The Sony A7RII 40-Megapixel X-T5 Embedded Sensor for High-Resolution Self-Recording Photometry
It was decided to cater to photographers who favored the traditional street-style camera of older X-T models. The X-T4 was the last one to have fully articulated display, and the X-T5 has reverted back to the three-axis tiltable last found in the X-T3. You can not point the X-T5’s screen forward for self-recording since it is slower to deploy for waist level and above-the-head shots. While we’ve just seen how the new Sony A7R V achieves the best of both these worlds with its four-axis articulating display, the X-T5 opts for sticking with what’s familiar.
The autofocus of the X-T5 felt equally snappy, with fast continuous tracking being fairly sticky on moving subjects. I tried it with the XF 16–80mm f/4 kit lens and the excellent XF 56mm f/1.2 II portrait lens, and both optics nailed focus with relative ease. The X-T5’s eye-tracking autofocus still seemed prone to getting mixed up when there was a busy background behind a distant subject’s head, though I have seen other systems struggle in similar situations. The X-H2 cameras are a welcome addition to the X-T5 due to their subject detection, though be prepared for plenty of menu fiddling when switch between them or fine tuning each one.
The new sensor is the highlight. The image quality of the Sony A7RII is different from that of thisAPS-C sensor. It’s not as large or high-resolution as newer full-frame cameras, like the Sony 7R V, but it’s good enough that when I was editing images I never found myself thinking “I wish I’d shot that in full frame.”
The technical chops are the first thing you do. As noted, the 40-megapixel sensor is wonderfully detailed and doesn’t fall victim to the higher noise issues that sometimes come with more megapixels. Performance will be dependent on how and what you shoot. I tend to use fast lenses in low-light situations, and I rarely shoot over 1600 ISO. In testing, I found that once you went over this, noise became more of an issue. I wouldn’t go higher than 3200, even though it’s still usable.