I am considering a A9/A9II with most likely the 600/4 & 100-400 for wildlife only.
I have not used any Mirrorless for moving subject before so have a question about shutters and if the A9II is required or not.
First i am not bothered about Flash so that is a non issue with the 5FPS on the A9.
My understanding is both are the same FPS using Electronic/Silent Shutter ?
The question is about banding that you hear talked about when shooting moving targets with an electronic shutters, is this a thing with the A9/A9II for Birds in Flight or running mamamls etc ?
If not then it seems, for a wildlife use case, there is little benefit of the A9II over the A9 ?
Otherwise the 10FPS mechanical shutter is the killer feature to avoid issues ?
Rob, if you use a native FE lens, the FPS using electronic or silent shutter, you can get up to 20 FPS, which is currently the highest out there. The slower FPS is limited only to the mechanical shutter and that would be necessary to trigger flash.
I am not aware of the presence of banding using both the A9 or A9 II. I have used the A9 since it first became available and I have taken thousands of images and I have not seen any banding. And yes, there is not much benefits of the A9 II over A9 for wildlife shooting but the ergonomic, like the grip and feel of a few buttons, on the A9 II is somewhat better. It is not worth it for me to upgrade to the II version from the A9 but for someone that just starting, it would be worth considering.
Banding happens due to a slow read out time of a camera sensor which can happen with both mirrorless or using silent mode on a DSLR in live view as well.
The benefit of the A9 and A9 II is that they have a stacked image sensor with the quickest read out time on the market. It is this that allows you to use it so effectively with the electronic shutter.
I believe you may still get banding under some artificial lights or with electronic advertising boards at the side of sport fields. However out and about shooting wildlife it shouldn't be an issue at all as Joshua has said.
It's this same read out speed that will determine how much rolling shutter a camera has as well. The fast read out time is the raison d'etre of the A9 series existence. I think the next fastest read out time on the market is in the Olympus E-M1 II and the new III but they are still not up to what the A9 can provide.
A9 read out time is 1/160s most other full frame mirrorless cameras are about 1/40s such as the A7 series, Nikon Z and Canon EOS R. From a quick google the E-M1 II is 1/60. If you consider the flash sync speed on most cameras is usually around 1/200 or 1/250 of a second this should show why you need the mechanical shutter still for the flash. These numbers should give you some perspective on how much faster the read out time is on the A9 compared to the competition.
