aCuria wrote: bernardl wrote: old-gregg wrote:
@j4nu@@@ I have not used the A1 II, a $7K camera by the way, and can't comment on that. My rant was "inspired" by folks who're claiming that the Z8's DR deficit doesn't matter, and the Z6 III is perfectly competitive. As if sports and birds are the only subjects that matter.
I just checked your numbers on Photon to Photon, and as I expected the PDR difference between the Z8 (11.3 stops) and a7rV (11.7 stops) is only 0.4 stops, not 1 stop.
I am sorry, I am 100% sure that this is completely impossible to tell apart in a double blind test. I don't doubt your honesty, but what you think you see is your pre-conveived idea that there is a difference. I have spent enough time in high-end audio to know this is very common even among highly educated individuals aware about this phenomenon.
Considering this tiny difference, it would IMHO be a mistake to stick to BIS sensors because of this DR gap considering the huge advantages of stacked sensor for many schooting scenarios.
The cost if higher for the Z6III and even higher for the a9III which is clearly by far the worst sensor in terms of DR. Not that it really matters that much for the applications where it is used.
The next interesting sensor development could come with the Z9II. It shouldn't be that far off now.
Cheers,
Bernard
You are comparing ISO 64 to ISO 100.
Base ISO matters primarily for landscape, and studio photography and film scanning. Since the A1ii, Z8, Z9, and Z6III are not designed with those genres as their main focus, their dynamic range performance at base ISO is of limited relevance.
What truly matters is dynamic range at the same ISO . In real-world use, for events, weddings, sports and so on, it is far more common to shoot above the base ISO. Here the A1ii is one entire stop ahead of the Z9.
One extra stop of DR means the brightest object the A1ii can capture before clipping is twice as bright as the Z9. This is a significant gap.
No, that isn't accurate. The A1 II is only has about a stop more DR at ISO 100 and just that ISO. At ISO 125 the gap is about .9 of a stop and decreases to about three quarters of a stop at ISO 400. At ISO 500 the Z9 actually has slightly higher DR than the A1 II and from ISO 640 to ISO 12800 the gap remains about half a stop or quite close to that. You are right for a lot of usages that 640 to 12800 range is the critical one for these cameras but in that range the A1 II's advantage is much better characterized as a half stop advantage and not as a stop.
Oct 08, 2025 at 09:55 PM
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