For most of Sony’s mirrorless camera history, the Sony a7s series has been about videographers and high ISO output more than anything else. In 2020, I was a part of the review this site did of the Sony a7s III and even back then, I could tell that Sony really didn’t know what to do with it. It was essentially the same camera as its predecessor. With Sony’s entire lineup of video-related E-mount cameras, I strongly believe that the Sony a7s lineup will need a major revision before we ever see a new body come.
Earlier last year, I talked about how I think that the Sony a7s IV should have more megapixels — and I stick by that. Sony can now do 8K video pretty well with a lot of other cameras that videographers and content creators should be reaching for instead. Some of them cosplay as photographers, but don’t have a single invoice to their name for their photographic services.
However, there is genuinely a need for even better high ISO output for still images. The problem with the current A7S III is that it has too low a resolution. What we really need these days is more resolution with insanely good high ISO output.
It’s been six years since the Sony a7s III was introduced.
For a few years, I thought we should increase the megapixels to 16. But that’s too low at this point, considering what they’re doing with video. Even 24MP, I feel, is too low. Once you get into the 33MP range, we’re starting to really get more of what we as photographers want. But if Nikon and LUMIX can make cameras with full-frame sensors and megapixel counts in the 40s, why can’t Sony do it too?
With that said, I think that the Sony a7s IV should be around 42MP. In 2017, the company launched the Sony a7r III — which is still widely considered to be one of the best cameras they made for photographers. This camera boasted a 42MP sensor, and considering that it’s been nearly a decade, I don’t see why Sony can’t give a sensor like this great high ISO output.
What am I talking about? Well over 12,800 high ISO output with little to no noise and super clean image quality output. It would also give us a whole lot of dynamic range that we can work with in post-production.
Considering what cameras with 60MP are capable of doing, this shouldn’t be difficult to do. But if we look at the Sony a7V, we know that Sony can indeed do more, but they just choose not to.
It’s been six years since the Sony a7s III was introduced. Sony seems very keen on trying to attract content creators who make videos instead of photographers. And if they indeed made the Sony a7s IV, then they’d need to make it a device primarily designed at shooting stills in a very innovative way. Considering all the AI they claim to use, I hope that they can make this request happen. It would truly change image-making.