I was able to borrow a Sony a7iv for about two months. First, I went to Marin Drive to check out the birds, but I didn’t have a long enough lens to get any great shots of the osprey or the smaller birds. I did get a good shot of the plane over the osprey nest in the electrical tower. This shot was taken with the kit 28-70 lens. The dynamic range, sharpness, and file editability were impressive even with the kit lens.

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Then I took a walk around my neighborhood and got this flower shot. This shot was taken with the kit 28-70 lens. The kit lens isn’t fast and doesn’t have much range, but it produced good enough photos if I didn’t try to use it beyond its limitations.

Next, I took a trip to Powell Butte Park, a mainstay for my photography outings. At this point, I was able to get my hands on the 18-105 F4 G lens and used it from then on. It is a much nicer lens, even though it isn’t very fast. It is sharper, has a shorter minimum focus length, and a longer total focal length. I was able to capture some decent macro shots of bugs, and with the 33 megapixels, I was able to crop as much as needed and didn’t have issues with loss of sharpness or noise. The Sony A7iv handles noise well, and I never noticed obvious noise as I was editing any of the shots with the Sony.

The next few photos were taken at Lincoln Memorial Park and Funeral Home.

My last photo trip was back to Powell Butte and I was lucky enough to get this shot of a barred owl on a tree limb. It was just chillin out in the early evening and let me take some shots. This was taken with the 18-105 F4 G but I wish I had a faster lens. That being said I think this turned out great and I was happy to capture this owl.

Next, I went to my brother’s property and took some photos and tested out its video. I also rode a motorcycle for the first time, but didn’t use the Sony for video of that. Sony video examples are after the photos.

I am not the biggest video guy, but I wanted to try it out with the Sony A7iv. It has great image and dynamic range, and the slow motion looks good (60FPS), but the big issue I had was that it overheated quickly. I wouldn’t rely on it for a dedicated video shoot. It wasn’t a very hot day, and I wasn’t taking long clips, but it still overheated twice while I was using it, and that meant I had to turn it off and wait before using it again. Check out the video examples below.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, I was extremely impressed with the Sony A7iv. The continuous autofocus was super fast and accurate. It felt like the best autofocus I’ve ever used, even compared to the Canon R8 and R5, which have impressive autofocus. Also, having 33 megapixels was great and allowed for cropping more than would be possible with a camera with 24 megapixels. The dynamic range and lack of noise were also notable in all the photos I took. The photography quality was top-notch, and I highly recommend it for photography.

The video looked great and had decent options, but as it overheated rapidly, more than my Canon R5 by far, I cannot recommend it for video. It has IBIS, but handheld footage still needed digital stabilization to use for a static shot, which isn’t weird, but I thought I would mention it. If you just need a quick 4K clip or wanna do a little slow mo, then it will do fine, but I wouldn’t rely on it for a major video operation.

If you are interested in picking up a Sony A7iv and a lens, and a storage device, use my affiliate links below!