We’ve just published the studio scene images for the Sony a7 IV, providing a chance to take a look at how its new 33MP BSI CMOS sensor compares both to its predecessor and to its peers.
Studio test scene
Our test scene is designed to simulate a variety of textures, colors and detail types you’ll encounter in the real world. It also has two illumination modes to see the effect of different lighting conditions.
The first thing that should be apparent is that the a7 IV’s 33MP sensor can capture a lot of detail and, as we saw in our real-world samples, JPEG color that’s directly comparable with the best of its peers. The higher pixel count, combined with Sony’s JPEG sharpening makes more of the fine detail than its rivals. Moiré makes an appearance, but it’s not overwhelming, which suggests there is an anti-aliasing filter, but perhaps not an especially aggressive one.
As we’d expect, the smaller pixels mean more noise if you view the images at full pixel resolution, but this difference is all but eliminated if you look at the images scaled to the same size. Push on to the higher ISO and the noise levels start to creep up, beyond the levels of its immediate rivals, though.
This additional noise can’t solely be blamed on the pixel count, though, since it’s a fraction noisier than some of its higher resolution peers. Overall this iss a good, but not ground-breaking, performance with detail capture appearing to be the a7 IV’s strong suit.