Sony a7IV (ILCE-7M4) Review

Dustin Abbott

January 31st, 2022

Perhaps no Sony camera series has benefitted as much from the “trickle-down” effect as the a7 series. The a7III set a new benchmark for the “full frame affordable(ish)” category by being basically good at everything. It inherited an amazing focus system from the Sony a9 that actually gave it better focus capabilities than the more expensive a7RIII, which itself had been a huge step forward. The a7III also benefited from a lot of a7S video capabilities, which resulted in it being a better video body than either the a9 or the a7RIII. It got the new battery, the new control layout, and a host of other improvements. Fast forward a few years and we’ve seen Sony release the truly incredible Alpha 1 (my review here), which advanced Sony design on almost every level. The downside? It cost $6500 USD! The new Sony a7IV (technically the ILCE-7M4) is not necessarily an Alpha 1 clone (it has a much lower burst rate, lesser video capabilities, lower resolution, etc…) but I do see a lot of Alpha 1 DNA in this camera. The Alpha 1 is my most used camera these days, so I’m very familiar with its performance and handling, and I can say that you’re getting a lot of Alpha 1 for the $2500 price point of the Sony a7IV. I’ll detail why in this review.

The Sony a7IV is designed around a brand new 33MP Full-Frame Exmor R CMOS Sensor. This ups the resolution from the 24MP seen on previous a7 bodies and brings us to what I consider a sweet spot for performance. It always felt like there was too much of a gap between the a7 series (24MP) and the a7R series (typically 42-61MP). This new 33MP sensor feels like a series step up, but it also sits in a sweet spot for today’s performance. As we’ll see in this review, this new sensor is among Sony’s best in dynamic range, high ISO performance, and seems to have improved color handling. Images are highly detailed, and I don’t feel a huge chasm between these images and my 50MP Alpha 1 images like I did with the a7III. Image resolution is 7008 x 4672 pixels, which is probably as many pixels as most people will ever need. Images from the a7IV look great:

Also useful is the fact that you still get 16MP in APS-C crop mode, which is a much more useful figure than the roughly 11MP figure on the a7III and other 24MP bodies. I found the 33MP resolution point and the new sensor helped make the a7IV feel more upscale than the a7III, which is appropriate, as it has moved upscale in terms of pricing. The a7III debuted at a bargain price point of around $2000, but the a7IV has jumped to $2500. This does create a little more room for Sony to release a budget full frame model under $2000 (a space occupied at the moment by the a7III and a7C cameras). The a7III will probably get phased out as current supply is sold off. Does the Sony a7IV justify this price increase?

Before we dive into the details, here’s a quick look at the major specs and features that stood out to me during my review:

33MP Full-Frame Exmor R CMOS Sensor
Up to 10 fps Shooting, ISO 100-51200
Much deeper buffer depth (up to 828 uncompressed RAW + JPEG)
4K 60p Video in 10-Bit, S-Cinetone
No recording limit
3.68m-Dot EVF with 120 fps Refresh Rate
3″ 1.03m-Dot Vari-Angle Touchscreen LCD
759-Pt. Fast Hybrid AF
Real-time Eye AF (including bird AF in stills and video tracking)
Focus Breathing Compensation
5-Axis SteadyShot Image Stabilization
4K 15p UVC/UAC Streaming via USB Type-C

Like the Alpha 1, I feel like the Sony a7IV has “enough” of everything that I don’t feel like I’m missing much. That in itself adds up to a very compelling camera. But is it the camera for you? Find out by reading on or watching my long format definitive or quick video review below:

Thanks to Sony Canada for getting me a loaner of Sony a7RIV. As always, this is a completely independent review.

Sony a7IV Build, Handling, and Features

The body of the a7IV is largely familiar [131.3mm (W) x 96.4mm (H) x 79.8mm (D)], but with a deeper grip depth that improves the feel of the camera in the hand. The a7IV manages to only be 8g heavier than the a7III at 658g (with memory and batter). In many ways the control layout feels like the Alpha 1 (without the extra dial on the left of the viewfinder), though the a7IV has a welcome articulating touchscreen with a 1.037 million dot resolution that is a slight gain over the 922K dot resolution on the a7III’s tilting screen. The responsiveness of the screen is fairly good, though I do find the font size a little too small for touch precision at times and wish the menu layout was more like Canons. Being able to front monitor and use the screen in nearly infinite positions is very welcome, as is being able to position the screen for proper vertical shooting.

I love the way that Sony has designed the ports so that they fit next to the hinges of the screen in a very logical way (something Canon typically doesn’t do). The doors over the ports open precisely and don’t just “hang” like they used to on the a7III. I really like the small separate port for the microphone jack, as that assures you’ll never miss recorded audio because you accidently plugged into the headphone jack (which is in the port beneath). You’ll find a Micro-USB multi-control port along with a USB-C port used for both data transfer and charging, though like other new Sony cameras the charging requires a power source with Power Send capability.

Also improved is the resolution of the viewfinder, which has been upgraded from the 2.359 million dot resolution on the a7III to a new 3.68 million dots resolution. It’s worth noting that the viewfinder and LCD screen resolution figures are just the bare minimum for competitiveness, so don’t get too excited!

The top plate shows a few minor tweaks to the dials along with a swapping of the C1 button to the back and the video record button to the top plate. For some reason there is no longer a label on the exposure compensation dial, which I find odd. The mode dial now has a lever underneath it that allows you to switch on the fly between Stills, Video, and S&Q, and you can set up your control scheme independently for these (buttons can have different function for video mode than in stills, for example).

Most of the buttons can be programed to the function of your choice. Sony cameras have always excelled in customization, and that remains true here. The feel of the buttons is much like the Alpha 1, a7SIII, or other recent Sony cameras.

The right side of the camera holds the memory cards, and you now have the option to use a CFExpress Type A card in the #1 slot or a UHS-II SD card in either slot. There’s a slight redesign to the latch on the memory card door on the right which has you pull down and slide the door open. As noted, the #1 slot can use both UHS-II SD cards and CF Express Type A cards. The latter offers some speed advantages but at a much higher price point. I prefer the Sony Tough cards in either format right now, as I have found them to be highly performing and extremely durable).

The burst rate is the familiar 10FPS, but the buffer depth has been dramatically improved, now allowing over 1000 frames of Lossless compressed RAW or JPEGs and even 828 full size uncompressed RAW + JPEG. Long gone are the delays while the camera empties the buffer, too.

There’s probably no reason other than market separation that the a7IV does not have a faster burst rate. If it were up to 15FPS or similar there would probably be many who would see little reason to go for the a9II, as the a7IV has just as good a focus system (if not better), deep buffers, and very good tracking capabilities. This doesn’t seem too cheap on Sony’s part, however, as the a7IV’s role is really as a jack of all trades, while the higher speed bodies like the a9 series and Alpha 1 are more specialist tools.

The hotshoe has been upgraded to Sony’s new multi-interface port which allows it to record digital audio when select mics are mounted.

The shutter mechanism is better damped and quieter than the a7III, which hopefully points towards more durability over the long haul. There are front and rear dials on the top plate, with the front dial slightly cantilevered up to make it fall to hand (finger?) easily.

The main menu is the updated version that was first seen in the a7SIII and then on the Alpha 1. It is color coded and side tab oriented rather than top tab oriented like the older Sony menus. I’m yet undecided as to whether I prefer the newer menu. There’s still a lot of complexity there, and there are a LOT of options in these menus. Don’t get me wrong; I love the wealth of customization and features you have access to, but the sheer number of options will be slightly overwhelming for a while until you develop familiarity with them. I didn’t love the previous Sony menu structure, though, unlike some reviewers, I didn’t despite it either. But after years of use, I was at least familiar with it and knew pretty much where everything was. I’m having to relearn that somewhat, though Sony’s basic organization of features remains similar.

The battery door is on the bottom, as per usual, and the battery is the typical NP-FZ100 that we’ve seen since the original a9. It’s rated for about 520 shots, though real world use varies depending on what you are doing. If you shoot hybrid style and have some video clips in there, expect to charge the battery more often. If you are shooting bursts or consistent portraits, you will get far more shots than the rating. Getting an extra battery or two is never a bad idea, though. I typically feel like I have to charge my Sony batteries quicker than I expected.

Sony was an early pioneer in IBIS (In Body Image Stabilization), though over the past few years their advantage here seems to have shrunk. On paper, the 5 1/2 stops of stabilization is the same as we’ve seen for years, though in practical applications the quality of the stabilization has subtly improved over the past few years. I’ve definitely noticed that more recent Sony models have better stabilization, and that’s true here, too. One new addition for the video side is a mode called “Active” (as seen on the a7SIII) which has a slight crop but utilizes electronic aids to further stabilize active movements (like walking). I did a series of tests and found that the the active mode definitely gave smoother results when walking or moving. The crop wasn’t particularly noticeable to me, but I did feel like footage was slightly less crisp, so I would utilize the Standard IBIS setting when shooting static handheld footage and save Active for the appropriate moments. I added the option to the custom menu so that I could quickly sort between the settings.

I’ve seen ratings on IBIS and Lens IS/OSS going up and up, but it seems to me like the law of diminishing returns, as it seems like the same limitations that I’ve seen with image stabilization for the past decade still apply. I did a test at 50mm and 1/5th second shutter speed (about 3 1/2 stops) and got about a 25% keeper rate.

Still, I love having IBIS in the camera as it means that all lenses get at least some stabilization. You can manually set the focal length to stabilize even if you are using old vintage lenses. It’s possible to get good results at very low shutter speeds in many situations, but it is important to have realistic expectations about what IBIS can and cannot do. Sony needs to continue to innovate on this front because the competition has more than caught up at this point.

So while the Sony a7IV may look very familiar, there are a lot of key upgrades that seriously improve the ergonomics and performance of the camera. I find a lot of the Alpha 1 DNA here…in a camera that is about a third of the price!

Sony a7IV Autofocus Performance

One again the Sony a7IV has really benefitted from the trickle-down effect, as like the a7III received most of the AF system of the a9, the a7IV has received most of the focus system from the even better Alpha 1. Sony has upped the ante on the total number of phase detect points from 693 on the a7III cameras to 759 on the a7IV, with about 94% coverage of the sensor. That’s only up a percentage point or two, but it does suggest that the AF points on the a7IV are slightly smaller and more precise, which can help when you are trying to nail focus on a very narrow subject (like when shooting macro). As is typical with Sony cameras, the PDAF is backed up by 425 contrast points (which is why it is called a Hybrid-AF system).

The improvement in AF is more than AF points or spread, however, as the a7IV has also inherited the BIONZ-XR processor from the Alpha 1. The Sony a9 was capable of 60 focus and exposure calculations per second; the Alpha 1 (and thus the a7IV) doubles that to 120. Here’s what Sony says, “At an astonishing calculation speed of up to 120 AF/AE per second, the Alpha 1 can maintain focus with high accuracy even for fast moving subjects. It can automatically adjust exposure, even with sudden changes in brightness, with an AE response latency as low as 0.033 seconds“. While the lower frame rate of the a7IV means that you won’t push the limits of the processor the same way, it does indicate that we have a very, very robust autofocus system.

Also improved is AF sensitivity, which can now focus down to -4 EV and up to +20 EV. This doesn’t quite match the numbers that Canon is throwing out, but I was definitely able to focus effectively in low light situations. I took this shot, for example, at ISO 25,600 inside my very dark Ruggard Dry Cabinet.

Sony has also ported over the refined Eye AF capabilities of the Alpha 1, including the new Bird Eye detect mode. Part of that improvement is that they state that eye detection is now effective from more angles, and that I believe to be true. You can see that I shot this low shot of Loki at an odd angle and eye detect still nailed everything perfectly at F1.4 (using the new Samyang AF 50mm F1.4 II – my review here).

This shows how much better Sony’s eye detection has gotten, as you are much more likely to get precision in a wider range of situations.

Sony has now enabled all three types of Eye tracking for video purposes as well. Even the Alpha 1 didn’t have real-time bird tracking in video (though expect that to get added via firmware).

My two week loaner period coincided with a severe cold snap in January where the temperature hovered between -20 and -40C…and public spaces like gyms were in COVID lockdown Not much was moving out there for tracking, so I didn’t get a chance to really torture test the a7IV’s tracking abilities. Still, I was very impressed even with the tracking of the a7C (an inferior focus system), and I think the focus system in the Alpha 1 is amazing (which is where most of the tech in the a7IV is borrowed from), so I fully expect the a7IV to be a very capable camera for tracking…as far as the focus system goes. The real story is a little more complicated, though.

What you don’t have relative to the a9 series or the Alpha 1 is the blackout free viewfinder. In fact, at 10 FPS (H+), you get something like a storybook where the last image shows for a split second and you don’t get a real-time view at all. At High (H) speed you get only 8 FPS, but you do get a real time viewfinder experience, though one interrupted 8 times per second with black as the shutter closes. You can switch to an electronic shutter, but the burst rate seems to drop to about 6FPS and you still get blackout. The illustration below shows the difference between the blackout free readout of the a9/Alpha 1 vs the blackout view you’ll see on the a7IV.

This is clearly not as sports oriented as the a9 and Alpha 1 models that are built around an electronic shutter. You have the autofocus capabilities to track action effectively, but the architecture of the camera means that the process will be more difficult. If you want to purely do sports or fast action, then you need to look at one of Sony’s serious sports bodies. In some ways those deep buffers go to waste, as the burst rate and viewfinder experience don’t really lend themselves to dedicated action tracking. The upside, though, is that you’ll probably never have to worry about missing a shot because the camera was trying to empty the buffer!

Where the Sony a7IV does shine is as a general purpose or portrait camera. I put the Sony a7IV in my assistant’s hands for a quick portrait shoot (it was so cold that I needed to be the subject – no other volunteers for portraits at -25!). He used a camera he had never previously touched and a lens (aforementioned Samyang AF 50mm F1.4 II) he had never used and shot in very cold conditions…and yet when I reviewed the images, I found that they were all focused very well.

I had him shoot strongly backlit shots, though trees, and at various distances, and there wasn’t a missed shot in the bunch.

This quick shot of Loki also shows great focus and accuracy even at F1.4:

So while this may not be a pro sports camera, it will do all of the ordinary things that photographers do exceptionally well.

Sony a7IV Video Performance

The Sony a7III was a very popular hybrid camera for video work for several reasons. It had very good video quality even though it was capped at 4K30. The high ISO performance was very good, as was the autofocus quality. It had things like SLOG and other picture profiles. Expectations are of course higher still for the a7IV, and in many ways I think it delivers.

Here’s some of the video highlights of the a7IV courtesy of B&H Photo’s listing:

Making full use of the high-resolution 33MP sensor and fast processing capabilities, UHD 4K 30p XAVC HS 10-bit recording is possible using the full width of the sensor, offering 7K oversampling for impressive sharpness and realism.
There is also oversampled 4K recording, via a 4.6K capture area, with a Super 35 crop, that offers UHD 4K output up to 60p in 10-bit.
No recording time limit allows for unlimited clip lengths and the camera’s physical design features an improved heat-dissipating structure to promote longer possible recording times; longer than one hour of continuous 4K 60p 10-bit 4:2:2 recording, for example.
The a7 IV employs a pair of codecs to suit different workflows: XAVC HS, which uses HEVC/H.265 encoding to retain more detail at smaller bitrates and XAVC S-I, which is an intraframe codec for consistent performance and quality at bitrates up to 600 Mb/s.
S-Cinetone can be used to deliver distinct colors and healthy-looking skin tone rendering that matches the FX9 and FX6 cameras, along with the a1 and a7S III, and is based on technology from the professional Cinema Line cameras, such as the VENICE. This color profile offers natural mid-tones, soft colors, and especially well-controlled highlights.
HLG (Hybrid Log-Gamma) support permits recording within a wide color gamut for producing HDR-ready content directly from the camera.
S-Log3 is also available for producing a 15+-stop dynamic range with increased grading control in the shadow to mid-tone regions of the image.

That’s obviously a lot of great video options there, and my only critique is having to deal with the crop factor to get 4K30. The biggest challenge there is if you want to get wide shots, so having a decent APS-C wide angle lens might be a good idea for shooting 4K60 and keeping a wide perspective. Other standouts to me are the lack of any recording limit, improved heat dissipation (getting more than an hour of 4K60 without overheating issues is great news!), and of course the practical advantages of the articulating LCD screen for front or side monitoring along with all of the autofocus tracking options.

We’ve also got a few new features to help with video capture. One is the focus breathing correction that helps certain lenses get a better result during focus changes. For more information and a list of lenses covered, check out this page. I tested it with my Sony 35mm F1.4 G Master lens (one of the supported lenses) and noticed a few things. First of all, there is a slight crop factor involved with the process. Secondly, I noticed a subtle improvement with focus breathing, but no magic cure at all. The concept is interesting, but thus far software seems no match for actual optical engineering in the lens for this video issue.

Another new feature is called “Focus Map”, which uses an overlay of brightly colored boxes to highlight what is before and after the plane of focus with only the in focus area being naturally colored. It’s a more visually pronounced way of seeing what is in focus relative to typical focus peaking color overlays, and I can see it being useful, though some might find the sheer brightness of the color distracts them from the actual process of engaging with whatever subject is onscreen.

There’s a wealth of professional video options here in terms of codecs, color profiles, and HLG. The footage looks great, with great detail and a good deal of versatility for low light performance and dynamic range. I also do like the look of the S-Cinetone profile that’s included. I’m not a serious videographer or cinematographer (I mostly shoot for my YouTube channel), so I’ll leave the detailed analysis to those more professional than myself.

I suspect that things are good enough here that some people may decide that spending the extra money on the a7SIII is unnecessary.

Sony a7IV Sensor Performance

Put simply, I’m loving the new 33MP sensor from Sony. I’ve petitioned for a camera at this resolution point for a while. Image resolution is 7008 x 4672 pixels, which is probably as many pixels as most people will ever need. It gives you reasonably high resolution but without any of the complications that extremely high resolution brings.

I also love having the Lossless Compressed RAW options, as most of the ARW (RAW) files are around 40MB, which is plenty for editing but not too onerous to store. There’s enough resolution there for a usable 16MP APS-C mode, too. Photos look great from the camera, with nice resolution, great dynamic range, and good color rendition. Look at the great detail even in the deep crop from the main image.

As this is a new sensor, I’ll take a deep dive into various aspects of its performance.

