It was raining a couple of days ago, so I spent some time doing some measurements on the A1.
In a prior thread I showed some data on the buffer clearing rates for the A9 using a UHS-II SD card. I used the same method for the A1 to measure the buffer filling and clearing rates using a CFE-A card and the UHS-II card. The method is to record the HDMI output of the camera, which includes all the information displayed on the EVF and LCD. That HDMI video file is then examined frame-by-frame using DaVinci Resolve to extract data on how quickly the buffer fills and is cleared and how many files are captured. The frame number gives accurate timing information. It's pretty tedious but yields that most accurate data I can get.
On of the surprises for the A9 (at least I was surprised) was that the the rates vary a lot as the camera heats up. One objective was to see if the better thermal management in the A1 improved that situation.
Shown below are three plots of data obtained for the A1 with CFE-A and UHS-II cards. The CFE-A was a Sony 160GB card rated at 700MB/sec write. The UHS-II was a Sony G that is rated at 299 MB/sec write.
This data is for RAW compressed files written at Hi+ 30fps. The camera was in release priority and the lens was set to manual focus.
The data shown below was taken in a random order so that if there was a heating effect the data would not form smooth lines. You can see that any temperature effect is negligible, which is consistent with the A1's greatly improved thermal management.
The first chart shows that the A1 stores files at the full 30fps until the buffer fills. I found that the rate was always about 29-30 fps. Once the buffer fills, the frame rate drops to the rate frames can be cleared from the buffer. For the CFE-A card that is about 11 fps and for the UHS-II card it is about 4.7 fps. The chart shows an abrupt break in the slope for the SD card at 150 frames. Up to 150 frames the camera is running at 30 fps and then abruptly reduces to 4.7 frames/sec. For the CFE-A the transition is not as large so the transition appears to be more gradual.
The second chart shows how many frames need to be captured at 30 fps to fill the buffer and it shows that the buffer holds about 127-128 frames. That means the buffer is about 6.7GB. You see that that the buffer fills when 220 frames have been captured using the CFE-A. That means it takes 7.3 seconds to fill the buffer at 30fps, and (220-127)=93 frames have already been written to the CFE card by the time the buffer is filled. For the SD card, it takes 5 sec and a total of 150 frames to fill the buffer and (150-127)=23 frames have been written to the SD card by the time the buffer fills. 220 is short of Sony's spec of 238. I am not sure why, but it is true that the data from analysis of the HDMI output is dependent on the camera quickly updating the displayed information.
The time to clear the full buffer is very consistent, and is 11.5 sec for the CFE card and 27 sec for the SD card, a factor of 2.35.
The third chart shows the measured write speed. There is some variability of the data for short bursts, which may be due to inaccuracy of the displayed data in the HDMI stream. For short bursts even small errors can create large variations in the measured write speed. I used only the larger bursts to measure an average of 587 MB/sec for the CFE-A and 246 MB/sec for the SD card. That means they are both running at about 82-84% of their rated spec.
Operationally these results can be summarized as follows:
(a) There is no noticeable thermal effect in the A1.
(b) The CFE-A captured about 220 frames before the rate drops from 30fps to about 11fps.
(c) The SD card captured about 150 frames before the rate drops from 30fps to less than 5fps.
(d) The CFE-A clears the full buffer in 11.5 sec.
(e) The SD card clears the full buffer in 27 sec.
If it rains again I may make some measurements for lossless compressed and uncompressed files.
It was raining a couple of days ago, so I spent some time doing some measurements on the A1.
In a prior thread I showed some data on the buffer clearing rates for the A9 using a UHS-II SD card. I used the same method for the A1 to measure the buffer filling and clearing rates using a CFE-A card and the UHS-II card. The method is to record the HDMI output of the camera, which includes all the information displayed on the EVF and LCD. That HDMI video file is then examined frame-by-frame using DaVinci Resolve to extract data on how quickly the buffer fills and is cleared and how many files are captured. The frame number gives accurate timing information. It's pretty tedious but yields that most accurate data I can get.
On of the surprises for the A9 (at least I was surprised) was that the the rates vary a lot as the camera heats up. One objective was to see if the better thermal management in the A1 improved that situation.
