Great job, Benj, you're the only one who mentioned the shutter rating. This is huge! This is a camera for people, primarily for photographers who will, on occasion, switch to video, and not the other way around. So I think the specs are fine.

It's crazy how many people are like I'm switching to this and that when in fact the camera they have is good enough they just need to improve their skills.

The electronic shutter is probably the biggest addition in the grand scheme of things. Seems like the future is heading to all digital shutters. Shutterless cameras are probably going to be the new mirrorless cameras lol.

The reason this camera is not overheating even without a fan is that new chip inside, Bionz XR2, that is probably built on a newer process (finer tracks, like 4 or 3 nanometers) and natively consumes less power and generates a lot less heat. Like the chips in mobile phones and gaming graphics cards get upgraded every year or every few years.

Better overview than most on the 7 V. thanks

More than anything, the fact that this body feels overpriced at $2899 just shows what an insanely competitive market we are in right now, tariffs be damned. I think Sony Sony'd pretty hard here in some ways (zero compelling video features, the bad joke of an EVF), but the increased battery life, better sensor, better AF make it a really nice little brother to the A1, much like the Z6iii is to the Z8. I still don't feel that Sony values their customers as much as some other companies right now, though.

I don't even buy gear like that anymore but it's nice to see tech improving every generation. Im still on my XT3 since its release haha.

The only reason to use mechanical shutter on any stacked type sensor camera now would be for flash and/or crazy artificial lights flickering at different frequencies

Please make a video comparing the A7 V vs A7R V

Great review, and Thank You so much for asking about and covering the mechanical shutter info!

Faantastic video as always

You're the first person to mention the upgraded shutter. That's actually HUGE for me. I have two A7iv's, and one of the shutters blew out randomly at 15,000 actuations. Luckily the camera was only a few months old and still under warranty. But it scared me to the point that I really probably wouldn't have purchased this camera if they didn't upgrade that shutter. Now, I'm still seriously beefed about not having open gate, as it would be so extremely helpful for my real estate business. But if they add it in a firmware update, I'll buy two of these to replace my iv's. Definitely an upgrade for my events and weddings. I basically only ever turned on electronic shutter for outdoor ceremonies in good lighting. I could see running silent for these most of the day, but I still want to see banding performance under artificial lighting.

were you able to completely get rid of the banding at 3:47 by adjusting the shutter speed or did the banding never disappear?

Thank You!

Great Breakdown !!! Thanks SO Much!!

(Sony a6400 owner here) The a7v is possibly the one that will convince me to upgrade to a prosumer full-frame model.

As someone who works with photo and loves video I have been tempted to to grab an a7iii on the cheap or even to reach for an a7iv (or god forbid an FX3/6) but couldn't bring myself to do it.

The a7iii is incredible but it's very outdated now and lacks the newer lowlight capabilities and only does 8-bit video.

The a7iv is a phenomenal piece of camera tech but has some hardware issues that stopped me from ever investing. Overheating, mechanical shutter failure, rolling shutter, USB ports etc. I just couldn't justify the investment.

This camera comes along and fixes every issue that matters, appears to have insane longevity and people are upset? 750k mechanical shutter count rating, no overheating filming 4k 60 unless you're in Death Valley or on the sun (see Gerald's video), 4k 120 (calm down Christopher Nolan), great battery life, elite lowlight performance, x2 USB-C ports, 30fps photo burst, negligible rolling shutter, stunning downsampled 7k footage that has been the industry standard for the last 7 years, S-Log3, x2 card slots (one C-fast)

The only things you can claim are missing are open gate and 6k? Open Gate will just have you framing differently so go ahead and frame it for how you'll need it. 6k? We hardly even need 4k unless you're showing your horizontally shot Instagram reels on a movie theatre screen (or if you're actually working on something VFX intensive in which case just rent a cheap Blackmagic 6k or something)

If you're a Sony a7iv owner, yeah fair you probably don't need this one but you already own a fantastic camera that as long as it's still functioning will be creating stunning images for the next decade. Go buy yourself a nice lens or take that special someone out for dinner, put it in the kids college fund, do something good with the money you saved from not upgrading needlessly. We're blessed to be in the age finally where all gear is good. Have fun, create the beautiful art in your soul that attracted you to cameras in the first place.

I had a shutter blow up on my A7 IV during sports shooting… So yes, it’s a common issue. Interestingly, I have two A7 IVs: one with the original shutter and one with a shutter replaced by Sony. The new Sony shutter makes a different sound than the original, which makes me think they “upgraded” the part to address a widely known and recurring problem in their service.

From your test, it looks like the silent shutter is still not completely usable inside due to banding. Still a great upgrade. I don't need one as I have a.A9III and A1 but then just because I don't need it has never stopped me buying it ;)

I don't need Open Gate, so it is not a deal breaker for me

Why are your reviews always so spot-on and actually helpful? thank you man