ISO

The challenge when you raise resolution is that low light performance can suffer. Camera makers have gotten increasingly good at mitigating that, however, and that’s definitely true here. The a7IV has a native ISO range from 100-51,200, with an expanded range of ISO 50-204,800 available. Yes, ISO 204,800, which is certainly getting into silly territory. I’m not going to be recommending that you take any shots there, but the native range is another story. It wasn’t that long ago that I found ISO 51,200 to be joke range, but that’s far from true now. It’s still not my preference to shoot that high, but I’ll definitely say that even ISO 25,600 is very usable here. Let’s start by taking a look at our base ISO image, which looks excellent with great contrast, good color accuracy, and fine detail.

At ISO 1600 the result is scarcely distinguishable from base ISO (100) even at a pixel level:

At ISO 6400, there is the tiniest amount of noise in some of the shadows, but color saturation levels, color fidelity, and contrast are pretty much indistinguishable from base ISO:

Things are mostly similar at ISO 12,800, with black levels still quite inky. By ISO 25,600, you can start to see some uneven pixels in the black area (some white specs) and the “grain” is heavier, but things are still quite usable.

Often I see cameras fall apart in the last stop (say, from 25,600 to 51,200), and that’s somewhat true here, but ISO 51,200 is only slightly further deteriorated. I see a tiny green shift in the basic tone of the image (a Sony sensor hallmark), but the image still looks pretty good at a global level.

It doesn’t even look too bad at a pixel level. ISO 102,400 and 204,800 are mostly there for marketing (more green shift, less contrast, more rough noise…), but I do think that in a pinch ISO 51,200 could be used for certain applications. That’s as good a performance as I’ve seen from any camera. The a7IV is one of the best cameras I’ve used for high ISO performance, and the fact that it does it while moving up to a higher resolution point is impressive.

Dynamic Range

Dynamic range has become one those topics debated ad nauseum on photography forums and harped on by certain reviewers to the place where some perspective has been lost on the topic. It has become one of the key “stats” where brand fanboys either push their brand or bash another, causing many people to become disgusted with the term in general. That being said, there is no question that there are a number of situations where improved dynamic range gives the photographer (and particularly the post-processor) more latitude to fulfill their vision. This could be in the ability to recover a blown-out sky or shadowed area as a landscape photographer or the ability to balance a foreground subject with a background or sky for portrait photographers. I’ve also been able to save images where I captured something special but a flash didn’t fire.

Sony claims up to 15 stops of dynamic range for the a7IV, though they are not specific as to where one could expect this performance (S-Log video?) Many recent Sony cameras have been close in this metric (as you can see from Photons to Photos chart here). They show a slightly better performance from the a7IV than the a7III or Alpha 1, but it is by a few fractions of a percent. I felt like my experience with a7IV was that I saw the best dynamic range that I’ve personally seen from a full frame camera (only better with medium format bodies).

There are different aspects of shadow and highlight recovery, and I find it best to try to visually demonstrate my findings. In this comparisons I will intentionally under or overexpose by the correct number of stops and then try to recover the lost information by adding it back in post (either increasing or reducing exposure).

First of all, shadow recovery. Bottom line is that the Alpha 1 is simply fantastic at recovering shadows. At a global level you simply can’t tell a difference between a perfectly exposed image and an image underexposed by 5 stops and then recovered.

Even when I look at the image at a pixel level I am hard pressed to find any ill effects of shadow recovery. Everything looks clean.

Some people compare dynamic range by showing how much the highlight and shadow recovery sliders can open up shadows and recover highlights. I find that there is a LOT of latitude in images for recovering shadows in the sliders. Here’s a look at an original image with deep shadows and then the result after using Lightroom’s shadow recovery slider at 100%.

That’s obviously a lot of flexibility for whether you want to conceal or reveal details from the shadows.

Recovering highlights is something that cameras struggle more with, as when highlights are “blown out” there is often unrecoverable information loss. The a7IV does particularly well here, though, proving able to successfully recover 3 stops of overexposure with minimal loss of information and good color saturation levels…slightly better than what I’ve previously seen.

So far the practical limit has always been four stops of overexposure, and that’s true here.

There’s just information lost that isn’t recoverable, and the recovered image has a very unnatural quality to it. Some of the colors in the color swatches have been lost, and others have bled in odd ways. Somewhere between three and four stops is where the limit is, but that limit is definitely a little bit higher than anything I’ve seen before.

I find that recovering sky information seems to be particularly good with the a7IV. This shot was taken into extremely bright morning sun, and I was very pleasantly surprised when I could recover all the sky information.

That’s awesome! That kind of dynamic range is very useful, as it used to be that I had to bracket exposures for HDR to get that level of performance. There’s a good chance that I would never use HDR with the a7IV; I just wouldn’t see the need.

Colors and Gallery

I first started testing Sony mirrorless cameras at the a7RII stage, and I’ve watched Sony’s color science evolve along the way. At this stage, I find Sony’s color science to be quite good, and the Sony a7IV seems quite similar to my Alpha 1 in performance. This has happened for two reasons, I think. The first is that Sony has carefully tweaked their color science, and over the past three generations of new Sony product I’ve seen steady improvement. Colors are a little more balanced and less prone to becoming garish when “pushed” a bit. The second reason is that as Sony’s market share has increased, I think that major software makers like Adobe have invested more attention on properly “translating” their colors for RAW images. I’ve steadily found Sony’s colors easier to process and have been increasingly happy with the results. Here are a few images taken with different lenses that demonstrate that nice color.

In summation, I think that Sony has done a great job with this new sensor. It hits a sweet spot for me in terms of resolution, detail, contrast, color, dynamic range, and ISO performance. I suspect this sensor will get used in several other cameras, and it is definitely worthy of some regular use by Sony. Check out more images than I can share in this review by visiting the image galleries here.

Conclusion

Sony has moved the a7 series upmarket with the Sony a7M4, and I think the series is better for it. I think that Sony has positioned itself for a cleaner market separation, as I found the release of the a7C muddied the waters a bit. The a7III and the a7C were too similar in terms of performance, and it was somewhat hard to choose between the two. The a7IV is a superior camera to the a7III and has a corresponding price at the $2500 mark. An a7C successor (or some other budget full frame model) can now slot into the $1500-1700 range and have very nice market separation.

As I noted in my Alpha 1 review, I was a little underwhelmed by Sony’s previous generation of updates. I passed on both the a7RIV and the a9II without upgrading my a7RIII or a9 because I didn’t see a compelling reason to make the move. It’s been a different story with both the Alpha 1 and now the a7IV. Sony has made some significant strides in improving some of their areas of weakness, and I find that there is little lacking on the a7IV. Sure, I would like to see 4K60 without a crop factor, and I certainly wouldn’t mind a tracking/viewfinder experience more like the Canon R6, but it would also be a mistake to expect this camera to be an a9 or the Alpha 1. I think the best way to look at this camera is to view it as a budget Alpha 1 but without the specialized sports capabilities. It has less resolution, less video capabilities, less sports capabilities, but also does a lot of the same things that the Alpha 1 can do…and at a much, much more affordable price.

The most compelling upgrade here is the great new 33MP sensor. It ups the resolution ante while not compromising on any facet of ISO performance or dynamic range. The Sony a7IV feels like a great compliment to my Alpha 1, as it handles very similarly and produces images that a nice match. I am strongly considering picking up the a7IV as my second/backup Sony full frame body, particularly since the articulating LCD screen is a great help to someone like myself who spends a lot of time in front of the camera…and without someone behind the camera to run it! I have found a lot of reasons to praise the a7IV during my time with it, and frankly very little to criticize. It comes with my wholehearted recommendation.

Pros:

A lot of Alpha 1 DNA
Does basically everything well
Incredibly deep buffers
33MP resolution should be a sweet spot for many photographers
Upgraded autofocus system – more points, better sensitivity, more tracking options
Up to 4K60 recording (in Super 35)
No record limits (no 29:59 limitations)
No significant overheat issues
Lossless compressed RAW capture
Touchscreen menus (finally!)
Articulating LCD screen
Excellent dynamic range
Excellent high ISO performance
Webcam ready
Good layout of ports
Good dynamic range and ISO performance

Cons:

Small font sizes make navigating menus by touch imprecise
LCD resolution still very low
4K60 requires Super 35 crop
Viewfinder experience limits the potential of the great autofocus and deep buffers

Gear Used:

Purchase the Sony a7IV @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Samyang AF 50mm F1.4 II @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Sony 50mm F1.2 GM @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase the Sony FE 50mm f/1.4 Planar T*: B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon.ca | Amazon UK | Ebay

Purchase the Sony Alpha 1 @ Camera Canada | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Sony a9M2 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Sony a7C @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Sony a7RIV Camera: B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Purchase a Sony a7C @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Peak Design Leash Strap: Peak Design Store | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK

Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud 1-Year Subscription
Exposure Software X6 (Use Code “dustinabbott” to get 10% anything and everything)
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Keywords: Sony Alpha 7IV, Sony A7IV, Sony Alpha 7IV Review, Sony A7IV Review, ILCE-7IV, ILCE-7M4, Sony, a7IV, A74, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Sensor Performance, ISO, Dynamic Range, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Sony a7III, Sony a7C

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Sony a7IV (ICLE-7M4) Image Gallery

Dustin Abbott

January 31st, 2022

Perhaps no Sony camera series has benefitted as much from the “trickle-down” effect as the a7 series. The a7III set a new benchmark for the “full frame affordable(ish)” category by being basically good at everything. It inherited an amazing focus system from the Sony a9 that actually gave it better focus capabilities than the more expensive a7RIII, which itself had been a huge step forward. The a7III also benefited from a lot of a7S video capabilities, which resulted in it being a better video body than either the a9 or the a7RIII. It got the new battery, the new control layout, and a host of other improvements. Fast forward a few years and we’ve seen Sony release the truly incredible Alpha 1 (my review here), which advanced Sony design on almost every level. The downside? It cost $6500 USD! The new Sony a7IV (technically the ILCE-7M4) is not necessarily an Alpha 1 clone (it has a much lower burst rate, lesser video capabilities, lower resolution, etc…) but I do see a lot of Alpha 1 DNA in this camera. The Alpha 1 is my most used camera these days, so I’m very familiar with its performance and handling, and I can say that you’re getting a lot of Alpha 1 for the $2500 price point of the Sony a7IV.

The Sony a7IV is designed around a brand new 33MP Full-Frame Exmor R CMOS Sensor. This ups the resolution from the 24MP seen on previous a7 bodies and brings us to what I consider a sweet spot for performance. It always felt like there was too much of a gap between the a7 series (24MP) and the a7R series (typically 42-61MP). This new 33MP sensor feels like a series step up, but it also sits in a sweet spot for today’s performance. As we’ll see in this review, this new sensor is among Sony’s best in dynamic range, high ISO performance, and seems to have improved color handling. Images are highly detailed, and I don’t feel a huge chasm between these images and my 50MP Alpha 1 images like I did with the a7III. Image resolution is 7008 x 4672 pixels, which is probably as many pixels as most people will ever need. Images from the a7IV look great:

Also useful is the fact that you still get 15MP in APS-C crop mode, which is a much more useful figure than the roughly 11MP figure on the a7III and other 24MP bodies. I found the 33MP resolution point and the new sensor helped make the a7IV feel more upscale than the a7III, which is appropriate, as it has moved upscale in terms of pricing. The a7III debuted at a bargain price point of around $2000, but the a7IV has jumped to $2500. This does create a little more room for Sony to release a budget full frame model under $2000 (a space occupied at the moment by the a7III and a7C cameras). The a7III will probably get phased out as current supply is sold off. Does the Sony a7IV justify this price increase?

Here’s a quick look at the major specs and features.

33MP Full-Frame Exmor R CMOS Sensor
Up to 10 fps Shooting, ISO 100-51200
Much deeper buffer depth (up to 828 uncompressed RAW + JPEG)
4K 60p Video in 10-Bit, S-Cinetone
No recording limit
3.68m-Dot EVF with 120 fps Refresh Rate
3″ 1.03m-Dot Vari-Angle Touchscreen LCD
759-Pt. Fast Hybrid AF
Real-time Eye AF (including bird AF in stills and video tracking)
Focus Breathing Compensation
5-Axis SteadyShot Image Stabilization
4K 15p UVC/UAC Streaming via USB Type-C

Like the Alpha 1, I feel like the Sony a7IV has “enough” of everything that I don’t feel like I’m missing much. That in itself adds up to a very compelling camera. But is it the camera for you? Find out by reading my text review or watching my definitive video review…or just enjoy the photos from the gallery below.

Thanks to Sony Canada for getting me a loaner of Sony a7RIV.

Photos of the Sony a7IV

Photos Taken with the ILCE-7M4

Gear Used:

Purchase the Sony a7IV @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Samyang AF 50mm F1.4 II @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Sony 50mm F1.2 GM @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase the Sony FE 50mm f/1.4 Planar T*: B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon.ca | Amazon UK | Ebay

Purchase the Sony Alpha 1 @ Camera Canada | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Sony a9M2 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Sony a7C @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Sony a7RIV Camera: B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Purchase a Sony a7C @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Peak Design Leash Strap: Peak Design Store | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK

Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud 1-Year Subscription
Exposure Software X6 (Use Code “dustinabbott” to get 10% anything and everything)
Visit Dustin’s Amazon Storefront and see his favorite gear

Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!

Keywords: Sony Alpha 7IV, Sony A7IV, Sony Alpha 7IV Review, Sony A7IV Review, ILCE-7IV, ILCE-7M4, Sony, a7IV, A74, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Sensor Performance, ISO, Dynamic Range, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Sony a7III, Sony a7C

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Canon EOS R3 Review

Dustin Abbott

December 13th, 2021

The Canon EOS R5 (my review here) and EOS R6 (my review here) cameras showed that Canon was serious about the full frame mirrorless space. The former remains one of the best jack-of-all-trades cameras ever made, possibly bested only by the extremely expensive Sony Alpha 1 (my review here). The EOS R6 was a very effective budget sports and general purpose camera, with great tracking abilities that equaled the far more expensive EOS R5. But what Canon didn’t have (and few other companies have either) is a high end pro sports mirrorless body with an integrated battery grip design. Canon has solved that with the release of the Canon EOS R3, a 1D style camera but with all of Canon’s latest mirrorless tricks…and a few new ones.

The large, bulky integrated grip design definitely polarizes the audience. For some photographers this is the only style of camera body that they like. They prefer the redundant controls for vertical shooting, the battery life that gets them thousands of images between charges, and the robust weather sealing that only such a large body can afford (Canon touts 1DX III levels of weather sealing on the EOS R3). Other photographers find such a camera body unnecessarily heavy and bulky and far more difficult to transport. It’s certainly true that your carrying solutions are vastly limited when your camera is this much larger than the moderately sized Canon EOS R5.

But the EOS R3 takes Canon’s sports technology to new levels, featuring a brand new 24MP backlit stacked CMOS sensor and an incredible 30FPS burst rate. Both the resolution and burst rate bests any 1D series camera, and the kind of images you can effortlessly get with the EOS R3 is enough to put a smile on anyone’s face:

This image was one of many in yet another 30FPS burst, and most impressive is that this shot was captured when the charging dog was almost too close for me to capture anymore. Just a few frames later she was completely out of frame. This may be the best autofocusing camera I’ve ever used, and that is compounded by a very innovative new feature – Eye Control AF, where the camera literally focuses on whatever your eye is looking at. While your experience using this technology may vary, my personal experience was that I loved it. It essentially took the place of my putting a finger on the screen and overriding the default focus position…except this was faster and more intuitive. I literally focused on this dried plant by looking at it…

The EOS R3 won’t be for everyone. It’s far more camera in terms of both size and performance than many people need, and it’s price point of nearly $6000 USD ($8000 CDN here in Canada) dictates that this is a camera that few photographers can afford as well. But for certain photographers, the EOS R3 will be the camera they have been desperately looking for. You can watch my long format definitive review or shorter standard review to see my thoughts…or just read on.

Thanks to Camera Canada for quickly getting an EOS R3 loaner for me. I’ve purchased both my Canon EOS R5 and Alpha 1 from them, and they’ve provided top notch customer service. If you are in Canada, be sure to check them out!

Canon EOS R3 Features and Specification

Here’s a quick look at some of the highlights from the EOS R3:

24MP Full-Frame Stacked BSI CMOS Sensor
Dual Pixel CMOS AF II, Eye Control AF
6K60 Raw and 4K120 10-Bit Internal Video
30 fps E. Shutter, 12 fps Mech. Shutter
Digic X Processor
Native ISO range of range from ISO 100-102400 (expandable to ISO 50-204800)
Top shutter speed (electronic) of 1/64,000th
5.76m-Dot EVF with 120 fps Refresh Rate
3.2″ 4.2m-Dot Vari-Angle Touchscreen LCD
Sensor-Shift 5-Axis Image Stabilization
Multi-Function Shoe, Built-In Vert. Grip
CFexpress & SD UHS-II Memory Card Slots
Wired LAN and 5 GHz Wi-Fi Support

While the Sony Alpha 1 pioneered some of the high end specs we see here, the EOS R3 has some unique tricks up its bulky sleeves, including a killer touchscreen, deeper buffers, and that Eye Control AF that we mentioned. First, however, let’s take a look at the physical design of the camera.

We saw previously that the EOS R3 dwarfs the more standard EOS R5, but the truth of the matter is that this camera is actually considerably smaller than a 1Dx:

It is actually 8mm narrower and a whopping 25mm shorter, and weighs 425g less. That makes it about 19% smaller than the 1DX MKIII. I’m not sure that’s enough to entice those who prefer the standard single grip design, but that 425g difference is enough to seriously feel during a long day of shooting. Let’s not oversell it, though. At 150 x 142.6 x 87.2 mm (WxHxD) and 1015g, this is a seriously big camera.

You may have noticed that beautiful articulating (Vari-Angle) LCD screen swung around for front monitoring. For years I saw arguments in photography message boards that Canon didn’t put the vari-angle screens on their high end cameras because they weren’t robust enough for professional use. I always found that argument to be silly, and it seems Canon is there, too. Canon’s articulating touchscreens are the best in the business, and they have put their best yet on the EOS R3. It’s a big, high resolution screen; 3.2″ and an amazing 4.2m-Dot resolution (the highest I’ve seen in a rear camera LCD). That easily bests the 2.1m dot resolution of the EOS R5’s screen, and let’s not even talk about the A1’s pathetic 1.44m dot resolution screen (a sore spot for me!) This amazing screen makes your images pop when you review them, and I love the flexibility of Canon’s touchscreens. They are more responsive than any other camera brand’s screens to touch, and the vari-angle design means that they work will in both horizontal and vertical shooting positions. I love the LCD on the EOS R3.

