I recently upgraded my camera gear by purchasing a second-hand Sony α7 RIV, and what made the purchase even better was that I was able to trade in my Sony α7III as part exchange. It was a bittersweet moment to let go of the trusty A7III that had been with me for so many memorable photographs, but the opportunity to upgrade to the α7 RIV was too good to pass up. This is now the backup to the Sony α7IV which is the main workhorse for shows and performances whereas the Sony α7 RIV will be mainly for studio work.

I got the Sony α7 RIV for the resolution increase over the Sony α7IV for portrait work. ( Am I saying ‘Sony’ too much? )

The α7III boasted a sensor resolution of 6000x4000, while the α7IV surpassed it with an impressive resolution of 7008x4672, marking a significant 16% increase. However, the α7RIV takes it to another level with an astonishing resolution of 10046x6546. This represents a remarkable 41.7% increase compared to the α7IV and an impressive 65.6% increase over the α7III. Such extraordinary resolution provides ample capability for studio work and on-the-go photography, enabling close cropping when needed and delivering exceptional detail for capturing intricate headshots.

SMALL TO LARGE

Sony α7iii, Sony α7IV, Sony α7 RIV

Speaking of file sizes, configuring my α7RIV camera to capture uncompressed raw images produces truly enormous .arw files, weighing in at around 128 Megabytes. It's a colossal size that made me aware of the concerns expressed by my hard drives and Dropbox, whispering about diminishing storage space. However, opting for compressed raw reduces the file sizes by half.

Fortunately, I have the handy Rawsie app, which significantly reduces the file size to a more manageable range of 18-22 Megabytes. Hold on a second... Yes, I double-checked and confirmed my initial observation. The app crunches down the file size to a mere 18% of the original, all without compromising quality. Although I must admit that using this camera during a photoshoot would quickly fill up my SD cards.

Now, let's turn to compress the resulting JPEGs. Initially, each full-resolution JPEG tends to be around 47-50 Megabytes in size. However, with the assistance of SpaceSaver, JPEGmini, and JPGClean, I can bring down the file size to a much more manageable 4.2 Megabytes each.

However, one thing I noticed right away was how long things were taking. These files were much bigger so everything took longer, from exporting and compressing files, of course, if your files are 40-60% larger then you will have to wait!

So I have to test this out in the field with a proper shoot!