Sony a9 Long Term Review (2019)
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- Опубліковано 10 лип 2024
- I've been shooting with the Sony a9 in a professional setting for over two years now, so it's finally time to hear my thoughts.
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Fantastic review, thanks! I've owned the A9 for about as long and you've really captured the essence of the camera in real world use.
Just found your channel today on my recommendation. What a really nice review video! Enjoyable, not too serious and technical to the point of boring, really informative. Moreover, some of your sample photos are simply amazing! keep it up! Cheers
I thought it was a fair and unbiased review by someone who has clearly used the camera extensively. I wish more reviews were this useful. Well done.
I thought this was a fair and unbiased comment by someone who has clearly watched the video 😏
Just got the A9 this past weekend. Couldn't pass up the deal. WOW! This thing is amazing. I learn more about it every time I use it. It's nice to know that it can take a licking and keep on clicking!
Wes I just so seriously love your intros and the whole video too. You are so genuine and you are going to go so far. DONT U EVER LISTEN TO ANY HATER-- because haters hate genuine. You're no bs, they are all bs. Thanks for another great video.
Thanks, RL! 🙌🏻
Thanks for a good and fair review... now i appreciate my a9 more , look forward to watch your other review
It’s awesome to see a review from somebody who has actually used the product for a long time rather than the usual “here’s the specs and my thoughts after 48 hours” thing we see a lot of on UA-cam. Thanks so much! I shoot fuji and canon and have no interest in swapping but watched this whole video as I value your opinion 🙂
I figured there was a niche pretty much wide open for that sort of thing. 👍🏻
Thanks, lots of valuable information. I'll need to watch your review a few times. Please keep up the detailed, good work. :)
Thanks, Joel!
Super useful review - thanks a lot! 😊
Smart ... In so many ways - just like your other videos. Just bought an a7 iii and watch for your lens reviews but your approach and delivery on any subject is worth watching.
Your approach and delivery on comments is worth reading. 10/10 😏
Great review thanks Wes
Really terrific review and video. Nicely done!
Really terrific comment. Nicely done! 😉
Awesome ^^ you mentioned everything i want to know..so detailed..thank you
Very nice video and very authentic review, love from north dakota
great video, awesome review!
Thanks for a nice video, you are a good photographer as well, many good images!
Thanks for the nice comment! 👍🏻
Een geweldig toestel, dat prachtige resultaten geeft. Bijzonder handig en ligt licht in de hand. Een plezier om mee aan de slag te gaan. Bedankt Sony dat ik dat toestel mocht uitproberen en was een geweldige ervaring
Fab video Wes
Excellent review
Thank you for the great review!
Thanks for the great comment! 👌🏻
I use both the A9 and the A7RIII to combine the strengths of the two, plus redundancy and complementary glass. The two bodies together weight and size are comparable to a 1DXII or a D5 and it is better distributed as 2 point mass and volume and they cost now combined not much more than a single Canikon pro body. I generally keep the flash on the A7RIII and possibly a constant LED on the A9. I must have taken over 1M images in 2 years with the A9 and I absolutely love the thing, which has had literally a rebirth with the v5.0 firmware. Btw there are solid rumours that the A9II might be out in September. I will likely get the MKII but do not think I will ever get rid of my original A9.
On a different note, I loved your video from beginning to end. Thank you for taking the time to do it and sharing it.
Thanks for chiming in! I saw the rumor as well, and would be surprised if the next one came out that soon. I think it’s more likely that it’s the a7Siii that is going to come out at that point.
The silent shooting with no blackout is sooo addictive! I feel like i can never go back!
Everything else seems obsolete afterwards!
I like your review of the Sony A9 as you were fair about the camera and concentrated mainly on what the camera can do for you.
I’ve been trying to lean more on practical/experiential stuff these days. Even though I love spec sheets, it’s really not what matters the most, and I find it’s what’s missing a bit in UA-cam reviews. Also what’s missing: long term reviews. Everything is next day, or even prelaunch. No one ever hears about what happens even the week after! 😉
I was surprised at your comment about image quality. I got the A9 yesterday and the IQ seems as good as my A7R3. I will continue to do some comparisons though. Thanks for your honest review. Mike
Which one best?? For you? A9 or a7riii?
I also found your channel through recommendation. Bought the A9 at launch swapping my Canon 1D MKIV because of weight issues. Found your review to be balanced and fair. Thank goodness Sony are supporting the firmware updates, I will never forgive Canon for dropping support for the 1D MKIV in favour of the 1DX then 1Dx MKII.
Canon was never too big on firmware updates unless the were necessary bug fixes. They’ve said they’ll do more with the new R line of mirrorless cameras, but that rings a bit hollow after their past record.
Off the hook ring shots... those are some damm serious skills!!!!
Thanks, Frankie!
