p.18 #1 · Pre-Order Sony Alpha A1 (50MP, 30fps, 8K)
arbitrage wrote:
Can you link me to that Q&A? Was it the Sony AlphaUniverse one? I did watch that one but admit I was distracted by other work half of the time and likely missed a number of things.
p.18 #2 · Pre-Order Sony Alpha A1 (50MP, 30fps, 8K)
At least on the first sample image, it's used in the presentation video when talking about eyeaf, and showing the square move around the eye.
Holger wrote:
Was eye-AF used?
I just covered a wedding with masks and used the standard focus method one did when eye-AF wasn't available.
No problem getting the yes sharps with rare situations at close distance wide open where exactly that seen in the samples happened (2-3 out of several thousand).
So do we speculate here or do we know it was an eye-AF issue?
p.18 #3 · Pre-Order Sony Alpha A1 (50MP, 30fps, 8K)
Leonberger wrote:
Not a lot of discussion on the ISO specs. I know we are gaining x2 the resolution of the A9 which I own but from what I see that also means we are losing half the high ISO ability of the A9
That's not how it works. The pixels may have twice the noise, but the image itself doesn't. Provided you're not printing individual pixels to hang on the walls the difference will be small.
Michael Gordon wrote:
Curiously though all 5 axes of IS will now work even with adapted lenses where no focus distance is reported.
I like that for my adapted macro lenses.
Where does it say it will work with adapted lenses that don't report distance? There are plenty of adapted lenses that will report focus distance... the only way it could even possibly work would be by doing some hefty image processing in real-time, and I highly doubt they would bother to do this just to help people who aren't using Sony lenses!
GMPhotography wrote:
Im trying to stay out of all this Fray and more important the its too damn expensive crap. God im so sick of it already but this really is a screaming price versus net value for a Pro
I don't think people are complaining the camera is too expensive for what it is, just that it is too expensive for their needs, which is a completely reasonable position.
Many comparisons have been made with the price of the Canon 1D series, however back when I shot with those I would happily stand out all day in the pouring rain. I'm a little underwhelmed by the promise of improved sealing in the A1 and would be hesitant to do the same.
p.18 #4 · Pre-Order Sony Alpha A1 (50MP, 30fps, 8K)
arbitrage wrote:
After thinking on things a little bit I feel that Sony must be done with the A9 line. I feel that they made the marketing decision to create this A1 line in order to push the $2K price increase over what people would have expected this camera to cost if they had called it an A9III. With an A9III badge they maybe could have snuck in a $500 increase but not $2K.
I also think the marketing team wanted to switch to the "1" brand knowing that Canon will bring an R1 out later this year that will also be at this price point. There is no doubt that the combination of "A" and "1" is a powerful marketing name.
Their other option was to call this the A9R. That probably could have worked also to throw in the $2K price increase but I think marketing was correct in going with the A1 name.
As far as a potential A9III in 2022 or later....just not sure what specs they would strip out of the A1 in order to bring out a high-speed sports camera at the $4500 price point? The only thing I can see the A9III doing is having a lower MP sensor with better high-ISO noise performance. Maybe it could be the global shutter camera. But really with this A1 camera doing 1.5x readout that puts it at 1/240. It can now do standard flash at 1/200 in ES. It seems to already be providing all/most of the benefits that one would want a global shutter for anyways.
My gut tells me the same. It doesn't make a lot of sense to keep the A9 line running. It's unfortunate because I had hoped Sony would stay in the reachable price/value bracket. The A9 line was that for me, but with Covid and lack of work it makes it almost impossible to justify or afford $9k Canadian. Then add another $1k for cf cards.
p.18 #5 · Pre-Order Sony Alpha A1 (50MP, 30fps, 8K)
You must be right. Hope this feature will come in future cameras. They should do something. Otherwise they will have nothing to compete with R5 (price range). I hope they won't give up on A9 series.
arbitrage wrote:
My gut tells me the new AI is tied to the new processor and probably to the 120 AF calculations per second (2x the A9 and 4x the A7RIV). So I'd give it a very low chance. The A7SIII would have the best bet of getting it but Bird Eye-AF is not available in video mode even on the A1 so I don't think Sony will be bothered to bring it to the A7SIII.
p.18 #7 · Pre-Order Sony Alpha A1 (50MP, 30fps, 8K)
Jesse Evans wrote:
What is there left to upgrade? For Canon, that answer is readout speed, heat issues, and battery life. For Sony it’s... what? Animal eye AF in video mode? What is there left to do? Longer bulb timer?
