Were the Sony a9 Rumors True?

Before Sony announced their new a9 mirrorless camera in April, rumors were flooding the headlines about its possible existence. Now that we know what the a9 really is, did the reports hold up?

SonyAlphaRumors seems to be the first to break the silence on the a9, even naming it correctly right out of the gate. We were told that the mirrorless would pack a serious punch, more than we’ve ever seen from Sony, but that it wouldn’t be a continuation of the a7Rii. So what exactly was said, and what exactly came true?

True: The Name

When Apple’s iPhone rumors hit the press, we can pretty much guess what to expect. So much so, that Canadian advertising firm, 6S Marketing, ran a campaign off the back of Apple’s expected launch. That’s not quite the case with Sony’s mirrorless lines. While there were hints of the a8 and a9 cameras as far back as 2015, it’s still rather impressive that the name hit the mark bang on. We also knew that it wasn’t going to be in the a7R or a7S lines, making the reports less hearsay and more insider knowledge.

False: XQD Cards

Arguably the biggest mistake, was that the a9 would only use the latest generation of XQD cards. I suppose there was a good reason to believe this, when the FS7 sports them, and Nikon certainly showed off how photographers could use them. However, the a9 sports Memory Stick Duo and the classic SD cards we all know and love.

I’m personally not a fan of XQD cards anyway. With a selection of arbitrarily named series (N, H, G or S), and needing drivers installed on computers, they’re not amazingly convenient. You’re looking at around $100 for a 64GB card, with 440mb/s read and 400mb/s write speeds. Which isn’t crazy, when the faster SD cards are costing the same and delivering less. However, at least SD cards are more flexible, backward compatible for the most part and set to improve in the future.

False: Unlimited Buffer

According to the rumor mill, “A9 can do UNLIMITED RAW burst, UNLIMITED. The camera wont pause for buffering [sic]." Sure, it was a nice idea but the camera certainly doesn’t achieve this. Sony claim that the number is closer to 241 compressed raw files, and 362 JPEGs, if you want to make use of that 20fps continuous shooting. Now I don’t know about you, but 241 raw shots is plenty for me – I’m not certain many people would hit the limit all too often. However, at 20fps, that means you’re getting just over 12 seconds of continuous shooting. If you haven’t gotten the shot in 12 seconds, there may be something else wrong!

Anything else that differed between the rumors and the real deal wasn’t specified clearly. There wasn’t much mention of its stellar autofocus tracking, the improved battery life or the silent shutter. You can check out what we loved about the a9, and see some early images, to see how much wasn’t reported on before it’s announcement. The a9 is still on preorder if you want to pick it up, for a cool $4,500.