Hands-on: The Sony A7 V uses a partially stacked sensor for silent shooting

Sony announces the A7 V, its first camera with a partially stacked sensor and various features borrowed from the pricier Alpha models. It will be available body-only in late December for $2,899, and a kit including the new 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS II lens will be available in February.

The A7 V is one of Sony’s most versatile full-frame cameras, for amateurs and professionals who aren’t looking to spend nearly $7,000 on the A1 II. The new A7 retains the 33MP sensor like the A7 IV before it, but with a partially stacked design like Nikon Z6 III. Thanks to this technology, the A7 V can be used full-time with its electronic shutter for completely silent shooting and burst shooting at 30 fps without interruption. Whereas the Nikon Z6 III, as great as it was, was Some disagreements On the low dynamic range of its partially stacked sensor, Sony claims the A7 V’s sensor has 16 stops of latitude.

Other features of the A7 V include the new Bionz XR2 processor with a dedicated AI chip for AF tracking and subject detection (e.g. A7R V), a new tilt screen (also first introduced on A7R V), improved 5-axis image stabilization (up to 7.5 stops), up to 1 second of pre-capture in continuous burst shooting, and a speed boost button that allows for faster shooting on the fly (borrowed from A9 III). The A7 V’s OLED electronic viewfinder is the same 3.68 million dot resolution as its predecessor, but now supports a faster rate of 120fps, and the live view feed switches more quickly than the LCD screen when you put your eyes on it. Sony has also managed to extend the life of the new model a bit by using the same NP-FZ100 battery – which is rated for an estimated 630 shots with the EVF or 750 with the LCD (up 110 and 170 from the last generation).

The A7 V is designed to be a hybrid of both stills and video, and its videos are a huge improvement over the A7 IV. The new model records oversampled 7K to produce full-frame 4K and 60p video, fixing one of the A7 IV’s biggest issues and omissions. The last generation model relied on 1.5x cropping for 4K 60p footage, while the A7 V is now only cropped to reach the high-speed 4K 120p speed for slow-motion work.

As someone who owned the A7 IV and used it professionally for about two years (before selling it to upgrade to another model), the A7 V has a lot of what I wish this camera could do for me. I’ve only had to use one for a very short time, and being able to shoot silently in most situations like my other cameras is very useful for shooting freely in a quiet environment – like a wedding. One of the biggest problems I had with the A7 IV was the delay while waiting for live view to switch from the LCD to the EVF. The split-second moment of momentary blindness isn’t egregiously long, but the A7 V’s faster switching brings it closer to the ultra-fast feeling of the professional A1 and A9 III cameras. I know I’m spoiled, but once you get used to it, you won’t want to go back to a slower response time every time you pull your second body.

The A7 V’s new screen and ergonomic improvements are welcome changes, too. I still don’t like the feel of the Sony grip, even though they are my favorite cameras, but Sony makes the best articulated screens around, offering the best of both worlds for photos and video. Until now, these premium displays have been reserved for more expensive models, and I’m excited for more people to have access to them.

It’s easy for the Sony A7 V to look like a simple update, just like last year Upgrade A1 II It was for the pros. But Sony has done a great job focusing on refining and improving all of the A7’s core bread-and-butter features. It’s a great album featuring many of Sony’s latest new features. It’s unfortunate that this line continues to rise, launching at $500 more than the original price of the A7 IV and $200 more than the current tariff-inflated price, but the new sensor technology is more expensive sensor technology.

Sony has been quick to innovate and iterate with its Alpha cameras for many years, giving it a huge head start in the mirrorless world ahead of Canon, Nikon and others. But innovation seems to have stalled a bit in recent models. Now that Sony has played its latest cards across its current crop and given the A7 V samples of its latest technology, we’ll have to see if Sony’s next generation of cameras can make any of the big leaps forward as previously known.

Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto/The Verge