The original A7 camera was released way back in 2013, with subsequent iterations appearing in 2014, 2018, 2021 and now 2025 with the launch of the A7 V.

On the face of it, the Sony A7 V and the previous generation Sony A7 IV are both 33 megapixel full-frame mirrorless cameras that are designed to be an all-round hybrid stills/video solution aimed at enthusiasts.

Despite having a very similar external design, they're actually quite different when it comes to their core specifications, so we're bringing you this Sony A7 V vs Sony A7 IV head-to-head comparison to help you choose between the two cameras.

You can also read our detailed  Sony A7 IV review to find out exactly what we think of it in much more depth.

Sensor and Processor

The A7 IV uses a 33 megapixel, 35mm full-frame, back-side illuminated (BSI) CMOS Exmor R sensor.

The A7 V features a brand new 33 megapixel sensor partially-stacked Exmor RS CMOS sensor paired with the equally new Bionz XR2 processor. This combination primarily offers even greater dynamic range, less rolling shutter and 4.5x faster readout speed than the A7 IV.

It provides improved Auto White Balance with AI deep learning technology and can recognise the light source and adjust the AWB accordingly.

The Composite RAW Shooting feature, first seen on the A9 III model, uses the Imagine Edge Desktop software to combine 4, 8, 16, or 32 RAW images to reduce noise and improve image quality.

Extended RAW processing is a brand new feature for the A7 V that uses AI to generate a high resolution 109 megapixel image in the new .axr RAW file format, again via the Imagine Edge Desktop software. This mode is better suited than Composite RAW Shooting to fast moving subjects such as animals.

The A7 V offers 16+ stops of dynamic range, 1 stop higher than the A7 IV, with shadow noise claimed to be much less than its main rivals.

Unlike the older A7 IV, 14-bit RAW recording is available on the A7 V even when shooting continuously with the electronic shutter.

ISO Speed

The native sensitivity range of both cameras runs from ISO 100-51,200, which can be expanded down to ISO 50 and up to ISO 204,800.

Video

The A7 V has more advanced video recording specs and performance than the older A7 IV.

The A7 IV offers 4K UHD video recording in the XAVC S-I format, up to 60fps at 4:2:2 color depth in 10-bit to the inserted memory card or over HDMI to compatible third party recorders with either Long GOP or All-Intra frame encoding.

4K/30p video is oversampled from 7K in full-frame, but unfortunately 4K/60p is oversampled from 4.8K in the APS-C Super 35 mode. So when shooting in 4K at 30p, the camera utilises the full width of the image sensor to oversample from 7K's worth of data, but at 60p, a 1.5x crop is applied.

The new A7 V ups the ante to offer 4K/120p in super 35mm crop mode and 7K oversampled 4K/60p full-frame recording with no pixel binning.

The A7 IV can record Full 1080 HD at up to 120fps, with the dedicated Slow and Quick motion mode offering frame rates ranging from 1fps to 120fps at 1080p quality, whereas the A7 V can record Full 240p HD.

They both support the S-Cinetone, HLG, S-Log3 and S-Log2 profiles. The newer A7 V additionally supports M-LUT and Log recording with LUTs.

Both models support the newer Digital Audio Interface (via the Multi Interface Shoe) to enable use of the ECM-B1M digital shotgun microphone or similar.

There's a new noise reduction function on the A7 V for the integrated mic which reduces constant background noise.

The A7V offers longer recording times at 40 degree celsius – 60 mins versus 10 mins on the A7 IV.

The newer A7 V also offers the clever Auto Framing feature which uses the camera's AI-based subject recognition technology to automatically crop the frame to keep the subject in a prominent position when shooting movies, even when the camera is mounted on a tripod.

There's no Open Gate or RAW format video recording available on either model.

Autofocus

The A7 IV has a hybrid autofocus system with 759 phase-detection points and 25 contrast points that cover 94% of the frame, with the system working all the way down to -4EV low-light. It uses the Real-time Eye AF system which can recognise humans, animals and birds.

Sony has added an AI deep learning processing unit to the A7 V which enables it to recognise more subjects than the previous model, and also greatly improves the detection of humans and animals/birds.

It can recognise a human via its pose as well as its eye and face. So if the person's head is turned away from the camera, it will still accurately detect the subject as human based on the AI deep learning. Animal and bird detection has been expanded from just being able to recognise the eye to the eye, head and body.

As well as humans and animals, the A7 V is also able to recognise birds, insects, airplanes, and cars/trains. In the latter category, it is capable of focusing on helmets, it can recognise the eyes of some grazing and small animals, and more easily pinpoint the eyes of a variety of bird types as well as recognising bird bodies.

There's also a very welcome brand new Auto mode which will choose the most appropriate subject mode (although this is slightly slower than choosing the specific mode yourself).

Burst Shooting

The A7 IV offers 10fps burst shooting with Full AF/AE tracking using either the mechanical or silent electronic shutter.

It can only achieve this rate, though, if you shoot JPEGs and/or compressed Raws, dropping quite dramatically to just 5-6fps if you want to shoot either uncompressed or lossless compressed Raw files.

