GEAR SONY A7R V
TELE STAR Sony’s increasing range of fast lenses suits the new A7R V, and the new screen is great for both landscape and portrait use for social media
saying there’s too much choice – but you can tailor precisely how the camera behaves if you put in the groundwork to learn what each of those many menu settings does. In addition, the new focus map function is a unique way of visualising depth-of-field in a similar way to peaking. It uses a multicoloured overlay of the scene that indicates which parts are in front of or behind the focus point depending on the aperture. A feature carried over from the FX6 cine camera, AF assist lets you switch to manual focus for adjusting focus position. This is a quick way to shift selective focus between various subjects in a scene while recording. Plus there’s a feature to offset for how certain lenses perform when racking focus, as focus breathing compensation automatically smooths focus transitions and maintains a consistent field of view when changing the focus position mid-shot. This mode crops into the image slightly and corrects for any shifts in composition when focusing. The function is compatible with selected E-mount lenses. In terms of the menus, the A7R V’s are very colourful and largely
will be amplified by the slightest movement, so a robust in-body image stabilisation system is a must. Here, the A7R V’s five-axis system delivers. Up to eight stops of compensation are claimed and there is no reason to doubt that, especially when shooting stills. Stabilisation isn’t so hot when recording video – the active mode reduces movement when walking and recording, but better systems are available. There are plenty of options in terms of image quality, including the HEIF (High Efficiency Image File Format) as a space-saving alternative to JPEGs. HEIFs can be selected in 8- or 10-bit options and both use less space than a JPEG. There’s more choice with Raw files as well – shoot compressed, uncompressed or three strengths of lossless compressed: large, medium or small. The A7R V’s Pixel Shift Multi Shooting mode precisely moves the sensor to create a larger image file. You can choose between four and 16 frames, all of which are taken with a single press of the shutter release. Sony’s free Imaging Edge desktop software is then required to knit the frames together into a 240-megapixel file. The latest version of the software also has
easy to navigate. The menu button itself is still somewhat awkwardly placed on the left shoulder of the camera, which demands two- handed operation. That’s not ideal when the camera is up to your eye – but it’s simple enough to re-assign functions to different buttons. The curved handgrip is comfortable, but the main exposure mode dial can be a bit fiddly – you have to press the central button down, then turn – and there are two dials near where your thumb comes to rest. One freely rotates to change settings, while the other is for exposure compensation by default, but can be assigned a different function. This latter dial has a central button to lock it, which makes sense, but it would be nice to see the same type of control on the exposure mode dial. The new rear LCD is touchscreen, which is good for video use but not so much for shooting stills. One neat touch is that you can select the touchscreen to only be active on playback. This means you can quickly check sharpness of an image with a double-tap, smartphone style, on the screen. Sharpness is a key consideration when using a camera of such high resolution. Camera shake
CREST OF THE WAVE Sony’s high-resolution cameras have always been great performers for detailed stills
“Focus breathing compensation automatically smooths focus transitions and maintains a consistent field of view”
62
PRO MOVIEMAKER
Powered by FlippingBook