A few lucky photographers got their hands on the Sony a1 and the videos are finally starting to roll out. We didn’t get a whole lot of content at launch, but it looks like many reviewers received cameras after the announcement. Above Tony speaks about the good and the bad of the Sony A1, but he is still under embargo for sharing images and video shot on the camera.
Gorgeous EVF with no lag that you can track moving birds while continuously shooting without issue
EVF that’s finally equal to an OVF
Larger and higher resolution than the Canon R5
Good handling and the grip might be a little deeper than an a9
Tilt screen that won’t turn to the side
There are weird quirks like dumb stuff in the menus
3 useless FN buttons
Must disable C3 because you press it accidentally a lot
Still has dumb menus even though they are improved
EC still annoying
The shutter can be programmed to protect the sensor from dust
Tracking is awesome with great human eye AF, good Animal eye AF, not great bird eye AF
Best real-time AF yet that is much stickier
Canon has better bird eye AF at this time
Had a lot of out of focus shots with the Sony 600mm f/4
In high mode with a still subject, he got 29-30fps, but in motion, it dropped to 19fps and with third party glass he got 15fps this is due to if the lens motor can keep up
No detectable rolling shutter for stills
Banding is very under control, but it is not entirely fixed especially under artificial lights with a fast shutter speed
Buffer clears immediately and was able to take 260frames in 11 seconds shooting to two cards without an issue and when the buffer is full the camera only drops to about 10fps
Battery life is excellent shot 5500 shots shooting birds and the battery was at 69% than did 23 min of 8k which burned through 17% of the battery
Sony Flash E-shutter 1/200th and M-Shutter 1/400th work fine and the camera will auto switch to HSS when you go above
Generic flash would only sync with a mechanical shutter to 1/250th
Godox designed for Sony worked like a Sony flash
Standard overheating will shut the camera down after 16 min of filming with a warning at 15 min
If you turn off overheating protection the camera doesn’t shut down and he recorded for an hr and twenty minutes
Testing will continue
Canon R5 keeps up with the A1 better than you would think
Viltrox updated its Viltrox 23/33/56mm APS-C lenses
AF 23/1.4 E V1.1.6 v1.1.6 Firmware update instructions： 1. Optimize video tracking performance
2. Solve the problem of high power consumption after the lens enters low power consumption AF 23/1.4 E V1.1.6 Firmware Download
AF 33/1.4 E V1.1.5 v1.1.5 Firmware update instructions： 1. Optimize video tracking performance
2. Solve the problem of high power consumption after the lens enters low power consumption AF 33/1.4 E V1.1.5 Firmware Download
AF 56/1.4 E V1.1.6 v1.1.6 Firmware update instructions： 1. Optimize video tracking performance
2. Solve the problem of high power consumption after the lens enters low power consumption AF 56/1.4 E V1.1.6 Firmware Download
Many have only been able to give their opinions about the Sony A1 since Sony kept the camera to themselves, but it looks like Sony built one camera to rule them all. No camera on the market currently comes too close to what the Sony A1 has to offer, but the camera also goes far beyond the needs of most photographers. At $6,500 most will not be able to afford one, but it is also easier to justify than other similarly priced cameras because this camera seems to be a master of all trades.
The Sony a9II is already an incredible camera, but it wasn’t a very large step up over the original Sony a9. We have long believed that Sony would release an a9R camera to provide users with a high speed professional camera that goes beyond what the a7 series of cameras has to offer, but it seems sony skipped that camera to create one camera to rule them all with the Sony Alpha 1. Time will tell if this was a good decision to make, but I think Sony is justified in its naming convention for now.
There aren’t many photo or video applications that the Sony A1 won’t dominate at, but the price point is eye-watering for many photographers. Before the A1 most cameras around $6k were amazing at one or two tasks at most. Some cameras above $6k are even considered to be like jewelry by some, but I digress. The fact that the Sony A1 can do almost anything other cameras can do helps support its price point for now, but what happens when the sensor technology in the A1/a9 series of cameras trickles down into the a7 line-up?
I think every camera company on the market today needs to be worried about the future because there is no one out there creating innovative sensor technology for them and Sony keeps the best stuff for themselves. It might be time for manufacturers to go back to Samsung and beg them to make innovative sensors for cameras again.
Nokishita noticed 5 new cameras registered by Sony. We know RX cameras are coming and the Sony a7IV leaked first here already, but there is more to come.
Sony’s “WW356015” has been registered with an overseas certification body today. The unreleased models registered at this time are “WW447485” and “WW728473” for 5GHz Wi-Fi compatible machines, and “WW356015”, “WW186333” and “WW111327” for 2.4GHz only. (The recently announced α1 is WW411329) – Nokishita