1. The viewfinder! While better than many are used to, 9.8 million dots is only 3.3 megapixels. Compare that to standard HD televsion with 1920 × 1080 (2 megapixels) or 4k (3840 × 2160, or 8.4 megapixels). I can easily see the difference between an HD and a 4k picture on my television.
Then there's the gamut. Usually viewfinders are sRGB at best. Clearly for action shooting there are advantages in having focussing points out to the edge of the frame compared to an SLR and, at least for me, it would be a reasonable tradeoff. But I'd still rather have an SLR for my botanical subjects. So it's not in fact, for some, a do-everything camera.
2. The autofocus. I'm not seeing any claim that this camera has other than the equivalent of horizontal focus points. Well, neither does any other mirrorless and neither did autofocus film SLRs for the first few years, but once cross-type sensors appeared, suddenly everyone needed them and not just in the centre. I found with my 5D that for the kind of wildlife and still subjects I shoot they aren't absolutely necessary – but if I were a Formula 1 or equestrian photographer I'd be pausing for thought.
Of course, it's a stunningly good camera. But the ultimate camera? No.
p.18 #8 · Pre-Order Sony Alpha A1 (50MP, 30fps, 8K)
Lower megapixel A1
Imagine the A9iii, $4500, with specs of the A9ii with proper video features similar to the A7siii...... would be a winner in my eyes. 8K is overkill for me, I don’t need 50 MP, 24 is fine, it’s the historically piss poor video features of existing A9’s that kill me. I need a stacked sensor back in my life, to reap all the benefits, not willing to give up video. The A9iii sits in between the A7siii and A1. Make it happen Sony!
scottiet wrote:
My gut tells me the same. It doesn't make a lot of sense to keep the A9 line running. It's unfortunate because I had hoped Sony would stay in the reachable price/value bracket. The A9 line was that for me, but with Covid and lack of work it makes it almost impossible to justify or afford $9k Canadian. Then add another $1k for cf cards.
p.18 #9 · Pre-Order Sony Alpha A1 (50MP, 30fps, 8K)
I'm not a Sony fan, and this camera's spec sheet and price are both way overkill for me, but I have to say kudos to Sony for this beast. Too often we see a new flagship offering across the industry that feels more like reheated leftovers than a gourmet meal. But Sony is at least trying to do something game-changing. I'm sure minor nits and disappointments will continue to be batted around, but the big picture here is quite impressive.
p.18 #10 · Pre-Order Sony Alpha A1 (50MP, 30fps, 8K)
For anyone who currently has an a9(i/ii) and an a7R IV. When you get the α1 which will keep? I keep switching between having the RIV as a backup/beater situation, or the a9 as a low light, varied situation 2nd body.
p.18 #11 · Pre-Order Sony Alpha A1 (50MP, 30fps, 8K)
arbitrage wrote:
I used to buy 1DX and 1DXII so I'm sort of used to this type of price. Of course I used to get CPS discount on those bodies. The A1 will end up being the most expensive camera I've ever bought at $8500 CAD. The 1DXII was "only" $6800 CAD. I had left Canon before 1DXIII so never got to spend a cool $9K on that one.
But you just appeared on the market a few years ago IIRC.
The higher grade cameras don't sell in as large of a volume of course.
The way I see it, the cost is over US $16K for two bodies, grips, memory cards, etc.