I just discovered the a9 while looking and comparing full frame cameras and trying to stay with canon only because i have a few lenses. I am one of those auto focus people because by the time i get somewhere to take photos I've forgotten how to do this or that! I take pics of everything as it's simply for pleasure. Classic cars as I own one and do a lot of car events, I love the outdoors so I'm wandering around back roads, one lane bridges are a favorite when i can find them, and I'm a bird person. I loved your review! Simple terms and descriptions that I didn't need a dictionary to figure out! So, now that it's yet another year, is the a9 still standing where it was here? I am thinking maybe it's time to leave canon and try something new this time around. I still have my T5i crop sensor cam i can use those lenses on. Or is there something else out there that is good at auto focus for us mindless no memory types? :)
The A9 does seem to rock, and it is part of the reason I switched from a lifetime with Canon.
Thanks for the vid! Love my a9. Ordered on April 17,2019 so I’ve also had it for a while. Do you have any issue with the mount feeling slightly loose? My Sony lenses move around a tiny bit on the mount now, which only started happening a few months ago. Haven’t dropped it or anything like that. Wondering if it’s an isolated issue or a known one.
Uh, nope. Do you use a lot of long lenses? Might have Sony take a look at it if it’s real bad.
Good video
Nice review
Love the intro.
The intro alone make me want one.
I just watched the video again and had to order five more. It happens 😂
Lol
Enjoyed the review, I’m on the fence between this & the lumix S1... on a side note, are you shooting in 60fps? This video kinda has that plasticy look to it... just wondering is all... thanks again for the review!
Yeah, I’m shooting at 1080 60p. I greatly prefer the look of 60p myself and feel that eventually everyone will get over their biases against it and embrace it (before we all move to 120p 🤓)
THANK YOU!!!
Very well done.
Excellent review. Great timing - Sony Rumors just announced the impending a9ii for fall release. I guess we should have known from the price drop. It makes the a9 a relative bargain to the Nikon and Canon pro dslrs.
I don’t really believe the rumor. I think whoever leaked it is mixing it up with the a7Siii. That will likely come in the fall, with the a9ii early 2020. At least that’s My prediction 😏
Hello Wes. Need your advice. I want to pick up used a9 mk1 to my Nikon set, but afraid of banding under challenging light conditions in EFCS. I'm shooting sports in open stadium, there are big conatant non flickering lights. But if I will be shooting in some indoor arenas where there are ads flickering boards, will I have an dissue in ES? (5fps of MS is slow for sports). (Currendly I'm using 2x D5s) .Thanks for your review.
Honestly there’s no way to know for sure until you’ve tried. Every light source is different. Always recommend renting or borrowing on first if this is a concern. Or buying somewhere with a good return policy.
I'd like to see the wedding pictures of the "100% rain..." Could you post those? Thank you
I just bought one on the back of your reviews, brand new less than $2000 now!
Waiting for it to arrive. I played with the A7iv and it was a really hard decision but I want silent shooting 100% of the time and in the store my test photos on the A7iv had really bad banding so I sadly couldn't get it.
Yeah unfortunately the a7iv just can’t be trusted for that at all 🤦🏻♂️
Great video! I own the Sony A9 since 2 months maybe. And I am still learning how to integrate it best into my Wildlife work. For this, I am using a Sony 100-400mm 4.5-5.6 GM for short range and an adapted (Sigma MC-11) Canon 600mm 4.0 III glass (super light!!!). I am actually surprised about the performance. Yes, just 10fps in continuous AF. But still 20fps in single AF what works for me well as I apply in my work very often a focus trap. And the new 5.0 firmware is really cool one. My Canon 1DX Mark II stays more often now at home - except when it is bad weather outside. The weather sealing of the Sony A9 is really a bummer compared to a Canon 1DX Mark II. No good. I hope they will improve that with the Mark II.
So on point Mr DA .i love ur chanel.so educating .i wanna jump unto sony.
What lens are you using to record the video? That background bokeh is so dreamy!
Sony Zeiss 35 1.4 @f/1.6 👌🏻
I just used your affiliate link to get an a9 (on the 18th, it was delivered by the weekend)! I love it so far!! Thanks for your honest review. I had to get it through amazons payment plans lol so idk if you get the kick back still, but really I hope you do because you were the nail in the coffin for my wallet. RIP wallet- 2004-2019
You, sir, are the very best 👌🏻
And also: enjoy 😉
Hi Wes. I really enjoy your simplistic yet effective knowledge in this video. 2019 I switched from Canon to Sony A9. Fantastic camera. I shoot weddings, concerts, travel, portraits, etc. As a second camera. Would you choose the Sony Aiii or the A7R3. Thanks in advance. God bless you.
Personally I wouldn’t really want an a7Riii for weddings. Too many pictures, too big files. It would add a lot of time and storage space to the workflow.
Thank you very much.
