Hands on with the Sony a9 (ILCE-9)
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We got a chance to get our hands on the Sony alpha 9 immediately after its announcement. Our first reaction? Continuous shooting with full time live view isn’t a gimmick: you can follow the action without any interruption.
This is an entirely different beast compared to the a6500, which only had 8 fps live view during continuous shooting. This is a nearly 8-fold increase in frame rate: actual 60 fps live view during bursts (120 fps when not shooting).
Hands on with the Sony a9 (ILCE-9)
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It feels more substantially built than the existing a7 cameras, but without it becoming hefty. Sony says the a9 is ‘well sealed – especially around most buttons and dials’ for dust and moisture resistance. Whether it’s up there with the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II or Nikon D5 remains to be seen.
The camera’s grip is a little deeper than the a7 cameras, which means it’s more comfortable to hold with larger, heavier lenses such as the 24-70mm F2.8 GM.
Hands on with the Sony a9 (ILCE-9)
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Despite the fairly radical specifications, the a9 retains the same fundamental form factor as the existing series II a7 cameras. However, as you’ll be aware if you were following the camera’s launch, just about everything inside the body shell has been revised to optimize speed. And outside the shell too – far more direct controls, like the AF and drive mode dials up top.
Hands on with the Sony a9 (ILCE-9)
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Here’s just some of the cleverness that lives inside the camera: the processing board with twin SD card slots, a 3.7m dot OLED viewfinder and a beefed-up lens mount with more screws for greater strength and durability. But the big news is the 24MP stacked CMOS sensor, mounted on a 5-axis stabilized cradle.
The 24.2MP stacked CMOS design includes memory for buffering immediately behind the pixel layer. This and the (comparatively) modest pixel count are key to the camera’s fast readout, which underpins the camera’s headline features: 20 frames per second shooting, 60 fps AF/AE calculations for improved subject tracking, and a fully electronic (truly silent) shutter with minimal rolling shutter.
The Bionz X processor itself is also new (relative to the a7R II and a99 II), and comes with a front-end LSI. These improvements help increase processing speeds 1.8-fold and the buffer 6-fold relative to the a7R II, allowing for 241 continuous compressed Raws during 20 fps bursts. These improvements also help reduce power consumption by 40% compared to the a7R II.
Hands on with the Sony a9 (ILCE-9)
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Although it looks a lot like an second-generation a7 series camera, the a9 features a range of improvements, many of them things that photographers (including us) have been requesting for some time.
The most obvious of these is the AF point joystick on the camera’s rear panel. This and the dedicated AF-On button (as opposed to the recessed button switchable between AF/MF and AEL on previous cameras) will be immediately welcome by anyone who’s shot with an existing Sony camera. The joystick is responsive, but often as you’re using it it accidentally registers a center (downward press), which can be assigned to any function custom buttons can be assigned to. For now, we suggest assigning it to ‘Not Set’ (nothing) so you don’t inadvertently activate something else (like center point AF-S, which it’s set to by default) while trying to move your AF point.
There have been changes to the elements that have been carried over too. For example, the dial on the rear plate of the camera is larger and has more noticeable ‘clicks’ as you turn it, making it far easier to use with precision. The buttons also have a more direct feel, rather than the slightly spongy sensation of the ones on the existing models (particularly the a7R II and a7S II.
Hands on with the Sony a9 (ILCE-9)
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Our first impressions of the camera are that everything is that bit faster. Startup time is reduced (30% faster than a7R II), as is the speed at which the viewfinder panel is activated when you pull the camera up to your eye. AF is faster as well: 25% faster AF acquisition speeds, and 30% higher detection rate when it comes to Eye AF and face detection, compared to the a7R II. Low light AF speeds and performance should be improved as well, as Sony now claims AF at -3 EV with F2 lenses (1 EV better than the a7R II).
We’re also impressed with the new quad VGA viewfinder. Its offers a crisp, detailed view and fast enough refresh rate to follow action (120 fps, dropping to 60 fps during bursts). Since it’s OLED, it’s nice and contrasty. We wish the LCD had improved though: Nikon and Canon DSLRs offer retina-esque displays on their newer cameras that make shot images look that much more inspiring.
