Rumoured demise of A7Riv

[thebeardedgroundsman]

Is it true that Sony have discontinued the A7Riv?

[Pieter]

Might well be true but then it's the old A7Riv: Sony released an updated A7Riv-a last year which has a slightly improved rear display. Likely because they ran out of stock of the old one.

https://www.dpreview.com/news/8756997638/sony-quietly-updates-the-a7r-iii-a7r-iv-with-improved-lcd-displays

[FunWithCameras]

Putting it another way, there is still a current A7RIV camera in the Sony product line; it just happens to have a higher res rear screen on it (because they could not get enough of the old ones). Nothing else changed.

[49er]

The A7III was released a year earlier and it still appears on the Sony.com product site for sale, so it's a safe bet that the A7RIVa is going to be around for a while. 

[DenverSteve]

It is true. It is gone.  I would be surprised if the, nearly identical, iva model isn't gone as soon as supplies are exhausted. 

[FunWithCameras]

10 hours ago, DenverSteve said:

It is true. It is gone.  I would be surprised if the, nearly identical, iva model isn't gone as soon as supplies are exhausted. 

No, the A7RIV original is gone because they could not source enough of the rear screens - they replaced the rear screen to make the A7RIVa, and that is readily available.

Sony has a habit of keeping multiple past models available (contrast with, for example, Canon’s EF cameras where the announcement of a new model meant they stopped making the old one)

Heck, they are still are still selling new A7RIIIa cameras, even though the A7RIV and A7RV are out. 

[SilvanBromide]

10 hours ago, FunWithCameras said:

Heck, they are still are still selling new A7RIIIa cameras, even though the A7RIV and A7RV are out. 

Exactly.

It would be a significant departure from "usual practice" for Sony to discontinue a camera as recent as the a7Riv. They keep them in the lineup (at a slightly lower price point) as successive generations appear to give people options.

I agree with others that the rumour reported here is most likely based on a misunderstanding arising from the a7Riv-a replacing the 'original' a7Riv.

[DenverSteve]

Actually, the discontinuation of the A7rIV was two years ago - mid 2021. It was retired because of the replacement with the A model.  

[FunWithCameras]

19 hours ago, DenverSteve said:

Actually, the discontinuation of the A7rIV was two years ago - mid 2021. It was retired because of the replacement with the A model.  

Well, I see it as both being true. It both wasn't and was discontinued.

The A7RIV is still for sale today - it has a subtly different model number, but the specs are essentially unchanged. 

The A7RIV ceased to be manufactured, replaced by the A7RIVa.

In a long production run manufacturers make small changes to the design over the years - replacing a component no longer available with another one that can do the same job; altering a circuit to be simpler, or less expensive. If you took apart two samples from years apart you'd see some of those changes. The two reasons why they let us know about this minor revision were that the specs changed in a visible way (more pixels on the rear screen) and it necessitated a different firmware, so the owner has to know which camera they are downloading firmware for.

[katesmith1304]

Because I delayed a month ordering the A7r-IV, I am confronted with the question of whether I should get the new model, or purchase the older one. According the BestBuy, the price of the A7r-IV body has been lowered by 500 to 2999.99. BH Photo & Video has the A7r-IVa up for pre-order. Expected delivery time is 4 weeks, but shortages throughout the world supply chain could imply a longer wait. Most of you are happy with the III and IV. The IV would be overkill for me, and the IVa would be death star overkill, right?

[Pieter]

The IV and IVa are virtually the same camera. The IVa is no more overkill than the IV at all.

[FunWithCameras]

16 hours ago, katesmith1304 said:

Because I delayed a month ordering the A7r-IV, I am confronted with the question of whether I should get the new model, or purchase the older one. According the BestBuy, the price of the A7r-IV body has been lowered by 500 to 2999.99. BH Photo & Video has the A7r-IVa up for pre-order. Expected delivery time is 4 weeks, but shortages throughout the world supply chain could imply a longer wait. Most of you are happy with the III and IV. The IV would be overkill for me, and the IVa would be death star overkill, right?

I am surprised that you get offered the choice. Supplies of the original A7RIV were supposedly exhausted  a year or more ago.

I'd ask a couple of questions: is the A7RIV you are being offered new? Not refurbished, not "as new", not "one careful owner who only drove it to church on Sundays"? If it's really new, then yeah, take the $500 discount, unless you use the rear screen for all of your shooting. I never felt the slightest urge to upgrade my A7RIV to an A7RIVa for the rear screen.

Also, what do they mean about "pre-order"? That term usually applies to ordering a camera which has not yet been released - like ordering an A7RV in October 2022 when it wasn't going to arrive until December (I got mine on 30 November, and felt silly happy about it!). The term "preorder" is definitely NOT applicable to the A7RIVa - it was released in 2021! Anyone telling you it is "preordered" is either confused, or lying. Maybe they meant "backordered"?

All up, I'd be concerned that someone is telling you at best half-truths.