I have used all three, and own a pair of A9s (Mark I). I do event photography, not landscape or wildlife.
The A7iv is the better all-rounder, both for photography and videography. The A9s are more specialised tools for fast silent photography. They will beat the A7iv at birds in flight by a meaningful margin, but for any other kind of wildlife, the A7iv is plenty.
If you don't need silent shutter with moving targets, and if you don't do much BIF photography, I would go with the A7iv.
Unless you are traveling and targeting like a specific bird where you absolutely can’t miss the shot, the A7IV will be rock solid for birds in flight too.
The main difference is getting 10 frames with 95% in focus vs 30 frames 95% to 100% in focus with the A9.
The extra frames will help if you’ve invested a bunch of time and money to capture that 1 second of footage.
For an over simplification, in 3 to 4 seconds on A7IV you’ll capture as many high quality photos of BIF as you’ll get with 1 second on the A9.
So if you have repeatable events like humming birds coming to a feeder or bald eagles or osprey that regularly feed at a lake that you can drive to from home, you’ll be able to get the shots you want with just a little more time.
Saving that little bit of extra time spent is probably not worth the cost and hassle of owning a second camera for the generalist
I just made the switch to Sony from a Fuji XT-5 and went with the a7iv. I shoot mainly wildlife as a hobby, I’m in no way shape or form a professional. From the research I did the a7iv kept coming up as a good recommendation. Especially for a hybrid between photo and video. I would have went with the a9i/ii since it’s always recommended for a wildlife but ordering a used one online was more of a crapshoot since I don’t really have a good idea of the condition.
Yeah I’m very happy so far, it’s only been about a week, so I’m still learning the ins and out of the a7iv. At first I was worried to go full frame because the glass is always more expensive, but I love how pretty much every third party lens manufacturer makes E mount lenses. I ended up getting a used 200-600G at my local camera store for a good price. Fuji definitely makes a beautiful camera but the autofocus is what pushed me over to Sony. I’d still like to pick up an x100v someday for a little Fanny pack camera.
It really is a shame the autofocus still hasn’t been sorted out because otherwise I love the image quality and overall experience!
I was worried a bit about the price of FF glass but looking at used prices on MPB, the Sony 200-600 is about the same price as the XF 150-600, the XF 16-55 f2.8 is actually more expensive than the original Sigma 24-70 f2.8, and the XF18, XF33 and XF 56 Gen II primes are all on par or more expensive than the corresponding Sigma FE primes!
I do have a soft spot for Fuji and would like a used X100v/vi one day too when the prices are…not insane, haha
Yeah and you can also find some killer deals on the photomarket subreddit. That’s where I sold my XT-5 and 18-55. I think my next lens purchase will be a 24-70 GM if I can get a good deal on it. I need a solid hiking lens since carrying around the 200-600 can be a pain. Once you decide on the body you want I’d check out your local Best Buy for some open box deals. I went over to mine and they had 3 open box a7iv’s. They let me inspect all of them and the one I bought only had 100 shots taken and I got it for about $2k after tax.
Having owned all three, the A7IV grip is the best then the A9II.
The A7IV is an excellent all rounder with a higher MP Sensor, updated color science and processor. While it's only 10 FPS max, it's more than enough for most and I've used it alongside my A9II with confidence in all conditions including BIF. Plus, It feels really good in the hands.
The A9II and A9II focus is still astounding and reliably fast for subject tracking - mainly if you're doing wildlife, fast action, sports, event photography @ 20 FPS silent shutter, with a good processor and average MP sensor in comparison to the A7IV.
The A9I body is horrible compared to the others. The focus is still fast.
The A9s excels at photography first. Whereas the A7IV can do photography and videography very well.
The A7IV is an overall more satisfying camera from image quality, specs, processor, video, comfort and the shutter drag sound - imo.
I just switched from an A7IV to an XH2S, if the AF is pushing you over then you’ll 100% be happy with it. Definitely stickier for busy scenes, would be nice if Fuji could sort that out. I do prefer the video on the XH2S though for my use case
I shoot church AV where I need 2 bodies often, so the A7 and A9 variants were/are always out of reach (when you also are responsible for sound and streaming, you aim for capable and spread the money around to have 2 of everything). Fuji is my APSC gear of choice, but I agree AF is its weakness. A close 2nd is its propensity to exposure setting hunt if you leave anything in auto. As far as Sony, even the little RX100m7 has 1st class AF, so any relatively recent Alpha will give you that. Look at the other features or what might give you the look and feel that Fuji does very well. Sony is a different look. Doesn’t always satisfy those who come over from Fuji.
I own the A9I and the A7IV. I use the A7IV as my primary camera for pretty much everything other than sports and wildlife.
The blackout free EVF is very nice, but if you don't really need the silent shutter and aren't shooting particularly difficult subjects you are making some compromises for that capability.