The physical controls are essentially a mixture between the 1Dx MKIII and the EOS R5. The back has a lot of the similar design to the 1D (sans the lower LCD screen), with redundant controls for horizontal and vertical shooting positions along with the “Smart Controllers” located on the redundant AF-On buttons. These can be pushed like buttons, but if you rub your finger across them they allow you to (for example) move an AF point around. This works better than the typical touch control on the LCD screen when you are shooting in the vertical orientation.

Like the EOS R5, we have the standard 5 series joystick (x2 here) along with the standard Canon pro camera rear wheel. I like the rear wheel because it gives you three functional control dials PLUS the control ring on the lens. That’s four potential control dials, which gives you a lot of physical control…and you can customize the functions to suit your personal workflow. I really, really enjoy the physical control scheme here. Everything is well situated, moves wells, and just generally works, though with a larger camera it typically works best if you have larger hands.

If you look at the photo above, you’ll note that there is a visible video record button on the back of the EOS R3. The EOS R5 has that record button on the top plate of the camera, but the EOS R3 has it in the same position often used by Sony. What I really like here, though, is that there’s also a switch that allows you to quickly toggle between video and stills function. You have to use the electronic mode button on the EOS R5 to make that switch, and I find the process less logical than a simple switch. I prefer the setup on the EOS R3.

One thing I don’t like is the ON/OFF/LOCK button that is located about two thirds of the way down the back. It doesn’t fall easily to hand, and if you are trying to turn it on with the thumb of your right hand while holding the grip (which would be the natural way in the standard shooting position with your left hand supporting and operating the lens), it requires some true thumb gymnastics, as you need to push the back of switch down. Trying to do this while wearing gloves is even more miserable. I’m also not partial to the position of the Playback, Magnify, and Delete buttons. These are all more conveniently placed on the EOS R5.

A look at the front of the camera reveals a lot of controls. There are are two sets of custom buttons to the right of the lens mount. A pair of these are nominally DOF preview buttons, but they can be programmed to other functions. There are also a pair of M-Fn 2 buttons which are designed to be programmed to a function of your choice. Most buttons on the EOS R3 can be programmed to a different purpose if you so desire. I’ll note that ergonomically these buttons (particularly the lower two) can be a serious reach due to the thick grip unless you have very large hands. On the other side of the lens mount is a N3 style remote release port. Above that is the standard Canon lens release button. Canon continues to employ the very valuable protection screen over the sensor while changing lenses, a feature that Sony has finally copied on the Alpha 1.

The top view of the EOS R3 looks fairly similar to the EOS R5 with a little more space and a few minor tweaks. Canon continues to employ the useful LCD screen on top, an electronic mode dial (which is fine once you get used to it) that is surrounded by the top wheel for controlling shutter speed, aperture, or whatever else you program it to. There are two buttons on the right side, and an additional two on the left side of the hotshoe. Canon has followed Sony’s lead and the hotshoe is now a “multi-function” shoe that can also serve to record digital audio through certain mics.

A look at the left side of the camera shows a number of ports underneath nicely sealed covers. You’ll find Hi-Speed USB (USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 2), Ethernet (RJ-45), HDMI micro OUT terminal Type D (clean HDMI output, resolution switches automatically, CEC not compatible, images can be simultaneously displayed through the HDMI output and on-screen), a 3.5mm microphone input, 3.5mm stereo output (headphone jack), and a PC Terminal. The EOS R3 can be charged via the USB-C connection, but, like the other Canon R series cameras, it requires a charging source with “Power-Send” technology, which unfortunately severely limits what you can use to charge the camera.

Much like the EOS R5, there are two memory card slots beneath a nicely engineered door on the right side of the camera. One is for a CFExpress type B, which gives you massive amounts of potential speed, and a second UHS-II compatible SD/SDHC/SDXC slot. I’m personally using Sony Tough cards for both the CFExpress and SD cards. These have been my cards of choice for the past few years, and I’ve had nothing but flawless performance from them.

I don’t love the fact that CFExpress Type B has not become a standard new media format. My Sony Alpha 1 wants CFExpress Type A cards, which are completely different. Unless manufacturers really coalesce around one particular format, it will be some time (if ever) before we see CFExpress card slots on laptops or in monitors and other such devices that make our workflow simpler. SD has been incredibly convenient for a long time for the simple reason that it became a media standard.

We have a great viewfinder here that may just allow 1DX shooters to forget their optical viewfinders. This is one of my favorite EVFs so far, with both high resolution (5.76 million dot) and the ability to choose a high refresh rate (120FPS) for smooth, fluid tracking of action. This comes at the cost of battery life, but it’s easy to just engage the additional refresh rate for the moments when you need it. It feels like we are getting very close to achieving the clarity of an optical viewfinder but with all the myriad advantages of an electronic viewfinder. It’s great! If you enable the Eye Control AF, you will go through a brief calibration process that might remind you of a visit to an optometrist. It mostly consists of looking at a red dot as it moves to different positions. I had an easy time calibrating it, but your mileage may vary depending on a certain glasses prescription or contact style. The viewfinder specs seems to be the same as the EOS R5 (0.5″, 5.76 million dot), but the viewfinder is externally larger and looks different because of the Eye Control AF tech.

The EOS R3 uses the larger LP-E19 battery style used in the 1Dx. It is a larger capacity battery (2700 mAh lithium). The R5 uses a smaller 2130 mAh battery. The larger battery allows for a much higher shot rating than the EOS R5. If you use the EVF, the LC-E19 is rated for approximately 620 shots (73°F/23°C) in power saving mode and 440 shots in smooth mode. If you use the rear LCD those numbers increase to 960 and 870. To give some perspective, the EOS R5’s battery is rated for only 320 shots using the EVF. Your results are going to wildly varying depending on what you are doing the with the camera. I’m nearly 1000 shots in and my battery still shows nearly fully charged, but about three quarter of those shots were bursts tracking a running dog. I wouldn’t be surprised if you could get thousands of shots from one battery charge in that kind of scenario, but buying a backup is always a good idea.

Canon was slow to the party in adopting In-Body-Image-Stabilization (sensor stabilization). They kept making the argument that lens-stabilization was superior as it could be tailored for the unique needs of that particular lens. There are probably merits to that argument, but the point was often moot, as about half of Canon’s early RF-mount lenses didn’t have IS (Image Stabilization). My long experience with Sony’s IBIS is that some stabilization trumps no stabilization every time. Canon has found a way to effectively marry their sensor stabilization (IBIS) with the lens stabilization (IS) on their lenses and deliver truly incredible amounts of stabilization, and Canon claims up to 8 stops of stabilization with certain lenses that also utilize IS (and even a few that don’t!) I don’t ever actually see results quite that good, but Canon’s IBIS is genuinely excellent. A great case in point was when using the slightly difficult Irix 150mm F2.8 Macro. It’s a great lens if you’re on a tripod, but the combination of that long focal length along with being manual focus only meant that it was difficult to use handheld. But Canon’s IBIS holds things nice and steady while you focus, and I was able to get a good result at 1/20th of a second near macro distances:

That’s about three stops of assistance, though macro adds its own demands. Moving to a more distant target allowed me to get down to 1/10th second handheld (4 stops), which is pretty impressive for what I consider to to be a difficult combination. What’s important, though, is not that I wanted to try to shoot 1/10th of a second shots with this combination, but rather that I can get a nice, stable viewfinder while I focus and then get an effectively stabilized result in a more typical 1/60th-1/100th range. It’s worth noting that this along with Canon’s innovative “Focus Guide” makes manual focus perhaps more fun that I’ve ever experienced previously.

Using the Canon RF 70-200mm F2.8L IS I was able to get easily repeatable results of 1/6th second handheld at 200mm (five stops) like this one:

I suspect I could get another stop or two lower if I were so inclined. I also noted that when I used the Canon EF 35mm F1.4L II for video work, I was able to get nicely stabilized results that were dramatically worse if I turned off the IBIS. There’s no question that Canon has nailed their IBIS system in their newest cameras.

The EOS R3 utilizes a new texture in the grips that looks a pretty cool and is highly functional. I find the grip more comfortable to hold in the traditional mode as the vertical grip isn’t quite as ergonomically contoured and you have to contend with the flat bottom plate about midway through your palm. If you like the larger integrated vertical grip style body, I suspect you will really like the ergonomics of the EOS R3. Canon does ergonomics well, and the EOS R3 is loaded with features and controls in its professionally weather-sealed magnesium alloy body.

EOS R3 Autofocus

The EOS R3 builds on the excellent autofocus of the EOS R5 but with a higher end sports refining. We’ve got a 5,940 AF Point, Dual Pixel CMOS AF II system with 1053 available AF zones. It has the EOS ITR AF X deep learning AI focus harvested from the top of the line 1Dx MKIII, and adds vehicle detect to the human and animal eye detect of the EOS R5. This mode is designed for photographers that capture motorsports, and will not only track the vehicle but look for the driver’s head in the vehicle.

Autofocus sensitivity is reaching absurd levels, enabling focus in as little light as -7.5 EV. That is pretty dark – like focusing in the light of a sliver of moon. It can also focus at +20 EV (incredibly bright conditions), which means that the EOS R3 can theoretically focus in an unbelievable 27.5 stops of lighting conditions. Wow! Add to this that the EOS R3 can also focus with maximum apertures as small as F22 (remember when the 5D Mark IV’s F8 was a big deal?), allowing teleconverters to be used with very slow-aperture lenses like the new RF 600mm F11 IS STM and RF 800mm F11 IS STM. I’m not sure how important those marginal performances are to most people, but what it really means is that there are basically no “normal” situations a photographer will find themselves in where the EOS R3 will not be able to effectively focus. Even using the lowly RF 50mm F1.8 STM, I was able to get an accurate autofocus of my youngest in the dark (this is ISO 102,400). Focus wasn’t fast, but it would have better with a wider aperture lens like the RF 50mm F1.2L.

The fact that I was able to accurately autofocus in a situation where I could barely see him was pretty impressive. A more typical ISO 4000 type lighting situation was effortless:

But this is a sports camera, so I spent a fair amount of time testing and analyzing high speed bursts. I used both a native RF 70-200mm F4L IS USM along with my venerable Canon EF 100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS II via adapter (which works better than ever, by the way!). I compared the EOS R5 and Sony Alpha 1 under the same conditions to see just how good the EOS R3 really is.

It is very, very good.

First of all, you have a blackout free 30 frames per second via the electronic shutter, with 12 FPS if you use the mechanical shutter, though there is increasingly less and less reason to use the mechanical shutter. The mechanical shutter is limited to 1/8000th second shutter speeds, but the electronic shutter allows insane speeds of up to 1/64,000th of a second. It used to be that you couldn’t get decent flash sync speeds with electronic shutters and things like anti-flicker only worked with the mechanical shutter, but neither of these things are true anymore. You can get flash sync speeds of up to 1/180th second with the electronic shutter, while the mechanical Shutter gives you 1/200 sec (up to 1/250th with electronic 1st curtain). Anti-flicker works with the electronic shutter, and the high readout speed of the camera mostly eliminates things like rolling shutter. You can turn off the sound of the shutter altogether if you like in electronic mode, and no active shutter means less vibration and wear and tear (though the shutter is rated up to 500,000 actuations!)

The blazing frame rate allows you to capture many more images in the same amount of time that you could with the EOS R5 and its 20 FPS, and you get deeper buffers to boot. The EOS R3 compares favorably even to the Sony Alpha 1 in the latter regard, though, to be fair, the Alpha 1 is capturing images at an incredible 50 MP.

Canon EOS R3	Canon EOS R5	Sony Alpha 1
540 JPEG	350 JPEG	400 JPEG
150 RAW (420 CRAW)	87 RAW (180 CRAW)	238 RAW

It’s easy to record hundreds of images in a single burst, and the incredible focus system ensures that they are well focused images:

In my tracking sequences I noted that I instinctively preferred the experience of tracking with the EOS R3 compared to either of the other cameras. Both other cameras track extremely well, but the experience through the viewfinder is most compelling with the EOS R3. It’s visual cues in the viewfinder when tracking are more intuitive and make you feel more connected to the action. I also noted that I never saw any actual buffering. I could shoot 140 images in a burst and it seemed like the camera was instantly ready for more.

This nailed shot was at 400mm via the EF 100-400L II:

Eye Control AF seemed useful even when tracking, as my eye would instinctively follow the sometimes erratic movement of the subject, though I suspect the AI tracking would follow the subject anyway.

Eye AF also works a charm, with instant real-time lock on the eyes that stays locked on as you move the camera around or your subject moves. If you miss focus when doing a portrait session, something is wrong! In this shot my cat’s eye was barely visible, but Eye Detect grabbed the eye and delivered a perfectly focused result.

A note on the practical applications of using Eye Control AF. I found this a nice substitute for overriding focus on the touchscreen when autofocus doesn’t initially grab my desired subject. It’s faster and more intuitive, though I found the same limitation that I find with the other technique – sometimes the camera just doesn’t want to grab a foreground object when it is locked already on a background object. Just looking at the right area doesn’t do it. Sometimes I need to first focus on the ground nearby or some other technique to pull focus into the right zone. I do find Eye Control AF nicely intuitive in most situations, but there are still limitations.

Bottom line is that in every metric, this is one of the best focus systems in the world. It’s fast, flexible, accurate, and easy to maximize. The focus system, burst rate, buffer, and tracking capabilities of the Canon EOS R3 are all top notch. This is a camera equally good for portrait, event, wildlife, and sports photographers and takes the excellent autofocus of the R5 to the next level.

EOS R3 Video Specs and Performance

Canon has given us video specs somewhere between the 1DX III and the EOS R5. We don’t have the 8K options that the EOS R5 has (and also that caused its overheating issues!), but we do have a plethora of 6K video options along with very robust 4K options. These include:

Raw 12-Bit
6K (6000 x 3164) at 23.976p/24.00p/25p/29.97p/50p/59.94p [720 to 2600 Mb/s]
H.265/MP4 4:2:2 10-Bit
DCI 4K (4096 x 2160) at 23.976p/24.00p/25p/29.97p/50p/59.94p/100p/119.88p [85 to 1880 Mb/s]
UHD 4K (3840 x 2160) at 23.976p/25p/29.97p/50p/59.94p/100p/119.88p [85 to 1880 Mb/s]
Full HD (1920 x 1080) at 23.976p/25p/29.97p/50p/59.94p/100p/119.88p [28 to 470 Mb/s]
H.264/MP4 4:2:0 8-Bit
DCI 4K (4096 x 2160) at 23.976p/24.00p/25p/29.97p/50p/59.94p/100p/119.88p
UHD 4K (3840 x 2160) at 23.976p/25p/29.97p/50p/59.94p/100p/119.88p
Full HD (1920 x 1080) at 23.976p/25p/29.97p/50p/59.94p/100p/119.88p

Thus far there has been no reports of heating issues, though your CFExpress card will get plenty hot if you’re recording at the more demanding formats.

We also have gotten away from the 29:59 recording limit that I see on the top of my EOS R5. Instead you will see whatever limit that comes from the combination of your chosen video format and the size of storage that you have in the camera. In 4K30, my 128GB card shows nearly 2 1/2 hours of recording time. If you use the Raw 12 bit format, however, expect to see that recording time drop drastically. In Raw 4K120, for example, that same card shows 8 minutes of recording time.

Video quality is excellent. Autofocus tracking is excellent and extremely reliable (I spend a lot of time in front of the camera for my YouTube channel, so effective tracking matters to me). You can choose between UHD 4K (3840×2160) or DCI (4096 x 2160) if you want a slightly more cinematic look. You can choose an APS-C mode if you want a tighter framing. You can choose different bitrates and formats. You can shoot timelapse movies at different resolutions or high resolution slow-motion footage. 6K footage is available at up to 60FPS, though you’ll need to utilize a CFExpress card to unlock 6K.

All of Canon’s LOG and HDR-PQ options are available on the EOS R3 as well. I don’t necessarily see videographers choosing a camera like this for their primary video work, but this is a very capable video camera.

Canon EOS R3 Sensor Performance

The Canon EOS R3 gives us another new Canon sensor (which used to be exceedingly rare!) In this case we get a new 24Mp back illuminated stacked CMOS sensor with a broader ISO range than previous Canon sensors. DXOMark has given this new sensor their highest score ever for a Canon sensor, which is saying something, since historically they haven’t been particularly kind to Canon sensors. This kind of sensor architecture (back illuminated, stacked CMOS at 24 MP) is very similar to what’s found in the Sony a9 series, but what we’ve got here is better executed. The a9/a9II sensor actually underperforms the equivalent sensor found in the a7III/A7C cameras in some metrics (high ISO performance and dynamic range), but that’s not true of the R3’s sensor.

I’m fairly familiar with the 24 MP resolution level after owning the original a9 for years (until I upgraded to the Alpha 1), and for many things it is plenty of resolution…though I will confess that you get accustomed to having higher resolution when you shoot regularly with it. There’s plenty of detail in the 24 MP EOS R3 sensor to capture a bad cat feeling completely comfortable on the kitchen table:

ISO Performance

I’ll start this section by stating a simple truth: I think the EOS R3 has the best high ISO performance I’ve ever seen from a Canon camera. I always like to look at Photon to Photos comparison charts for various sensors, and I was unsurprised after my sensor tests to find that the dynamic range of the EOS R3 was fairly comparable to the EOS R5 at typical ISO levels, but it showed an advantage as the ISO level climbed to 1000 and higher. I also found that the image quality held up at higher ISO settings where many cameras are falling apart.

Let me add as a caveat that the best way to interactively see the deep dive into sensor performance is by watching those sections in the definitive video review here.

There is very little penalty for increasing ISO in terms of noise, color saturation, or loss of contrast if you compare ISO 1600 to ISO 6400 at a global level.

Even at a pixel level, one must look very critically to find places where the image quality is eroded. I can see some faint pattern noise in the shadows.

All things considered, though, that’s very clean.

Moving up another few stops to ISO 25,600 (which I often consider the practical ISO limit these days) shows that there is definitely much more noise in the shadows, though there is no discoloration or banding. There’s only a mild drop-off compared to ISO 12,800 (which looks fantastic).

It used to be that digital cameras were absolute garbage at ISO 25,600, but that’s just not the case here. This is still a very usable image for many applications, and that helps a lot on a sports/wildlife oriented camera where you often don’t get to work in the kind of light you would prefer and need to stop action (which means getting the shutter speeds up!).

We can go on into extreme levels at ISO 51,200 and 102,400 (the top end of the native range).

102,400 is really breaking down, but 51,200 could actually be used in a pinch. If I standardize the fairly good performance of the EOS R5 at ISO 51,200 (it’s natural limit) to the roughly 6000 x 4000 resolution of the EOS R3, we can see that even viewed globally the difference is obvious.

