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 Re: A9III VS A1II… General shooting | |
chiron wrote:
hiepphotog wrote:
chiron wrote:
hiepphotog wrote:
Donzo98 wrote:
Would anyone use an A9III instead of an A1II for daily shooting??
I could def live with 24mp vs 50, as I’m not a big cropper.
Just curious about real world use in terms of DR and general usability.
Like many said, DR would be a big advantage for the A1II. However, I went through this process and I picked the A9. For general usability, both would do well. But the A9iii would allow you to capture more spontaneous shots, especially when you pair it with Sony lenses with 2 or more motors (I would recommend those compact G lenses). Flash use is a huge advantage as well, especially with Sony flash.
I'm interested in what you say about the A9III helping you to capture more spontaneous shots than the A1 II (or than, I assume, other A7xxx cameras). Why isn't the A1 II just as quick?
Capturing spontaneous photographs quickly is often important to me. Can you (or anyone else) say more about exactly what features and characteristics of the A9III make it quicker and better at capturing spontaneous photographs?
In asking this question, I am almost exclusively concerned with the quickness of spontaneous, candid shots of people taken without flash.
Take my perspective with a grain of salt, since I don’t have much firsthand experience with the A1II. Most of what I know comes from the general consensus online that the A9III has the edge in both subject acquisition and tracking. What I can say from my own use is that the A9III let me capture moments that happened just right after raising the camera to my eye, and it also gave me the freedom to shoot from unconventional angles without relying on the screen or viewfinder, almost like shooting from the hip, but with the option of a shallower depth of field when I wanted it.
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aCuria wrote:
chiron wrote:
hiepphotog wrote:
Donzo98 wrote:
Would anyone use an A9III instead of an A1II for daily shooting??
I could def live with 24mp vs 50, as I’m not a big cropper.
Just curious about real world use in terms of DR and general usability.
Like many said, DR would be a big advantage for the A1II. However, I went through this process and I picked the A9. For general usability, both would do well. But the A9iii would allow you to capture more spontaneous shots, especially when you pair it with Sony lenses with 2 or more motors (I would recommend those compact G lenses). Flash use is a huge advantage as well, especially with Sony flash.
I'm interested in what you say about the A9III helping you to capture more spontaneous shots than the A1 II (or than, I assume, other A7xxx cameras). Why isn't the A1 II just as quick?
Capturing spontaneous photographs quickly is often important to me. Can you (or anyone else) say more about exactly what features and characteristics of the A9III make it quicker and better at capturing spontaneous photographs?
In asking this question, I am almost exclusively concerned with the quickness of spontaneous, candid shots of people taken without flash.
1EV better low light AF
- think of it as the difference in low light AF between a f/4 and f/2.8 zoom with your existing camera
somewhat faster AF
- Hit rate should be slightly better
120fps 14 bit raw (A1ii is 20fps)
- for candids either is fine but for action 30/60 is very nice
- the buffer is small at 120fps, you have to be deliberate when shooting 120
Global shutter
- zero banding, I don’t even have to think about this indoors anymore. Just set ISO AUTO MIN SS and concentrate on capturing the moment
- the SS that eliminates banding may not be the SS you actually want to use, so this has always been a pain in the ass
- zero rolling shutter (more of a thing for animals and video)
No EFCS
- The A1ii “mechanical” is EFCS afaik.
- More of an issue for high shutter speeds, fast lenses and flash. When flash is on you want to use mechanical shutter
Flash Photography
- A9iii lets you overpower the sun with a small speedlight firing at a low power level. You can continuously fire shots
- on the A1 you would have to fire at 1/1 power and wait for the strobe to recycle
- Sony flash TTL is fire and forget. Godox TTL is unreliable so you have to shoot manual mode preferably
- carrying and setting up 2x AD100s in manual mode is becoming more difficult for me (have more kids now)
- no more carrying ND filters
But there’s a big con with the A9iii, base iso is 250.
- Note that A9iii dynamic range at 250 is as good as the A1ii at 250.
- A1ii at 100 is obviously going to be about a stop better than A9iii at 250.
- A9iii ISO CAN be "expanded" lower than 250, but DR is not going to improve under 250. The shutter is a ridiculous 1/80000s so you dont have to expand at high shutter, but I suppose you may want to expand at low shutter (eg flowing water)
I figured I have other cameras I could use when I expect to shoot at iso 100, but I do not have other cameras that can do 120fps and global shutter. This was the deciding factor.
