Sony Just Announced the a9 and It Looks Amazing

Sony just announced its most impressive camera to date, the a9. If you've been thinking about making the switch from Canon or Nikon to Sony, this camera may make that decision easier. 

This camera was created with professional sports and wildlife photographers in mind. Instead of competing with the 42-megapixel a7R II, which most people consider a "studio camera," the a9 will be geared towards photographers who need speed. The sensor falls right in-between the a7R II and the a7S II at 24.2 megapixels, but in almost every other way, the camera is a big improvement. 

The first exciting feature is that this camera offers blackout-free shooting, meaning that you will be able to see your subject in the viewfinder 100 percent of the time as you snap up to 20 frames per second. Standard DSLR cameras are incapable of doing this because the mirror, used to see through the lens, needs to flip up to take the picture, blocking your view as the camera exposes. The a9 will work like a video camera, snapping pictures instantly without any break in the feed. If you need silent shooting, the camera can shoot without any sound while using an electronic shutter. 

The autofocus is probably the most impressive aspect of this camera. The a9 has 693 phase-detect AF points that cover 93 percent of the entire frame. No more having to focus and recompose, because basically, you'll be able to focus on any point in your frame. 

The viewfinder is now the sharpest ever created and it can play back live footage at 120 fps so that it feels like a standard optical viewfinder. 

One of the biggest problems with Sony cameras is the battery life, but the a9's new battery now has 2.2 times the capacity of Sony's other full-frame cameras. 

This camera also comes with an Ethernet port, which may allow the camera to be controlled over a network and of course the camera also has 4K video and 5-axis stabilization along with dual SD card slots. 

If you're a sports photographer or you are shooting moving subjects like kids or weddings for a living, the a9 may end up being the most impressive camera on the market. Of course, for all of these incredible features, you will pay dearly. The a9 will be released on May 25th for $4,500. Of course, if we can all have a little patience, all of these amazing features will eventually trickle down to Sony's other cameras over the next few years. 

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Lee Morris is a professional photographer based in Charleston SC, and is the co-owner of Fstoppers.com

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Yeah, another reason why an awesome adapter would be so clutch for Sony. No need for more R&D when there are plenty of lenses out there that get the job done.

I was talking to Alex Cooke about this yesterday, we are going to have a shoot out this summer to see if the a9 with a fe to canon ef mount is comparable to the 1dxii in a sports environment. I am willing to bet money that it can atleast beat the original 1dx in focusing and will be reasonably close to the 1dxii especially shooting something like baseball, but if it was a sport like Snowboarding or Nascar i could see it failing

Awesome. Look forward to that

Well...a Sigma MC-11 adapter and their new 500mm f/4...?

The question remains however how much AF speed you loose. With the intended target use of the A9 this can make a huge difference.

Definitely. Hence the lack of confidence expressed by the, "...?"

So here I am a Sony A99 shooter, I just bought more A-mount glass last year in prep for the imminent A99ii release, and now having seen the A99ii specs and thought damn, it's better than my A99 with a new focusing system (which was my biggest let down on the A99) but I don't really want 42MP files and I'm not really sure it's the revolution I want...

...and now this...

Thanks Sony (with full sarcasm), you put all the features I really want, but in E-Mount, and ok, I'm not adverse to converting, but does it have a full articulating display like the A99ii? It's like there's 2 really good camera's and I want the 2 combined into one.

It must suck for all those that just did update to the A99ii from the A99 - Sony would have known full well they'd lose A99ii buyers if we all knew this was coming out for sure. At least for me I haven't updated, and now having seen this, I might just not update knowing what's in the A9, I'll consider holding out for those specs in an A-Mount body in a year more's time. These camera's are better than mine, but the A99 still takes great pictures and I can work around any shortcomings it has (have been for 4 years).

Or will I cave? - might need a few days to sit on this - I love the extra dial on the top - reminds me of my Minolta Dynax 7 and 7D where most useable functions were switches / knobs rather than menu dive functions. Just need to see what the auto focus accuracy / speed is like with an adapter for the A-Mount lens...

"Up to 480 frames on a single charge" hmmmm, .... i mean, that is pretty bad, ... on a D(3s/4/4S/5) I get roughly 5K to 6K, .... at the stub hub center, in July, .... BUT, I literally like everything else they say it does, .....

Because of the way these camera's work (basically recording video nonstop when they are on) I don't think you will ever see comparable battery life but doubling battery performance over their other cameras is a massive upgrade.

I totally agree on this, I shoot a lot of sport for USA Today Sports in Europe, and during an interesting night I usually fire around 4000-5000 shots with my D810. I rarely have to change my battery. Everything else looks awesome with the Sony camera.. beside the battery.. and those sample images. Can't believe Sony put those pics up to highlight this camera.

Totally hear you. CIPA tests, however, are designed for compacts before dSLRs even existed. You can make general comparisons from body to body, but the numbers are never going to be parallel to the test number. On wedding shoots, I typically get about 600 shots off an a7rII battery (1200 with the battery grip on). You can probably expect 2000 with one of these new batteries.

I agree with you Michael. These numbers that they say are always way on the low side in my experience.

If you watch the quick 2 min Youtube video that Sony launched on the A9 where they gave it to Gene Lower Sports Photographer, he said he got over 1000 shots and had only used 1/4 of the battery - so yeah, heaps of shots.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3QGeMITgQQ

"...At the end of Wed. night, I had shot a total of 3867 images on the main camera that was used on the 500mm f/4 + LEA3 combination. The final readout on battery #1 in the grip read, 59%. It never even touched battery #2 "
http://www.diyphotography.net/first-sony-a9-review/
Since I'm taking more photos with an A7R2 on a single battery than they specify for the double size A9 battery (in a camera with no moving parts!) that figure put out by Sony for the A9 is very very underrated.

I'll believe the autofocus is good when I actually see it. The A7RII was supposed to have amazing autofocus. It's crap compared to any decent dslr body I've compared it to. Don't get me wrong I still love the A7RII for landscapes and even slow moving portraits but I'm not sure I believe the Sony marketing hype. Great that it has dual sd card slots though. It's great that Sony are innovating and shaking up the market.