Sony A7r4 A Fantastic Wildlife Camera

Since changing from the Canon camera to Sony last October, I have had the best months of photography I can remember.

The reviews of the Sony were a bit hit and miss, with many photographers saying the high 61mp effected the images with noise. All I can say is the truth is in the hands of the user, and with personal skill and the right techniques I have captured more images of birds in flight in 10 months than I achieved in eight years with my Canon gear.

The Internet is full of technical reviews of the A7r4, but I like to share my knowledge and say it in simple terms that the photographer understands. I read reviews from the best wildlife photographers in the world and took away great advice, but most reviews go into to much detail. That is fine for those who want to learn the menu system and what to enable and disable.

After only one week, I was so happy I jumped ship to Sony. My keeper rate had increased, meaning I came back with more images that are usable than ever before – and that was just from using my camera knowledge and not from messing with all the settings inside the menu system.

Joining all the Sony Facebook groups that related to the A7r4, I posted my images and explained how long I had owned the camera and what amazing results I was acheiving after a few sessions.

Something I never see on the photography groups are people offering their help by sharing the settings on the camera to get the image.

I gladly offered my help, and was surprised how many people wanted to know what settings I used. I was so glad I could help others, as I had to learn photography on all my cameras without any help or advice as it wasn’t available at that time.

I am now helping people to not only choose a camera, but also helping with basic techniques.

Static bird settings

• RAW file
• ISO 400
• Shutter Speed 1/640
• White Balance Auto
• Meeting Centre
• Focus Area Centre
• Frames Per Second High Burst+
• Drive mode Auto Focus Continuous.

These settings work for me on a static subject, and our my views of how to capture an amazing, detailed image.

I always use manual setting for all wildlife, as I find you can control the whole camera aperture, shutter speed and ISO.

It gets tricky when the light changes, but after mastering it now for 10 months I find it very easy to tweak the settings when the light changes.

You have a ‘Custom Key’ setting in the menu system that enables you to set certain buttons on the back of the camera to do certain tasks.

So far i have used the camera for:

• Static birds
• Birds in Flight
• Macro
• Portrait
• Landscape

I find this camera is a beast, and if used correctly is one of the best camera’s on the market.