DiscussionA7S IV rumours again: what do you actually want in it?

Rumour sites are saying an A7S IV is in development, again. I run an FX3 as my A-cam and a ZV-E1 as B-cam for my channel, and honestly the FX3 is still fine, but I'm curious what people want. My list: open gate, less rolling shutter, and please a fully articulating screen that doesn't block the ports when the mic and HDMI are in. 12MP is fine for me, my content doesn't need more.

Do stills people even care about the S line or is it purely a video thing at this point? Also heard an FX3 II is floating around in the rumours, which would make more sense for me tbh.

Open gate so you can deliver vertical and horizontal from one take, 32-bit float through the hot shoe, and shutter angle instead of shutter speed. The FX5 already covers most of that from what Sony have shown, so I'm not sure where an A7S IV fits anymore.

The S line made sense when low light at 12MP was the whole trick. Now every decent hybrid does clean 4K at 12800 and the gap is mostly heat and codecs. Unless Sony give it something properly new, like a global shutter or internal raw that isn't a pain to edit, it's an FX3 with a viewfinder. If I were buying today I'd still look at an S5 II first, but I would say that.

On the screen: yes, please. Every body that flips out to the side ends up fighting the cables in a cage. A tilt-flip like the newer Sonys is the right answer, and if they give it a full-size HDMI port I'll forgive a lot.

ben_carrick said:

I'm not sure where an A7S IV fits anymore

that's kind of my worry too. FX5 is backordered everywhere though, nobody I know has one yet. and it's a box, i still want something i can throw on a gimbal and walk around with for b-roll

zebrastripes said:

Do stills people even care about the S line

No. For stills I've never cared about the S line. 12MP is a hard sell for anyone who does even a bit of commercial work. Clients want to crop. Art directors want to crop even more, and they always crop the one thing you didn't expect.

zebrastripes said:

12MP is fine for me

For video yes. I would want the A7 V readout and more than 12MP. 24MP with a fast readout would cover stills and video both for event people.

24 would be a nice middle ground yeah. would kill my reason for keeping a separate stills body. i only keep the ZV-E1 around for thumbnails and that's kind of a silly reason to own a camera

is this gonna be like $4k? im trying to figure out if i should wait or upgrade from my zv-e10 ii now

if you're on a zv-e10 ii don't wait for this lol. it'll be way more camera than you need. a used FX30 or a ZV-E1 is where i'd look. honestly though, get a better mic and some lights first. viewers forgive soft footage, they don't forgive bad audio

Agree with that. Rumoured cameras don't shoot anything.

update for anyone following: still nothing official. keeping the FX3 till something actually ships. my channel doesn't care what i shoot on and honestly neither do my subscribers