The EOS R3 has clearly better black levels, contrast, and color saturation with less appearance of noise. Downsampling a higher resolution body like what I’ve done often produces some advantage for the higher resolution body, but this is clearly an area of strength for the EOS R3.

Jumping into a pixel level highlights those differences even further.

You can see how much better the contrast is on the EOS R3, and, while you have some visible noise pattern, it looks largely like film grain and not particularly objectionable. No color banding or tint.

If I compare the other 30 FPS camera I have on hand, the Sony Alpha 1, we find that on a global level the Sony has nice black levels like the EOS R3 at ISO 51,200, but there has been some color shift with a light green cast to everything.

I’ve downsampled to the EOS R3’s resolution here as well, so let’s go into a pixel and see what we find.

I see better contrast on the EOS R3 along with better color accuracy, though the noise levels on the Alpha 1 are competitive. Both cameras are delivering nice detail even at this very high ISO level. It’s worth noting that there is some variation in ISO tuning, as though I used the same lens and the same settings on both cameras, the EOS R3 (and R5) consistently needed one-third of a stop less light to achieve the same levels.

The Sony does have one advantage, however, and that is if we look at the pure shadows around our subjects. While both cameras have nicely deep shadows still, the EOS R3 has a radial banding pattern in the shadows at a pixel level that the Alpha 1 does not. It’s shadow areas are just a little cleaner as a result.

I still give the overall win to the Canon EOS R3, though, and can state with confidence that this is the best low light camera that Canon has ever produced. When you combine its stunning ISO capabilities with the amazing sensitivity of the autofocus you have a camera very well equipped to handle the pressures of less than ideal lighting. That’s huge if your livelihood depends on you getting those shots in that kind of environment!

Dynamic Range

We saw in our Photons to Photos comparison that there is some give and take in dynamic range between the EOS R3 and EOS R5, but that both cameras are easily Canon’s best yet in this regard. The EOS R3 is going to give you great latitude for drawing out detail in the shadows, and even fairly good performance in the highlights. See how easily this image recovered for me:

While I find it a little hard to assign a rating in stops to dynamic range through my tests, I do have a highly repeatable scenario that clearly shows me a camera’s capability to cleanly recover shadows and highlights.

I benchmarked the EOS R5 and the Sony Alpha 1 once again for these tests (for those wishing I chose some other camera to compare to: I chose these for a simple reason: these are the two main cameras that I personally own!) I had only a week with the EOS R3, and so not a lot of time to get any other comparison point.

The Canon EOS R3 is fabulous at recovering shadows. You can take a deeply underexposed (four stop) image and recover it completely and very almost no penalty:

At a pixel level, you can barely even see any noise in the shadows or in the table textures where they most strongly show.

That’s the practical limit, though. If we compare the 4 stop recovered image (left) with a 5 stop recovered image (right), we can see that the image is starting to fall apart.

There’s less contrast, some blotchy textures, and a magenta color shift.

But for some perspective, the EOS R5’s image at that five stop recovery looks obviously worse even at a global level:

The Alpha 1 takes a win here, however, as while it has a very slight green shift, it retains better contrast and cleaner textures at the five stop recovery level (remember there is a slight variation in base ISO sensitivity, which results in the one-third stop different shutter speeds).

On the other end of the spectrum (highlight recovery) we find that the limitations arrive faster (as they always do). The practical limit is somewhere between 2 and 3 stops of recovery. At 2 stops, the recovery is pretty close to flawless:

There are no unrecovered “hot spots” and colors and luminosity look natural.

By three stops, however, some problems have started to appear relative to the 2 stop recovery on the left:

The timer face has lost some color and has a slightly unnatural look, some of the color swatches are disappearing, and the contrast on the “Honeywell Pentax” camera body has been lost. The bottom book spine looks washed out. You might get away with this for certain subjects, but few people would be happy with that end result. By four stops the image looks like garbage.

So how does this compare? Let’s look at the Sony first:

It used to be that Sony cameras blew Canon cameras away in this metric, but we can see here that they are fairly close now. I think the Sony has retained slightly better contrast, but they both look pretty close on the color swatches now. I’d even argue that the Canon has retained slightly better saturation in some of those swatches. This really shows me how far Canon has come with dynamic range in its sensors.

Finally, a look at a comparison with the EOS R5:

Here are base ISO (100) I think the EOS R5 is the overall winner. It retains similar amount of color to the EOS R3, but contrast is better. You can see that in the camera face and the spine of the books. When examining at a pixel level, I can also see that more information has been retained near the hotspots. This is essentially what Photons to Photos showed in their chart, where the EOS R5 has a (very) slight advantage through ISO 400 and then the EOS R3 consistently outperforms it at higher ISO settings. When you consider the better shadow recovery, however, I would argue that the EOS R3 is every bit as good at dynamic range as the EOS R5, and, in some total, as good as the Alpha 1 as well. That’s great for a camera utilizing a stacked sensor with high readout, and is evidence that Canon has one-upped the 24MP Sony sensors in the A9 series…for now.

Resolution

Probably the main bone of contention myself and others have had with the 20MP sensor in the EOS R6 (which was pretty much the same as the one in the 1DX III) was the limits of its resolution. 24MP is a more palatable figure, and I used the original a9 for years and was in most situations satisfied with its resolution. Canon does give you a variety of choices in file formats. You have a RAW or CRaw option (Compressed RAW). The CRaw option takes up less space (due to the compression), but is actually still 24MP. On average, CRaw will save you about 40% on average in storage size, and, like Sony’s Compressed vs Uncompressed), you are unlikely to spot the difference except in the most extreme of situations.

This makes for nicely compact file sizes. I saw an average of between 11-12MB per .CR3 image, with the high end being very high ISO images at roughly 18MB. What’s interesting is that I typically convert my files to DNG in Lightroom to standardize them, and typically the file size reduces a bit in the process. Ironically the size of the files actually GROWS by converting them to DNG because the .CR3 standard is so efficient. On this shot, for example, the .CR3 size was only 7.9 MB, but the .DNG file was nearly 17 MB. That creates a compelling reason to stay with .CR3!

On the JPEG front, you can choose between JPEG and HEIF (High Efficiency Image File) formats. HEIF is the standard Apple is using now, and it takes up less space than JPEG. The EOS R3 also supports HDR PQ HEIF 10-bit high dynamic range files if you want to shoot a simple format and get good dynamic range out of it. Even standard JPEGs look pretty great, though. Here’s one right out of camera:

Less valuable here is the 1.6x APS-C mode. This can often be useful for a little more reach or if you want to use APS-C lenses on your full frame body. The EOS R5 leaves you with a fairly useful 17 MP in APS-C mode, but the lower resolution of the EOS R3 means that only 9.3 MP is left over after that crop, which isn’t nearly as useful. That highlights the basic problem with lower resolution cameras in general; 24 MP is enough if you don’t need to crop much, but there certainly isn’t the deep cropping options you have with high resolution bodies. It’s a little more important with the EOS R3 to have a lens with sufficient reach than it is on the EOS R5, where you have the capability to crop in the equivalent of 21 MP before you reach the resolution of the EOS R3.

I found colors to be typical Canon excellent. Good, natural saturation levels and accurate colors. I generally enjoy the images out of the EOS R3.

All told, this is a very good new sensor that is pretty much a perfect pairing for an action oriented camera. The smaller file size means that you can shoot big bursts without being overwhelmed, and the lower pixel count on the sensor allows those pixels to be quality ones that will result in very clean images at higher ISO values. I would recommend a visit to the image galleries to see photos taken with a wide variety of lenses.

Conclusion

The Canon EOS R3 is the camera that a certain crowd was most definitely looking for. It’s hard to say what the future of DSLRs is, as most of the development energy seems to be on mirrorless at this point. But the EOS R3 is a crucial camera if Canon wants to get working professionals out of their DSLRs and into mirrorless…and all of those nice, shiny, expensive RF mount lenses. The EOS R3 brings some genuine innovation to the 1D series design, including the Eye Control AF, in body image stabilization, and a faster burst rate than any 1D body has ever seen. 30FPS means that you have plenty of opportunities to choose the perfect frame:

If you put the EOS R3 and the Sony Alpha 1 together, the Sony looks like (by far) the cheaper camera even though it costs about $500 more. It is basically the same size as all of Sony’s other full frame mirrorless models, while the EOS R3 looks like the high end sports camera that it is. Ironically, however, this suits me just fine. I like the compact nature of the Alpha 1 (though the EOS R5 is my favorite camera in the hand) and have no interest personally in the larger body. If you’re the kind of person that prefers your big investments to look like a big investment, then the EOS R3 definitely will fit the bill. It’s a pro-grade camera that looks and handles seriously pro-grade.

At the end of the day, however, this is not a camera for everyone. It’s too big, too heavy, and too expensive. It’s strengths are overkill for many photographers, and I doubt it will ever sell at the levels of cameras like the EOS R5 or R6. But that’s okay, as this is a specialist tool. You can shoot this kind of photo with many kinds of cameras:

But you can’t capture photos like this with just any camera:

If you’re the kind of photographer that needs the latter, then Canon has probably created pretty much the perfect camera for you. It tracks effortlessly and has the kind of low light performance that will enable the shots at the margins than many lesser cameras will miss. And that might just be worth six thousand bucks for you!

Pros:

One of the best action/sports cameras ever made
Great ergonomics – combination of 1D and R5 strengths
Canon’s IBIS system is excellent
Fabulous focus system that takes tracking to the next level
Eye Control AF isn’t a gimmick – it really works
Amazing focus sensitivity
Fantastic viewfinder – option for smooth tracking is useful
Articulating touchscreen is higher resolution than ever and highly responsive
Great buffer depth and instant buffer clearing
Great number of video options and resolutions
Excellent ISO performance and dynamic range from new sensor

Cons:

The ON/OFF button is inconveniently placed
Custom buttons on front may be hard to access for those with smaller hands
2 out of my 3 third party lenses don’t work properly on the R3
Size and price dictates a niche market

Gear Used:

Purchase a Canon EOS R3 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R5 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R6 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Purchase the Sony Alpha 1 @ Camera Canada | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Peak Design Leash Strap: Peak Design Store | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK

Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud 1-Year Subscription
Exposure Software X6 (Use Code “dustinabbott” to get 10% anything and everything)
Visit Dustin’s Amazon Storefront and see his favorite gear

Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!

Keywords: Canon EOS R3, EOS, R3, EOS R3, mirrorless, full frame, EOS R3 Review, Canon R3 Review, Canon EOS R3 Review, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Handling, Dynamic Range, Tracking, Focus, Burst Rate, Tracking, Sports, Portraits, Resolution, High ISO, Image Quality, Sample Images, Photography, Dogs, Ergonomics, 24Mp, Sony a9, Sony Alpha 1, Canon EOS R5, RF 70-200mm F2.8L IS, RF 15-35mm F2.8L IS, Canon Letthelightin

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Canon EOS R3 Image Gallery

Dustin Abbott

December 12th, 2021

The Canon EOS R5 (my review here) and EOS R6 (my review here) cameras showed that Canon was serious about the full frame mirrorless space. The former remains one of the best jack-of-all-trades cameras ever made, possibly bested only by the extremely expensive Sony Alpha 1 (my review here). The EOS R6 was a very effective budget sports and general purpose camera, with great tracking abilities that equaled the far more expensive EOS R5. But what Canon didn’t have (and few other companies have either) is a high end pro sports mirrorless body with an integrated battery grip design. Canon has solved that with the release of the Canon EOS R3, a 1D style camera but with all of Canon’s latest mirrorless tricks…and a few new ones.

The large, bulky integrated grip design definitely polarizes the audience. For some photographers this is the only style of camera body that they like. They prefer the redundant controls for vertical shooting, the battery life that gets them thousands of images between charges, and the robust weather sealing that only such a large body can afford (Canon touts 1DX III levels of weather sealing on the EOS R3). Other photographers find such a camera body unnecessarily heavy and bulky and far more difficult to transport. It’s certainly true that your carrying solutions are vastly limited when your camera is this much larger than the moderately sized Canon EOS R5.

But the EOS R3 takes Canon’s sports technology to new levels, featuring a brand new 24MP backlit stacked CMOS sensor and an incredible 30FPS burst rate. Both the resolution and burst rate bests any 1D series camera, and the kind of images you can effortlessly get with the EOS R3 is enough to put a smile on anyone’s face:

This image was one of many in yet another 30FPS burst, and most impressive is that this shot was captured when the charging dog was almost too close for me to capture anymore. Just a few frames later she was completely out of frame. This may be the best autofocusing camera I’ve ever used, and that is compounded by a very innovative new feature – Eye Control AF, where the camera literally focuses on whatever your eye is looking at. While your experience using this technology may vary, my personal experience was that I loved it. It essentially took the place of my putting a finger on the screen and overriding the default focus position…except this was faster and more intuitive. I literally focused on this dried plant by looking at it…

The EOS R3 won’t be for everyone. It’s far more camera in terms of both size and performance than many people need, and it’s price point of nearly $6000 USD ($8000 CDN here in Canada) dictates that this is a camera that few photographers can afford as well. But for certain photographers, the EOS R3 will be the camera they have been desperately looking for. You can watch my video review or read my text review…or just enjoy the photos!

Thanks to Camera Canada for quickly getting an EOS R3 loaner for me. I’ve purchased both my Canon EOS R5 and Alpha 1 from them, and they’ve provided top notch customer service. If you are in Canada, be sure to check them out!

Photos of the Canon EOS R3

Photos Taken with the Canon EOS R3

Gear Used:

Purchase a Canon EOS R3 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R5 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R6 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Purchase the Sony Alpha 1 @ Camera Canada | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Peak Design Leash Strap: Peak Design Store | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK

Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud 1-Year Subscription
Exposure Software X6 (Use Code “dustinabbott” to get 10% anything and everything)
Visit Dustin’s Amazon Storefront and see his favorite gear

Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!

Keywords: Canon EOS R3, EOS, R3, EOS R3, mirrorless, full frame, EOS R3 Review, Canon R3 Review, Canon EOS R3 Review, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Handling, Dynamic Range, Tracking, Focus, Burst Rate, Tracking, Sports, Portraits, Resolution, High ISO, Image Quality, Sample Images, Photography, Dogs, Ergonomics, 24Mp, Sony a9, Sony Alpha 1, Canon EOS R5, RF 70-200mm F2.8L IS, RF 15-35mm F2.8L IS, Canon Letthelightin

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Sony Alpha 1 Image Gallery

Dustin Abbott

April 19th, 2021

What do you get when you combine the massive resolution of the Sony a7RIV (almost!), the blazing speed of the Sony a9II (and more!), and all the video capabilities of the Sony a7SIII? The answer is the Sony Alpha 1, aka the Sony A1, or, more technically, the Sony ILCE-1. The Alpha 1 is definitely the “Alpha” in the Sony Alpha lineup, as it packs a whole new 50MP sensor but manages to also produce a Sony highest 30FPS burst rate along with video capabilities up to 8K. It’s also the Alpha in terms of price, carrying a hefty nearly $6500 USD price tag, meaning that you could buy the Sony a7RIV and the a7SIII for the same price, or, for a thousand more, the a7RIV and the a9II. Ouch! Put simply, the Alpha 1 is more camera than what most people need or can afford. I’m a frugal person in many ways, and yet, the longer I thought about it, I became increasingly compelled to sell my a7RIII and a9 bodies and purchase the A1. I’ll detail why in this review.

When I reviewed the massive Fujifilm GFX-100 and showed it to family and friends, they were easily convinced that it was a consequential, expensive camera. It has an intimidating presence that shouts that only a professional photographer could be worthy to wield such a weapon. That’s not the case with the Alpha 1. When I showed it to my 18 year old son (it had arrived while I was out of town and I had tasked him with making sure that an expensive delivery was properly taken care of), his response was, “Doesn’t that look just like your other cameras?” And, for the most part, that’s true. It has the familiar body that is similar to the a9II or a7RIV, and it’s still a very compact camera. Cameras this expensive used to come in the “pro” body style with the integrated vertical grip, and they shouted “professional camera”. The A1 doesn’t intimidate from the outside; it’s a Clark Kent wrapper around a Superman inside.

If we look underneath the hood, however, we find the most powerful, sophisticated mirrorless camera to date. Here’s a quick look at the major specs:

50.1-MP 35 mm full-frame stacked CMOS sensor with integral memory
Advanced BIONZ XR engine boosts speed by up to 8x
30fps continuous shooting with AF/AE tracking
Movie-making with 8K 30p and 4K 120p
Wide AF coverage with 759-point phase-detection and 425-point contrast-detection AF points
Battery life (stills) – Approx. 430 shots (Viewfinder) / approx. 530 shots (LCD monitor) (CIPA standard)
Image Quality Modes – RAW (Compressed / Lossless Compressed / Uncompressed), JPEG (Extra fine / Fine / Standard / Light), HEIF (4:2:0 / 4:2:2) (Extra fine / Fine / Standard / Light)
Viewfinder – 9.44 million dots
LCD 1.44 million dots
Human face and eye AF, animal body and eye AF, and a new Birding AF mode
Flash Sync. Speed – (Mechanical Shutter), (Flash Sync. Priority) is (ON) or (AUTO):1/400 s (35 mm full-frame), 1/500 s (APS-C), (Flash Sync. Priority) is (OFF):1/320 s (35 mm full-frame), 1/400 s (APS-C), (Electrical shutter), 1/200 s (35 mm full-frame), 1/250 s (APS-C)
Image Sensor-Shift mechanism with 5-axis compensation
Continuous Drive Speeds – AUTO/Electronic Shutter: Continuous shooting: Hi+: 30fps, Hi: 20fps, Mid: 15fps, Lo: 5fps | Mechanical Shutter: Continuous shooting: Hi+: 10fps, Hi: 8fps, Mid: 6fps, Lo: 3fps

Standout features are the new 50MP sensor while also boosting continuous shooting up to 30FPS (50% increase over the A9II’s 20FPS) along with the 8K30 and 4K120 video capabilities. But I had two cameras that could shoot 20FPS (which has always proven enough for me) and a camera that could shoot 8K30 and 4K120 (Canon EOS R5). It was the some of the less-headline grabbing features that began to sway me. Things like an amazingly high resolution 9.44 million dot viewfinder, lossless compressed RAW option, anti-flicker technology and great flash sync specs even while using the electronic shutter, eliminating rolling shutter, no 29:59 record limits, more touch capabilities on the LCD, the ability to protect the sensor with the shutter mechanism when powered down, and more that we’ll detail in the main review. I’ve found that Sony’s last four major camera releases (a7RIV, a9II, a7C, and a7SIII) all had unique features that I found desirable when reviewing them, but each camera’s strengths were offset by certain weaknesses that made me hesitate to pull the trigger on an upgrade. The A1, while incredibly expensive, manages to put all the strengths of Sony cameras in one location, making me feel as if I could sell off other cameras and get one Sony camera that had all the Sony goodies.

