The Alpha a9 is the latest Full Frame mirrorless camera that Sony hopes to penetrate into the serious photography market, targeting the Prosumer quarter as well as the Professional photographers and videographers.
Equipped with a high speed 20fps (frames per second) continuous shooting with AF/AE tracking on a 24.2 megapixels 35mm full frame CMOS stacked sensor that has a sensitivity of up to 204800 ISO, Alpha a9 certainly does look very cable of giving the more established DSLR brands of Nikon and Canon a run for their monies!
Being a regular sports and event photographer, I found weight and size an important consideration on top of the camera features, as I often have to react to the situation on the field and move around quickly to capture that moment. I must admit I was very pleased with what I saw when I received the Alpha a9 (for testing) as it was so much lighter and smaller - weighted at less than 700g, thanks to its small Magnesium alloy body and only measured 5 inches (width) by 4 inches (height) - than the standard DSLR that I was used to handling.
While I did not have any Sony E-mount pro lens (Aperture 2.8 or better) to make any technical comparison with what I have from my regular DSLR collection, I was still impressed with the overall color (white balance) accuracy and sharpest of images captured in JPEG with the given general-purpose zoom lens of Sony FE 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS.
Image captured by Sony Alpha a9 with FE 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS @ 28mm f/3.5, ISO100, 1/230 sec
Image captured by Sony Alpha a9 with FE 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS @ 41mm f/5.6, ISO2500, 1/100 sec
Image captured by Sony Alpha a9 with FE 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS @ 36mm f/5, ISO3200, 1/125 sec
The highly accurate eye AF tracking, similar to that of Alpha a7 Mk3 that I have tested before, coupled with the quietness yet amazing 20fps bursting shoots made Alpha a9 an awesome for camera for me, as a photographer, trying to take images at sound sensitive area such as a concert or theater play.
Also I realised I have the tendency to capture almost every image via the LCD display on the Alpha a9 rather than through the electronic viewfinder, which was btw as realistic as a true viewfinder on a DSLR. Rather, it was all about work flow efficiency that mirrorless camera brings, like the m4/3 system that your truly Queen Bee always carry around, which allowed me to quickly select the right focusing point from any of the 693-point wide area AF on the LCD touch screen without having to meddle with joystick/thumbstick while looking through the viewfinder. It was also great for photographers like me who has myopia / short sightedness because we no longer need to wipe off the stain on our spectacle lens no more (after using it to see through the viewfinder)!
While I really like the overall package of the Alpha a9 presented by Sony, there were times it did frustrate me while I'm shooting with this full frame mirrorless camera. Maybe because of its small size, guys like me with big palms found the camera less ergonomics. The EV selector dial, was the number one bane for me as it always got in the way when I moved my finger from LCD touch screen to the shutter button. This often caused the EV setting to change and affected the exposure of my image, and unless I realised early and re-adjusted back the right settings, I would have missed capturing that moment in the right exposure!
Auto white balance was another huge let down for Alpha a9. Not sure why the color produced from the JPEG image was often way off when shooting indoor. Many a times, I have to manually set the white balance before shooting indoor and that could be time consuming.
Every camera model has its strengths and weaknesses and Alpha a9 is no exception. Undoubtedly, Sony's investment in R&D has yielded dividend in the form of Alpha a9, which itself can mount serious challenge to the juggernauts of today's sport photography - Nikon D5 and Canon EOS-D1X Mark II.
Here is my question to Huneybees, who are looking around for such high-end camera: How is any of these cameras going to improve your photography?
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