I feel like a lot of A9 only shooters are having their eyes opened to high resolution images for the first time. It's fun to read their excitement! The R series cameras have certainly been a revelation for me, and I've always wished the R files could be achieved with A9 type speed...and here we are!
arbitrage wrote:
I've used my R4 in similar conditions with no concerns, I'd be mightily concerned if the A1 didn't hold up here!
RoamingScott wrote:
I feel like a lot of A9 only shooters are having their eyes opened to high resolution images for the first time. It's fun to read their excitement!
... and then they look at the price and their newly-opened eyes start to weep
Sorry if this was mentioned already, but did any of the reviewers mention the auto shutter mode? I know it makes little sense for A1 but might trickle down to lower tier bodies..
So, for video shooters maybe this review holds value.... for photos.... she didn't turn off noise reduction in camera, and then compared the JPGs to the raw from the a7siii, completely invalid and not useful :-(
Bird Eye AF and AF Tracking Test
A1 + FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS
1/500 Second at f/6.3, ISO 4000
These are three images from yesterday's shoot that shows an instance Bird Eye AF missed (one of only four frames from the 258 shots where it did not focus on the eye). Go to the last photo in the three to see the missed shot.
With the AF Focus Area set to Zone, it is primarily the Bird Eye AF that can dictate to the AF System to ignore the long grass in front of the face, that is closer to the lens, and go for the bird's eye instead when tracking is initiated. The purple Swamphen does not have a very distinctive eye (dark eye surrounded by dark feathers) so I suspect performance will vary depending upon the type of bird and also the contrast of the lighting. My first test with birds in flight had success with an Eagle but not a Black Kite (dark eye in shadow moving rapidly).
The takeaway advice that I can offer at this moment in time is that the reliability of Bird Eye AF will vary between different shooting situations but any doubts I had about the 200-600 performing well with the A1 have now been removed. The performance is consistent with the the success I had tracking rapidly moving dogs and martial arts. I daresay the Bird Eye-AF will get better over time and a future firmware upgrade may deliver even more reliability. Until that time arrives I am happy to take the support it currently offers ...and when it is not performing reliably I will simply disable Eye AF and go back to what I was doing with my A9 and A9II cameras.
Lots of thick hype for a camera (SONY Alpha 1) with much more than class-leading specs/features.
Usually, the more capability the quieter the hype. We'll probably hear even more arm-waving when coming weeks bring out all the COVID-cabin-fevered reviewers.
Perhaps the reason is SONY's necessity to climb a steep ladder up into the Land of Medium Format.
Up there, on the plateau of glamor and glitter their average resolution benefit stems not so much from bigger pixels (Tho that does lower noise) nor does MF gain that much from longer focal lengths (tho that aids bokeh for studio & portraits).
MF gains mainly from a general 30% resolution improvement due to a larger entrance pupil (comparing equal angular views)...
The inescapable MF advantage stems from Resolution (radians) = lamda ÷ D
(Lamda in mm; D in mm = radians [resolution])
It's why large telescopes are ... well ... really, really ... large.
So, SONY HAS to deliverA1 hype because they know they're in a digital imaging battle with Fuji's MF and that giant, cash-rich competitor has yet to play their big MF cards.
sector99 wrote:
So, SONY HAS to deliverA1 hype because they know they're in a digital imaging battle with Fuji's MF and that giant, cash-rich competitor has yet to play their big MF cards.
I think you took a wrong turn somewhere...
sector99 wrote:
So, SONY HAS to deliverA1 hype because they know they're in a digital imaging battle with Fuji's MF and that giant, cash-rich competitor has yet to play their big MF cards.
Could you please elaborate further? Very interested in your profound analyses
sector99 wrote:
So, SONY HAS to deliverA1 hype because they know they're in a digital imaging battle with Fuji's MF and that giant, cash-rich competitor has yet to play their big MF cards.
They're really really not, you've read this horribly wrong.
sector99 wrote:
Lots of thick hype for a camera (SONY Alpha 1) with much more than class-leading specs/features.
