So my A9III arrived this morning and here's some quick thoughts for those wondering about it. Not really any photo opportunities, more about the changes in the camera ergonomics, button layout, etc.
1) Ergonomics: I've never been put off by the small size of the Sony cameras, and have in fact felt it was an advantage. However, I have felt there was room for improvement, especially with the cramped space between the grip and lens mount. That is very nice now, plenty of room. The new grip area around shutter is a big improvement, and they made some button changes there that also improve ergonomics (see below).
2) Buttons: Related to the above, but not totally. The EV dial now lacks any marks on it, which is handy since with the ability to set the EV at 0.3 or 0.5 increments you don't have a dial mismatch. The screen changes to show the 0.5 vs. 0.3 increments in the EVF if you change the setting. They have raised the shooting mode button slightly and put the video settings underneath in a stacked dial, so if you don't shoot video much you no longer have to scroll past those settings. The on-off switch on the shutter button is very firm now (maybe too firm?); you won't be able to accidentally turn the camera on or off now. Finally the C1 and C2 buttons on top are slightly different due to the new grip area but they also raised the C2 button slightly, making it easier to both feel the difference between the two, and make it more comfortable to operate.
3) Grip: There's a new battery grip! I hadn't thought of that and only at the last minute did I realize that was the case and I ordered one. The biggest change is that it now has an EV dial that you can use in vertical mode. It also has the more ergonomic area around the shutter button/on-off switch and its got generally more rounded edges. Not sure if you can use it on the older A1, and there's little to no online documentation about it on Sony's website. Not planning on trying it in case it causes an issue, and I have grips for my A1's.
4) The screen is great. It is a tad bit thicker as with all of the fully-articulating screens but that's a small price to pay. The higher resolution is really noticeable right away.
5) The menus have a lot more options. Some are familiar from a little over a year ago when I played with an A7RV but boy I'm going to have to refamiliarize myself with all of the options.
6) Duncan's video here showed the new XS spot focus. I really like that. Great for picking out little bugs and birds and animals hidden in the brush.
7) Firmware updates. Apparently you'll be able to do these via the Creator's App? At least that's what the app implied. They want you to download that and use it for setup but all it really seemed to do was carefully sync the time/date to my phone. It would have been nice to be able to do things like set up the copyright info, etc. where typing with the tiny screen and dial on the back is a PITA. Speaking of which, if you use the Sony High-speed HVL-F60FRM or HVL-F60RM2 flashes there's a firmware update for those to make the compatible with the A9III. It's a typical Sony PITA to do with a new special helper application download so you can connect the flash and update it.
Adobe Lightroom 13.1 is already fully compatible with the raw files from this camera, which is great. I got 30 minutes to fiddle with it on some backyard birds in the late afternoon light so I'm going to play with those for now but my weekend plans include a trip to the Conowingo Dam to try this out on birds in flight, which is the real reason I got it.
randomguy wrote:
A small thing that I don't like in the A93 is that only the hi+ setting can be set to 60 or 120FPS.
I can make up to 4 different "boost" buttons with different FPS from 5 to 120 FPS but I can't set H to 60FPS for instance.
Can you have multiple boost button settings (say one for 30 and one for 120) and assign them to two individual buttons on the camera at the same time?
Or does that boost function only do one setting even if you assign it to multiple custom buttons?
arbitrage wrote:
Can you have multiple boost button settings (say one for 30 and one for 120) and assign them to two individual buttons on the camera at the same time?
Or does that boost function only do one setting even if you assign it to multiple custom buttons?
Yes you can override boost with custom function hold as well as the new boost setting in custom functions. So you can make up to 4 separate buttons with different FPS (and AF settings too if you want on 3 of them) on each. So that is nice. What you can't do is switch between 60 or 120fps without either going into the menu or assigning a button get to the other setting via boost. Or at least I haven't been able to figure out a way to do it.
I am thinking maybe the lens button is actually a good candidate for a boost mode.
randomguy wrote:
What you can't do is switch between 60 or 120fps without either going into the menu or assigning a button get to the other setting via boost. Or at least I haven't been able to figure out a way to do it.
I am thinking maybe the lens button is actually a good candidate for a boost mode.
