Midjourney V5 Alpha Released: Double the Resolution and Much Better Hands
Midjourney released its new “V5” model as an alpha version. True to founder David Holz’s promise that it would “ship this week,” the release doubled resolution over V4 and made major strides in realism, including much-improved rendering of hands — long a problem area for the technology.
Details
- Resolution: Standard output roughly doubled, from the equivalent of 512x512 in V4 to roughly 1024x1024 in V5
- Range of expression: Designed with less of a distinctive “house style” than V3 and V4, and with stronger prompt-following ability
- Overcoming a weak point: The rendering of hands and fingers — often a source of glitches in AI-generated images — improved dramatically, drawing considerable attention
- Rollout: Started as an alpha test for a subset of users before moving to a full release incorporating community feedback
What happened next
V5 became the default model on March 30, 2023, significantly boosting Midjourney’s reputation as a tool for realistic, photorealistic-style imagery. Incremental refinements followed in V5.1 and V5.2, eventually leading into V6 by the end of that year.