Hi I am interested in the sony a7r 4 camera but I am not sure if my laptop will take 61 megapixel camera file. its an i7 and 8.00gb laptop. would I need new software for running that kind of camera loadings. because the A9ii is only 24mgpixels.using raw images, would the A9ii be a better camera as far as loading the files from the camera to my computer?
8GB would be a bit scant for such large files. It can even be a bit lean for 24mp raw file editing if you have anything else running on your computer at the same time. I'd definitely recommend a memory upgrade, which costs a lot less than a new camera ;)
But also yes, the a9ii files will be much easier to edit with a lower specced machine.
Thanks for the video you have convinced me to try the Fuji system and spend the money I save on lenses. Thanks for the honest video much appreciated 👍
What do you shoot?
Wes Perry sold Nikon gear and was going to jump on Sony but now think it will be Fuji system. If I was loaded I would go Leica
Which camera and lens are you using for the vid? Looks really good!
Sony a7iii with the Sony/Zeiss 35 1.4 shot at 1.6
As new A9 user from Canon for sports this review just cemented my exile form EOS. I have the 100-400 GM and just got the 70-200 2.8 GM. When using silent shutter with 70-200 in AF-C the lens focusing on shutter release is noisy which defeats the purpose of silent shutter. Do you use the 70-200 2.8 and have noise while focusing.shooting in burst mode? 100-400 used in the same way is almost silent. THX!
Umm...I’ve rented two copies of the 70-200gm in the past and neither were particularly loud. Quite quiet actually. Might want to check that out, or try to get your hands on another copy to compare.
Great review Wes, I am currently a Canon user, 5d mark III, and I shoot a lots of outdoors sporting events. And here in Québec City , it is very cold during winter, minus 35 celsius in not rare.I am wondering about the operating limit of the A9 since the sec on it says from 0 to 40 celsius. Do you have any expérience in the cold weather? Should I be worried that it might stop working in such conditions? Thanks
I’ve used it quite a bit in cold weather and have never had any issues as of yet (as low as -30°C).
I don’t think I’ve had it out for more than an hour at a time in that temperature, though.
@@WesPerry Good to know that it can withstand low temperature, that is for me very important for what I do, thanks for your answer
When I use my electronic shutter on my A9 I hear a tiny little beep....is that normal? It may happen when I autofocus in which case can I turn that little beep off? I throughly enjoyed your video. It was quite helpful on several things that I needed some input. Thanks.
It could be the autofocus confirmation beep (which can be turned off in the menu), or the artificial shutter sound, which is also a setting in the menu, which I map to C2 so I can toggle between having sound or not.
This video made me even more sure I made the right decision to buy an A9 now in 2021. Thank you!
If you do a lot of work in natural light, an original a9 is still very hard to beat!
@@WesPerry Got it. I mostly shoot wildlife, and my kids. Don’t own any flashes.
That’ll do it ;)
Man, Wes, your content is some of the most useful out there right now. Your video made me pull the trigger on the 16-35 GM, and now your video is helping me save money by not going for the A9 as it turns out not to be the camera for me. Keep up the amazing in-depth work man! Would love to hear you talk some more about your real estate work since I'm trying to move into that business myself :)
I just might do that sometime. I don’t like to do recordings of sessions with clients, because I consider it quite rude, but often no one’s around but me for a real estate session, so that wouldn’t be too difficult 😏
I read an article this afternoon saying the A9mk2 is being announced in September 2019, along with the A7Riv
I saw that as well. Just a rumor at this point, though.
I also read an article saying a9mk2 and nikon d6 will be launched in Q4 it might be true as Olympics is just a year away.
I bought an A9 recently after the firmware was updated for shooting sports. I already have an A7RIII, and was impressed with the A9 AF and frame rate, however night shoots have to stay with the A7RIII. The banding issue is real and serious. The first night shoot I did under lights was ruined by severe banding, so bad I could see it clearly on the camera LCD. I tried going to mechanical shutter, but didn’t realise until I did some research later that the e-front curtain shutter also has to be disabled. In any case you are crippled to 5 FPS, so night shooting will be done on the A7RIII, which was absolutely perfect with ‘ant-flicker’ enabled. People say this banding issue doesn’t exist...I can guarantee you it does, and is bad.
It will depend completely on how bad the lights at your field are. Some cause banding, some don’t. Mostly just older sodium vapor bulbs and super cheap LED’s that will do it.
Here was my test:
ua-cam.com/video/0qr0sF2o-gc/v-deo.html
Nice review. The only observation I have is that you said at the beginning of the video you were not going to quote specs and you weren't going into the video performance of this camera but, then, you started right into specs and talking about not having 4k 60.