Usually, the more capability the quieter the hype. We'll probably hear even more arm-waving when coming weeks bring out all the COVID-cabin-fevered reviewers.
Perhaps the reason is SONY's necessity to climb a steep ladder up into the Land of Medium Format.
Up there, on the plateau of glamor and glitter their average resolution benefit stems not so much from bigger pixels (Tho that does lower noise) nor does MF gain that much from longer focal lengths (tho that aids bokeh for studio & portraits).
MF gains mainly from a general 30% resolution improvement due to a larger entrance pupil (comparing equal angular views)...
The inescapable MF advantage stems from Resolution (radians) = lamda ÷ D
(Lamda in mm; D in mm = radians [resolution])
It's why large telescopes are ... well ... really, really ... large.
So, SONY HAS to deliverA1 hype because they know they're in a digital imaging battle with Fuji's MF and that giant, cash-rich competitor has yet to play their big MF cards....Show more →
Not sure what your point is, but Sony has plenty of patents for BSI MF sensors and AFAIK currently supplies MF sensors to Phase One, Hasselblad and others. When (if) the time comes to launch its own MF body I'm sure Sony will be more than able to go toe to toe with the likes of Fuji... especially since it also actually makes the MF sensors that Fuji uses! Sony is arguably the leading digital sensor manufacturer in the world, after all, and rumors suggest a potential MF camera with a curved sensor might be on the horizon.
I read a quote a few years back from someone at Hasselblad: "Everybody uses the Sony sensors, because you have to"
The A1 launch "hype" is all about drumming up interest to sell units... aka "marketing". Apparently Sony knows how to do that pretty well if reports of strong demand for the A1 are anything to go by (although such reports might themselves be part of the hype machine). At $6500, the A1 is not so much a general purpose camera as one designed for a specific niche (professional sports, PJ etc.), just as any MF camera Sony might launch will also be aimed at a specific niche.
"To truly test the bird eye AF of the newly launched Sony a1, I needed to find a moving bird against a distracting background that would normally confuse the camera's AF system into focusing on the background. Sounds easier than it was, as I first had to overcome my natural reflex of finding birds and animals against nice clean out-of-focus backgrounds. This image is perfect to demonstrate the ridiculous accuracy of the bird eye autofocus of the Sony a1: Not only is the background close and cluttered (photographing the subject further from the background would have made the background more out of focus and made the whole test easier for the camera), but the subject is relatively low contrast against it. The random scattering of snow covered branches is harder for most autofocus systems to negate when compared to the predictable vertical tree trunks on the edge of a deciduous forest. It was remarkable to see the camera lock onto the eye and follow it through a sequence of 40 images that were all razor-sharp."
It is good to read the Eye-AF picked up the GGO...but really?...that has to be the easiest BIF subject and most obvious eye one could cherry-pick. An A9II in just Zone would stick to the head and not go to the background anyways so that result doesn't really tell me anything other than the system can recognize eyes on some moving subjects.
sector99 wrote:
Lots of thick hype for a camera (SONY Alpha 1) with much more than class-leading specs/features.
Usually, the more capability the quieter the hype. We'll probably hear even more arm-waving when coming weeks bring out all the COVID-cabin-fevered reviewers.
Perhaps the reason is SONY's necessity to climb a steep ladder up into the Land of Medium Format.
Up there, on the plateau of glamor and glitter their average resolution benefit stems not so much from bigger pixels (Tho that does lower noise) nor does MF gain that much from longer focal lengths (tho that aids bokeh for studio & portraits).
MF gains mainly from a general 30% resolution improvement due to a larger entrance pupil (comparing equal angular views)...
The inescapable MF advantage stems from Resolution (radians) = lamda ÷ D
(Lamda in mm; D in mm = radians [resolution])
It's why large telescopes are ... well ... really, really ... large.
So, SONY HAS to deliverA1 hype because they know they're in a digital imaging battle with Fuji's MF and that giant, cash-rich competitor has yet to play their big MF cards....Show more →
Sony is already profiting off Fuji's medium format by selling them their MF sensors.