Frankly it’s a very close call between the A1ii and A9iii
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Lifeinpictures wrote:
I rented both the A9III and the A1MarkII for a week and tried them in everyday situations.
I preferred the A9III for its responsiveness and speed of AF. The features and the body was designed to get the maximum out of the sensor.
So, I purchased the A9III and used it the next day after I received it to document my daughter’s college graduation. This involved both videos and photos. I didn’t have time to customize the body to my liking due to time constraints, I used the Tamron 35-150 F2-2.8 lens for maximum versatility.
This combination was simply superb! Out of the 400+ photographs and multiple videos, I had one photograph that was very very slightly out of focus. I was really nitpicking. This result was astonishing.
The quality of the pictures were sublime. This camera was the most seamless extension of my vision to capture what I wanted with ease. The experience was simply incredible. No more rolling shutter issues anymore.
I actually will trade my A7RV and my A7RIIIA and get a second A9III body. Because I use my GFX 100SII for landscape and portraits and my GFX100RF for street photography.
I got to admit after using the A9III, I don’t use the other cameras as much. This camera is that good. Sony has made the closet camera to perfection, compared to the cameras that I have used in the last 30 years across all brands.
While the A1 MarkII is an exceptional jack of all trades camera, the A9III got it beat in capturing life’s precious moments flawlessly. I couldn’t go back to a rolling shutter camera after the A9III. I think it’s perfect as a general use camera in addition to its strengths in wildlife and sports photography.
I have most of Sony’s GM lenses to use the 120fps if I needed to. Tamron released a firmware to make the 35-150 2-2.8 shoot at 120fps with the A9III only using single shot AF I think. I updated the firmware and will try to document my bullmastiff running at top speed in my backyard.
Thank you all for the excellent and very interesting answers. There is a lot to think about there.
My interest in the A9III has primarily to do with how much better than other Sony cameras it would be at capturing quick documentary moments of people just being people in ordinary situations. It sounds like its subject acquisition and autofocus, the speed of actually taking the image, low-light autofocus, and the immunity of the global shutter to image distortion from a slow sensor or from flickering lighting are the key factors in its speed for documentary photography.
I do wish the A9III were smaller. I find the difference in size and weight even between the A1 and the A1 II camera bodies to be significant in handling the camera quickly. This is the key reason that I like the A7Cxx bodies--they make handling the camera very easy and non-attention grabbing, where bigger cameras often require me to do more to keep them with me and to raise them for a shot. It is a subtle thing, but the difference that size makes seems real to me in practice.
I think what I may need to do is to rent an A9III. But it does sound like skilled users find the A9III to be a quicker camera than anything else out there.
I very much like and aspire to David Alan Harvey's line that “I still love that you can take your little camera— you can take an ordinary situation, and make art out of it. I’m still absolutely fascinated by that phenomenon.” To try to make something meaningful out of images of ordinary situations is what I try to do in a lot of my photography.
Yup, it’s unrivaled for documenting life’s precious moments flawlessly. It captures the moment instantly without missing anything. The A9III is my fail safe camera.
I do agree that I did find the camera a little bigger than my usual Sony cameras. But the resulting grip was quite positive and more substantial.
What Sony did with this global shutter sensor camera to make it a really complete device is very clever and really well executed with maximizing its photographic capabilities. This reminds me of the X-H2S/GFX100RF nearly complete designs.
Sony really needs to add the ability to process raw in camera like Fuji though, and allow ProRes internal recording capabilities.
They should really add all the features that cine features that the X-H2S has, because the global shutter is far superior for video than the stacked sensor on my X-H2S.
I do admit that I was perplexed when they used the old stacked sensor on their “flagship - the A1MarkII’, instead of a higher resolution global sensor. There’s a huge difference in the technologies involved. But one would only understand if you used the A9III first.
I do try to let people who are conflicted between the two models to just get the A9III. There’s no question about the benefits of the global sensor. In addition Sony did a lot of work to make sure the images from the global sensor are very clean, almost analog in appearance. But that’s just me, your experience might differ. The body design and the custom functions were perfect for it. It’s funny that they used the same body for the A1MarkII, especially the drive boost button on a rolling shutter sensor body.
I haven’t tried to push/pull my raws to the extent that some people do with their cameras. I usually don’t under or over expose to more than 3 stops. But I am sure the A9III’s sensor can handle it.
I think people are taking too much about extreme exposure highlight or shadow recovery. Most of don’t mess up that much. But it makes a really good marketing tool to get people interested.
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