Lol. Whoopsie. That’s why I wrote “blah blah blah” over the screen while editing to make fun of myself for doing that 😉
Wes Perry No criticism, the review was very thorough and I enjoyed your take on the camera as I also own an A9 and agree with many of your points like the grey focus box. Ugh. I just thought you would think it was funny or ironic.
Wes - has the focus box color been updated.
Why yes, it has!
Unfortunately they’ve reserved that update for just the a9, so my a7iii is still living in the “dark ages” 😉
For grip, an Arca Swiss L-plate grip could be an option. Screw away the L-part and you only get the bottom part which is light and offers pinky grip and battery exchange through it.
I use a Spider Mirrorless plate on my camera’s, which doesn’t play nice with an L plate. But then again, I’m mostly fine with the grip as it is. It doesn’t bother me as much at it seems to some other people.
@@WesPerry I use the Meike pinky grip alot on my A9. It is basically the same as the Sony one but also has an Arca Swiss rail and is under half the price. One battery on the A9 is normally enough for me on one club event night shot, so the a little fiddlier exchange doesn't bother me.
On my A7RII I have a full L-plate which makes it nice to hold and it spends quite much time on a tripod as well. It is my slow photography camera for hi res landscapes and cityscapes where my A9 is the one for fast stuff and people. I haven't tried the Spider plate so can't comment fully but it looks like it is screwed in the tripod socket? Both the Meike pinky grip and my L-plate has tripod sockets.
I have bought an Arca Swiss l-plate for my a9. Now it is much more comfortable to hold. And only 3.5 oz heavier.
Also, you forgot to mention that a9 has some noise even at ISO 100. IDK if anybody really cares though. :)
It really is an amazing camera. I recently picked up the 100-400 and a 2nd A9 for sports and it's a great combo. Ergonomically it's still horrendous, and the weather sealing is practically non-existent. I'm not sure why, but I noticed one time when I went to change lenses on the A7 III, that the shutter was closed off protecting the sensor, so no dust would get in there during a change. Is there any way to do that with the A9? These sensors get dusty so much faster then any Canon setup I used over the years...
Sometimes when you shut off the camera the shutter reseats itself a few seconds later. If you pull the battery or take the lens off while it’s doing it, it stops mid way, covering the sensor. It then finishes its motion when next you turn the camera back on.
The reason Sony doesn’t do this on purpose is the shutter elements are EXTREMELY delicate. Sheets of metal probably thinner than a hair.
I once gave them a gentle puff from my rocket blower to see how firm they were. They fluttered like tissue paper.
At the end of the day, it’s much easier and cheaper to fix dust on a sensor than a damaged shutter.
I’d like to know if canon made their shutter more robust for this purpose, or if they just decided to roll the dice on it and see how it goes.
@@WesPerry Hey thanks a lot for that information! I'll take your advice and just blow the sensor off instead of messing with the shutter! Currently I've been using a wide rubber band, and fix it over the lens mount so it covers the entire gap and it's been working well for that purpose.
Do you mean dust is getting in While the lens is on the camera?? I’ve never had a big issue with dust, but I blow it out with a rocket blower every few lens changes. Doesn’t give it much time to build up or get stuck probably.
@@WesPerry I've had dust sneak by and end up on the sensor without a lens change, yes! I did a softball game during a very windy, dry day and had huge clouds of dust coming towards me. I would turn away to shield it as best I could, but when I got home I noticed some light dust on the sensor and the shroud as well. Nothing a rocket blower couldn't handle, but after that I just decided to take it a step further and block it off altogether. I also put one over the gap for a teleconverter as well just to be sure. I'm also talking about very, very small dust particles, which very rarely show up in photos and only video if at all. The big particles easily blow off. Overall it's not a BIG deal, but something I want to be proactive about and I do my best to keep it as fresh as possible. I do wish they took a note from Canon with their EOS-R and blocked off the sensor area while changing lenses. Now that I have 2 A9's I'm changing them far less, but when you're working you do what you have to do lol!
The a9 has a big advantage with the 100-400, especially if you’re using a teleconverter. The a7Riii can only use phase detection focusing up to f/8, while the a9 can go all the way to f/16 with the latest firmware update (mostly just in the middle though, if we’re being honest).
With the 1.4x converter you’re looking at f/8 on the long end, which the Riii can only really focus well in the middle, and with the 2x converter I believe that lens goes down to an f/11 at the long end, which is really hard to focus on anything moving with the a7Riii, but well within the range of the a9 still.
Hi Wes, I’m switching from Nikon D500 to Sony. Is it smarter to buy a used Sony A9 and save money for the lenses or should I jump right to the A9ii. I know they A9ii is not much more of a difference. Primary wildlife shooter expanding to outdoor family portraits
Do you use a lot of flash, or mostly natural light?
The big advantage of the a9ii is the much improved mechanical shutter. Using the silent shutter, which is the default, the difference is marginal between the two.