That is not unreasonable for maybe three years of use and not chasing the next big thing all the time.
p.18 #12 · Pre-Order Sony Alpha A1 (50MP, 30fps, 8K)
Most of my work is BIF ( https://500px.com/p/skylightimaging?view=photos ). I used the A7rIV for most of my work early on but gradually noticed I was using the A9II the majority of the time. My current plan is to keep the A9II for low light while selling my A7rIV. I am very happy they kept the ergonomics the same as muscle memory is key in action shooting.
p.18 #13 · Pre-Order Sony Alpha A1 (50MP, 30fps, 8K)
Dpreview after talking to Sony offer some interesting nitpicks, in case you haven't seen it:
- It uses the same stacked CMOS approach as the a9 / a9 II to provide its fast readout. In addition to the DRAM built into the back of the sensor to cope with all the data being produced, Sony says the new 50MP sensor features a 'high speed processing circuit with new analogue-to-digital method' between the photodiodes and the DRAM at the back of the chip.
- If you want the ability to capture 30 frames per second but don't necessarily need 50MP worth of data, the camera offers an oversampled 21MP mode that creates JPEG or HEIF images from the full 50MP data. Not coincidentally, 21MP is the same resolution as the camera offers from its APS-C crop mode, allowing for seamless switching back and forth. HEIF images can be captured in a choice of 4:2:2 or 4:2:0 subsampling and can be shot in any of the camera's color modes, including true 10-bit Hybrid Log Gamma, for in-camera capture for HDR displays.
- Moving to lossless Raw sees the maximum shooting rate drop from 30fps to 20fps but allows up to 96 images in a burst, rather than around 82 in uncompressed capture mode.
- the faster e-shutter readout allows the a1 to combine electronic shutter with conventional flash at shutter speeds as high as 1/200 sec, which is faster than the sync speed of some cameras's mechanical shutters. In APS-C/Super 35 mode, this increases to 1/300 sec.
- the camera's mechanical shutter can sync at up to 1/400 sec, or 1/500 sec in Super 35 mode. This is made possible thanks to a new shutter mechanism that uses both a motor and a spring to speed up the return travel.
- However, like a mechanical shutter, there's still a risk that the shutter will fire during the dark part of a flickering light source's flicker cycle. To address this, the a1 has a flicker reduction mode that syncs the shutter to the brightest point in the flicker cycle (a feature we first saw in Canon's EOS 7D). This automatically adapts to the flicker of lights powered in either 50 or 60Hz electrical systems.
In situations where this isn't sufficient (eg LED lighting with less predictable flicker patterns), the a1 offers a variable shutter mode in both stills and video, that let you fractionally tune the shutter speed to avoid clashing with the lights' flickering.
-Sony says improved noise reduction allows the a1 to gain more usable AF information from the sensor, enabling the AF system to work down as far as f/22.
-The viewfinder has two modes: a full-screen mode that gives 0.9x magnification (a 41° angle of view) and 25mm eyepoint, or a 'Zoom Out' mode which places narrow black settings bars at the top and bottom of the display. This reduces the angle of view to 33°, but increases the eyepoint to 33mm. Zoomed-out mode is automatically engaged if the viewfinder is set to the 240 fps refresh rate.
- High-resolution pixel-shift mode. The faster e-shutter mode of the a1 decreases how long it takes to shoot all these images, helping to reduce the impact of movement between frames. But it also means it's possible to shoot high-res mode using flash, for the first time on a Sony camera. You can add a delay of up to 30 second between each capture to provide your strobes with time to recycle.
-Sony also promises is less prone to locking you out of functions when the buffer is full: something that will is likely to be encountered more often on a 30fps, 50MP camera than the 12MP a7S III.
-Video stabilization can be improved, thanks to the capture of the IS gyro data for application in post-processing, but that's the only apparent update.
p.18 #14 · Pre-Order Sony Alpha A1 (50MP, 30fps, 8K)
khurram1 wrote:
The original canon 1Ds and 1dsii were both around the same price, or more than this (at least in Canada) and that was over 10 years ago.
