Award‑winning wedding photographer and Sony Artisan Sara France keeps her kit purposeful, and the Alpha 7 IV has become her reliable go‑to. As she puts it, “I shoot with the Alpha 7 IV because it has everything I need and nothing I don’t.” Watch and read below as she shares five reasons why this camera is the one she reaches for on wedding day.
1. Flip-Out Touchscreen
France says the Alpha 7 IV’s flip-out touchscreen is genuinely handy at weddings. “I really love the screen and the capabilities to shoot from a high angle or from a low angle and be able to see what I’m shooting.” The side-hinged, vari-angle design lets you frame shots from low pews, above the dance floor, or around guests without getting in the way, and the touch controls make it quick to shift focus to a face or a reaction as it happens.
Being able to swing the screen forward helps if you’re capturing a bit of video yourself during prep or speeches, and the display stays clear enough to check exposure when you’re bouncing between dim interiors and bright outdoor moments. It’s a thoughtful, low-fuss setup that keeps you nimble when the day moves fast.
Photo by Sara France. Alpha 7 IV. 50mm f/1.2 G Master. 1/640-sec., f/1.4, ISO 250
2. File Size
Sara also loves the file size on the Alpha 7 IV. It strikes a sweet spot for wedding work because its 33MP files give you plenty of detail for albums and crops without the storage bloat of ultra-high-megapixel bodies. More importantly, you can tailor file sizes to the day: lossless compressed RAW keeps quality high while trimming footprint, and you can drop to compressed or medium/small RAW for prep and reception coverage when you’re shooting thousands of frames.
If you deliver JPEGs/HEIFs, the camera’s HEIF option saves space while preserving tonal latitude, which helps with white dresses and tricky mixed light. For hybrid shooters, XAVC HS (H.265) video is noticeably smaller than older codecs at similar quality. Paired with dual card slots (including CFexpress Type A in slot 1 for fast writes), the Alpha 7 IV lets you shoot redundantly and continuously without choking your cards or your post-wedding backup drives – a practical win when the timeline is nonstop.
Photo by Sara France. Alpha 7 IV. 28-70mm f/2 G Master. 1/500-sec., f/2.2, ISO 100
3. Auto White Balance
The lighting at a wedding can change every five minutes - from cool window daylight to wild DJ LEDs on the dance floor. That’s why Sara says she loves the auto white balance on the Alpha 7 IV. It does a nice job keeping skin tones natural instead of swinging blue or orange, and the choice between Ambience Priority and White Priority lets you either keep that nice warmth for candles or neutralize for a clean, true-white look. It transitions smoothly when you move between spaces, and you can assign AWB Lock to stop small shifts during a first kiss or speech so a sequence grades consistently later. The result is fewer color fixes in culling and editing, and more attention on moments instead of menus.
Photo by Sara France. Alpha 7 IV. 50-150mm f/2 G Master. 1/640-sec., f/2, ISO 400
4. Customization Capabilities
Sara says she has a lot of customizations set up on her Alpha 7 IV to make shooting even more seamless on the wedding day. “I love using back button focusing,” she explains. “So I turn off the focus on the trigger, I turn on back button focusing on the back.”
She also uses the camera’s Memory 1, 2 and 3 on the top dial. “I will preprogram those to kind of the most common lighting environments that I’m used to: indoors, outdoors - and those are great starting points. I use the AEL button on the back for Eye Autofocus only. So I go back and forth between having regular full focus here and just using Eye Autofocus on this back button on the right." This way she can toggle back and forth with her thumb depending on what she wants to capture, while still using the shutter button for shooting.
Photo by Sara France. Alpha 7 IV. 28-70mm f/2 G Master. 1/200-sec., f/2, ISO 1000
5. Price Point
The fifth reason she loves the Alpha 7 IV for wedding photography? All of the above combined with the price. “It just makes for the perfect wedding camera,” she says. “It’s a great price point for a camera and has everything we need as wedding photographers.”
That price point just so happens to be $700 off right now, with no time for cold feet. Say, "I do" today ... Purchase the Alpha 7 IV here.
See more of Sara France's work on her Alpha Universe Profile, Instagram @sarafrance and at sarafrance.com.
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