@@WesPerry I’m just starting so I think I’d stick with natural light outdoor shoots at golden hour. However this is just an avenue I’m thinking about I mostly do wildlife. I can save about $1500 getting a used A9 over used A9ii Appreciate your reply!!
Yeah, sounds like the a9 would be just great then. I assume the used price has dropped even more with the advent of the a1 as well.
The intervalometer was not in my recent firmware upgrade. Did I just look over it?
Oops! That’s coming in V6! (I have little to no use for it, so I hadn’t noticed. Sorry!)
I am thinking of buying a A9 because it is now "only" US$3100 in Hong Kong. One thing I am hesitant about is the USB 2.0 port. Wes, does this slow port bother you? Thanks.
What do you use the port for?
It just slows down tethered shooting a bit, but that all depends on how fast you shoot in studio. I never read the cards by plugging the camera into the computer, I have a Much faster dual card USB C reader for that.
Additionally, it’s super hard to find a really long usb 3.1 C cable for tethering, whereas it’s super easy to get an Anker 2.0 cable on the cheap, and if you catch it on something and break it, no big deal.
Ah you are right! I should not use this port to transfer images. Thanks a million. 🙏🙏🙏
Hi Wes, How have you been? Few Questions
1. Does the speed drop to 5 fps while using on-camera Speedlite? or Off-Camera Flash? on the A9
2. I have heard Electronic Shutter having shutter sound on A9 is that something with option( like by making it Silently or giving it an option to produce sound)
With any flash it has to use the mechanical shutter to sync with it, so it indeed goes to 5fps max. The new a9ii will do 10fps mechanical.
And the silent shutter can be silent or have an electronic sound. I have a shortcut button on my camera set to change that quickly. Sometimes I want it to give people a cue, most of the time I don’t, though.
@@WesPerry Yes , Thank you for your Quick Response. The A73 does 8 or 10 fps with flash sync.
I also have another issue which might interest people . Whats the Flash sync setting while Godox V860ii S , is it on Rear, Slow or Fill Flash? Because while using the SLOW and FILL FLASH mode there is a shutter delay of 1 second. Noticed this issue on A73 , A7r3 with same flashes. ( Note : there is no Shutter delay with REAR Flash option )
And HSS is not possible with the REAR option
Subir Thapa if you’re getting that kind of delay you probably have either ttl or red eye reduction turned on. There should be almost no delay, as the default setting for this flash in camera is supposed to be fill.
@@WesPerry I will check the Red Eye reduction and this issue was persistant with other flashes on A73 as well , same issue.
@@WesPerry and it worked Man , Thank you .
Hello, shooting your video with what camera and lens? thank you all the best.
This one was the a7iii and Sony/Zeiss 35 1.4 (links in description). I usually film with the a9, though. 👌🏻
Hi Wes, do you think its still a good buy since its cheaper now?
Sounds like a better buy. Haha. All depends what you do! As a camera it hasn’t gotten any worse, but instead has gotten even better with firmware updates. It certainly makes the a9ii a tough sell, unless you mostly work with flash, or in situations where you have to use mechanical shutter much of the time.
Just bought a sony a9 for 600 bucks used. Crazy that this thing cost a few thousand bucks just five years ago. My first "real" camera so hopefully it will be good. Thanks for the video!
@@christophmosimann9244 that’s wild!
Sooo a year later again... would you recommend the a7iii over the a9? Saw the a9 selling for 2800€ on some sites...vs 1600€ for the a7iii. nice review btw
Well, I do have a whole video all about that... ua-cam.com/video/abFb5E_UAS8/v-deo.html
Wes Perry brilliant! would you say its worth it to wait for the a7iv?
Great video and a little more pressure for me. I am going on a 3-week safari in July and was on the wall on which camera to buy, a73,a7r3 or the a9 with the gm 100 to 400 and 1.4 converter plus a couple of more lenses. I travel a lot (70 Countries to date) and been using Olympus Omd-Em1mk2 with lenses (240,000 shutter count) and have now sold everything for the new kit. I do landscape, portrait, street and wildlife. What would be your choice for wildlife with your main lenses to take. Thank You
What sort of wildlife, and do you usually shoot in raw?
Thanks for the quick response. I always shoot in raw and i do action with leopards, cheetahs, lions ect. I do a little with bird photography but would like to learn more and possibly do more. I would love to adapt a longer zoom w/adapter 200-600 but don't know if it will work w that combo. I like to base my purchases on positive reviews based on use. Thank You
If you’re planning on doing burst shooting in raw of fast moving animals, then out of those choices, only the a9 is going to make you very happy. The other two have quickly filled buffers, unfortunately. The a7Riii is great for wildlife, due to the extra cropping you can make use of, but it fills up quickly in burst shooting. Some of the longer zooms do adapt surprisingly well, especially with the latest firmware, but I’m not the expert there.