The A7 IV is able to shoot at 6fps for up to 830 JPEG+RAW (uncompressed or lossless compressed) or at 10fps for 1,000 Fine JPEGs or compressed RAW in one high-speed burst.

The newer A7 V can shoot a blistering 30fps blackout free burst, the same shooting rate as the flagship A1 II, which is much faster than the 10fps rate on the A7 IV. The continuous shooting rate for the mechanical shutter on the A7 V is up to 10fps.

The A7 V's buffer size with compressed RAW goes to 1000 shots+ and in the compressed 14-bit RAW mode you can get up to 95 images continuously.

Pre-capture is a new feature on the A7 V that has made its way from the A9 III sports camera. When activated, up to 30 frames per second are temporarily stored while the shutter button is half-pressed, and up to 1 second before can be captured once the shutter is fully pressed, providing a degree of leniency for fast-moving action.

The Continuous Speed Shooting Boost is another new function which provides an easy way to quickly engage one of the various burst modes (30/20/15/10/5fps) at the press of a button.

The A7 V has 60 AF/AE calculations/second versus 120 fps on the A9 III and A1 II models.

It offers 1/16,000th sec electronic shutter speed and 1/8,000th mechanical and there's no flash shooting available with the electronic shutter.

Body and Design

Compared to the previous model, the new A7 V has an improved grip with better ergonomics, a 4-axis LCD screen, and two USB-C ports. Otherwise the two models are virtually identical.

The A7 V weighs 695g and measures 130.3 x 96.4 x 72.3 versus 658g and 131 x 96.4 x 69.7 for the A7 IV.

Both models support the VG-C4EM external battery grip.

IBIS

Both cameras have 5-axis optical in-body image stabilisation that corrects for pitch and yaw shake.

Thanks to a newly redesigned stabilisation unit, the new A7 V offers up to 7.5 stops of in-body stabilisation at the centre of the image and 6.5 stops at the edge, making it one of the more capable Alpha camera in this regard.

The A7 IV has built-in image stabilisation that's only worth up to 5.5 shutter speed stops.

Both models benefit from having a special Active Mode that increases stabilization for hand-held movie shooting.

Viewfinder

Both models have the same electronic viewfinder, a 3.69m-dot EVF that features 100% scene coverage, 0.78x magnification and a 120fps high frame rate option to help track moving subjects more smoothly with virtually no lag.

LCD Screen

The A7 IV has a fully articulating 3-inch, 1.03-million-dot LCD screen with a vari-angle design. You can flip out the screen to the side, rotate it forwards for easier operation when pointing the camera at yourself, and fold it flat against the back of the camera to stop it from getting scratched.

The A7 V has a 3.2-inch, 2095K dot resolution, 4-axis LCD screen inherited from the A7R V and which is unique to Sony. It can be flipped out to the side, rotated to the front, folded against the back of the camera to help protect it, and set to many other positions in-between.

It makes the camera ever-so-slightly thicker than its predecessor, but more than makes up for that with its incredible versatility.

Memory Cards

Both models have dual memory card slots. One of these slots can interchangeably use UHS-II SD-cards and even faster CFexpress Type A cards and one is only for UHS-II SD-cards.

Battery Life

The Sony A7 V uses exactly the same large capacity NP-FZ100 battery as the A7 IV model.

The A7 IV offers a CIPA-rated battery life of 580 shots when using the LCD screen and 520 when using the viewfinder.

Thanks to the new Bionz XR2 processor, battery life on the A7 V has been improved up to 630 shots with the EVF and 750 with the LCD, despite using the same battery as the A7 IV.

There's also a new low brightness mode available which auto-reduces the LCD brightness to help conserve battery life.

Connectivity

The A7 IV supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz wi-fi, Bluetooth 5.0 and offers the ability to operate as a webcam or use the camera for 1080p live streaming via UVC/UAC.

The A7 V now offers 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz wi-fi compatibility and it has 2x2 MIMO antennas which provide 2x faster transfer speed than the A7 IV.

Both cameras can also be powered and charged via a USB connection, which is useful if you're out and about and have a compatible powerbank to plug the camera into, and both use the newer USB-C variant.

The A7 V actually has two USB-C ports rather than a single one, though, one faster USB-C 3.2 10 Gbps port for file transfer and one slower USB 2.0 480 Mbps port for recharging.

The newer model offers faster live streaming than the A7 IV, supporting 4K/30p UVA/UAC versus 4K/15p on the older version.

Price

A price-tag of £2799 / €2999  $2,899 body-only in the UK, Europe, and USA respectively makes the new Sony A7 V more expensive at launch than the A7 IV, which cost £2399 / €2799 / $2499 body-only in the UK, Europe and the USA when it was first launched in 2021.

Conclusion

Choosing between the new Sony A7 V and the older A7 IV is largely focused on speed, with the newer model's partially-stacked sensor and faster processor really boosting the continuous shooting speeds and video capabilities without sacrificing image quality or battery life.

So what do you think? Would you choose the newer, more capable Sony A7 V or the older, cheaper A7 IV? Leave a comment below!

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