Sony A7 III vs A7 IV – Is it really worth the upgrade?

The Sony A7 IV has been shipping and already gotten into the hands of a lucky few judging from the posts I’ve been seeing on Facebook lately. A lot of people are still waiting, but yet more are still on the fence. Is it worth upgrading my Sony A7 III? If I don’t have either, is it worth the extra to get the A7 IV or just wait until the A7 III is discounted?

Well, William Svrček, otherwise known as The Hybrid Shooter, takes an in-depth look at both of these cameras in this almost-27-minute long video covering just about every useful and important detail you could possibly imagine. Unfortunately, there are no chapters for the video, so you may have to hunt around a bit to look for specific things or just watch the whole thing.

You realise fairly quickly just how much detail William’s going into in this video, covering everything from the general ergonomics to the sometimes massively different internal features and firmware. Topics like real-time object AF tracking, Eye AF while shooting video, the ISO performance (although I think I preferred the look of the A7 III there, personally), dynamic range, white balance and colour accuracy are just some of the things he touches on and that’s just in the first five minutes.

Whether you’re a photographer or a filmmaker, this video has you covered. Both types of camera user’s needs are addressed in-depth, often with information about why a particular feature may or may not be a good thing for you. I even learned about a few cool A7 IV features I didn’t even know I might need. Also, nice to see a decent-sized HDMI port. I wonder if this might finally be the mirrorless camera that makes me ditch my DSLRs?

The Sony A7 III was equally as tempting to the masses on its initial release, too, and proved extremely popular. Now, though, just under four years since its announcement, its feature set already seems quite dated. The A7 IV, on the other hand, looks about as significant an upgrade over the A7 III as the A7 III was over the Sony A7 II in a number of aspects.

Have you received your Sony A7 IV yet? do you agree with William’s findings and assessment in the video? And if you’re a Sony A7 III user that’s not upgrading, why are you sticking with the A7 III and not updating?