Shown below are three plots of data obtained for the A1 with CFE-A and UHS-II cards. The CFE-A was a Sony 160GB card rated at 700MB/sec write. The UHS-II was a Sony G that is rated at 299 MB/sec write.
This data is for RAW compressed files written at Hi+ 30fps. The camera was in release priority and the lens was set to manual focus.
The data shown below was taken in a random order so that if there was a heating effect the data would not form smooth lines. You can see that any temperature effect is negligible, which is consistent with the A1's greatly improved thermal management.
The first chart shows that the A1 stores files at the full 30fps until the buffer fills. I found that the rate was always about 29-30 fps. Once the buffer fills, the frame rate drops to the rate frames can be cleared from the buffer. For the CFE-A card that is about 11 fps and for the UHS-II card it is about 4.7 fps. The chart shows an abrupt break in the slope for the SD card at 150 frames. Up to 150 frames the camera is running at 30 fps and then abruptly reduces to 4.7 frames/sec. For the CFE-A the transition is not as large so the transition appears to be more gradual.
The second chart shows how many frames need to be captured at 30 fps to fill the buffer and it shows that the buffer holds about 127-128 frames. That means the buffer is about 6.7GB. You see that that the buffer fills when 220 frames have been captured using the CFE-A. That means it takes 7.3 seconds to fill the buffer at 30fps, and (220-127)=93 frames have already been written to the CFE card by the time the buffer is filled. For the SD card, it takes 5 sec and a total of 150 frames to fill the buffer and (150-127)=23 frames have been written to the SD card by the time the buffer fills. 220 is short of Sony's spec of 238. I am not sure why, but it is true that the data from analysis of the HDMI output is dependent on the camera quickly updating the displayed information.
The time to clear the full buffer is very consistent, and is 11.5 sec for the CFE card and 27 sec for the SD card, a factor of 2.35.
The third chart shows the measured write speed. There is some variability of the data for short bursts, which may be due to inaccuracy of the displayed data in the HDMI stream. For short bursts even small errors can create large variations in the measured write speed. I used only the larger bursts to measure an average of 587 MB/sec for the CFE-A and 246 MB/sec for the SD card. That means they are both running at about 82-84% of their rated spec.
Operationally these results can be summarized as follows:
(a) There is no noticeable thermal effect in the A1.
(b) The CFE-A captured about 220 frames before the rate drops from 30fps to about 11fps.
(c) The SD card captured about 150 frames before the rate drops from 30fps to less than 5fps.
(d) The CFE-A clears the full buffer in 11.5 sec.
(e) The SD card clears the full buffer in 27 sec.
If it rains again I may make some measurements for lossless compressed and uncompressed files.
It was raining a couple of days ago, so I spent some time doing some measurements on the A1.
In a prior thread I showed some data on the buffer clearing rates for the A9 using a UHS-II SD card. I used the same method for the A1 to measure the buffer filling and clearing rates using a CFE-A card and the UHS-II card. The method is to record the HDMI output of the camera, which includes all the information displayed on the EVF and LCD. That HDMI video file is then examined frame-by-frame using DaVinci Resolve to extract data on how quickly the buffer fills and is cleared and how many files are captured. The frame number gives accurate timing information. It's pretty tedious but yields that most accurate data I can get.
On of the surprises for the A9 (at least I was surprised) was that the the rates vary a lot as the camera heats up. One objective was to see if the better thermal management in the A1 improved that situation.
Shown below are three plots of data obtained for the A1 with CFE-A and UHS-II cards. The CFE-A was a Sony 160GB card rated at 700MB/sec write. The UHS-II was a Sony G that is rated at 299 MB/sec write.
This data is for RAW compressed files written at Hi+ 30fps. The camera was in release priority and the lens was set to manual focus.
The data shown below was taken in a random order so that if there was a heating effect the data would not form smooth lines. You can see that any temperature effect is negligible, which is consistent with the A1's greatly improved thermal management.
The first chart shows that the A1 stores files at the full 30fps until the buffer fills. I found that the rate was always about 29-30 fps. Once the buffer fills, the frame rate drops to the rate frames can be cleared from the buffer. For the CFE-A card that is about 11 fps and for the UHS-II card it is about 4.7 fps. The chart shows an abrupt break in the slope for the SD card at 150 frames. Up to 150 frames the camera is running at 30 fps and then abruptly reduces to 4.7 frames/sec. For the CFE-A the transition is not as large so the transition appears to be more gradual.