So what should have gotten upgraded and didn’t? There isn’t much, but the big standout to me is the LCD screen, which is the same size (3″), resolution (1.44 million dot), and with the same limited tilt capabilities as previous models. The Canon EOS R5 has, by comparison a larger (3.2″), higher resolution (2.1 million dot), more responsive and fully articulating LCD that allows for front monitoring. If I were to nitpick, I would point out that the Canon EOS R5 also has more phase detect focus points (1053 vs 759), better coverage (100 vs 93%, and greater sensitivity to its AF system (down to -6 vs -4 EV). The R5/R6 are still ahead in tracking the eyes of birds, too. But there are, of course, areas where the Alpha 1 easily surpasses the EOS R5, too, with one of the most noticeable being the overheating issues that the Canon cameras suffer with.

You can see my findings in either the video reviews or by reading my text review, or just enjoy the photos below.

Thanks to Camera Canada for working hard to source a Sony Alpha 1 for me. I’ve purchased both my Canon EOS R5 and Alpha 1 from them, and they’ve provided top notch customer service. If you are in Canada, be sure to check them out!

Photos of the Sony A1

Photos Taken with the Sony A1

Gear Used:

Purchase the Sony Alpha 1 @ Camera Canada | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Purchase a Sony a9M2 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Sony a9 Camera: B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay
Sony a7RIV Camera: B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Peak Design Leash Strap: Peak Design Store | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK
BenQ SW271 4K Photo Editing Monitor – B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon.ca | Amazon UK
Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud 1-Year Subscription
Exposure Software X6 (Use Code “dustinabbott” to get 10% anything and everything)
Visit Dustin’s Amazon Storefront and see his favorite gear

Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!

Purchase the Sony Alpha 1 @ Camera Canada https://shrsl.com/2wdk2 | B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/3upRFZd | Amazon https://amzn.to/3t1m8MD | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/3cVFrBB | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/2OtrjGe | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/3d0GtMO | Ebay https://ebay.us/i371Vs

Keywords: Sony Alpha 1, Sony A1, Sony Alpha 1 Review, Sony A1 Review, ILCE-1, Sony, Alpha 1, A1, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Sensor Performance, ISO, Dynamic Range, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Canon EOS R5, Sony a7RIV, Sony a9II, Sony a7SIII

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Sony Alpha 1 (ILCE-1) Review

Dustin Abbott

April 19th, 2021

What do you get when you combine the massive resolution of the Sony a7RIV (almost!), the blazing speed of the Sony a9II (and more!), and all the video capabilities of the Sony a7SIII? The answer is the Sony Alpha 1, aka the Sony A1, or, more technically, the Sony ILCE-1. The Alpha 1 is definitely the “Alpha” in the Sony Alpha lineup, as it packs a whole new 50MP sensor but manages to also produce a Sony highest 30FPS burst rate along with video capabilities up to 8K. It’s also the Alpha in terms of price, carrying a hefty nearly $6500 USD price tag, meaning that you could buy the Sony a7RIV and the a7SIII for the same price, or, for a thousand more, the a7RIV and the a9II. Ouch! Put simply, the Alpha 1 (which is the name I prefer and will use for this review – less “saucy”) is more camera than what most people need or can afford. I’m a frugal person in many ways, and yet, the longer I thought about it, I became increasingly compelled to sell my a7RIII and a9 bodies and purchase the Alpha 1. I’ll detail why in this review.

When I reviewed the massive Fujifilm GFX-100 and showed it to family and friends, they were easily convinced that it was a consequential, expensive camera. It has an intimidating presence that shouts that only a professional photographer could be worthy to wield such a weapon. That’s not the case with the Alpha 1. When I showed it to my 18 year old son (it had arrived while I was out of town and I had tasked him with making sure that an expensive delivery was properly taken care of), his response was, “Doesn’t that look just like your other cameras?” And, for the most part, that’s true. It has the familiar body that is similar to the a9II or a7RIV, and it’s still a very compact camera. Cameras this expensive used to come in the “pro” body style with the integrated vertical grip, and they shouted “professional camera”. The Alpha 1 doesn’t intimidate from the outside; it’s a Clark Kent wrapper around a Superman inside.

If we look underneath the hood, however, we find the most powerful, sophisticated mirrorless camera to date. Here’s a quick look at the major specs:

50.1-MP 35 mm full-frame stacked CMOS sensor with integral memory
Advanced BIONZ XR engine boosts speed by up to 8x
30fps continuous shooting with AF/AE tracking
Movie-making with 8K 30p and 4K 120p
Wide AF coverage with 759-point phase-detection and 425-point contrast-detection AF points
Battery life (stills) – Approx. 430 shots (Viewfinder) / approx. 530 shots (LCD monitor) (CIPA standard)
Image Quality Modes – RAW (Compressed / Lossless Compressed / Uncompressed), JPEG (Extra fine / Fine / Standard / Light), HEIF (4:2:0 / 4:2:2) (Extra fine / Fine / Standard / Light)
Viewfinder – 9.44 million dots
LCD 1.44 million dots
Human face and eye AF, animal body and eye AF, and a new Birding AF mode
Flash Sync. Speed – (Mechanical Shutter), (Flash Sync. Priority) is (ON) or (AUTO):1/400 s (35 mm full-frame), 1/500 s (APS-C), (Flash Sync. Priority) is (OFF):1/320 s (35 mm full-frame), 1/400 s (APS-C), (Electrical shutter), 1/200 s (35 mm full-frame), 1/250 s (APS-C)
Image Sensor-Shift mechanism with 5-axis compensation
Continuous Drive Speeds – AUTO/Electronic Shutter: Continuous shooting: Hi+: 30fps, Hi: 20fps, Mid: 15fps, Lo: 5fps | Mechanical Shutter: Continuous shooting: Hi+: 10fps, Hi: 8fps, Mid: 6fps, Lo: 3fps

Standout features are the new 50MP sensor while also boosting continuous shooting up to 30FPS (50% increase over the A9II’s 20FPS) along with the 8K30 and 4K120 video capabilities. But I had two cameras that could shoot 20FPS (which has always proven enough for me) and a camera that could shoot 8K30 and 4K120 (Canon EOS R5). It was the some of the less-headline grabbing features that began to sway me. Things like an amazingly high resolution 9.44 million dot viewfinder, lossless compressed RAW option, anti-flicker technology and great flash sync specs even while using the electronic shutter, eliminating rolling shutter, no 29:59 record limits, more touch capabilities on the LCD, the ability to protect the sensor with the shutter mechanism when powered down, and more that we’ll detail in the main review. I’ve found that Sony’s last four major camera releases (a7RIV, a9II, a7C, and a7SIII) all had unique features that I found desirable when reviewing them, but each camera’s strengths were offset by certain weaknesses that made me hesitate to pull the trigger on an upgrade. The Alpha 1, while incredibly expensive, manages to put all the strengths of Sony cameras in one location, making me feel as if I could sell off other cameras and get one Sony camera that had all the Sony goodies.

So what should have gotten upgraded and didn’t? There isn’t much, but the big standout to me is the LCD screen, which is the same size (3″), resolution (1.44 million dot), and with the same limited tilt capabilities as previous models. The Canon EOS R5 has, by comparison a larger (3.2″), higher resolution (2.1 million dot), more responsive and fully articulating LCD that allows for front monitoring. If I were to nitpick, I would point out that the Canon EOS R5 also has more phase detect focus points (1053 vs 759), better coverage (100 vs 93%, and greater sensitivity to its AF system (down to -6 vs -4 EV). The R5/R6 are still ahead in tracking the eyes of birds, too. But there are, of course, areas where the Alpha 1 easily surpasses the EOS R5, too, with one of the most noticeable being the overheating issues that the Canon cameras suffer with.

We’ll break it all down in detail in this review to help you determine if the camera really is worth selling off a kidney to purchase… You can read on or watch my long format definitive or standard video reviews below…

Thanks to Camera Canada for working hard to source a Sony Alpha 1 for me. I’ve purchased both my Canon EOS R5 and Alpha 1 from them, and they’ve provided top notch customer service. If you are in Canada, be sure to check them out!

Sony Alpha 1 Build, Handling, and Features

As I noted in the introduction, the Alpha 1 feels largely very familiar. The tweaks and improvements are subtle; evolutionary rather than revolutionary. The dimensions of the body are 128.9 x 96.9 x 69.7 mm (W x H x D), or 5.07 x 3.81 x 2.74″. The a9II is very, very similar at 128.9 x 96.4 x 77.5 mm, as is the a7RIV at 128.9 x 96.4 x 77.5 mm. What does differ between the three cameras is weight, with the Alpha 1 being slightly heavier (737g or 1.6 lb) than the other two. At most, though, you are talking about 60g, which will hardly be noticeable. Here’s a look at a few competing cameras and their basic specs:

The additional weight in the Alpha 1 is most likely due to it having a slightly more robust build along with more weather sealing. Sony specifically states that the magnesium alloy chassis features a beefed up lens mount to help support heavier lenses along with a more robust grip. The grip does feel very good (probably the best yet from Sony), though I still would prefer the grip on cameras like the Canon EOS R5. I have slightly larger than average hands, so I almost always put a SmallRig grip extender on my Sony cameras to give me a little more grip height (and make the camera Arca-compatible!!).

The button and wheel placement are largely all familiar, which does give you the advantage of feeling instantly familiar with the camera if you’ve used a recent Sony full frame mirrorless camera. Canon has chosen to utilize a top LCD in its designs, and, while I like the design on Canon cameras, I don’t find that I miss it on Sony cameras, where they instead utilize more physical controls. There are three main dials on the top of the camera instead, including a two-tier drive mode dial (upper) and AF selector (bottom) on the left side of the top plate. On the right side we have a familiar mode dial and then at the far right the exposure compensation dial. I vastly prefer having an exposure compensation dial to any other means of controlling it. Like the a9II and a7RIV, Sony made a rather curious chose to have two of the deals move by depressing the center lock button and rotating, while they designed the exposure compensation dial to having a clicking lock button that is either locked or unlocked all the time depending on whether the center lock button is up or down. I don’t particularly prefer one or the other, but I do prefer to have them all function in a consistent fashion.

Also on the top of the camera are two custom buttons (C1 and C2) that can be programed to the function of your choice. I personally like quick access to Super35/APS-C and to turning Steadyshot (IBIS) on and off, but there are dozens of options you could assign to those buttons.

The shutter button has a nice textured feel to it, and is surrounded by the ON/OFF dial. I like this design, as you can use one finger to quickly power on and be ready to shoot. The mechanical shutter mechanism itself is a new design for the Alpha 1, made of carbon fiber for durability and also to reduce sound and vibration. The shutter is very quiet and smooth even in mechanical operation with a very nice feel to it. It feels like a high end camera (if you care about little details like that). It’s not only quiet, however, for Sony has improved performance with the mechanical shutter, at it maxes out at 10 fps while allowing for 1/400th sec flash sync, which is the highest I’ve seen.

The Alpha 1 is primarily designed around the electronic shutter, however, and they’ve made a number of notable improvements to the electronic shutter here over past iterations in the a9 series. We’ll deal more with the burst rate (up to 30 FPS), but typically one has had to revert to the mechanical shutter to utilize features like flash sync or anti-flicker technologies. No longer, as you can now get up to 1/200th flash sync speeds using the electronic shutter, access anti-flicker (which comes with a variety of customizations to make sure you can get reliable results in just about any kind of lighting), and they’ve also vastly improved the readout speed to avoid rolling shutter issues. This is very possibly the best execution of an electronic shutter ever. The electronic shutter also gives you more “headroom” with shutter speed, allowing for a maximum shutter speed of 1/32,000th of a second. The mechanical shutter limit is the more typical 1/8000th of a second.

In one of those small upgrades that makes a serious real world improvement, the Alpha 1 now has a menu option that allows for the shutter mechanism to come down and cover the sensor when the camera is powered off. Sony sensors have always been dust magnets for me, and I’ve loved Canon’s similar innovation on its EOS R cameras. This subtle change in the A1 already given me more confidence when changing lenses in the field!

There are front and rear dials on the top plate, with the front dial slightly cantilevered up to make it fall to hand (finger?) easily.

The viewfinder on the Alpha 1 is a serious upgrade. It is a 9.44m-dot OLED EVF with up to 240fps refresh rate for fluid motion rendering and greatly reduced blackout when shooting continuously. The opening is 0.64″ (slightly larger than average) and the magnification is also higher at 0.9x (the a7RIV has a 0.78x magnification). This makes for greater clarity than before and helps close the gap on optical viewfinders. EVF’s have a lot of unique advantages over optical viewfinders, but the disadvantage has often been lower resolution and clarity along with being more prone to washing out in really bright situations. I find the viewfinder in the Alpha 1 to be exceptionally good, and it is one of those important improvements that made me want to upgrade to it. The a9II, by comparison, had only a 3.68 million dot resolution viewfinder, which I found disappointing in what was then a flagship model. Yet another area where the Alpha 1 doesn’t make you accept compromises.

I noted in the intro that the LCD screen did not get a size, positional versatility, or resolution upgrade, which is disappointing, though finally Sony has listened and has updated the versatility of the touch capacity of the screen. You now have the ability navigate both the quick and full menus via touch, though the main menu has a design that is not easily accommodating to touch. There’s a bit too much on the screen at any given point, and the selectable areas are often too small. I ended up using a hybrid approach of using the joystick and touch to navigate menus, but this was definitely an improvement over past iterations of Sony menus with no touch navigation. I particularly found touch useful for changing tabs and getting to other areas of the menu quickly. Navigating the Q menu via touch is great, as everything is nicely sized for touch interactions. Screen responsiveness in general is up, too, with less lag and better input sensitivity.

The main menu is the updated version that was seen in the a7SIII. It is color coded and side tab oriented rather than top tab oriented like the older Sony menus. I’m yet undecided as to whether I prefer the new menu. There’s still a lot of complexity there, and that’s made worse by the fact that the Alpha 1 has more options than any Sony camera before it. Don’t get me wrong; I love the wealth of customization and features you have access to, but the sheer number of options will be slightly overwhelming for a while until you develop familiarity with them. I didn’t love the previous Sony menu structure, though, unlike some reviewers, I didn’t despite it either. But after years of use, I was at least familiar with it and knew pretty much where everything was. I’m having to relearn that somewhat, though Sony’s basic organization of features remains similar.

The rest of the ergonomic design on the rear of the camera is very familiar. The C3 and Menu buttons are to the left of the viewfinder, while the video record button along with the AF-ON and AEL buttons are found on the right. The joystick has a nice texture and is easy to use, and the rear wheel/directional pad works as it should. You can customize the function of the buttons and directional pad.

There’s a slight redesign to the latch on the memory card door on the right which has you pull down and slide the door open. There is an upper and lower slot like most Sony full frame mirrorless cameras, and thankfully starting in the previous camera cycle Sony started putting slot #1 in the upper rather than lower position. These slots are slightly different, however, as they accommodate both UHS-II SD cards and CF Express Type A cards. The latter offers some speed advantages but at a much higher price point. I don’t own any Type A cards at the moment (I’ve invested in some Type B cards for the Canon EOS R5), so my tests were all with high quality UHS-II SD cards (I prefer the Sony Tough cards at the moment). The CFexpress Type A cards are extremely expensive because almost no one else (other than Sony) is making them. Fortunately I didn’t run into any performance issues when utilizing high speed SD cards, though if you plan to do a lot of high-bitrate video recording (8K) or deep burst sports shooting, you might want to invest in the CFexpress cards. You can shoot 30FPS bursts and 8K video at lower bitrates with an SD card just fine so long as it is at least V60 (I use V90 cards). The good news is that I can do everything I want to do with SD cards, so I’ll wait on the CFexpress Type A’s until the prices come down and capacity goes up.

The left side of the camera is loaded with ports (a total of 4 of them). Sony has really improved the feel and precision of the port doors in their last few cameras, and it is also clear that they are better sealed. The top front port has an ethernet port along with a flash sync port. The rearmost top port has a microphone and headphone monitoring jack. Like other recent cameras, the hotshoe of the camera is also compatible with a few different Sony mics that will deliver digital audio. I haven’t tested any of these options yet, but I’m very intrigued by the new ECM-W2BT wireless setup. There’s also a very small port on the bottom that has a micro-USB multi-control port, while the larger of the bottom ports has a full size(!) HDMI port along with a USB-C port used for both data transfer and (potentially) charging. I say potentially because charging is a little more complicated here than the typical Sony camera, requiring the power send

The battery door is on the bottom, as per usual, and the battery is the typical NP-FZ100 that we’ve seen since the original a9. It’s rated for fewer shots here (430) than in some other Sony cameras, though I found the real world use to easily exceed this. If you are shooting bursts, for example, you will get far more shots. I shot about 1000 photos during a tracking session and exhausted less than 25% of the battery in doing so. Getting an extra battery or two is never a bad idea, though.

Sony was an early pioneer in IBIS (In Body Image Stabilization), though over the past few years their advantage here seems to have shrunk. On paper, the 5 1/2 stops of stabilization is the same as we’ve seen for years, though in practical applications the quality of the stabilization has subtly improved over the past few years. I’ve definitely noticed that more recent Sony models have better stabilization, and that’s true here, too. IBIS is incredibly important with such a high resolution sensor, as any kind of motion blur will occupy more pixels and will thus be more obvious. I’ve been able to use the 50Mp Alpha 1 pretty much like I would any other camera, and that’s very helpful. One new addition for the video side is a mode called “Active” (as seen on the a7SIII) which has a slight crop but utilizes electronic aids to further stabilize active movements (like walking). I did a series of tests and found that the the active mode definitely gave smoother results when walking or moving. The crop wasn’t particularly noticeable to me, but I did feel like footage was slightly less crisp, so I would utilize the Standard IBIS setting when shooting static handheld footage and save Active for the appropriate moments. I added the option to the custom menu so that I could quickly sort between the settings.

For stills, however, I found the Alpha 1’s IBIS good but no longer exceptional compared to models like the Canon EOS R5. I can handhold fairly low shutter speeds, but I’m certainly moving into any new territory that I haven’t seen with previous Sony models. This shot was taken at 1/8th second, 75mm, handheld.