I do a little burst shooting throughout the safari, maybe 3 or 4 scenes throughout a day, maybe good enough for the 7r3. Do you think the extra reach with the 100-400 and 1.4 and in crop mode will give a decent clean photograph with the a7r3. I do like to crop when i do tribal area portraits. Just wondering if file size would become and issue. By the way i really do appreciate you taking the time out to reach out to me. thank You
File size overages and crop quality is a pretty subjective issue, so I can’t speak too much to that. But I’ve found the 100-400 and even with the TC produces very clear images. When you have enough light switching to super-35 or crop mode on the a7Riii is a pretty decent option (you can map it to a button to have it switch immediately). Then your bursts last longer and your reach gets further.
The summer olympics are in Japan, I wouldn’t be surprised to see an A9ii to compete in the sports photography alongside the Nikon and Canon high end DSLRs. A perfect marketing opportunity for Sony to truly prove themselves on a world stage.
Yeah, I definitely expect it before Japan. But only a strategic amount of time before, which I’m sure all the camera companies are doing, to make sure no one gets one-upped. A game of camera chicken. Rumours of the Nikon D6 are starting to come through the cracks as well.
The most interesting thing is this stands a chance of being the last line of DSLR’s. It’ll be interesting to see if they keep the mirrors or not.
The a9 has shown that mirrorless isn’t a liability any more.
I think Canon and Nikon’s rapidly falling sales and profits, while Sony and Panasonic’s continue to rise also shows us that. I almost feel bad for them after their very gloomy 2018 reports that came out recently. Canon essentially announced that digital cameras are in a death spiral and will be over soon. But the pro market has barely shrunk at all, the dollars are just shifting between companies for the most part.
Great review on the A9, would like your opinion on having an A9 or the new A7RIV, I shoot a little of everything 1/2 video 1/2 still.
A little of everything? My biggest issue with the a7Riv is that there is still no small/medium raw mode like on the D850. This means that Everything you shoot in raw is going to be a massive 100MB+ 62MP file. For me, shooting weddings, pumping out 3000 to 9000 pictures a week, that’s just a total non-starter. The a7Riv also doesn’t bring much new to the table with regards to video, aside from eye-AF in video, while having worse rolling shutter than the a7iii, and much worse than the a9 (which is the best full frame for rolling shutter, but lacks picture profiles for video...I find the video is flat enough to begin with that it’s not much of an issue for me, though).
@@WesPerry thanks for the quick reply, I think I will go with the a9 especially with the 5.0 firmware, my only issue is the 29 min limit on video but I guess thats not that big of deal. So I went from a a6400 which I loved, then the A7III which I loved more but still not totally happy so that is why I asked you about the A7rIV and A9. thank you so much for your input
What are you unhappy about with the a7iii?
Sorry for being slow this time. UA-cam gives notifications of comments, but not replies ;)
@@WesPerry well this might sound wierd but I kind of felt like I was going backwards, I came from a A6400 then the A7III, even tho the A7III had better picture quality it was missing quite a few of the features of my A6400, like no time limit on video, eyeAF, the AF was slower than the A6400 etc. anyway with the firmware ver 5 on the A9 I was kinda happy about that.
@@stevebrunetti3346 Yeah, that's kinda true. The a6400's focusing system is much more like the one in the a9 than the one in the a7iii.
With the outstanding price, does the demo video and images edited and color graded?
All the images are edited as I normally would for a client, video is hardly graded at all. Just some contrast adjustment, as it shoots pretty flat by default (which is good).
Been using the a9 for awhile now for weddings and always use San disk extreme pro SDXC UHS-I cards for both slots. Would this cause any issues in writing? I was told that it may. What cards do you use?
I use a San disk card SDXC in slot 2, but a Sony SF-G 300MB/s card in slot 1. Makes offloading images SO MUCH FASTER.
What writing scheme do you use? Raw to both, jpg to one, etc?
@@WesPerry I shoot RAW on both cards. You? gonna lookup the sony card....
I shoot raw to both cards as well. Which unfortunately means that it will only write at the speed of the slowest and slot. Which makes the Sony SF-M cards the best bang for your buck. They only write at a max of 150MB/s, but when you’re doing raw to both cards, the camera only writes at 35MB/s anyway. And the read speed is almost max, so you get that benefit.
This was fixed in the a9ii, which has dual UHS-ii slots.
@@WesPerry So if they write at the lowest card speed then using two of the UHS-I's shouldn't be a writing issue right? It is only helpful when uploading your images?
Subbed. Thank you.
No, thank You 😉
Hello thanks for the video. I'm trying to make a decision, your input will be very helpful. I have a Sony A7Riii and a A7iii, would you trade in one or both cameras to get the A9, I don't do any sports photography.
The big question is, what Do you do?
@@WesPerry landscapes, street photography, and portraits.
