolution and detail. I also enjoy the flexibility of cropping my photos when shooting wildlife. Sony, please give us that 100-megapixel sensor! Although I do not want a megapixel increase at the cost of crippling other features in the camera. The raw uncompressed raw images from the a7R IV are massive. They quickly fill up the buffer, paralyzing your camera while you wait for the buffer to unload. So if we get more megapixels, what will be the drawback? Would it hinder the video specs? Would its lowlight capabilities get worse? Would the files be so large that the average person's computer would struggle to process them in Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, or Capture One? I will be interested to see more details about this new sensor and what it brings to the table.
- ISO 40-81920 (native 80-32000)
I have always envied Nikon cameras for their native ISO 64. While ISO 100 gives you a clean image, ISO 64 images just look better, and I would have thought it would be Sony's standard by now, considering Nikon uses Sony sensors in some of these cameras.
- 10 fps continuous shooting
I will be honest, 10 fps is pretty decent when shooting in such a high-megapixel camera, although this would be a disappointment for me. The 50 megapixels Sony Alpha 1 can achieve 30 fps while shooting Compressed Raw, JPEG, or HEIF file format, and up to 20 fps in uncompressed raw. I am hoping that this rumor is wrong and Sony will help us squeeze out a few more fps in the a7R V.
- 10 Bit HEIF photos support, lossless compression RAW photos support
I remember switching from shooting with the Canon 5DSR and going to the Sony a7R III. I was shocked to see that the 42.4 megapixel A7R III files were 85 MB while the 50.6-megapixel 5DSR files ranged from 50-65 MB. The a7R IV files are now 123 Mb! This is because Canon offers lossless compressed raw files in their cameras. I would love to save some hard drive space, so let us hope this rumor is true. Otherwise, for the next 3-5 years, I will continue to watch for those Black Friday sales for hard drive deals.
- Full-frame oversampling 8K/24p, 4K/24p video
- Super35 oversampling 4K/30p video
- 1.24 times crop mode 4K/60p video
- XAVC HS/S/SI encoding video color depth up to 10-Bit 4:2:2
Yes please to all of that! Let's face it. The a7R IV was not marketed to be a camera for professional video. When the a7R IV was released and I saw the video's specs, I was bummed. The thing that frustrated me the most was that it shot in 8-bit only. At the time of the a7R IV launch, Panasonic cameras such as the S1, S1R, and S1H offered 10-bit at up to 4k 30 fps, and 4K 60 fps with a crop. The Panasonic S1H even shot in 6K. So I was underwhelmed when I heard the A7R IV was capped at 8-bit at up to 30 fps.
I bought this camera primarily for landscape photography. However, I still wanted a camera capable of taking amazing videos. If all of these a7R V rumored video specs are true, we would get an incredibly high resolution stills camera with the capabilities of a professional video camera. Will Sony give us all these professional video features? Considering the video specs of the Canon EOS R5, I think they have to.
My Final thoughts
I think the possibility of these a7R V rumors being accurate is likely, although we won't know for sure until closer to its launch. All the features mentioned above are not only reasonable but they are almost expected considering what Canon has included in their EOS R5. Canon put away the cripple hammer for the R5 and gave the people exactly what they wanted. I think Sony will have to do the same and more if they want to not only want to stay competitive but also remain front runners in this competitive market. Canon and Nikon are full steam ahead, releasing exciting cameras, and have regained faith that had been lost by many of their loyal customers. I don't think Sony will sit there and let Canon and Nikon pass them up without a fight. The 1-year-old Sony Alpha 1 was a huge success, but it is far too expensive for most people and shares many of the features of the much less expensive Canon EOS R5. So if these rumored specs are true, I can imagine a whole lot of Sony shooters will have their eyes on this new a7R V.
