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You are here: Home / a7RIV / Sony a7RIV continuous drive mode precision

Sony a7RIV continuous drive mode precision

April 6, 2020 JimK 9 Comments

A reader asked a question about the Sony a7RIV.

 I have a question for clarification. You use the terms “continuous mode,” “continuous compressed,” and “continuous uncompressed.” When I read the Sony A7Riv instruction manual (p.42) it uses the words “Continuous Shooting” to represent 4 different shooting speeds: “Continuous Shooting: Hi+,” “Continuous Shooting: Hi,” “Continuous Shooting: Mid,” and “Continuous Shooting: Low.” Is your conclusion that ALL FOUR of these options cause the camera to shift into 12-bit mode when recording as RAW Compressed? I own both the A7Riv and A7Riii and the Riii manual specifically mentions the change to 12-bit when using Hi+ along with RAW Compressed, so I assumed that Hi, Med and Low would remain as 14-bit.

No such luck. I double-checked today. I set the camera to compressed raw, at ISO 1000 at a shutter speed of 1/1000 second, stopped the lens down, and aimed at a dark place in the room. Then I used RawDigger to plot histograms of the whole frame.

Continuous Lo

 

Continuous Mid

 

Continuous Hi

 

Continuous Hi+

All have 12 bit precision.

a7RIV

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Comments

  1. Max says

    April 9, 2020 at 12:16 am

    Thank you Jim for your valuable work.

    So with compressed RAW you get 14bit only in single shot mode, right?
    What abot uncompressed RAW, up to which continuos mode do you still get 14 bit?
    And if I remember correctly you get 12bit also if you use long exposure noise reduction.

    Reply
    • JimK says

      April 9, 2020 at 7:37 am

      So with compressed RAW you get 14bit only in single shot mode, right?

      With compressed raw, you never get 14-bit precision. The best you get is 13 bits.

      What abot uncompressed RAW, up to which continuos mode do you still get 14 bit?

      With uncompressed raw, you get 14 bits in all four continuous modes. But you don’t get the speed of the fast compressed modes.

      Reply
      • Panther says

        April 10, 2020 at 4:20 am

        Thanks for the test.

        Does the electronic shutter influence that? Are all uncompressed modes 14 bit even with the electronic shutter?

        Reply
        • JimK says

          April 10, 2020 at 7:18 am

          Yes.

          https://blog.kasson.com/a7riv/sony-a7riv-edr-vs-raw-format-and-shutter-mode/

          Reply
          • Jeff Zani says

            May 7, 2020 at 4:36 pm

            Sorry if I missed this somewhere, but what is the impact of bracketing? I assume there’s no impact if uncompressed?

            Reply
            • JimK says

              May 8, 2020 at 9:39 am

              Right.

              Reply
  2. Germán A Toledo says

    May 28, 2020 at 12:03 pm

    Hi Jim, in the case of the Sony A7 R IV have you met any reviews about its behavior and performance in long exposure? Does it have the same behavior as its predecessor?

    Reply
    • JimK says

      May 28, 2020 at 1:05 pm

      Does it have the same behavior as its predecessor?

      Pretty much.

      https://blog.kasson.com/a7riv/a7riv-precision-long-es-exposures/

      Reply
  3. John Street says

    June 16, 2020 at 1:08 am

    Hi Jim,

    I’m the reader who asked the question originally, and I REALLY want to say thank you for taking the time to research this and respond. Your contributions to learning are deeply appreciated. Thanks!

    Reply

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