Against a backdrop of component shortages and price hikes, 2026 has been a challenging year for camera companies, and it’s been a quieter year for new gear as a result. That being said, we were still treated to some cracking cameras — but standing tall above them all was the Sony A7R VI, with a new 66.8MP full-frame stacked sensor, Bionz XR 2 processor, Sony’s latest subject-detection autofocus, and its first new battery for 10 years.
It’s a formidable camera whatever your genre of photography, and won both our Best Professional Camera and overall Camera of the Year awards for 2026 at the TechRadar Product of the Year Awards 2026. Here’s what makes the A7R VI so special, in my opinion.
Can a camera really be ‘perfect’?
It’s possible that I got carried away slightly when I said the A7R VI “had no weaknesses”, but after weeks testing the full-frame mirrorless camera across landscape, portrait and wildlife photography, I had no doubt in my mind that it deserved a perfect 5-star rating.
I’ve been reviewing cameras for almost two decades, and the A7R VI genuinely feels like peak camera. In my A7R VI review, I was even compelled to say “Sony can stop making cameras now.”
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The A7R VI is a powerful all-rounder, as opposed to a pure pixel monster
First up, I must point to the new sensor, which had an admittedly modest bump in pixels from the already class-leading A7R V’s 61MP sensor, to 66.8MP. But that’s not the exciting part about this sensor — it’s also a ‘stacked’ type with a faster read-out speed.
Faster read-out speeds can improve a camera’s performance in multiple ways, not least by reducing rolling shutter (an ugly distortion effect that appears when recording video and taking photos of high-speed subjects).
For me, I preferred having the smaller bump in resolution and a greater emphasis on speed, as opposed to an even bigger bump in resolution but no speed improvement. The A7R VI is a powerful all-rounder, as opposed to a pure pixel monster.
The camera packs Sony’s Bionz XR 2 processor, which combines two chips, including one that’s tasked with subject-detection autofocus. Whether I was photographing small birds or large mammals in a nature reserve, or taking portraits, the A7R VI never skipped a beat.
Then there’s the camera’s handling. Historically, for me Sony’s design and user experience haven’t matched those of other leading mirrorless camera brands — I’m a sucker for Nikon in particular. But the A7R VI is spectacularly well designed.
There’s a tilt-and-flip touchscreen, meaning the screen can be pulled out and used as a tilt screen for waist-level shooting, or flipped out and rotated for selfies — traditionally you’d have to pick either / or (or have neither). It’s the most versatile design on the market, and one which you can also find on the latest Lumix S1 II cameras. If I had one wish, it would be that Sony increased the size of its 3-inch display in the future, even if only to 3.2-inches like Nikon.
The viewfinder is big, bright and highly detailed class-leading 9.36m-dot display, while the button layout makes perfect sense, and the camera’s grip is nice and deep and comfortable to hold.
Housed inside the grip is an all-new battery — Sony’s first for 10 years since the legendary NP-FZ100. The new unit has a higher capacity, and increases shot life by 20%; not bad, considering the previous battery already delivered class-leading power.
The downside to the new battery is that it’s not forwards / backwards compatible with the NP-FZ100, so upgraders are going to have to splash out on additional batteries should they need them.
Video specs are decent, though arguably not as strong as those of some lower-resolution rival cameras. For example, Sony again omitted open-gate recording (this would finally appear later in the yet-to-go-on-sale FX5 cinema camera).
But if photography is your beat, and you need a high-resolution sensor with huge scope for cropping — the A7R VI’s Super 35 (APS-C / 1.5x crop) mode is still a healthy 28MP — and don’t need the absolute top speed and buffer performance of cameras like the A9 III and A1 II, there really is no better camera.
The A7R VI was so good, in fact, that it put the (much) pricier A1 II’s position in doubt, given that it can do 90% of what that camera can, while boasting a higher-resolution sensor.
I reviewed some fabulous cameras in 2026, but my absolute favorite was without doubt the A7R VI — it’s the camera I wish I owned, along with some of Sony’s spectacular recent pro GM lenses. It was the crowning achievement for Sony in a year in which it also scooped our Brand of the Year award, and comfortably maintained its #2 market position behind Canon.
Sony A7R VI image gallery
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Timothy Coleman