Hands on with the Sony a9 (ILCE-9)
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Other changes include the addition of a physical control for switching between MF and the camera’s different AF modes. This, along with the ability to assign an AF area mode (with or without AF activation, a la Nikon D5/500) to the camera’s custom buttons, should make the a9 as quick to operate as it is at shooting.
Unfortunately, as of now, only one AF area can be assigned as ‘Reg. AF Area’ (oddly by long-pressing the Fn button while in that AF area mode), so you’ll only be able to instantly switch to one other AF area mode from the one that is currently engaged. We’ve requested Sony to enable multiple AF area modes to be assignable to multiple buttons, directly via the menu, as opposed to having only one ‘Registered AF Area’ the camera can store in memory. This might allow you to quickly switch between, say, Lock-on AF, complete Auto (when Lock-on fails), and good old center point. It would be even nicer if one could specify AF-S vs. AF-C for any of these modes so that, for example, I could generally keep the camera in AF-C, but always fall back to good old center-focus-and-recompose when all else fails.
Hands on with the Sony a9 (ILCE-9)
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Stills aren’t the only area that gains massive improvements over previous models: Full-frame 4K video is now oversampled 2.4-fold from 6K footage. No pixel-binning, no line skipping. This leads to incredibly crisp footage but, more importantly, with extremely low rolling shutter thanks to the incredibly fast readout speeds of the new stacked CMOS sensor.
Which makes it all the more a shame that, for some reason, Sony decided to forego S-Log (and Picture Profiles entirely) on this camera. Sony claims this is because the camera is aimed at professional stills shooters, but for a camera that shoots such good full-frame 4K, we feel it’s a bit of a shame.
Hands on with the Sony a9 (ILCE-9)
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The a9 uses a new battery. The ‘Type Z’ NP-FZ100 is bigger than the existing batteries and offers significantly more capacity: 16.4Wh to be exact, up from 7.7Wh in the older, ‘W’ type packs used in previous models. This allows the camera to achieve a rating of 650 shots per charge, based on CIPA standard tests.
As always, it’s quite common to be able to get many more shots out of a battery than the rating suggests, but the higher rating should mean the a9 will regularly be able to shoot for twice as long as most of the a7 series before needing a battery swap.
Hands on with the Sony a9 (ILCE-9)
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Announced alongside the a9 is an accessory that should excite existing E-mount camera owners, particularly videographers.
The NPA-MQZ1K Multi-Battery Adaptor Kit comes with two of the new NP-FZ100 batteries and has space for another two. It not only works as a charging station for up to four Z type batteries but also has a dummy battery that allows it to be used as an external power pack. The unit is compatible not only with the a9 but also with the a7, a7R, a7S, a7 II, a7R II, a7S II, a6000, a6300, a6500, a5000, a5100 and RX10 III, providing up to 8x their current battery capacity. It include tripod-style mounting sockets, for attachment to a video rig.
Hands on with the Sony a9 (ILCE-9)
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The ports on the camera’s left flank are all fairly familiar: headphone, mic, USB and HDMI. What’s slightly unexpected is that, despite the camera’s speed, the USB port is only version 2, rather than the much faster USB 3.
As you can see, the doors aren’t especially substantial, which is presumably why Sony isn’t making particularly strong claims about weatherproofing.
Hands on with the Sony a9 (ILCE-9)
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The a9 is the first Sony to feature an Ethernet port, making clear its pitch-side intentions.
We’re surprised to see a traditional flash sync socket, for studio work. We’d expect that of Sony’s current models: the higher-resolution a7R II (which, curiously, lacks a flash sync socket) would appeal more to studio photographers. A hint perhaps that there’s a higher-resolution a9-series body on the way…
Hands on with the Sony a9 (ILCE-9)
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An optional VG-C3EM battery grip doubles the camera’s battery life. The grip itself holds two batteries but fills the battery compartment, meaning you end up with two batteries in total, rather than three. Still, a rating of around 1300 shots per charge with two batteries puts the a9 will into DSLR territory in terms of longevity.
What do you make of the Sony a9? Let us know in the comments.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)