It looks good, and, because I have realistic expectations about what IBIS can and cannot do, I’m happy overall with the IBIS performance, though I’ll temper that by saying that Sony needs to continue to innovate on this front because the competition has more than caught up at this point. One final plus is that due to the smoothness of the mechanical shutter, I didn’t notice any real difference in handholding ability whether using the electronic or mechanical shutter.

The subtle improvements to the Alpha 1 body make it perhaps the most functional Sony camera yet, though I do with that we had seen the fully articulating LCD screen that the a7SIII got. Sony is maturing as a camera company, and, while I applaud that, I don’t want them to stop innovating. That’s one of the things that Sony does best!

Sony Alpha 1 Autofocus Performance

The first time I used a Sony a9, it was a revelation. The incredible speed, effortless tracking, and deep buffers almost felt like cheating when tracking action. I found it a real joy to use, and I’ve reached often for a9 over the past several years. The Alpha 1 is essentially a high resolution a9 in the field, but with more processing power and even faster bursts. When using a Sony lens (Sony 135mm F1.8 GM), I hit 30FPS when tracking a fast moving dog. And, though I was shooting at F2.2, every single shot in the sequence was perfectly in focus.

That’s just incredible! I will note that I saw a fairly significant difference in my number of keepers using a Sony lens over a third party lens like the Sigma 100-400mm F5-6.3 OS DN. Tracking was good with the Sigma lens (probably about 70% under demanding conditions and speeds), but when using a good native Sony lens, the keeper rate went up to nearly 100%. I’ll also note that my top burst rate with the Sigma dropped to about 15FPS, so something worth noting if you’re going to invest in a serious performer like the Alpha 1. I still got a number of killer images with the Sigma combination, though.

Sony has upped the ante on the total number of phase detect points from 693 on the a9 cameras to 759 on the Alpha 1, though curiously Sony states that the total sensor coverage on the a9/a9II is 93% and quote 92% coverage on the Alpha 1. Not a meaningful difference either way, but it does suggest that the AF points on the Alpha 1 are slightly smaller and more precise, which can help when you are trying to nail focus on a very narrow subject (like when shooting macro).

The improvement in AF is more than AF points or spread, however, as the Alpha 1 has much more processing power under its hood. The Sony a9 was capable of 60 focus and exposure calculations per second; the Alpha 1 doubles that to 120. Here’s what Sony says, “At an astonishing calculation speed of up to 120 AF/AE per second, the Alpha 1 can maintain focus with high accuracy even for fast moving subjects. It can automatically adjust exposure, even with sudden changes in brightness, with an AE response latency as low as 0.033 seconds“. That’s incredible, obviously, and is pretty extraordinary when you consider that the Alpha 1 is moving more than double the amount of pixels that the a9 does through the pipeline.

On that note, one genuinely useful feature here is that the Alpha 1 gives you an option to have an oversampled 21MP JPEG resolution full frame image that packs incredible detail.

You can also choose APS-C resolution at the same 21MP resolution, so you effectively have two different options for shooting a scene. What I really like about this is that I don’t always want/need high resolution for everything, so I can set up the camera to capture full size RAWs to one card, but the 21MP JPEGs to another card. The RAWs serve as master files if needed, but the 21MP JPEGs are perfect for quick delivery to clients or servers. I also don’t need super high resolution for some action sequences, so shooting the smaller JPEG size without a crop is almost like having an a9 option on hand, too. High resolution is great, but I prefer to be able to have some control over that resolution. The oversampling assures that the quality of these smaller JPEGs is really top notch. Check out the detail from the crop of this image:

Sony has also refined Eye AF performance on the Alpha 1. They claim a 30% improvement in eye detection over the a9II, which, if true, is certainly impressive. Part of that improvement is that they state that eye detection is now effective from more angles, and that I believe to be true. One of my very first photos with the Alpha 1 was of my daughter in our kitchen, laughing with a friend. I used the Sony 135mm F1.8 GM (an amazing lens, by the way!!), and shot it wide open. I double tapped the LCD screen to zoom into the photo, and a big grin spread across my face. The amount of precision and detail in the shot was just fantastic…even though she was turned away from me.

This shows how much better Sony’s eye detection has gotten, as you are much more likely to get precision in a wider range of situations.

Pet Eye AF has proven even more precise as well, with faster, more “sticky” detection of pet eyes…like Loki’s, here.

I’m not a big birder, but I did head down into some marshes to visit the returning Canada Geese as they lay their eggs and protect their young. I wanted to see how Sony’s new Bird Eye AF works. On the negative side, it’s not foolproof. I had a number of occasions where the AF grabbed tail feathers rather than the eye (geese tend to bob up and down). But it was pretty obvious when that happened through the viewfinder and focus usually found its way back quickly. My actual results where well focused when I returned home and examined them:

This is not an easy subject because the neck and head are so dark (I had to lift shadows with a +54 to reveal details), but the Bird Eye AF did the trick (and this was with the Sigma).

I was even more impressed with the camera’s ability to acquire focus when I saw a red-winged blackbird take off in my peripheral vision. In times past I’ve not had a high success rate with acquiring birds in rapid flight, so I was impressed that a single frame fired under this circumstance was perfectly focused. The shot doesn’t have a lot of aesthetic value, but it is interesting from a technical perspective.

This little sequence is a little more visually interesting, as another red-winged blackbird was doing a little aerial maneuvering (hunting insects?), and I was able to capture his antics with no problem.

Bottom line is that this camera is well equipped for tracking action, and these same technologies are on tap for video as well.

You also have a lot of versatility for controlling your burst speed, with customizable levels for each of the four drive modes (L, M, H, H+). There are a lot of options for instructing the camera how to track action, obviously, though one of the advantages here is that the advanced processing seems to take a lot of the guesswork out of the equation.

Low light sensitivity doesn’t quite match the best from Canon (as low as -6 EV), but the Alpha 1 can focus in conditions as dim as -4 EV. I did have perfectly fine autofocus even with a 10 stop ND1000 filter attached for this image:

Buffer depth is slightly less than the a9II, though that’s probably to be expected considering the size of the files. According to Sony:

JPEG Extra fine L: 182 frames,
JPEG Fine L: 400 frames,
JPEG Standard L: 400 frames,
RAW: 238 frames,
RAW and JPG: 192 frames
RAW (Lossless Compression): 96 frames
RAW (Lossless Compression) and JPG: 83 frames
RAW (Uncompressed): 82 frames
RAW (Uncompressed) and JPG: 78 frames

There’s some give and take in the various modes here, with the potential of getting a few more JPEGs if you choose Fine or Standard (a9II is limited to 361). Compressed RAW (not lossless) is also close (238 vs 241), but the a9II will give you 131 uncompressed RAW images and 361 Extra Fine JPEGs. But the reality is that the Alpha 1 can move a LOT of images in a short amount of time, and even at 30FPS you can shoot uninterrupted for 13 seconds if shooting JPEGs (and probably more in optimal real world use). That should be plenty for capturing most subjects. You still will watch the buffer clear after shooting a long burst in typical Sony fashion, though it clears quicker and you can do more things while it clears, so I haven’t found it to be a real world annoyance like it was with cameras like the a7RIII.

Bottom line is that the Alpha 1 is a jack-of-all-trades that allows you to not just effectively track and capture action, but also lets you do it while simultaneously capturing high resolution images. We are in a golden age of camera technology, and the Alpha 1 is clearly Sony’s best focusing camera yet.

Alpha 1 Video Performance

Sony’s a9 series of cameras were weird contradictions when it came to video performance. On one hand, the autofocus performance and footage quality was excellent, and I ended up using my a9 more than any other for my channel. But that’s mostly because I tend to use footage right out of camera and rarely grade it. Serious videographers weren’t particularly interested in the a9 or a9II because they lacked Sony’s picture profiles, including things like SLOG. The footage had little flexibility, and was limited to 4K30, which has ceased to be a competitive standard. The Alpha 1 is a whole other story, though. Look at the comparison of the video specs from the a9II (first image) and then the Alpha 1 (second image).

Here’s what Sony’s press release says about the video functionality: “8K High-resolution Movie Shooting

For the first time in an Alpha camera, the Alpha 1 offers 8K 30p 10-bit 4:2:0 XAVC HS recording with 8.6K oversampling for extraordinary resolution. Combined with Sony’s acclaimed autofocus technology, gradation and color reproduction performance, the Alpha 1 will help the user realize their creative vision with the finest detail. It’s 8K footage can also be used for flexible 4K editing during post-production.

Supporting Various Video Formats for Professionals

The Alpha 1 offers in-camera 4K recording at up to 120 frames per second which allows the user to shoot up to 5X slow-motion video. In addition to supporting 10-bit 4:2:2 recording, this feature can be used with efficient Long GOP inter-frame compression or high-quality Intra (All-I) intra-frame compression.

The Alpha 1 features S-Cinetone, the same color matrix that produces the highly regarded FX9 and FX6 color and skin tones. It delivers natural mid-tones, plus soft colors and gorgeous highlights to meet a growing need for more expressive depth. The S-Log3 gamma curve makes it possible to achieve 15+ stops of dynamic range, while the S-Gamut3 and S-Gamut3.Cine color gamut settings make it easy to match Alpha 1 footage with video shot on VENICE cinema camera, FX9 and other professional cinema cameras.

Heat-dissipating Structure

A unique heat dissipating structure keeps image sensor and image processing engine temperatures within their normal operating range, preventing overheating while maintaining compact body dimensions. This makes it possible to record 8K/30p video continuously for approximately 30 minutes“

There’s a lot to unpack there, but what has stood out to me while using the Alpha 1 for video is that 1) there is an incredible amount of options for getting the kind of footage you want at a bitrate you prefer. So much choice! 2) I love having 4K120. I’ve loved it on the Canon EOS R5, and I love it here. There are certain situations where slow motion video gives such amazing creative agency. 3) I find the removal of the 29:59 recording limit incredibly helpful when I’m recording teaching sessions and 4) Eliminating the overheating issues gives Sony a serious competitive advantage over Canon for those who shoot a lot of high resolution video.

I’m not really set up for shooting 8K and don’t really have a practical application for it (yet), but I really enjoy the versatility of choice among the 4K options. The footage looks great, with great detail and a good deal of versatility for low light performance and dynamic range. I also do like the look of the S-Cinetone profile that’s included. I’m not a serious videographer or cinematographer (I mostly shoot for my YouTube channel), so I’ll leave the detailed analysis to those more professional than myself. Much like the stills side, however, the video performance of the Alpha 1 doesn’t make you settle. You’ve got pretty much everything you could possibly expect from a hybrid camera like this…outside of an articulating LCD screen. I continue to find ways to be impressed by the Alpha 1.

The a7S line has been Sony’s video-centric line (in standard, none-CINE bodies), though the a7S lineup typically is pretty short on the stills side. Never before have we seen a Sony camera that is so complete on both video and stills. The Alpha 1 has essentially everything that the a7SIII has while also being a high performance action and high resolution camera. Pretty amazing, really…

Sony Alpha 1 Sensor Performance

The Sony Alpha 1 has Sony’s second-largest sensor resolution with an effective sensor resolution of 50.1MP, producing files with dimensions of 8640 x 5760 pixels. The Sony a7RIV is higher still at 9504 x 6336 pixels, though most photographers will find the Alpha 1’s resolution plenty for them. Pair the Alpha 1 with quality lenses and it will reward you with incredible detail across the frame:

High resolution bodies like this allow you to deeply crop images while still having plenty of resolution, which gives you all kinds of framing options:

Like the Sony a9 cameras before it, the Alpha 1 has a stacked sensor. According to Sony, this is a “full-frame stacked 50.1-MP Exmor RS™ CMOS sensor with integral memory. A stacked architecture in this back-illuminated 50.1-MP full-frame image sensor contributes to high resolution and speed. Separate pixel and circuit layers and advanced A/D conversion mean faster processing.” It’s a sensor designed for both speed and performance, and, while I have always liked images from the a9 cameras, they did lag somewhat in areas like ISO performance and dynamic range when compared to, say, the a7III that had identical resolution. Sony has (appropriately) given us a new sensor for the Alpha 1, and it a technically superior one. It gives us speed and resolution while not compromising in terms of ISO performance and dynamic range. I also think that it delivers some of the best color I’ve seen from a Sony camera.

Put simply, I’m enjoying images from the Alpha 1 on both an artistic and technical level. Let’s dig deeper into some of the technical issues.

ISO

High resolution cameras face an uphill battle in ISO performance for the simple reason that more pixels packed onto the surface area of a sensor results in higher apparent amounts of noise as the ISO rises. I found the Canon 5DsR (also 50MP) nearly unusable by 6400 (its upper native ISO limit), but more recent high resolution cameras have done much better in this metric. This is certainly true of the Alpha 1, that was encouragingly good in many situations. It has a native ISO range from 100-32,000, with an expanded range of ISO 50-102,400 available.

At ISO 1600 the result is scarcely distinguishable from base ISO (100) even at a pixel level:

At ISO 6400, there is some visible noise in some of the shadows, but color saturation levels, color fidelity, and contrast are pretty much indistinguishable from base ISO:

Things are mostly similar at ISO 12,800, with black levels still quite inky. By ISO 25,600, you can start to see some uneven pixels in the black area and the “grain” is heavier, but things are still quite usable.

Often I see cameras fall apart in the last stop (say, from 25,600 to 51,200), and that’s somewhat true here, but the difference between 25,600 and 32,000 isn’t really significant. ISO 51,200 is only accessible via the expanded range, and I noticed a drop-off in contrast there, with the image lacking the deep blacks and overall punch that the image even at 25,600 has.

When I compared to a few other cameras, I noticed a quirk about the Alpha 1 performance. When compared to the a7RIII and the Canon EOS R5, I noticed that that the ISO sensitivity on the Alpha 1 wasn’t quite as bright. It required more exposure to get equal settings compared to the RIII (about a third stop). The RIII’s image also retained slightly more contrast at ISO 25,600:

I continue to feel that the a7RIII has perhaps Sony’s best sensor in many ways. It seems to strike the best balance between resolution, ISO, and dynamic range performance.

The difference in sensor tuning was even more apparent in the comparison with the Canon EOS R5, where the difference in sensitivity seemed closed to 2/3rds of a stop. This makes direct comparison slightly more difficult, as exposure values never quite line up. As I examined images, however, I felt like the Alpha 1 retained slightly more contrast while the Canon produced slightly lower noise levels.

I would be hard pressed to declare a winner between the two; they are just different. Both do impressive jobs of delivering usable image quality at higher ISO values despite the impediment of having high resolution.

The Alpha 1 is a strong performer for a high resolution camera at higher ISO values, and that’s true for video use as well.

Dynamic Range

Dynamic range has become one those topics debated ad nauseum on photography forums and harped on by certain reviewers to the place where some perspective has been lost on the topic. It has become one of the key “stats” where brand fanboys either push their brand or bash another, causing many people to become disgusted with the term in general. That being said, there is no question that there are a number of situations where improved dynamic range gives the photographer (and particularly the post-processor) more latitude to fulfill their vision. This could be in the ability to recover a blown-out sky or shadowed area as a landscape photographer or the ability to balance a foreground subject with a background or sky for portrait photographers. I’ve also been able to save images where I captured something special but a flash didn’t fire.

Sony claims up to 15 stops of dynamic range for the Alpha 1, though they are not specific as to where one could expect this performance (S-Log video?) For stills, it seems to me that the Alpha 1 is close to but not quite at the levels of the most recent a7R cameras (RIII and RIV). Furthermore, it seems like different testers get different values for the camera, with the good people over at DP Review testing it at 13.9 stops (compared to 14 for the a7RIV). Considering the speed of the sensor readout, that’s impressive, though not 15 stops. Photonstophotos (and DXOMark) rank the sensors of the Canon EOS R5 (11.85 stops) and a7RIII (11.65) as being slightly higher than the Alpha 1 (11.36):

Both sites agree that the performance is significantly better than the a9II (10.9) and even more so than the a9 (10.64). The broad agreement is that the Alpha 1 is a significant improvement from the other stacked sensor models (a9 series), but close (not quite) to the a7III, a7RIII, or a7RIV, which all hover a fraction of a percentage higher. The outlier from Photonstophotos is that the Canon EOS R5 ranks higher than all of these sensors, which I haven’t quite seen. There are different aspects of shadow and highlight recovery, and I find it best to try to visually demonstrate my findings. In this comparisons I will intentionally under or overexpose by the correct number of stops and then try to recover the lost information by adding it back in post (either increasing or reducing exposure).

First of all, shadow recovery. Bottom line is that the Alpha 1 is simply fantastic at recovering shadows. At a global level you simply can’t tell a difference between a perfectly exposed image and an image underexposed by 5 stops and then recovered.

If we compare our original and then recovered result at a pixel level, it will show you how completely and how cleanly those shadows have been recovered.

If I compare to the Canon EOS R5, I see that both have recovered shadows well, but the colors from the Sony recovery are more accurate, contrast is a bit better, and the Canon result has shifted towards magenta a bit.

The results between the two Sony models is closer, though I think the a7RIII wins for having slightly smooth results in the shadows (though, to be fair, it has 8MP less resolution):

Some people compare dynamic range by showing how much the highlight and shadow recovery sliders can open up shadows and recover highlights. If I maximize the shadows (+100) and recover highlights (-100), I find that the Canon EOS R5 does have slightly more ability to open shadows, though at reduced contrast, and that Sony has the ability to retain a little more information and color in the sky:

All three cameras have great ability to recover shadows, however, and I think the Alpha 1 is extremely competitive with the very best here.

Recovering highlights is something that cameras struggle more with, as when highlights are “blown out” there is often unrecoverable information loss. The Alpha 1 does well here, though, proving able to successfully recover 3 stops of overexposure with minimal loss of information and good color saturation levels.

I’ll note that the difference in sensor sensitivity does create a bit of a challenge in creating comparisons, but if I compare this result to the Canon EOS R5 recovery, the results look fairly similar though the Canon image is slightly brighter:

If we move on to four stops of overexposure, however, the Sony starts to show an advantage in retaining color information. If you look at the color chart you’ll see that certain colors have been lost from the Canon recovery that are retained to some degree on the Sony recovery:

This could prove important when recovering a sky, for example, or certain skin tones if a flash goes off too brightly.

