The Sony A7R Mark IV is the highest resolution full frame camera you can buy – but there cameras with more megapixels than this. We find out where the A7R Mark IV sits in the megapixel rankings right now.

Megapixels cost money. But the best cameras for professionals inevitably come with a hefty price tag. For this comparison we’re ignoring cameras with ‘multi-shot’ high resolution modes that use pixel-shift trickery and multiple exposures. We’re only going to list cameras by their native resolutions, and we only include cameras you can actually buy, not prototypes, one-offs, made-to-order specials or development concepts. This list is drawn from the best medium format cameras and the best mirrorless cameras you can buy right now.

We haven’t picked every single model and permutation from every maker’s range, either. If we did that, the PhaseOne and Hasselblad lists along would be unmanageable. Instead, we’ve gone for the landmark models in each camera range.

So here goes…

1. PhaseOne XF IQ4 150MP Camera System

Resolution: 151MP | Price: $52,000 / ￡46,000 (with lens)

Crazy money? For an amateur, maybe, but for a high-end commercial or fashion photographer, its a business decision like any other, like leasing premises or buying commercial vehicles. The XF IQ4 needs careful handling and considerable investment. It’s not a walkaround camera you can stuff into a backpack. But this, and high-end medium format cameras like it, can achieve a level of quality, precision and control you wouldn’t believe.

2. Fujifilm GFX 100

Resolution: 102MP | Price: $9,999 / ￡9,999 (body only)

The GFX 100 narrowly beats the Hasselblad H6D-100c at one third the price. This is how far affordable medium format cameras have come! Having said that, sensor size gets you bragging rights in medium format, just like anywhere else, and the Hasselblad and PhaseOne have ‘full size’ medium format sensors, while the GFX 100 has a smaller sensor mid-way between this and regular 35mm full frame. But look – the GFX100 is a 100-megapixel camera at less than a third of the price of the others. That in itself is amazing, as is the fact this is a camera you can use handheld, with lenses you can afford!

3. Hasselblad H6D-100c

Resolution: 100MP | Price: $31,000 / ￡31,000 (body only)

Canon and Nikon have been duking it out for years in the DSLR market, but in the world of medium format it’s PhaseOne vs Hasselblad. The H6D-100c is the latest in Hasselblad’s long-running modular medium format system, and while Hasselblad can’t match the Phase One for megapixels without resorting to multi-shot models like the H6D-400c (pictured), it does have the cachet and customer loyalty of the Hasselblad brand, and the company has been extremely good at combining its new tech with its much-loved legacy products. Should it really be in third place behind the GFX 100? Only for megapixels – it’s very a different kind of camera.

4. Sony A7R IV

Resolution: 61MP | Price: $3,499 / ￡3,499 (body only)

Sony wants users to see the A7R Mark IV as a medium format rival, and if you judge it on megapixels alone, it’s right in there. It beats base-level 50MP medium format models by some margin and is nipping at the heels of some very big and expensive cameras indeed. However, although Sony’s excellent G Master lenses are fast enough to match the shallow depth of field of bigger but slower medium format lenses, there’s still a magical X-factor that comes from bigger sensors. 

5. Fujifilm GFX50R

Resolution: 51.4MP | Price: $3,999 / ￡3,999 (body only)

We may have stretched the point a little, calling the GFX 100 ‘a(chǎn)ffordable’. But you can get the medium format experience in a camera that feels about half the size and is certainly less than half the price. The GFX 50R doesn’t have the megapixels, phase detection AF or in-body stabilisation of the GFX 100, but it’s not much more expensive than a premium full-frame camera – and gives you a completely different picture-taking experience and superb RAW files.

6. Pentax 645Z

Resolution: 51.4MP | Price: $4,997 / ￡4,499 (body only)

Don’t forget Pentax! The 645Z has been around for so long it’s easy to forget this is the camera that made medium format affordable and is still amongst the best Pentax cameras. These days, its DSLR construction, size, 3fpx maximum burst speed and full HD video make it feel dated and increasingly irrelevant – but its resolution still puts it in the top half of our all-time highest-resolution list, and if you like an old-school approach, its design could appeal to you a lot more than its recent mirrorless rivals.

7. Hasselblad X1D II 50c

Resolution: 50MP | Price: $4,999 / ￡4,999 (body only)

The recently revamped X1D II is a super-stylish snapper with its own range of lenses and its own minimalist finesse. We found the earlier model lovely to look at but a little flaky in its operation, so we look forward to trying the new X1D II 50c properly when we get a full review sample. Its 50-megapixel resolution is starting to look a little ordinary (it barely gets you sixth place in this list!), but Hasselblad’s lenses and image quality are beautiful – not least because of this camera’s 16-bit RAW files. It’s not the fastest camera to use, but it’s got to be one of the prettiest.

8. Canon EOS 5DS/R

Resolution: 50.6MP | Price: $3,699 / ￡2,349 (body only)

For a long time now, this has been the highest-resolution full-frame DSLR you can buy. But apart from bragging rights, it doesn’t seem to have got Canon very far as the overall response to the Canon EOS 5DS appears to have been lukewarm. The fact is, resolution aside, this is a pretty old design, with no Dual Pixel CMOS AF and no 4K video. In fast-changing mirrorless world, the EOS 5DS/R feels a bit of a dinosaur, and even its 50 million pixels can’t change that.

9. Panasonic Lumix S1R

Resolution: 47.3MP | Price: $3,698 / ￡3,399 (body only)

Yes, the Lumix S1R has 3 million fewer pixels than the Canon EOS 5DS/R, but it’s a camera designed for the modern digital age of 4K video and content creation, where the Canon belongs to an older, simpler era. We have to put the Lumix S1R below the Canon in our megapixel listing, but in reality the S1R represents the present (and the future), while the EOS 5DS/R is the past.

10. Nikon Z 7

Resolution: 45.7MP | Price: $3,597 / ￡2,799 (body only)

2018’s influx of full frame mirrorless cameras brought a new round of megapixel wars. The Nikon Z 7 stole a march on the Sony A7R III with around 3 million more pixels, but then along came Panasonic and the Lumix S1R, which sneaked its nose ahead just that little bit further. Even megapixel zealots would probably concede, though, that the Sony A7R III, Nikon Z 7 and Lumix S1R were close enough to be considered the same. It’s just a pity for Nikon and Panasonic that Sony has now brought out the A7R IV!