Yep... the A1 price is within a few dollars of what I paid for a new EOS 1D when it first came out.
p.18 #15 · Pre-Order Sony Alpha A1 (50MP, 30fps, 8K)
Anything more than SRBG in the viewfinder is totally pointless. Especially with the latitude in RAW files. A wide gamut computer screen is important for printing on certain media. But you can’t adjust colour in camera in RAWs, so not much use for a viewfinder. You also have many exposure aids with Mirrorless such as peaking and live feedback. Much better than a DSLR.
Modern viewfinders are fantastic for getting precise manual focus. You can zoom in x10. I use shift-tilt lenses on a tripod and I hated using a DSLR. Mirrorless was a revelation for me getting precise focus. After I got the A7R I never looked back at a DSLR for manual focus. It’s a joy using Mirrorless.
melcat wrote: 1. The viewfinder! While better than many are used to, 9.8 million dots is only 3.3 megapixels. Compare that to standard HD televsion with 1920 × 1080 (2 megapixels) or 4k (3840 × 2160, or 8.4 megapixels). I can easily see the difference between an HD and a 4k picture on my television.
Then there's the gamut. Usually viewfinders are sRGB at best. Clearly for action shooting there are advantages in having focussing points out to the edge of the frame compared to an SLR and, at least for me, it would be a reasonable tradeoff. But I'd still rather have an SLR for my botanical subjects. So it's not in fact, for some, a do-everything camera.
Of course, it's a stunningly good camera. But the ultimate camera? No....Show more →
p.18 #16 · Pre-Order Sony Alpha A1 (50MP, 30fps, 8K)
What's the PPI of the 9.8 million dots on a tiny EVF OLED vs your 4K television ? Even after adjusting for viewing distance, magnification, and assuming 20/20 vision I'll bet your eyes wouldn't be able to tell the difference. 4K is overkill on 13" laptop displays and definitely on a smartphone displays. Although 4K resolution would contribute nothing to the EVF image quality I am certain that 4K at 240 fps would kill your batteries in no time at all. A 65" HD television vs 4K television PPI is well within your visual acuity at normal viewing distances which is why you see a difference.
melcat wrote: 1. The viewfinder! While better than many are used to, 9.8 million dots is only 3.3 megapixels. Compare that to standard HD televsion with 1920 × 1080 (2 megapixels) or 4k (3840 × 2160, or 8.4 megapixels). I can easily see the difference between an HD and a 4k picture on my television.
p.18 #17 · Pre-Order Sony Alpha A1 (50MP, 30fps, 8K)
I have a question about silent flash sync. I am glad Sony was able to make it but 1/200 shutter speed makes it kind of limited. For example I want to use flash on a perched humming bird in the shade. Having no sound of mechanical shutter would be amazing because I don’t want to scare the bird. However 1/200 is too slow usually here. Question: does high speed sync work with silent shutter on A1? I have not seen this point addressed by any reviewer yet.
p.18 #19 · Pre-Order Sony Alpha A1 (50MP, 30fps, 8K)
buffalowolff wrote:
For anyone who currently has an a9(i/ii) and an a7R IV. When you get the α1 which will keep? I keep switching between having the RIV as a backup/beater situation, or the a9 as a low light, varied situation 2nd body.
I'm keeping the A9II until the A1 is in my hands. After that I think I will end up selling the A9II unless I'm bothered by the high-ISO noise on the 50MP sensor. But even then I could just downsize the 50 to 24 and be as good or better than an image off of the A9II anyways.
Now I do want to have at least two cameras in my bag especially when I get to travel again. That may end up being A1 and Canon R5 for 2021. If I just wanted two Sony cameras I'm thinking A1 and a used A9 (original) or A1 and the upcoming A7IV (depending on specs). Ideally I'd love just two A1s but because I only use my second body sporadically I won't be having a $6500 body just sitting around most of the time.
p.18 #20 · Pre-Order Sony Alpha A1 (50MP, 30fps, 8K)
In this Australian A1 Q&A video the presenter says the camera should ship end of Feb. Not sure if that is correct or not but that at least suggests it will likely be early March vs late March.
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