I’ve found real world dynamic range to be excellent, with plenty of latitude in highlights and shadows to shoot even challenging scenes with a single exposure that has in the RAW image the potential to be edited to taste:

Colors and Gallery

The sensors in the a9 cameras didn’t have Sony’s best DR and ISO performance, but I always liked their color performance. I tended to favor images taken with my a9 over my a7RIII in terms of general feel. The Alpha 1 might be better still, with just a little more refinement in the color science that results in images that seem to have a little more flexibility for “pushing” color without it becoming garish (a past weakness at times for Sony). I’ve shot with close to ten lenses on the Alpha 1, and gotten color results I really like from all of them. Here’s a few different kinds of images:

Put simply, I’ve been very happy with the images I’ve been capturing with the Alpha 1. I’m happy with the detail, the contrast, the color, the dynamic range, and the ISO performance. I can’t recall ever enjoying a Sony camera more. You can check out even more images by visiting the image galleries here.

Conclusion

I doubt you’ll hear anyone say anything negative about the performance of the Sony Alpha 1. This may be the most sophisticated mass market camera ever made, combining the tracking capabilities and burst rate of a Canon 1DxIII or a Nikon D5 with the vast resolution of the a7R series and then, to top it all off, the video capabilities of a cine camera. I suspect the most often cited negative you’ll hear is the price, which, at $6498 USD, makes the $3900 Canon EOS R5 seem almost inexpensive.

I was, frankly, a little underwhelmed by Sony’s last round of updates. I passed on both the a7RIV and the a9II without upgrading my a7RIII or a9 because I didn’t see a compelling reason to make the move. I’ve told people for the last year that my favorite cameras at the moment are Canons, but my favorite catalog of lenses is on Sony due to having so many excellent third party lenses available to compliment an increasingly excellent lineup of native Sony lenses. But the Alpha 1 has essentially everything I was looking for in a camera, and while I was initially turned off by its price tag, I started to realize that it was an upgrade to both my a7RIII and my a9, and, by the time of this review, I have privately sold both cameras to fund purchasing an Alpha 1.

Is the Alpha 1 for everyone? Absolutely not. For many photographers it is simply overkill. If you don’t shoot action, you’ll get just as good of image quality from an a7RIII or a7RIV in many ways. If you just want to shoot video, an a7SIII will get you there cheaper. But if you are the kind of person that doesn’t want compromises in your photography gear, the Alpha 1 is made for you. Bottom line is this: the Sony Alpha 1 is like an a7RIV, a9II, and a7SIII rolled into one camera…and then further improved. It’s expensive, yes, but Sony has held nothing back, and, for the first time that I can remember, it feels like you are getting a camera where you have all the best Sony features in one body. And that is a very compelling narrative for the right kind of photographer. I suspect the Alpha 1 and I will be friends for many years to come…

Pros:

The best of the Sony’s cameras in one body
Does basically everything well
Record speed (30FPS) for tracking
New high resolution sensor packs a punch
Autofocus better than ever
Most electronic shutter downsides solved (rolling shutter, flash sync, etc…)
8K video + 4K120 + Sony S-Cinetone
No record limits (no 29:59 limitations)
No significant overheat issues
Awesome viewfinder
Lossless compressed RAW capture (finally!)
Touchscreen menus (finally!)
Good white balance performance due to new WB sensor
Full compliment of video options – bitrates, codecs, etc…
Webcam ready
Quality construction
Good dynamic range and ISO performance
Shutter mechanism can cover sensor when camera is off

Cons:

Incredibly expensive
1.44 million dot LCD screen seems budget for a camera this expensive
Basic tilt capabilities for LCD rather than fully articulating
No major advancements in IBIS performance
Canon’s Eye tracking is still a little better

Gear Used:

Purchase the Sony Alpha 1 @ Camera Canada | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Sony a9M2 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Sony a9 Camera: B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay
Sony a7RIV Camera: B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Purchase a Sony a7C @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Peak Design Leash Strap: Peak Design Store | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK
BenQ SW271 4K Photo Editing Monitor – B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon.ca | Amazon UK
Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud 1-Year Subscription
Exposure Software X6 (Use Code “dustinabbott” to get 10% anything and everything)
Visit Dustin’s Amazon Storefront and see his favorite gear

Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!

Purchase the Sony Alpha 1 @ Camera Canada https://shrsl.com/2wdk2 | B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/3upRFZd | Amazon https://amzn.to/3t1m8MD | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/3cVFrBB | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/2OtrjGe | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/3d0GtMO | Ebay https://ebay.us/i371Vs

Keywords: Sony Alpha 1, Sony A1, Sony Alpha 1 Review, Sony A1 Review, ILCE-1, Sony, Alpha 1, A1, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Sensor Performance, ISO, Dynamic Range, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Canon EOS R5, Sony a7RIV, Sony a9II, Sony a7SIII

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Sigma FP-L Mirrorless Camera Image Gallery

Dustin Abbott

March 25th, 2021

Most of us know Sigma as a lensmaker and nothing more, but Sigma has actually been developing somewhat quirky cameras for some time. Many of those were built around Sigma’s own SA mount or with a fixed lens and tended to be crop sensor cameras (APS-C or APS-H). They frequently had unique shapes well outside the mainstream of camera design. In 2020 Sigma released the Sigma FP, a 24MP compact full frame mirrorless built around a Leica L-mount. It should probably come as no surprise that in the latter part of 2019 Sigma had started to design a new lineup of DN lenses designed specifically for mirrorless and coming in both the very popular Sony FE (full frame e-mount) along with the Leica L mount. Clearly some partnership with Leica had been forged, and by building their new camera around the Leica L-mount, it allowed Sigma to not only leverage their new lens designs on two different platforms but also allowed them to produce lenses “for” their new camera(s) in a more popular mount that maximized their investment. A fringe benefit is that the FP was immediately compatible with a wide range of existing Leica L-mount lenses and Sigma didn’t have to build their own full catalog of lenses. 2021 brings the second camera in the FP line-up, the Sigma FP-L, the world’s most compact high resolution full frame camera with a massive 61 megapixels of resolution. That kind of resolution allows you to deeply crop an image like this:

…and get a still nicely resolved image like this:

This also helps explain Sigma’s recent fixation with developing small, light lenses that are still high performing (this has previously been Sigma’s strategy at all). Sigma’s most recent release was the compact wide aperture standard zoom – the Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DG DN (my review here), a lens that makes a lot of sense on a camera like the FP-L. We’ve also seen Sigma dive into the compact prime market in the past year with the i-Series (24mm F3.5, 35mm F2, 45mm F2.8, and 65mm F2 lenses, all of which I’ve reviewed and you can find in this playlist). These lenses addressed the reality that most of Sigma’s recent lenses have largely been well, large, and as such were poor pairings for compact cameras. Certain people love Sigma’s large aperture ART series lenses and their highly corrected optical performance, but others find them unnecessarily large and heavy. Sigma’s focus recently seems to be on addressing the secondary market of those who want good optical and build quality but want smaller, more compact lenses to pair with smaller cameras like the Sony a7C, the Sigma FP or FP-L, and the Leica SL2-S.

The Sigma FP-L is the smallest and cheapest way (at the moment) to get such high resolution, but that comes with a major asterisk. At $2499 USD, it is cheaper than the Sony a7RIV (with similar resolution), and it is certainly smaller at a compact dimension of (W x H x D) 112.6 x 69.9 x 45.3mm (4.43 x 2.75 x 1.78″). This is identical to the dimensions of the FP, and the weight is quite similar as well, with the FP-L weighing 427g (15.1oz) vs 422g for the FP. Both bodies can share accessories because of their identical size, which becomes very important because of the discussion at hand. Sigma has designed the FP cameras to be modular in design, so the basic “brick” is designed to be as square and compact as possible. This means that a lot of basic features that you take for granted (a viewfinder, hot-shoe, or even a functional grip) are not built into the camera but are accessories. The hot shoe is an included accessory, but requires you to mount it to the side of the camera like this:

The grip and viewfinder options are separate purchases, however, and if you go with the new Sigma EVF-11, you are looking at an EXPENSIVE upgrade ($699 USD solo, or sold in kit with the FP-L for $2999). It requires a rather delicate process of removing the cover from some ports and then bending another cover back while simultaneously lining up male mini-HDMI, communication socket, and USB-C attachments on the EVF-11 into their female counterparts on the camera and then securing it with a tightening wheel on the front. I’m a little concerned that there is room for damage to components if you don’t get that process right. After attaching everything, here’s what the viewfinder looks like:

The EVF-11 can be adjusted up or down for different viewing angles, and sports a fairly good 3.68 million dot resolution and 0.83x magnification, though the refresh rate of 60fps is only so-so. This isn’t really an action camera, though, so it is probably sufficient. There’s an alternate loupe-style viewfinder (LVF-11) that goes over the LCD screen and provides some magnification of the rear LCD along with shading, but it radically changes the compact nature of the camera (it is more than double the natural depth of the camera). The modular design of the camera only then makes sense if you either want no accessories (want to go as compact as possible) or want to build around the camera in a video rig, because for ordinary use you’ll end up with a larger, more expensive camera than the Sony a7RIV once you add either viewfinder and a grip…and you still won’t have a hotshoe all the time as it is either/or rather than both when it comes to mounting the two accessories. It’s an unconventional approach, to say the least, and while it will suit a couple of small demographics just fine, it won’t make a lot of sense to the masses, I suspect. Maybe Sigma is okay with that…

What’s not up for debate is the fact that the camera can produce beautiful images. My review period was brief, but you can check out the photos I was able to take during that time below.

Thanks to Sigma Canada for providing me loaners of the FP-L and lens used for this review.

Photos of the Sigma FP-L

Photos Taken with the Sigma FP-L

Gear Used:

Purchase the Sigma FP-L @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Sigma 24mm F3.5 DN @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Sigma 65mm F2 DG DN @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase the Sigma 35mm F2 DG DN @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase the Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DN @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Purchase a Sony a7C @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Peak Design Leash Strap: Peak Design Store | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK
BenQ SW271 4K Photo Editing Monitor – B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon.ca | Amazon UK
Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud 1-Year Subscription
Exposure Software X6 (Use Code “dustinabbott” to get 10% anything and everything)
Visit Dustin’s Amazon Storefront and see his favorite gear

Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!

Use Code “DUSTINHDR” to get $10 off ($15 CDN) any Skylum product: Luminar, Aurora, or AirMagic

Purchase the Sigma FP-L @ B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/3rjeLPc | Amazon https://amzn.to/3slIRTx | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/2PtQmsI | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/3ske2yD | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/3cgzgaX

Keywords: Sigma FP-L, Sigma, FP, FP-L, Sigma FP-L Review, Leica, L-mount, Sigma 28-70 DN, Sigma 28-70 F2.8, Sigma 24mm F3.5, Sigma 35mm F2, Sigma 45mm F2.8, Sigma 65mm F2, Review, Sony a7C, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Sensor Performance, ISO, Dynamic Range, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Leica L

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Sigma FP-L Mirrorless Camera Review

Dustin Abbott

March 25th, 2021

Most of us know Sigma as a lensmaker and nothing more, but Sigma has actually been developing somewhat quirky cameras for some time. Many of those were built around Sigma’s own SA mount or with a fixed lens and tended to be crop sensor cameras (APS-C or APS-H). They frequently had unique shapes well outside the mainstream of camera design. In 2020 Sigma released the Sigma FP, a 24MP compact full frame mirrorless built around a Leica L-mount. It should probably come as no surprise that in the latter part of 2019 Sigma had started to design a new lineup of DN lenses designed specifically for mirrorless and coming in both the very popular Sony FE (full frame e-mount) along with the Leica L mount. Clearly some partnership with Leica had been forged, and by building their new camera around the Leica L-mount, it allowed Sigma to not only leverage their new lens designs on two different platforms but also allowed them to produce lenses “for” their new camera(s) in a more popular mount that maximized their investment. A fringe benefit is that the FP was immediately compatible with a wide range of existing Leica L-mount lenses and Sigma didn’t have to build their own full catalog of lenses. 2021 brings the second camera in the FP line-up, the Sigma FP-L, the world’s most compact high resolution full frame camera with a massive 61 megapixels of resolution. That kind of resolution allows you to deeply crop an image like this:

…and get a still nicely resolved image like this:

This also helps explain Sigma’s recent fixation with developing small, light lenses that are still high performing (this has previously been Sigma’s strategy at all). Sigma’s most recent release was the compact wide aperture standard zoom – the Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DG DN (my review here), a lens that makes a lot of sense on a camera like the FP-L. We’ve also seen Sigma dive into the compact prime market in the past year with the i-Series (24mm F3.5, 35mm F2, 45mm F2.8, and 65mm F2 lenses, all of which I’ve reviewed and you can find in this playlist). These lenses addressed the reality that most of Sigma’s recent lenses have largely been well, large, and as such were poor pairings for compact cameras. Certain people love Sigma’s large aperture ART series lenses and their highly corrected optical performance, but others find them unnecessarily large and heavy. Sigma’s focus recently seems to be on addressing the secondary market of those who want good optical and build quality but want smaller, more compact lenses to pair with smaller cameras like the Sony a7C, the Sigma FP or FP-L, and the Leica SL2-S.

The Sigma FP-L is the smallest and cheapest way (at the moment) to get such high resolution, but that comes with a major asterisk. At $2499 USD, it is cheaper than the Sony a7RIV (with similar resolution), and it is certainly smaller at a compact dimension of (W x H x D) 112.6 x 69.9 x 45.3mm (4.43 x 2.75 x 1.78″). This is identical to the dimensions of the FP, and the weight is quite similar as well, with the FP-L weighing 427g (15.1oz) vs 422g for the FP. Both bodies can share accessories because of their identical size, which becomes very important because of the discussion at hand. Sigma has designed the FP cameras to be modular in design, so the basic “brick” is designed to be as square and compact as possible. This means that a lot of basic features that you take for granted (a viewfinder, hot-shoe, or even a functional grip) are not built into the camera but are accessories. The hot shoe is an included accessory, but requires you to mount it to the side of the camera like this:

The grip and viewfinder options are separate purchases, however, and if you go with the new Sigma EVF-11, you are looking at an EXPENSIVE upgrade ($699 USD solo, or sold in kit with the FP-L for $2999). It requires a rather delicate process of removing the cover from some ports and then bending another cover back while simultaneously lining up male mini-HDMI, communication socket, and USB-C attachments on the EVF-11 into their female counterparts on the camera and then securing it with a tightening wheel on the front. I’m a little concerned that there is room for damage to components if you don’t get that process right. After attaching everything, here’s what the viewfinder looks like:

The EVF-11 can be adjusted up or down for different viewing angles, and sports a fairly good 3.68 million dot resolution and 0.83x magnification, though the refresh rate of 60fps is only so-so. This isn’t really an action camera, though, so it is probably sufficient. There’s an alternate loupe-style viewfinder (LVF-11) that goes over the LCD screen and provides some magnification of the rear LCD along with shading, but it radically changes the compact nature of the camera (it is more than double the natural depth of the camera). The modular design of the camera only then makes sense if you either want no accessories (want to go as compact as possible) or want to build around the camera in a video rig, because for ordinary use you’ll end up with a larger, more expensive camera than the Sony a7RIV once you add either viewfinder and a grip…and you still won’t have a hotshoe all the time as it is either/or rather than both when it comes to mounting the two accessories. It’s an unconventional approach, to say the least, and while it will suit a couple of small demographics just fine, it won’t make a lot of sense to the masses, I suspect. Maybe Sigma is okay with that…

And that sets the stage for what will be a fairly complicated review, as I have a list of personal dislikes nearly as long as my list of likes. I’ll do my best to handle this review with nuance, but the Sigma FP-L can be a rather hard camera to pin down and categorize. You can read on or watch my long format definitive or standard video reviews below…

Thanks to Sigma Canada for providing me loaners of the FP-L and lens used for this review.

Sigma FP-L Build, Design and Handling

The Sigma FP-L is uniquely Sigma; it doesn’t feel like a clone of any other camera that I’ve used. There are elements of this that are refreshing, while in other places being different just means being less functional. The physical shell of the camera is a sturdy die-cast aluminum alloy Sigma says was chosen for its superior robustness and thermal conductivity. It feels tough and well made.

You’ll note from the photo above that the front of the camera has literally no grip at all. It doesn’t even extend the textured rubber finish to the front. The only concession to grip is a slightly raised thumb rest in the back:

It mostly feels like I am just pinching the camera rather than it molding to my hand. The last camera I used like this was the original Canon EOS M. If you are sticking with small, light lenses, it will probably be okay, but add on heavier lenses and you are going to miss having a real grip.

Another positive that I like is that Sigma has recognized that a fundamental flaw in many modern compact mirrorless cameras has been heat dissipation. Capturing and processing high definition video generates a lot of heat, and some recent Canon and Sony cameras have received a lot of public criticism over their overheating issues. Sigma has addressed this by building heat sinks into the design on all four sides.

This is part of what allows the FP-L to record up to two hours of uninterrupted 4K video internally (no 29:59 limit!!) and even longer if recording to an external SSD. That’s a smart move by Sigma, and, while I have some weather sealing concerns over any camera with open heat sinks, Sigma claims, “…sealing on 42 points for a dust- and splash-proof structure, making it a perfect camera to use for long hours under all types of environments.”

What has probably been sacrificed for the heat sinks (due to their location) is any kind of tilting or articulating on the rear LCD screen. It is fixed 3.15 inch LCD with 2.1 million dot resolution and a 3:2 ratio. This is normally where I’d show you the different angles the screen can move to, but there’s nothing to show here.

I was quickly reminded of how dependent I have become on owning only cameras with either tilting or articulating LCDs. I found the fixed screen limiting in a number of applications, from doing tripod tests of my test charts (usually done at roughly waist height) or when filming on a gimbal. The screen has limited touch capacity, with the ability to touch to focus and to move focus points around, but no navigation of menus (full or quick menu). There’s more input lag than what you’ll find on a Canon camera (best) and even some of the better Sony cameras.

That’s a shame, as I really like the look of the menus. They have a great font and a very clean look. The Q menu in particular looks tailor-made for touch:

Navigation is done via the directional pad/wheel on the back of the camera, and menu changes are made by either the front or rear wheels, with the center button serving as the OK button. Sigma has utilized the increasingly popular two-tier approach to menus where the menus are divided between Cine and Stills, so if you select Cine with the switch on the top plate of the camera you will be presented with a unique menu tailored for video use:

The feel of the buttons and wheels feel pretty good with decent ergonomic placement, though I do miss have a dedicated dial for exposure compensation. One ergonomic fail is that with the EV-F attached there is no quick, logical way to access the power button, as it is located to the far left of the top plate, and suddenly the EV-F is towering near that space, making it nearly impossible to get at with your left thumb (the logical digit to use the power switch).

A uniquely Sigma feature is the row of buttons along the bottom portion of the back of the camera. It’s a clean design, and the choice of buttons shows the importance Sigma places on being to able to control color and tone curve in either video or stills applications. You have a lot of control over the output of the camera, from color to contrast. The Tone and Color buttons provide direct access to these menu functions.