I have an A7iv and love it as my main workhorse camera, I also picked up a Fuji X-S20 to have a second body and play with film sims. I compared the two recently in a side by side video test with the closest lenses I had and both looked fine, great colors and dynamic range but the A7iv demolished the X-S20 when it came to autofocus. The A7iv was nearly perfect, face tracking was excellent, fast, sticky. The X-S20 would often miss, focus on the background, take several seconds to re-acquire, pulse focus, not good. The X-S20 still does alright for static subjects but even then I notice missed focus far more often compared to my A7iv. I really wish Fuji would get up to speed regarding autofocus, they are losing customers, it would make me think twice before investing more into Fuji.
I took the A7iv out to take some pictures of Osprey's and was very impressed at the hit rate, honestly just a great camera all-round.
https://preview.redd.it/rooi5o5wt27d1.jpeg?width=3925&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c8c1b4b959ac4776b74fedfd927ca4325aaa068b
Great photo! Thanks for the info, my dad has the XS20 and loves it but he mostly does casual snapshots of landscapes and travel. For him, I think it works great! And I agree that the dynamic range and colors (same sensor as my XT4) are really good as well! I actually took a bunch of low light wedding shots up to ISO 10,000 and after running it through Lightroom Denoise they were completely usable, kind of shocking! If they could just improve the dang autofocus, haha
It probably makes sense, but after a few really frustrating issues with my XT4 and rented XT5 (in hindsight I should have rented the XH2s), and the Firmware 6.0 issues lot of people are reporting, I’m just kind of burnt out on Fuji autofocus.
Don't get any Fuji Camera if you care about Video Auto Focus! I started with the Fuji X-S10 to shoot videos at the gym, the AF was horrible. Then I upgraded to the Fuji X-H2s which is even slightly better than the X-H2 for video, it had better AF with subject detection but the AF wasn't as sticky as I would've liked it to be no matter what settings I changed in the camera (ie. decreasing the sensitivity/speed and whatnot). For example, if I am shooting my subject while they're working out, the moment anything comes in the scene the camera would lock on to that or it would do a lot of focus breathing. At the time I didn't want to buy Sony because I had initially wanted to go with Fuji for their color science and their film simulations thinking that getting a photo with a certain look/effect out of the camera would save me the hassle of editing in post but what use is all that when you can't even get the focus right? I never felt like wanting to take my camera out and shoot anymore it was just sitting there collecting dust so I eventually sold it and thought let me just shoot videos with my Galaxy S23 Ultra and be done with this. A few months later I was at a shop and I tried the A6700 and the a7C II and both of them had insanely quick accurate and sticky AF I was blown away! They both have the same AF system with Sony's new AI Autofocus so you can't go wrong with any of them. I went with the a7C II as I felt the quality of the images/video was slightly better (probably due to it being full-frame).
While the A7IV is an outstanding camera, it doesn't have the superior AI AF of the newer models like the A7RV, a7CR, A7C II. With the a7CII, I just leave it on AF (Automatic Focus), not even choosing Single Shot or Continous AF and it just works like magic and knows what to focus on every single time.
Update: Thanks for the advice everyone, I have decided that I’ll be getting the A7 IV! Also planning on picking up a used Gen I Sigma 24-70 f2.8 and a FE 200-600mm.
If I ever feel limited by more intense birds in flight, I’ll just pick up a used A9i as a second body, but will absolutely put the A7 IV through its paces before doing that! Looking forward to it!
I would check out the newly announced Nikon z6iii as well. I had the a7IV and for my use case which was truly hybrid it was a big disappointment not being able to shoot 4k 60p without a crop. If you don’t plan on shooting high-speed burst or video then totally recommend the a7IV.
It looks like a great camera! Amazing, really, for the price! My only hang up is there aren’t many 3rd party lenses available like there are for E mount (especially 24-70 f2.8 zooms). I know you can adapt Sony FE lenses to Nikon Z, but I don’t know how effective the AF is.
While you'll get an upgrade in autofocus, be prepared for a pretty massive downgrade in quality. Fujis film stock is top tier while Sonys looks is largely agreed to be the worst of the major OEMs.
Biggest bullshit comment I've ever seen. Where's the proof of this? Using words like "major downgrade" both are big dogs in the industry and auto focus is definitely superior with Sony and for most that's enough.
I have used all three, and own a pair of A9s (Mark I). I do event photography, not landscape or wildlife. The A7iv is the better all-rounder, both for photography and videography. The A9s are more specialised tools for fast silent photography. They will beat the A7iv at birds in flight by a meaningful margin, but for any other kind of wildlife, the A7iv is plenty. If you don't need silent shutter with moving targets, and if you don't do much BIF photography, I would go with the A7iv.
