Sony a7IV Long-Term Review: The Best Wildlife Camera for 2024?

[@CurtisSnapshot]

There’s a lot to cover with a camera like this, so I’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a comment below, as your insights could really help someone decide if the Sony a7IV is the right camera for them or not.

[@35ysl]

Great video!! And your photos are absolutely amazing. Super inspiring. Subscribed

[@CurtisSnapshot]

Thank you so much!

[@vergrachtr]

a good and honest review, great. Can you tell me which program you use to edit your video footage? And maybe make a video about how you do this would be nice. I will keep following you, greetings from Belgium Kind regards Redgy

[@CurtisSnapshot]

Thank you, Redgy! I'm glad you enjoyed the review. I use Adobe Premiere Pro, but it is subscription-based. A great alternative is DaVinci Resolve, which is free to use. Both are professional video editing programs if you need that level of power. If you’re looking for something quicker to simply put clips together, Adobe Rush might be a good option as well, which does offer a basic free version last I checked. Thanks for the suggestion! I may create some tutorials in the future if I have any unique editing tricks to share; however, there are a ton of great tutorials out there. Greetings from Canada! I really appreciate your comment and hope you have a great day!

[@vergrachtr]

@@CurtisSnapshot Thanks for this quick response, I will try it with Davinci. I myself have been working with Sony for years, now the A1 and many lenses (200-600, 600f4 and 300f2.8 and others) and still I find your photos WOW. If I understand correctly you have not been doing nature photography for long, if that is the case then I take my hat off to your achievements. Kind regards, Redgy

[@CurtisSnapshot]

@@vergrachtr I really appreciate the kind words, it means a lot! I have been into nature photography since around the summer of 2020. So roughly 4 years, and I’m really glad I found my love for it.

[@e3446]

Great job on the video! Lots of helpful information for someone considered this camera. Great presentation as well. Thumps up 👍

[@CurtisSnapshot]

Thank you, I appreciate it. The idea of tackling a camera review was pretty daunting haha

[@kaffepuffen8627]

Awesome! 🤩 I learned alot!

[@CurtisSnapshot]

I’m glad you found some useful info, thank you for commenting!

[@Ryanswildlifephotography]

Great video mate and agree 100%. I run the same exact setup as you and the only time I will change is when/if the new Sony A1 get announced !!!

[@CurtisSnapshot]

Thanks so much! The a7iv really hits the sweet spot for me. Of course, there’s always that dream camera out there, but for now, this setup does everything I need and then some.

[@JapaneseLegend888]

Great video! I'm getting rid of all my Fuji gear (the autofocus is terrible) and having the hardest time choosing between the A7IV and the new Nikon Z6iii. The 20fps RAW, the EVF, and the pre-capture on the Z6iii is really nice, plus the video specs, and the cheaper CF Express B cards. The Nikon wildlife lens lineup is extremely nice and diverse as well. On the other hand, the A7IV is quite a bit cheaper now (I've seen it for $1850 new, locally), is 33MP, has a bit better dynamic range, and IMO, has a significantly better non-wildlife focal length lens line up (Sigma / Sony GM 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, Sigma 24-70 f2.8 Gen II, Sigma 70-200 f2.8, Tamron 70-180 f2.8, etc).

[@CurtisSnapshot]

20fps would be really nice, as well as pre-capture! Cheaper CF Express type B cards are also a big win. It seems like a pretty difficult choice between the Nikon and Sony. I think you’ll be pretty happy with either choice. Good luck, and thank you for commenting!

[@SwetAndrew11111]

Thankyou

[@alphaandomega2709]

Sony a7RV is the perfect companion 😁

[@DanielSymphonies]

yeah, the extra 2.5 stops of stabe and the additional resolution is what made me upgrade from a7iv to a7rv.

[@CurtisSnapshot]

Awesome choice! I definitely want to try out a higher resolution camera one day.

[@AlexMcDougallPhotography]

Still has the 10 frames per second doesn't it?

[@CurtisSnapshot]

@@AlexMcDougallPhotography yes, from what I’ve seen the a7rv is also 10 fps. I wonder if it retains its fps in uncompressed raw though!

[@SunilSingh-qf9qj]

So, do you shoot in slog3 for wildlife? Because 10,000 or 12,800 iso in slog3 is a mess

[@CurtisSnapshot]

Oh, that’s interesting! I didn't think about how important the profile would be to mention. That owl footage was shot in S-Cinetone. Since then, I’ve switched back to the default Sony colours because I find that wildlife scenes benefit from more vibrant colours. As for S-Log3, I used it for a while but found it more convenient to shoot in other profiles. Since the footage is 10-bit, I’m still able to adjust it a fair amount. It's not full colour grading, but enough to manipulate the footage to my liking.

[@jessicakelly5944]

that speech could’ve gotten you to regionals prolly

[@isotechimages.9130]

Probably the two worst features of the camera is 10 frames per second these days is a deal breaker for me and rolling shutter makes images useless otherwise fantastic camera.

[@CurtisSnapshot]

That’s completely fair, and I forgot to mention the blackout between photos with this camera. (Although, It might be my lack of a fast enough card.) I often lose track of birds in flight when I fire off a burst of photos and the screen blacks out between shots.

[@_jbflickz]

Everything well said….

[@CurtisSnapshot]

Thank you, much appreciated!