The left side of the camera holds the ports, two of which are covered with port covers that lift but cannot be removed and the middle port cover that must be removed to attach the side accessories. There is a place to store this rubber cover in either the hotshoe or EVF attachements, though there is probably a pretty good likelihood that some people are going to lose this cover…

I don’t suppose that I need to tell you that losing the port cover will not help the weather sealing of the camera! I suspect that having one of the attachments in place will also limit weather sealing, as there is no evidence of seals on them.

There are four connection points on the left side, which include a mic input on the bottom, a micro-HDMI and communication pins in the middle compartment, and the USB-C connection on the top. The camera can be charged via USB (no fancy power-send requirements), and it can be externally powered to further help its ability to do long format recording. One important inclusion on the FP-L is its ability to be a plug-and-play webcam through the USB-C port. The pandemic of 2020 and 2021 has made this a more important feature than ever before.

You’ll note that what is missing is a headphone monitoring jack, though the EVF-11 does have one on it. It also has a dedicated USB-C port designed specifically for recording externally to an SSD. This recording arrangement is required to access the 30 FPS mode in the higher bitrate CinemaDNG 12 bit format. Internal recording to the SD card will only allow you up to 25 FPS in CinemaDNG at a lower 8 bit, though you can access 4K30 internally by choosing the .MOV format instead. FullHD recording can be done up to 120FPS for slow motion capture.

The SD card location is in my least favorite spot – the bottom of the camera in the battery compartment. This is the least convenient way to quickly access the card if you are working on a tripod or gimbal, though fortunately the bottom plate design is slightly better than most cameras with this arrangement, allow me to fit a standard size QR plate vertically or a smaller Peak Design plate that I add to cameras and still open the bottom compartment. I add something to make cameras Arca-compatible so I can throw them quickly on a tripod. I can’t quite open the battery door with the QR plate mounted horizontally, though. The battery pack is Sigma’s BP-51, a 1200 mAh battery. It is rated for about 240 shots, and that doesn’t seem to be far off. You’ll probably want to buy a second Sigma BP-51 to make sure you don’t run out of power for an extended shoot.

The single SD slot is UHS-II compatible, though that proves not enough to give us much buffer depth. The FP-L can shoot up to 10FPS, but the RAW buffer depth is only 12 frames before that speed drops. Surprisingly the JPEG rating isn’t much better at just 14 frames. That obviously limits the potential of the camera as an action camera, though any camera that you primarily shoot with solely via a rear LCD is never going to be an action camera.

The Sigma FP-L is built around an electronic shutter, and there is no mechanical shutter. The primary liabilities of that will be banding under certain kinds of lighting (any lighting that cycles frequencies) and a serious limitation for strobing. Flash sync speed is rated at 1/15th second. That’s a figure so low that I had to verify with Sigma, as I struggle to see how that figure is even usable. I don’t often find strobes enough to deal with all camera/subject shake at 1/15th second…particularly with a high resolution sensor like this one. If you are a portrait photographer, you are probably going to need to stick to natural light or fixed lights and just avoid the hotshoe altogether (which might be why they never bothered to integrate it into the camera design).

There’s another serious omission on a high resolution camera that is also marketed as a “run and gun” video option; there is no IBIS (In Body Image Stabilization). This problem is exacerbated by the fact that out of the ten DN lenses that Sigma has released in a Leica L mount in the past two years, only one of them has a built in OS (optical stabilizer), and that’s the 100-400mm F5-6.3 OS DN. You aren’t getting stabilization either from the lenses or the camera, which means that to get stable video footage you will have to mount the camera on either a tripod or a gimbal…which really diminishes its versatility as a compact “go anywhere” camera. That’s a serious liability, and I was reminded of how unsteady handheld video footage is when you have no optical stabilizer helping out. The footage is near unusable…and I’m fairly steady! 61MP of resolution for stills will also seriously benefit from stabilization, too, as any motion blur occupies more pixels and becomes much more obvious. The FP-L will show more motion blur in identical conditions than the lower resolution FP would.

It seems to me that developing IBIS is a hugely important next step for Sigma if they are serious about the FP lineup as a “pocketable” option.

One other thing that I really like here is that Sigma utilizes the high amount of resolution to allow you to employ lossless zooming in video. Even in 4K, you can do a lossless zoom up to 2.5 times, and up to 5x in FullHD. What I also like is that you can do the same when recording stills (even RAWs). Choices include 9.5K (full resolution), 6.2K, 4.8K, UHD, and FHD, each with an accompanying amount of crop. It’s the same for JPEG, which is not unusual, but to have those options in RAW is much more unusual. You can actually pinch on the LCD to zoom – a cool feature that shows me that screen is capable of more touch gestures than what it is currently being used for.

As stated in the introduction, the FP-L is a contradictory mix of things that I like and things that I don’t. This modular design is going to be attractive to some potential users while leaving many others scratching their heads and wondering who would ever choose this camera over a Sony a7RIV (which has a near identical price tag once you bundle the EVF in with the FP-L).

Sigma FP-L Autofocus Performance

The Sigma FP-L upgrades the FP’s 49 contrast point AF to the more modern hybrid system of phase detect autofocus supplemented by contrast AF. There are still 49 AF points, but those offer more speed and precision. You can see that the focus point coverage is about roughly 80% of the frame.

I’ll preface my observations by noting that I was using a preproduction model of the camera prior to its announcement, so there might (hopefully!) be some further improvement to AF in the final retail firmware. Autofocus was the area most criticized in the original FP, and it remains my least favorite aspect of the camera’s performance. You can use the rear wheel to cycle through the number of active points, from all points down to a single point, though I don’t find even that quite precise enough. You’ll note from the photo above that the AF point selection on screen has rectangles rather than small squares, and in practical use I found this shape less precise. It wasn’t hard to hit an overlap between two different layers of focus, and the wider focus point meant that I couldn’t always center the focus point where I wanted.

I also found that I couldn’t always trust my preferred method of focus. My ordinary case use is to have all points active and the let the camera’s AI first select the focus area while utilizing continuous autofocus. In most modern cameras the camera’s AI gets the right focus point at least 90% of the time, and I just override with a thumb on the touchscreen if I need to move the AF point elsewhere. I found in some situations that the FP-L’s focus wouldn’t settle on a focus area with all points active, and sometimes I would end up with an image where nothing was quite in focus.

I found that I ended up going to the smaller focus selection and just moving it around where I wanted, and this produced more reliable results.

I found a similar problem when using Eye AF (works for people and not for animals). If there was more than one person in the frame, the Eye AF dot (it produces a smaller box than what you can select on screen) kept jumping around from person to person constantly and wouldn’t settle. In this shot, for example, it ended up not being properly focused on either subject.

I found that I got more reliable focus by overriding Eye AF and just putting a focus point where I wanted.

Even with that technique, however, focus wasn’t always perfect. In this shot, for example, I feel like focus is a bit backfocused, and I shot several photos in the sequence without any of them being “nailed”.

That lack of settling also impacted video AF focus (check out either of the video reviews to see this in action). I found that focus did not do a good job of tracking me as I approached the camera at a slow walk, and, when sitting and shooting a static scene, focus kept micropulsing and adjusting rather than just settling on my face and gradually tracking minor movements. I also found that during focus pulls in my standard test that I got some defocusing in the wrong direction and that lack of settling on the final subject…even if it was big and high contrast.

There’s a general lack of sophistication in the focus system that will hopefully be improved via firmware, but I think even in the raw specifications of the camera that it probably running behind most of its competitors. The Sony a7RIV, for example, has 567 phase detect points. Autofocus continues to be a weak point for the system compared to the competition.

Sigma FP-L Sensor Performance

The Sigma FP-L sports one of the highest resolutions currently available in a 35mm/full frame camera. The native resolution of the 61MP Bayer sensor is 9602 x 6498, which is actually slightly higher than the 9504 x 6336 resolution of the Sony a7RIV. That’s a LOT of resolution, and it makes it easy to create an image from within an image. This wide view of the thawing Ottawa River can be reframed from within the original image and still have plenty of resolution for printing.

I can deeply crop into this “still life” test and get a highly detailed photo of the grip of this vintage Pentax KR-5 film SLR.

Embedded color seems to be nice in the camera (there’s still some Foveon influence there), and, as previously noted, there are a wide variety of color modes on tap along with the ability to tweak JPEG and video output further.

And speaking of RAW files…

Often testing a preproduction camera creates a problem for reviewers like myself, as you are getting a camera before the software infrastructure is ready to support it. You’ve probably seen/heard reviewers say that they were unable to open RAW files in Adobe/Capture One, etc… I’ve had no such problem here for the simple reason that Sigma has chosen to utilize the DNG file format. DNG is the Adobe standard, and it is a high quality lossless compression that has a high degree of compatibility. I convert everything to DNG myself, and Adobe has promised to support the format in perpetuity. I found that file sizes averaged around 85MB. Big, yes, but relatively better than the native .ARW files in the Sony a7RIV, which give you the option of an uncompressed RAW at an average of 122MB or a compressed (lossy) format at 61MB. The FP-L splits the difference but with a lossless format. This was one of my favorite aspects of the camera, as I think the file format is great and it saved me time on import since I didn’t have to convert formats.

The FP-L does have a low pass filter, and, while that helps with eliminating moiré, it sometimes comes as a cost of some sharpness. I was curious to compare sharpness on my test chart and to see if I could see less moiré. I didn’t have either of the lenses that Sigma sent me with the FP-L (24-70mm F2.8 DN and 65mm F2 DN) when I reviewed the a7RIV, but I had reviewed the 65mm F2 in FE mount just a few months back using my Sony a7rIII. Here’s a look at the center of the frame, with the FP-L on the left and the Sony result on the right:

A few observations. The FP-L result seems larger due to being higher resolution. I’ll show a downsampled result to similar resolution levels on the a7RIII in our next comparison. You can see that that there is bit more detail information on the Sigma result, though the contrast slightly favors the Sony. What is really obvious, however, is the increased moiré on the Sony results that manifest as the blue and yellow color patterns in the prow and sails of the ship. Here’s the midframe result with the Sigma downsampled:

Similar observations, but the moiré is even more noticeable here. It seems to me that the choice to include the low pass filter was probably justified. Yes, you sacrifice a tiny bit of sharpness, but the camera has great resolution already, and controlling that moiré makes a big difference in controlling false color for stills and video.

ISO

High resolution cameras face an uphill battle in ISO performance for the simple reason that more pixels packed onto the surface area of a sensor results in higher apparent amounts of noise as the ISO rises. I found the Canon 5DsR (50MP) nearly unusable by 6400 (its upper native ISO limit), but more recent high resolution cameras have done much better in this metric. The Sigma FP-L has a native ISO range of 100-25,600, with the expanded range going as low as 6!!! and up to 102,400. Everything is very clean at the base ISO level of 100, with good contrast and smooth, dark shadows.

Things are little changed at ISO 1600, with contrast levels looking similar and minimal amounts of noise showing up in transition areas.

By ISO 6400 the noise pattern is a bit rougher, but the results are still very usable.

At ISO 12,800, there is a more uneven illumination amongst the noise, and contrast levels are starting to lift. This pattern continues intensifies at ISO 25,600, which is where the image quality starts to degrade.

I would avoid ISO 25,600 when possible and use 12,800 as my practical upper limit. This is a fairly good performance for such a high resolution camera, however.

Dynamic Range

Dynamic range has become one those topics debated ad nauseum on photography forums and harped on by certain reviewers to the place where some perspective has been lost on the topic. It has become one of the key “stats” where brand fanboys either push their brand or bash another, causing many people to become disgusted with the term in general. That being said, there is no question that there are a number of situations where improved dynamic range gives the photographer (and particularly the post-processor) more latitude to fulfill their vision. This could be in the ability to recover a blown-out sky or shadowed area as a landscape photographer or the ability to balance a foreground subject with a background or sky for portrait photographers. I’ve also been able to save images where I captured something special but a flash didn’t fire. In this case, I had to deal with the bright directional sun on my new Bengal kitten, leaving his face in harsh shadow. Good shadow recovery along with a bit of highlight recovery allowed me to freshly illuminate his face in post due to the good dynamic range from the FP-L.

As is typically the case, I found that I had greater success in recovering shadows than I did highlights. I was able to easily recover four stops of shadow information with very little negative impact:

When going the opposite direction, however, I started to get a few hotspots even at two stops of overexposure.

If we compare the three stop highlight recovery with the correct exposure, we find that the recovered image doesn’t look “right”, with a lot of information lost.

This is a good dynamic range performance, though I would say that it lags slightly behind the Sony a7RIV in overall performance (perhaps a stop of DR). There’s enough DR here though to make sure that you can get balanced results in shadow and highlight areas with most scenes.

All in all, the Sigma FP-L has a strong sensor that is competitive with some of the best options out there. I’m not sure there is any area where it bests them, but there’s no reason you can’t get highly detailed, great looking images out of this camera. You can see more samples by checking out the lens image gallery here.

Conclusion

The Sigma FP-L is a very quirky little camera. It is incredibly small and light for such a high resolution instrument, but the modular design also means that by the time you add on some of the basic accessories built into most competing cameras that advantage is lost. The same applies to the price point, making it hard to justify simply from a value perspective. You would have to really want what this camera offers to choose it over a Sony a7RIV, which is currently retailing for a similar price to the FP-L + EVF-11 combo.

Autofocus issues and a lack of IBIS are two significant drawbacks for me, as I feel like these limit the applications of the camera and detract from its “pocketable”/run and gun attributes.

I see two potential audiences for the FP-L. The first is a group who want the absolute lightest high performing camera and don’t need to use the accessories. They will use the FP-L in its bare form and with the light, compact lenses that will allow it to behave like an APS-C sized camera but with more imaging potential. Backpackers and travelers could enjoy this scenario, so long as they choose their lenses wisely. I had the Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 DN lens on hand for my review, and it’s just too big for a camera like this.

The second case group is for videographers who like this small, vented form factor and who tend to accessorize in cages, for example. A fixed screen is no big deal if you use an external monitor, and having a squared off body without a grip is perfect if you don’t plan on holding the camera directly. The FP-L runs cool, can produce nice footage, and is optimized to pair with other cine cameras like Arri, Sony, Red, etc…in their director’s view finder and custom frames. There’s a wide variety of color looks, too, if you want to stylize your footage without a lot of grading later on.

The typical market that has come to expect their cameras to do everything well might be less than impressed with the FP-L, however. It’s modular design is far from mainstream, and there are a few key weaknesses that mean that it won’t impress you with its specs or performance in key areas. This is a specialist tool for a niche audience. Sigma hopes you are a part of that niche, I’m sure, but it looks like they will keep producing quirky cameras even if you aren’t.

Pros:

Smallest and lightest high resolution full frame mirrorless camera
Integrated heat sinks make overheating a non-issue
Long format video recording
Webcam ready
Quality construction
Native .DNG file format
Lossless video cropping
Option to externally power
Reasonable base price
Good dynamic range and ISO performance
Low moiré

Cons:

No IBIS
No integrated viewfinder
Grip on bare camera essentially nonexistent
Useless flash sync speed
Fixed LCD screen
Erratic autofocus accuracy
Video AF isn’t reliable
Value is lost once you add viewfinder
Shallow buffer

Gear Used:

Purchase the Sigma FP-L @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Sigma 24mm F3.5 DN @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Sigma 65mm F2 DG DN @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase the Sigma 35mm F2 DG DN @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase the Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DN @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Purchase a Sony a7C @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Peak Design Leash Strap: Peak Design Store | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK
BenQ SW271 4K Photo Editing Monitor – B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon.ca | Amazon UK
Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud 1-Year Subscription
Exposure Software X6 (Use Code “dustinabbott” to get 10% anything and everything)
Visit Dustin’s Amazon Storefront and see his favorite gear

Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!

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Keywords: Sigma FP-L, Sigma, FP, FP-L, Sigma FP-L Review, Leica, L-mount, Sigma 28-70 DN, Sigma 28-70 F2.8, Sigma 24mm F3.5, Sigma 35mm F2, Sigma 45mm F2.8, Sigma 65mm F2, Review, Sony a7C, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Sensor Performance, ISO, Dynamic Range, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Leica L

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Sony a7IV (ILCE-7M4) Review

Dustin Abbott

January 31st, 2022

Sony a7IV Build, Handling, and Features

Sony a7IV Autofocus Performance

Sony a7IV Video Performance

Sony a7IV Sensor Performance

ISO

Dynamic Range

Colors and Gallery

Conclusion

Pros:

Cons:

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Purchase the Samyang AF 50mm F1.4 II @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Sony 50mm F1.2 GM @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase the Sony FE 50mm f/1.4 Planar T*: B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon.ca | Amazon UK | Ebay

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Purchase a Sony a9M2 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Sony a7C @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Sony a7RIV Camera: B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

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Peak Design Leash Strap: Peak Design Store | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK

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Sony a7IV (ICLE-7M4) Image Gallery

Dustin Abbott

January 31st, 2022

Photos of the Sony a7IV

Photos Taken with the ILCE-7M4

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Purchase the Samyang AF 50mm F1.4 II @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Sony 50mm F1.2 GM @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase the Sony FE 50mm f/1.4 Planar T*: B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon.ca | Amazon UK | Ebay

Purchase the Sony Alpha 1 @ Camera Canada | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Sony a9M2 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Sony a7C @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Sony a7RIV Camera: B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

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Peak Design Leash Strap: Peak Design Store | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK

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Canon EOS R3 Review

Dustin Abbott

December 13th, 2021

Canon EOS R3 Features and Specification

EOS R3 Autofocus

EOS R3 Video Specs and Performance

Canon EOS R3 Sensor Performance

ISO Performance

Dynamic Range

Resolution

Conclusion

Pros:

Cons:

Purchase a Canon EOS R3 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R5 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R6 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

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Peak Design Leash Strap: Peak Design Store | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK

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Canon EOS R3 Image Gallery

Dustin Abbott

December 12th, 2021

Photos of the Canon EOS R3

Photos Taken with the Canon EOS R3

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Purchase a Canon EOS R5 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Purchase a Canon EOS R6 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Purchase the Sony Alpha 1 @ Camera Canada | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Peak Design Leash Strap: Peak Design Store | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK

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Sony Alpha 1 Image Gallery

Dustin Abbott

April 19th, 2021

Photos of the Sony A1

Photos Taken with the Sony A1

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Sony a9 Camera: B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay
Sony a7RIV Camera: B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay

Sony a9 Camera: B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay
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