The Sony A7 IV came out in late 2021 and quietly became the default answer to “which full-frame camera should I buy?” Wedding shooters bought it. YouTubers bought it. People who just wanted one camera that did everything bought it. Five years on, with the A7 V now on shelves, the A7 IV hasn’t stopped making sense. It’s simply cheaper.

That’s the story here. The camera didn’t change. The value did.

The Sony A7 IV spent four years as the default full-frame hybrid. Its successor, the Sony A7 V, was announced in December 2025 at $2,899 for the body, and it goes straight at the two things people complained about most: the cropped 4K at 60p and the slow sensor readout.

Resolution stays at 33MP. What changed is the sensor design. It’s a partially stacked back-side illuminated chip, the same general idea Nikon used in the Z6III, with fast readout circuitry added at the edges. That speeds everything up without the price of a fully stacked sensor.

The Sony A7C II answers a simple question. What if you took the A7 IV, kept the sensor, upgraded the autofocus and squeezed it into a body not much bigger than an APS-C camera? You get a full-frame travel camera that fits in a small sling bag. Sony released it in 2023 alongside a high-resolution sibling, the 61MP A7CR.

The first A7C, from 2020, was a good idea held back by an awkward viewfinder, one control dial and older autofocus. The Mark II fixes most of that. It weighs about 514 grams with battery and card, roughly 150 grams less than the A7 IV.

Sony’s A7R line has always been about resolution. The Sony A7R V, launched in October 2022 at $3,899 for the body, kept the 61MP back-side illuminated sensor from the A7R IV and spent its upgrades on everything around it. The biggest one was a dedicated AI processing unit for autofocus, a first for Sony.

That chip is why the A7R V mattered. A 61MP camera is unforgiving: a slightly missed eye that looks fine at 24MP looks soft at 61. Better focus means more usable frames at full resolution.

The Sony FE 20-70mm F4 G looks like a small change on paper. Most standard zooms start at 24mm. This one starts at 20mm. In practice those 4 millimeters change how you shoot. Indoors, in narrow streets, in front of big buildings, you can step back without stepping back.

Sony announced it in January 2023 at $1,099. It weighs about 488 grams, uses a 72mm filter, and it’s become one of the most recommended everyday lenses for Sony full frame.

A 24-70mm f/2.8 is the lens most working photographers reach for first. Weddings, events, news, travel. It’s the one you’d keep if you could only keep one. Sony’s first G Master version, from 2016, was good and very heavy. The Sony FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM II, released in 2022, is the redesign, and for a while it set the standard for what this kind of lens could be.

The headline is weight. The GM II weighs about 695 grams, down from roughly 886 grams for the original. That’s around 20 percent lighter, and on a long wedding day it’s the difference between a sore wrist and not thinking about the camera at all.

The Sony ZV-E10 II is a camera made for people who point it at themselves. No viewfinder, a flip-out screen, a big built-in microphone and a body small enough to hold at arm’s length all day. Sony released it in July 2024 at $999 for the body, and it’s the update the hugely popular original ZV-E10 needed.

The first ZV-E10 had a tiny battery, 8-bit video and an old sensor that wobbled when you panned. The Mark II fixes all three.

If you shoot Sony or Nikon full frame and you’re watching your budget, the Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 Di III VXD G2 is probably already on your shortlist. It should be. It’s one of the best-value lenses of the last five years. Fast f/2.8 aperture, sharp, light, and priced at about $880 at launch, compared with more than $2,000 for the brand-name equivalents.

The G2 version arrived in late 2021 for Sony E-mount, replacing Tamron’s hugely popular original 28-75mm. A Nikon Z version followed in 2023. It’s the lens that many A7 IV and Z6III owners bought instead of the kit zoom, and few regret it.

On an APS-C camera, 27mm gives about the same view as a 40mm lens on full frame. It’s a natural, everyday focal length, a little wider than a “normal” 50mm, good for street, travel and environmental portraits. The Viltrox AF 27mm F1.2 Pro gives you that view at f/1.2, for around $550.

Viltrox released the Fujifilm X-mount version first, in 2023, then a Sony E-mount version. Both belong to Viltrox’s Pro line, which uses better build and weather sealing than its budget lenses.

Chinese lens makers spent the last five years going from “cheap alternative” to “serious option”. The Viltrox AF 75mm F1.2 Pro is one of the lenses that made that case. It’s an f/1.2 portrait lens for APS-C cameras with fast-enough autofocus, weather sealing and image quality that holds its own against brand-name glass costing two or three times as much.

On an APS-C body, 75mm gives the field of view of about a 112mm lens on full frame. That’s a classic head-and-shoulders portrait length, with enough distance between you and your subject to keep things relaxed.