Notes from Costa Rica with the Sony A7R VI

Real-world experience with Sony’s new high-res king

A mother howler monkey with her baby in tow. Tarcoles, Costa Rica. Sony A7R VI with the Sony 100–400mm f4.5 GM OSS lens and 14f TC. f/6.3 1/1250 sec ISO5000

My recent trip to Costa Rica was perfectly timed with the delivery of my new Sony A7R VI. It is always exciting to get a new camera, but the opportunity to explore the new features and capabilities in my favorite shooting locations was a rare treat! I thought it might be useful for me to share my real-world experience with the A7R VI in the field.

There are plenty of reviews of the Sony A7R VI online, so I won’t go over all of the specs and features of the new camera here. Sony’s A7R line features high-resolution full-frame mirrorless cameras that are renowned for their image quality and dynamic range. My professional experience with Sony cameras began with the A7R IV, and the A7R V has been my daily driver for the past 3 years.

I have enjoyed using the A7R V very much. The 61MP sensor captures breathtaking detail and dynamic range, and the subject detection AF has proven to be fast and reliable. The only thing that has given me consistent camera envy for other models is speed. The A7R V has a modest continuous top speed of 10fps- 6fps with the mechanical shutter.

The speed limit of the A7R V is generally not an issue for me. The lion’s share of my work doesn’t require anything faster. However, on those occasions when 20 or 30fps would come in handy, 10fps feels downright stifling.

Scarlet macaws in the morning sun. Tarcoles, Costa Rica. Note — there has been no color adjustment in this image. This is the RAW file with a calibrated profile applied in Lightroom Classic. f/5.6 1/4000sec ISO3200

Enter the A7R VI

I was absolutely NOT planning to buy the A7R VI. I enjoyed my A7R V, and I didn’t expect the rumored bells and whistles of the new model to tempt me. But the official announcement and initial reviews hooked me, and I pre-ordered the camera after just a few hours of deliberation.

The new stacked 67MP sensor allows for 30fps continuous shooting and pre-capture mode. The higher frame rates require using the compressed RAW format and the electronic shutter. I read that the dynamic range with the electronic shutter is not as good as the mechanical shutter, and there are numerous concerns online about rolling shutter. Keep reading to find out what my experience has been in real life.

Five observations

This is a short list of my observations after using the A7R VI for several hours every day for 9 days. These aren’t lab tests, but my personal experience making photos with the A7R VI. The marquee features proved to be impressive, but there were a few small improvements that stuck out to me in daily use.

A snowy egret takes flight. Tarcoles, Costa Rica. f/4.5 1/4000sec ISO640

Operational speed

This is not a banner feature, but it directly affects how you use the camera. The A7R VI feels snappier than the A7R V in pretty much every way. The A7R V was an improvement over the A7R IV in this regard, and the new model continues this trend. I didn’t feel like I had to wait for the A7R VI at any point. By the time I turned the camera on and put the EVF to my eye, it was ready to shoot. Switching from the LCD to the EVF and back is quick. Navigating the menus with the touch screen is easy and fast.

Auto Focus improvements

Sony promised improved subject detection in the A7R VI, and boy, did they deliver. I have always been pleased with the speed and accuracy of the subject detection in the A7R V, but the R VI definitely kicks it up a notch! There was more than one occasion when the camera locked onto birds in flight before I was sure they were in the frame. I also found the section was MUCH better with small and/or distant subjects than the previous model.

Obviously not a great photo, but a testament to the AF capabilities of the A7R VI. I was basically using my telephoto lens as a spotting scope to identify this trogon when the subject detection zeroed in on its eye. Pretty remarkable for a subject this size at this distance!

Image quality

It seems obvious to talk about the image quality from an A7R series camera, but a couple of things stood out to me. With 67MP, the A7R VI dispels the conventional wisdom that more megapixels means more high-ISO noise. The high ISO performance is actually better than my A7R V. I rarely bother with noise reduction in post with images up to around ISO 6400. ISO 12,800 is a no-brainer, and my shots up to ISO 32,000 cleaned up nicely in Lightroom Classic.

A northern tamandua (lesser anteater) napping in a tree. Tarcoles, Costa Rica. f/6.3 1/640sec ISO8000

Any dynamic range difference between the mechanical shutter and the electronic shutter is all but imperceptible in normal situations. If you drastically underexpose an image and have to bring up the exposure in post, then you should probably use the mechanical shutter, but I didn’t find the electronic shutter limiting in real-world use.

Rolling shutter

What about rolling shutter?! The readout speed of the new sensor is 5X faster than the previous model, but 5X slower than the Sony A1 II. This means that the A7R VI potentially exhibits more rolling shutter than the flagship A1 II, but how does that play out in the field?

A cinnamon hummingbird in Costa Rica. Where’s that pesky rolling shutter? f/4.5 1/4000sec ISO2500

Did I find some rolling shutter in my images? Maybe. A couple of my hummingbird photos with the electronic shutter show what could be rolling shutter artifacts, but in 99.9% of shots, I came away with beautiful images of fast-moving subjects. My still images more than convinced me that the electronic shutter in the A7R VI is up to the task I need it for.

The little things

There are a couple of new features in the A7R VI that seem trivial, but I noticed them a lot. The first is the lens alignment mark on the outside of the lens mount. It makes it so convenient to attach a lens without the need to look into the front of the lens mount for the little white dot. As I said, it sounds trivial, but I found it to be a welcome improvement.

It doesn’t look like much, but the small white line on the orange lens mount is a time saver!

Another improvement I came to rely on is the tiny level indicator in the EVF. You can choose to have a small level (it resembles the exposure meter at the bottom of the frame) instead of the multi-axis level that appears over the image. I don’t like to straighten horizons in post if I don’t have to, and I found the tiny level very handy.

All in all, I am delighted with my decision to upgrade my kit with the A7R VI. It has all of the things I have enjoyed about the previous A7R cameras I’ve used, plus important improvements that paid immediate dividends in my work. I can’t think of anything I was disappointed with in the new camera.

I would love to have some of the computational features you’ll find in OM system cameras, but I know that’s a tall ask with the amount of data in a 67MP full-frame image! Other than that, I’m finding the A7R VI to be all I need and more.