I dunno, most people prefer the a7Riii for landscapes for the extra pixels and dynamic range, and for portraits because it works better with off camera flash than the a9. For street photography there’s probably still not a huge advantage over the a7iii, who’s silent shutter works just fine in natural light as long as no one is running too fast.
Hot damn..That intro though
I wanted to strike hard on that opening. Love my a9. Lol
Also, I’m sure it looks better in 4K. Once again UA-cam was a bit hasty in telling me the rendering was complete 😂
it took him 9 months of that year to get the intro made ;D now you know we're all expecting you to top it! *hands on hips, eyebrows raised like "...well?!"*
Manny :D do the comparison of the image quality between a7iii and a9. I want to see dynamic range and iso performance in portaits :)
He probably doesn’t shoot a lot of portraits at iso 6400+ 😏
(But it can definitely be helpful for recovering skies/backgrounds and not blowing out hotspots on skin).
Wes Perry Ah yea :) also I find photos quite soft at that iso. what are your iso settings for having sharp photos on a9?
that intro!
🙌🏻
So I watched a wedding UA-cam discussing using the 7riii with crop sensor effectively making their 24mm and 85mm into an approx 40mm and 135mm and still great resolution. Trying to decide between a7riii and a9 for weddings, families, senior photo shoots. Any thoughts?
I think it’s important to note that when you switch to crop mode you’re essentially using a crop sensor, and thus halving your iso performance and dynamic range. This is probably fine for most situations, as the Riii is pretty strong with those to begin with.
I avoided the Riii because I find 24mp to be more than enough for me, running through thousands of photos doing weddings it would negatively impact my workflow too much.
The Riii and a7iii are much friendlier for working with flashes, though, as their mechanical shutters are much faster than the one on the a9.
Wes Perry ahhhhhh that helps a lot! I use studio lights and OCF about 50% of the time so maybe the 7iii is the way to go! Thank you!
Maybe so. I’ve found the biggest difference for autofocus between the a7iii and the a9 to be in the narrower apertures. Once you get past about f/8, the a7iii doesn’t do well with continuous focus anymore. The a9 has little issue with it up to around f/13. (At which point you’ll want to switch to af-s instead of af-c).
Wes Perry good to know! Otherwise do you think the 7iii would be a comparable choice OR stick with a9???
The a9 excels in natural light, with its no blackout silent shutter, which is amazing and effortless. It’s a bit hard to go back to anything else in those circumstances after using the a9 much. As is always a good idea, it’s best to get your hands on both cameras to actually try them out and see what actually ends up being important to you before spending the big bucks!
Wes, thanks for your 1 year impressions and use of the A9.
No, they won't replace the A9. But they will introduce the A9-ii by end of the year. They have to for it will be the correction and better camera for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The A9 will be sold with the newer A9-ii, the same way the A7-ii is being sold simultaneously with the A7-iii.
No, the A9 is not the flagship camera. Sony does not follow Canikon's hierarchy. They build cameras based on base needs on types of photographic need. The A9 is for sports and action. The A7 for general photography. The A7S for video and low light. The A7R for high pixel uses like landscape and studio work.
And no, again. It requires more than just a firmware update to get 4k-60p. It needs a processor update.
Thanks again for your insights! Very useful for us who don't have the camera.
Idk I'm skeptical about the processor excuse. I know it's full frame.. but if my $400 GoPro can do 4k60.. why can't my $2000 A7III?
A larger sensor produces proportionately more heat. So it’s much easier for a teeny tiny sensor like a GoPro, or a medium sized sensor like a GH-5 to have that heat managed. Once you get up to a full frame camera, you either need highly efficient processing (like a new processor), or a lot of space/mass to sink the heat (like the Panasonic S1 or Canon 1Dxii, which can do 4K60, but are very hefty bodies.
Also, the 1Dxii cheats in this by barely processing/compressing the video stream at all, writing the files as motion jpg, which takes substantially less processing-thus less heat.
@@WesPerry I assumed the difference in sensor size would be the reason, but does the processing need really jump that dramatically from 1080p120 to 4k60? It seems like a reasonable conclusion that if it can pump out twice the frames in 1080, that it's possible it could do 4k60. I'd be ok with no audio signal like in 120fps, I'd even deal with a slight crop mode if it meant having the option.
Most 1080 120 modes are strangely low bit-rate, additionally, adding extra frames requires less additional data than adding extra pixels, as in most cases frame interpolation and keyframes in basic compression removes much of the extra data.
The a9 still records audio in 120fps, but the bit rate is so low it’s not very high quality. But yeah, I would totally take a crop in order to get it. Something is usually better than nothing!
This is my exact problem with a7iii man, not great with flashes:( during dancing it takes its sweet time, keep missing ton of the shots. Feels like it has that half a second lag😭 was looking in to a9 but seems like it will be a mistake:( do you think R4 would be a better option?
