With the a7R VI, Sony is promising something that, historically, has been difficult to achieve: a camera that is both the fastest in the series, while offering better dynamic range than its predecessors. To help achieve this, it’s using a technique that we’ve recently seen popularized by cameras with partially stacked sensors: combining the readouts of the camera’s low and high gain steps, getting the benefits of both higher capacity and lower noise.

Looking at the dynamic range tests we shot in our studio, the results are what we’ve come to expect. We can see a touch less noise in the deepest shadows than with the already very good a7R V when shooting with the mechanical shutter (including in electronic front curtain mode), where the camera has enough time to do both readouts.

The sensor also performs very well when shooting to preserve highlights, then raising your lightness in post. We see very little difference in deep shadow noise between a shot at ISO 6400, and a shot with the same exposure settings but at ISO 100, pushed 6EV in Adobe Camera Raw.

ISO Invariance | Exposure Latitude

While these improvements compared to the a7R VI are measurable – we can see them in our test scene, and they’ll show up on DR charts – they’ll be subtler in the field. If you weren’t able to capture a scene with the a7R V, the a7R VI probably won’t be able to handle it either. But if you often find yourself digging into the darkest tones of your image, you’d get a little less noise with Sony’s latest.

It’s worth repeating that this is only for modes where the exposure is ended by the mechanical shutter. The a7R VI’s e-shutter mode, which is required for its fastest burst rates, has slightly noisier shadows than the mechanical shutter mode. But again, while this shows up in our test charts, you’ll likely be harder-pressed to see the difference in day-to-day use.

As an example, Richard Butler took an image of a sunset over Seattle, seen at the top of this article, where the difference between the light coming from the sun and the darkest shadows under the bridge was around 13EV. He shot the same exposure with both the mechanical shutter and electronic shutter.

If you really pixel-peep, you can see that there’s a bit of extra noise in the e-shutter version, but the difference is almost impossible to see when viewing the whole images (which you can do in our sample gallery, where you can also download the Raws).

To keep things in perspective, though, the benefits and differences we’re discussing are only in the deepest shadows of the image, and it’s rare that you’ll need to exploit those in situations where you’ll also need your highest burst rates. If you’re not using those parts of your Raws, the a7R VI’s extra dynamic range won’t benefit you.

Still, the R series of cameras have historically been made for the types of people who would want to do that; landscape shooters, and anyone who needs the maximum image quality and flexibility. And, as with our standard studio scene tests, our DR tests show that Sony not only avoided making sacrifices in the name of speed, but even managed to eke out some improvement. The camera’s greater flexibility to capture a wider array of situations and subjects doesn’t come at the cost of its peak dynamic range and IQ.

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