Thanks for the insight! I don’t currently do all that much BIF and if I do in the future, I suppose I could pick up an A9i as a second body.
That's a good strategy. And it's not like the A7iv can't do BIF at all, you're just less likely to miss the shot with an A9.
Unless you are traveling and targeting like a specific bird where you absolutely can’t miss the shot, the A7IV will be rock solid for birds in flight too. The main difference is getting 10 frames with 95% in focus vs 30 frames 95% to 100% in focus with the A9. The extra frames will help if you’ve invested a bunch of time and money to capture that 1 second of footage. For an over simplification, in 3 to 4 seconds on A7IV you’ll capture as many high quality photos of BIF as you’ll get with 1 second on the A9. So if you have repeatable events like humming birds coming to a feeder or bald eagles or osprey that regularly feed at a lake that you can drive to from home, you’ll be able to get the shots you want with just a little more time. Saving that little bit of extra time spent is probably not worth the cost and hassle of owning a second camera for the generalist
TIL “BIF” 💫👏
\+1
I just made the switch to Sony from a Fuji XT-5 and went with the a7iv. I shoot mainly wildlife as a hobby, I’m in no way shape or form a professional. From the research I did the a7iv kept coming up as a good recommendation. Especially for a hybrid between photo and video. I would have went with the a9i/ii since it’s always recommended for a wildlife but ordering a used one online was more of a crapshoot since I don’t really have a good idea of the condition.
I also switched from an X-T5 to a pair of a7IV bodies, and they’re a delight to shoot. Sony really stepped it up between the mark III and IV.
Thanks for the insight! Are you happy overall with the switch from Fuji to Sony?
Yeah I’m very happy so far, it’s only been about a week, so I’m still learning the ins and out of the a7iv. At first I was worried to go full frame because the glass is always more expensive, but I love how pretty much every third party lens manufacturer makes E mount lenses. I ended up getting a used 200-600G at my local camera store for a good price. Fuji definitely makes a beautiful camera but the autofocus is what pushed me over to Sony. I’d still like to pick up an x100v someday for a little Fanny pack camera.
It really is a shame the autofocus still hasn’t been sorted out because otherwise I love the image quality and overall experience! I was worried a bit about the price of FF glass but looking at used prices on MPB, the Sony 200-600 is about the same price as the XF 150-600, the XF 16-55 f2.8 is actually more expensive than the original Sigma 24-70 f2.8, and the XF18, XF33 and XF 56 Gen II primes are all on par or more expensive than the corresponding Sigma FE primes! I do have a soft spot for Fuji and would like a used X100v/vi one day too when the prices are…not insane, haha
Yeah and you can also find some killer deals on the photomarket subreddit. That’s where I sold my XT-5 and 18-55. I think my next lens purchase will be a 24-70 GM if I can get a good deal on it. I need a solid hiking lens since carrying around the 200-600 can be a pain. Once you decide on the body you want I’d check out your local Best Buy for some open box deals. I went over to mine and they had 3 open box a7iv’s. They let me inspect all of them and the one I bought only had 100 shots taken and I got it for about $2k after tax.
Having owned all three, the A7IV grip is the best then the A9II. The A7IV is an excellent all rounder with a higher MP Sensor, updated color science and processor. While it's only 10 FPS max, it's more than enough for most and I've used it alongside my A9II with confidence in all conditions including BIF. Plus, It feels really good in the hands. The A9II and A9II focus is still astounding and reliably fast for subject tracking - mainly if you're doing wildlife, fast action, sports, event photography @ 20 FPS silent shutter, with a good processor and average MP sensor in comparison to the A7IV. The A9I body is horrible compared to the others. The focus is still fast. The A9s excels at photography first. Whereas the A7IV can do photography and videography very well. The A7IV is an overall more satisfying camera from image quality, specs, processor, video, comfort and the shutter drag sound - imo.
I just switched from an A7IV to an XH2S, if the AF is pushing you over then you’ll 100% be happy with it. Definitely stickier for busy scenes, would be nice if Fuji could sort that out. I do prefer the video on the XH2S though for my use case
I shoot church AV where I need 2 bodies often, so the A7 and A9 variants were/are always out of reach (when you also are responsible for sound and streaming, you aim for capable and spread the money around to have 2 of everything). Fuji is my APSC gear of choice, but I agree AF is its weakness. A close 2nd is its propensity to exposure setting hunt if you leave anything in auto. As far as Sony, even the little RX100m7 has 1st class AF, so any relatively recent Alpha will give you that. Look at the other features or what might give you the look and feel that Fuji does very well. Sony is a different look. Doesn’t always satisfy those who come over from Fuji.
I own the A9I and the A7IV. I use the A7IV as my primary camera for pretty much everything other than sports and wildlife. The blackout free EVF is very nice, but if you don't really need the silent shutter and aren't shooting particularly difficult subjects you are making some compromises for that capability.