The second chart shows how many frames need to be captured at 30 fps to fill the buffer and it shows that the buffer holds about 127-128 frames. That means the buffer is about 6.7GB. You see that that the buffer fills when 220 frames have been captured using the CFE-A. That means it takes 7.3 seconds to fill the buffer at 30fps, and (220-127)=93 frames have already been written to the CFE card by the time the buffer is filled. For the SD card, it takes 5 sec and a total of 150 frames to fill the buffer and (150-127)=23 frames have been written to the SD card by the time the buffer fills. 220 is short of Sony's spec of 238. I am not sure why, but it is true that the data from analysis of the HDMI output is dependent on the camera quickly updating the displayed information.
The time to clear the full buffer is very consistent, and is 11.5 sec for the CFE card and 27 sec for the SD card, a factor of 2.35.
The third chart shows the measured write speed. There is some variability of the data for short bursts, which may be due to inaccuracy of the displayed data in the HDMI stream. For short bursts even small errors can create large variations in the measured write speed. I used only the larger bursts to measure an average of 587 MB/sec for the CFE-A and 246 MB/sec for the SD card. That means they are both running at about 82-84% of their rated spec.
Operationally these results can be summarized as follows:
(a) There is no noticeable thermal effect in the A1.
(b) The CFE-A captured about 220 frames before the rate drops from 30fps to about 11fps.
(c) The SD card captured about 150 frames before the rate drops from 30fps to less than 5fps.
(d) The CFE-A clears the full buffer in 11.5 sec.
(e) The SD card clears the full buffer in 27 sec.
If it rains again I may make some measurements for lossless compressed and uncompressed files.
It was raining a couple of days ago, so I spent some time doing some measurements on the A1.
In a prior thread I showed some data on the buffer clearing rates for the A9 using a UHS-II SD card. I used the same method for the A1 to measure the buffer filling and clearing rates using a CFE-A card and the UHS-II card. The method is to record the HDMI output of the camera, which includes all the information displayed on the EVF and LCD. That HDMI video file is then examined frame-by-frame using DaVinci Resolve to extract data on how quickly the buffer fills and is cleared and how many files are captured. The frame number gives accurate timing information. It's pretty tedious but yields that most accurate data I can get.
On of the surprises for the A9 (at least I was surprised) was that the the rates vary a lot as the camera heats up. One objective was to see if the better thermal management in the A1 improved that situation.
Shown below are three plots of data obtained for the A1 with CFE-A and UHS-II cards. The CFE-A was a Sony 160GB card rated at 700MB/sec write. The UHS-II was a Sony G that is rated at 299 MB/sec write.
This data is for RAW compressed files written at Hi+ 30fps. The camera was in release priority and the lens was set to manual focus.
The data shown below was taken in a random order so that if there was a heating effect the data would not form smooth lines. You can see that any temperature effect is negligible, which is consistent with the A1's greatly improved thermal management.
The first chart shows that the A1 stores files at the full 30fps until the buffer fills. I found that the rate was always about 29-30 fps. Once the buffer fills, the frame drops to the rate frames can be cleared from the buffer. For the CFE-A card that is about 11 fps and for the UHS-II card it is about 4.7 fps. The chart shows an abrupt break in the slope for the SD card at 150 frames. Up to 150 frames the camera is running at 30 fps and then abruptly reduces to 4.7 frames/sec. For the CFE-A the transition is not as large so the transition appears to be more gradual.
The second chart shows how many frames need to be captured at 30 fps to fill the buffer and it shows that the buffer holds about 127-128 frames. That means the buffer is about 6.7GB. You see that that the buffer fills when 220 frames have been captured using the CFE-A. That means it takes 7.3 seconds to fill the buffer at 30fps, and (220-127)=93 frames have already been written to the CFE card by the time the buffer is filled. For the SD card, it takes 5 sec and a total of 150 frames to fill the buffer and (150-127)=23 frames have been written to the SD card by the time the buffer fills. 220 is short of Sony's spec of 238. I am not sure why, but it is true that the data from analysis of the HDMI output is dependent on the camera quickly updating the displayed information.
The time to clear the full buffer is very consistent, and is 11.5 sec for the CFE card and 27 sec for the SD card, a factor of 2.35.
