DPRTV: Sony Alpha 1 Review – Greatest Camera Ever Made?

• 4 years ago

DPRTV released its Sony Alpha 1 Review and below is a summary of their review and it is a lengthy one due to how capable the Sony A1 is:

• It feels just like a Sony a7SIII with the deeper grip
• Mode dial you have to hold to adjust settings and it should just be a toggle like the exposure composition dial
• The new AF joystick and AF button are excellent
• The new menus are nice and support touch screen
• This is a very responsive camera unlike Sony cameras in the past
• Not sure if we should call it the A1 or Alpha 1
• The new shutter is excellent and well dampened
• The box flashing to let you know that your taking photos is useful, but Jordan likes the shutter sound for feedback
• A1 finally has lossless compressed RAW
• Lossless compressed RAW gives you a 57MB file, but Uncompressed RAW gives you a 104MB file
• Lossless compressed only supports 20fps
• You have to shoot lossy compressed RAW to get 30fps
• NEW CFExpress cards are great, but it is also great to be able to use SD cards in those slots too
• Lossless compressed RAW at 20fps
  • CFExpress 111 images
  • v90 SD 82 images
• Lossy compressed RAW at 30fps
  • CFExpress 161 images
  • v90 SD 150 images
• Writing the files to the card on CFExpress is super fast though
• The camera never really locks you out, but you have to wait for the buffer to fill to switch to video
• Writing to a fast SD card is a lot slower
• Same rear LCD they have had for years
• Should have a higher resolution display with at least 2-way tilt
• New 9MP EVF at .9x magnification is very nice especially in high-quality mode, but then it drops to 60fps
• Using the new EVF at 120fps or 240fps reduces the image quality
• The EVF mode for 240fps also reduces the image size along with quality
• Does a fantastic job tracking people
• Can toggle between humans, animals, birds with a button press
• Animal-eye AF seems to have improved but it can jump between eye and body
• Bird-eye AF jumps between the eye and the feathers even when static
• Electronic sync with the shutter at 1/200th and mechanical at 1/400th in full-frame mode, but in APS-C mode you can sync at 1/500th
• High-speed sync is useful for overpowering the sun
• These sync speeds only work with hot shoes that can do TTL
• Dynamic range is better than the a9/a9II
• Still waiting for Adobe support to compare image quality
• 200MP multishot is great but it requires sony imaging edge
• Electronic shutter and mechanical shutter images are basically identical in all respects
• This seems to be the year of 8k
• The Sony Alpha 1 has manageable 8k files
• The 4k recording is quite good
• Super35 mode is much sharper
• 4k 120p even has manageable files
• Rolling shutter is almost nonexistent with stills and it is minimal when recording 8k
• A dual gain sensor like other Sony cameras
  • No Profile 100 and 500 ISO
  • Slog 3 800 and 4000 ISO
  • S-Cinetone 160 and 640 ISO
• S-Cinetone is jordans favorite profile from Sony
• 8k 24p at 200Mbps recorded for 1h 11m before shutting down
• After a 15 min break, it could record for another 1h 4m
• 4k 120p 200Mbps can record for 29m
• After a 15 min break, it could record for another 25m
• If you’re recording indoors overheating won’t be an issue
• The a9 is a targeted professional camera, but the A1 has no real compromises so it could be great for anyone
• For some, this is the greatest camera ever made

Sony A1: B&H Photo / Amazon / Moment / Adorama

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