Sony made waves last week with the announcement of its brand new flagship a1. At an eye-watering $6,498, it brings some notable technological advances, but early testing suggests that there are few areas where it seems to fall short or perhaps doesn’t quite live up to the marketing spiel.
Tony Northrup has spent a day photographing birds on the Sony a1 and has put together his initial impressions. Frustratingly, photographs shot by early reviewers are under embargo for another couple of days, which means that we have to sit tight until we can get a proper idea of aspects such as dynamic range and high ISO performance, but Northrup still goes into deep detail about the camera's performance.
The immediate comparison to the Sony a1 is the Canon EOS R5, which costs a massive $2,599 less and suddenly feels quite affordable. Fstoppers’ Alex Cooke gave his thoughts last week as well as digging into a few other reasons why the R5 still might have the edge, despite some of the remarkable features that Sony has crammed into their latest camera.
Few photographers will own this camera, but personally, I’m excited to rent one when the right job presents itself. Shooting fast-moving action at high frame rates has meant comparatively low-resolution images until the R5 came along. Now, suddenly, I’m spoiled for choice.
Is the a1 going to live up to the hype? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
I ditched all my Canon equipment for Sony. I'm not sorry. Every camera has its pros and cons. Learn to use your equipment. Don't fall in love with a brand. Buy what suits your needs.
In all seriousness. The real photography news last week wasn't the Sony camera. It was the Fujifilm GFX100S...for $500 less than the Sony A1. Medium format, 100MP, great features with a line up of really good glass.
Sony's price point made both the R5 and the GFX100S look really good.