The third chart shows the measured write speed. There is some variability of the data for short bursts, which may be due to inaccuracy of the displayed data in the HDMI stream. For short bursts even small errors can create large variations in the measured write speed. I used only the larger bursts to measure an average of 587 MB/sec for the CFE-A and 246 MB/sec for the SD card. That means they are both running at about 82-84% of their rated spec.
Operationally these results can be summarized as follows:
(a) There is no noticeable thermal effect in the A1.
(b) The CFE-A captured about 220 frames before the rate drops from 30fps to about 11fps.
(c) The SD card captured about 150 frames before the rate drops from 30fps to less than 5fps.
(d) The CFE-A clears the full buffer in 11.5 sec.
(e) The SD card clears the full buffer in 27 sec.
If it rains again I may make some measurements for lossless compressed and uncompressed files.
It was raining a couple of days ago, so I spent some time doing some measurements on the A1.
In a prior thread I showed some data on the buffer clearing rates for the A9 using a UHS-II SD card. I used the same method for the A1 to measure the buffer filling and clearing rates using a CFE-A card and the UHS-II card. The method is to record the HDMI output of the camera, which includes all the information displayed on the EVF and LCD. That HDMI video file is then examined frame-by-frame using DaVinci Resolve to extract data on how quickly the buffer fills and is cleared and how many files are captured. The frame number gives accurate timing information. It's pretty tedious but yields that most accurate data I can get.
On of the surprises for the A9 (at least I was surprised) was that the the rates vary a lot as the camera heats up. One objective was to see if the better thermal management in the A1 improved that situation.
Shown below are three plots of data obtained for the A1 with CFE-A and UHS-II cards. The CFE-A was a Sony 160GB card rated at 700MB/sec write. The UHS-II was a Sony G that is rated at 299 MB/sec write.
This data is for RAW compressed files written at Hi+ 30fps. The camera was in release priority and the lens was set to manual focus.
The data shown below was taken is a random order so that if there was a heating effect the data would not form smooth lines. You can see that any temperature effect is negligible, which is consistent with the A1's greatly improved thermal management.
The first chart shows that the A1 stores files at the full 30fps until the buffer fills. I found that the rate was always about 29-30 fps. Once the buffer fills, the frame drops to the rate frames can be cleared from the buffer. For the CFE-A card that is about 11 fps and for the UHS-II card it is about 4.7 fps. The chart shows an abrupt break in the slope for the SD card at 150 frames. Up to 150 frames the camera is running at 30 fps and then abruptly reduces to 4.7 frames/sec. For the CFE-A the transition is not as large so the transition appears to be more gradual.
The second chart shows how many frames need to be captured at 30 fps to fill the buffer and it shows that the buffer holds about 127-128 frames. That means the buffer is about 6.7GB. You see that that the buffer fills when 220 frames have been captured using the CFE-A. That means it takes 7.3 seconds to fill the buffer at 30fps, and (220-127)=93 frames have already been written to the CFE card by the time the buffer is filled. For the SD card, it takes 5 sec and a total of 150 frames to fill the buffer and (150-127)=23 frames have been written to the SD card by the time the buffer fills. 220 is short of Sony's spec of 238. I am not sure why, but it is true that the data from analysis of the HDMI output is dependent on the camera quickly updating the displayed information.
The time to clear the full buffer is very consistent, and is 11.5 sec for the CFE card and 27 sec for the SD card, a factor of 2.35.
The third chart shows the measured write speed. There is some variability of the data for short bursts, which may be due to inaccuracy of the displayed data in the HDMI stream. For short bursts even small errors can create large variations in the measured write speed. I used only the larger bursts to measure an average of 587 MB/sec for the CFE-A and 246 MB/sec for the SD card. That means they are both running at about 82-84% of their rated spec.
Operationally these results can be summarized as follows:
(a) There is no noticeable thermal effect in the A1.
(b) The CFE-A captured about 220 frames before the rate drops from 30fps to about 11fps.
(c) The SD card captured about 150 frames before the rate drops from 30fps to less than 5fps.
(d) The CFE-A clears the full buffer in 11.5 sec.
(e) The SD card clears the full buffer in 27 sec.
If it rains again I may make some measurements for lossless compressed and uncompressed files.
