Tony Ross
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 p.2 #2 · A9III Thoughts from the first few hours | |
jhapeman wrote:
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. ...Show more →
3) - no, I believe the new battery grip is NOT backward compatible. It's quite a bit more expensive, too, but they made a big thing about all the buttons and switch on the grip being the same quality as the ones on the camera - gess they must have been using lower quality ones in the past? The new grip also ekes a bit more power from a pair of batteries, which is interesting.
4) - as far as I can tell the rear screen is identical to the one of the A7RV, and I've been enjoying that one for over a year. The EVF is the same, too, but has the bonus of supporting 120fps without shrink.
5) - yes, there are a bunch more settings in the menus. Some are necessary: things like supporting the Turbo button (setting its speed), and controlling the composite RAW. And there are some extras like multiple sets of something or other (I gather that stuff matters tones organisation!) Not to mention the settings allowing the setup of non-Sony flashes for sync at high shutter speeds.
6) - and there's the XL spot as well as the XS.
7) - I'm hoping it also still supports updates from card. I really don't want to install that Creator App thing.
Yes, ACR supports lossless compressed RAW-L and lossy compressed RAW from the A9 III (I tested the lossy compressed RAW unintentionally - it's the default RAW format.)
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