Sony A7 V: what I want to see… is probably NOT what Sony is going to give me

The Sony A7 V is a camera that has been whispered about for months – and all the camera rumors point to it being launched any time now. (In completely unrelated news, CP+, the biggest event on the imaging calendar, kicks off in Japan on February 27.)

The timing is right for a Sony A7 V, as it's almost four years since the Sony A7 IV was released. We've always had a new A7 at least every four years (sometimes sooner) so all the dominoes are lining up. The question is, what tricks will the A7 V have up its sleeve?

Not only has the landscape changed, but Sony's strategy for this camera line has changed with it. Originally the A7 was the company's entry-level full-frame camera, flanked by the resolution-focused A7R line and the video-oriented A7S series. However, the Sony A7 V is very unlikely to be "entry-level" anything.

The most recent generation saw the A7 IV leapfrog to 33MP resolution with unlimited burst shooting capacity, which definitely targets a more advanced user – and it feels like the Sony A7 V is going to continue down that route.

Sony A7 V specs and expectations

Personally, I think it's a mistake to abandon the entry-level full-frame segment – but the Sony A7 V certainly isn't going to go back down to a 24MP sensor, so we're looking at a gap in the lineup (which rivals are filling with the likes of the Canon EOS R8 and Nikon Z5).

Still, I don't think the company is going to raise that 33MP ceiling any higher for the Sony A7 V – otherwise it risks cannibalizing interest in its resolution-focused product lines. I've heard some whsipers that the company might put its new 44MP sensor in the A7 V, but that would be problematic for a number of reasons.

For starters, that's too close for comfort to cameras like the 50MP Sony A1 II or 61MP Sony A7R V – high-price bodies whose sales Sony really doesn't want to eat into. It also invites comparison to monsters like the 45MP Canon EOS R5 Mark II and 47MP Nikon Z8 – which, yes, are higher tier cameras, but Sony doesn't want to be perceived as the alternative that's "cheaper but not as good".

So I think we're still looking at 33MP, which would give the Sony A7 V the advantage over the likes of the Canon EOS R6 II and Nikon Z6 III. But Sony will have to unlock that sensor when it comes to video, because the A7 IV only offers 4K 60p in Super 35 mode – and that just isn't going to cut it against the full readout 4K60p of the R6 II and 6K 60p of the Z6 III.

I can see open gate video being an easy win for the A7 V here, and if Sony transplants things like the Auto-Framing mode from the ZV-E10 (which tracks and digitally zooms into the image as you move around) then it would have a couple of key advantages over its rivals.

It will be interesting to see where Sony pitches the continuous shooting speed, too. I don't think it has any choice other than to break the 10fps burst barrier that the A7 series has traditionally kept. With 20, 30 and 40fps being so commonplace now, the A7 V really needs to get into that ballpark in order to stand toe-to-toe with Canon and Nikon.

The big difference maker, I think, will be in everyone's favorite letters: AI. My gut tells me that the Sony A7 V will be the recipient of trickle-down tech from the A1 and A9 series, inheriting the algorithmic autofocus and subject prediction magic of those flagship bodies.

So far the industry has been very cagey about marketing anything as an "AI camera", even with the likes of the Canon EOS R1 absolutely dripping with neural network trickery. But, if Sony were to slap "AI features" on the spec sheet of the A7 V, the marketing would look after itself.

In all, I don't think there's any question that the Sony A7 V will cement itself firmly as a mid-range camera – leaving entry-level to Sony's fleet of ZV alternatives and A7C variants. And whether it's announced at CP+ this month, or makes its debut shortly after, I don't think we'll be waiting terribly long for it to materialize.

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