Set Hi+ to 60fps with Speed Boost Toggle set to 120fps, assigned it to any custom button, I have mine set on lens button.
Here I am sitting on the sidelines quite content with my a1 and a7r5 and now I gotta read all these C̶o̶n̶o̶w̶i̶n̶g̶o̶ Dam a9v3 posts. Yes, I have to read them as my gear envy gene overrides my rational gene. Curses ;-)
I'll look forward to reading more and testing the limits of my rational gene.
Seriously I want to hear more of the global shutter and such. Im more interested in flash/ Led stuff as I will never shoot 120 FPS . Birds can't write me checks.
My personal opinion, new c5 button near the mount is a dumb idea. Being Asian I have small hand, is hard to reach, would have much prefer the c5 button was incorporated into the hand grip as a trigger button where your fingers naturally would sit.
Speaking of firmware updates I just looked at the Sony support page and there's a couple of lens firmware updates that need to be applied to enable full support for this lens. This is going to be a major PITA given how lousy Sony's firmware update process is. While it's better on the new cameras, I don't see any way to make updating lenses easier.
A quick poke around on Sony's site and I can see that at a minimum the following lenses have firmware updates for the A9III to allow the 120fps:
1) 200-600
2) 100-400
3) 70-200 GM2
4) 24-70 GM2
Those are the ones I found so far. And who knows if other updates will be released. Unless I'm missing something there doesn't seem to be an easy way to get notified of firmware updates on lenses.
iamso78 wrote:
Set Hi+ to 60fps with Speed Boost Toggle set to 120fps, assigned it to any custom button, I have mine set on lens button.
I have mine set up like this:
H+ at 120fps, H 30fps
C5 Toggle boost On/Off set at 60fps. Toggle on and you get 60fps instead of 120fps.
C4 Toggle Drive modes - switch between H+, H, Mid, Low, Single
Left wheel drive mode set to * - required for C4 to work
AEL - pre-capture on/off
Pre-capture - Shutter button trigger only (i.e not triggered by AF button as well).
Video Start - AF ON + Registered AF Mode
AF ON - AF ON
Shutter Button - Without AF
Registered AF - Spot XS (tracking)
So now have access to any speed with simple button press.
Trying to press the boost button isn't proving feasible for things like swallows. The whole event is usually less than a second and coordinating three fingers reliably is beyond me. With the above I can switch to what ever mode I want with a couple of button presses.
arbitrage wrote:
Can you have multiple boost button settings (say one for 30 and one for 120) and assign them to two individual buttons on the camera at the same time?
Or does that boost function only do one setting even if you assign it to multiple custom buttons?
jhapeman wrote:
Unless I'm missing something there doesn't seem to be an easy way to get notified of firmware updates on lenses.
There is this funny mobile app called "Support by Sony", which uses your Sony account data and notifies you about updates to the bodies & lenses you have registered.
j4nu wrote:
There is this funny mobile app called "Support by Sony", which uses your Sony account data and notifies you about updates to the bodies & lenses you have registered.
Classic Sony. They have the worst software development strategy. Really, they have no strategy. The new "Creator" stuff seems to have replaced the Alpha Universe stuff. There's a great "gear locker" on Alpha Universe where you can register and track all of your Sony products and Pro Support status but...it won't tell you what needs an update. And now I find out they have an app that does it.
BTW, I can sign in to the Creator App with my Alpha Universe account, which has all of my profile information, etc. but none of it of course gets copied over. It also doesn't copy over which cameras and lenses I own.
jhapeman wrote:
Speaking of firmware updates I just looked at the Sony support page and there's a couple of lens firmware updates that need to be applied to enable full support for this lens. This is going to be a major PITA given how lousy Sony's firmware update process is. While it's better on the new cameras, I don't see any way to make updating lenses easier.
A quick poke around on Sony's site and I can see that at a minimum the following lenses have firmware updates for the A9III to allow the 120fps:
1) 200-600
2) 100-400
3) 70-200 GM2
4) 24-70 GM2
Those are the ones I found so far. And who knows if other updates will be released. Unless I'm missing something there doesn't seem to be an easy way to get notified of firmware updates on lenses. ...Show more →