I have an A7iv and love it as my main workhorse camera, I also picked up a Fuji X-S20 to have a second body and play with film sims. I compared the two recently in a side by side video test with the closest lenses I had and both looked fine, great colors and dynamic range but the A7iv demolished the X-S20 when it came to autofocus. The A7iv was nearly perfect, face tracking was excellent, fast, sticky. The X-S20 would often miss, focus on the background, take several seconds to re-acquire, pulse focus, not good. The X-S20 still does alright for static subjects but even then I notice missed focus far more often compared to my A7iv. I really wish Fuji would get up to speed regarding autofocus, they are losing customers, it would make me think twice before investing more into Fuji. I took the A7iv out to take some pictures of Osprey's and was very impressed at the hit rate, honestly just a great camera all-round. https://preview.redd.it/rooi5o5wt27d1.jpeg?width=3925&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c8c1b4b959ac4776b74fedfd927ca4325aaa068b
Great photo! Thanks for the info, my dad has the XS20 and loves it but he mostly does casual snapshots of landscapes and travel. For him, I think it works great! And I agree that the dynamic range and colors (same sensor as my XT4) are really good as well! I actually took a bunch of low light wedding shots up to ISO 10,000 and after running it through Lightroom Denoise they were completely usable, kind of shocking! If they could just improve the dang autofocus, haha
Why not upgrade to X-h2s. It’s nowhere near as good as Sony but good enough. And it saves a lot of money by keeping your glasses
It probably makes sense, but after a few really frustrating issues with my XT4 and rented XT5 (in hindsight I should have rented the XH2s), and the Firmware 6.0 issues lot of people are reporting, I’m just kind of burnt out on Fuji autofocus.
Don't get any Fuji Camera if you care about Video Auto Focus! I started with the Fuji X-S10 to shoot videos at the gym, the AF was horrible. Then I upgraded to the Fuji X-H2s which is even slightly better than the X-H2 for video, it had better AF with subject detection but the AF wasn't as sticky as I would've liked it to be no matter what settings I changed in the camera (ie. decreasing the sensitivity/speed and whatnot). For example, if I am shooting my subject while they're working out, the moment anything comes in the scene the camera would lock on to that or it would do a lot of focus breathing. At the time I didn't want to buy Sony because I had initially wanted to go with Fuji for their color science and their film simulations thinking that getting a photo with a certain look/effect out of the camera would save me the hassle of editing in post but what use is all that when you can't even get the focus right? I never felt like wanting to take my camera out and shoot anymore it was just sitting there collecting dust so I eventually sold it and thought let me just shoot videos with my Galaxy S23 Ultra and be done with this. A few months later I was at a shop and I tried the A6700 and the a7C II and both of them had insanely quick accurate and sticky AF I was blown away! They both have the same AF system with Sony's new AI Autofocus so you can't go wrong with any of them. I went with the a7C II as I felt the quality of the images/video was slightly better (probably due to it being full-frame). While the A7IV is an outstanding camera, it doesn't have the superior AI AF of the newer models like the A7RV, a7CR, A7C II. With the a7CII, I just leave it on AF (Automatic Focus), not even choosing Single Shot or Continous AF and it just works like magic and knows what to focus on every single time.
Update: Thanks for the advice everyone, I have decided that I’ll be getting the A7 IV! Also planning on picking up a used Gen I Sigma 24-70 f2.8 and a FE 200-600mm. If I ever feel limited by more intense birds in flight, I’ll just pick up a used A9i as a second body, but will absolutely put the A7 IV through its paces before doing that! Looking forward to it!
I would check out the newly announced Nikon z6iii as well. I had the a7IV and for my use case which was truly hybrid it was a big disappointment not being able to shoot 4k 60p without a crop. If you don’t plan on shooting high-speed burst or video then totally recommend the a7IV.
It looks like a great camera! Amazing, really, for the price! My only hang up is there aren’t many 3rd party lenses available like there are for E mount (especially 24-70 f2.8 zooms). I know you can adapt Sony FE lenses to Nikon Z, but I don’t know how effective the AF is.
Nikon Z8?
It looks like an amazing camera, but it’s much more than I’d like to spend (same with the Sony A1). Definitely would tick all the boxes though!
While you'll get an upgrade in autofocus, be prepared for a pretty massive downgrade in quality. Fujis film stock is top tier while Sonys looks is largely agreed to be the worst of the major OEMs.
Biggest bullshit comment I've ever seen. Where's the proof of this? Using words like "major downgrade" both are big dogs in the industry and auto focus is definitely superior with Sony and for most that's enough.
I rarely shoot JPEG so that’s not too big of a loss for me TBH. But the rare times I do, I do like the film sims.
If you want the focus to be right just go manual. Only way to not be pissed IMO