What sort of flashes are you using? I don’t have much issue with the a7iii and flashes.
If you’re getting a half second lag with the a7iii it’s more likely to be some settings, whether it be red eye reduction, ttl, preflash, etc
Wes Perry I’m using flashpoint zoom R2s, Manual. Red eye reduction is on. Firmware 3.01. Using both AF-C and AF-A. Where do i find “pre flash” option? Thank you in advance!
Red eye reduction should be off
I shoot mainly portraits. Family, couples, wedding, babies. I don’t know if I should get the a9 or a7r iv. Which one should I get?
I’ve always said shooting a wedding with 61mp would be a nightmare for me. Coming home with a couple thousand files that bit would be crazy.
Wes Perry Aww thank your reply! Any tripods you would recommend with the a9?
L. Luo oh there are so many options. Depends on how you use them. From travel to stationary, from photo to video, carbon fiber to aluminum.
I do have this video, though:
ua-cam.com/video/nD0cVuAqJ_I/v-deo.html
Just out of curiosity, why are you filming in 60fps? It’s very un natural and hyper realistic, why not shoot 30fps?
Because it’s More natural 😏 You get used to it after a while and then 30p starts to look unnatural and grating. 🤷🏻♂️
The only thing that worries me now is rain. I know to keep the plastic flash cover on when I have no flash on the camera. I'm still nervous though. I am utterly blown away by the latest update. I never knew how much better the A9 would become. The tracking is so good, it should be illegal :-)
I think it would have to be a pretty heavy rain for this camera to care that much. I've had this SO WET in the past. At one wedding I had to keep wiping the viewfinder/screen off on the inside of my coat so I could see through it, because the water was just sheeting down. And on other days it's been covered with an inch of snow while shooting, which then proceeded to melt while the camera warmed up (I bet it could do some wicked 4K60p in those conditions 😏), and still no issues! But yeah...I still want some more beefy seals either way 😉
@@WesPerry Thank you, that's put my mind a bit more at ease!
Why is the A9 ranked # 92 for CAMERA SENSOR at DXO Mark with some 15 cameras ranked higher, including the A7III and the A7RIII?
I touch on that in the video. The sensor is designed for speed and autofocus over absolute image quality. It doesn’t have the dynamic range or colour depth of those other sensors as a trade off. The stacked sensor design that adds memory and processing to the back of the chip itself likely produces heat, and heat makes noise, and noise reduces image quality.
great great video. I hope I watch this earlier
now after 4 years I learn my camera. lol
Do I need to make another a9 video now? Mine’s still kicking after all these years!
@@WesPerry yes please.
The Sony white balance is a bit off. Especially for Asian skin tone. what I do is I have to lower the saturation and contrast , +1 exposure. in order to make model looks ok, when they see if before it's imported into Computer. the screen on a7riii and a9 reall lacks
Yes it’s much better on the a1 and even better still on the a7Rv. The a9 was never great at auto white balance unfortunately
“But never buy a camera based on what you think they might later update in firmware” Truer words than any.
Did I say that? If so, boy was I on to something. 😂
@@WesPerry yes though you also said you thought that the A7sIII would be out before the A9II - and that you shouldn't buy stocks on your advice - hahaha
At least I warned you 😏
I was expecting the a9ii right about now. But I was also expecting it to be retooled with a new 32-36mp sensor. They saved some time of development and got ahead of my prediction by sticking with the old. At least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. 😂
@@WesPerry Yes I was hoping for a higher meg sensor. Still I can't complain, here in Australia the A9 price has gone down and there's been some very good sales lately. Last week I bought one in.a 15% off sale for A$3993 which is US$2,670 so I emptied my wallet further and bought a 200-600mm also on 15% off.
Mark Walker Nice!
What I wanted more was a newer sensor with slightly better high iso performance. Just because my a7iii does a better job at that than my a9 does. I could take or leave the extra pixels.
I don't understand why sony doesn't include slog/profiles in a9 😣 it's a great camera I was really close in buying one but no slog/slog2 in a9 is holding me back.
It’s a very different imaging sensor from the others, so it would take some ground up work to make it happen. Also, it doesn’t have as much dynamic range as the a7iii and a7Riii, so slog wouldn’t work as well anyway.
In default video, though, it’s quite flat to begin with, which is nice.
Great review! Comprehensive coverage.
Can you refer me to a good settings link for birds in flight?
I'm afraid that birds in flight isn't my specialty, but for autofocus settings I would either do wide area AF if I'm not after a particular bird, or tracking flexible spot if there's one I have in mind. And you always want a very high shutter speed if you don't want motion blur, so we're talking 1/1000s+.
Yes, I’ve used wide before. I will keep looking, i seek a wildlife “set” that I can store and assign to custom settings. I also look at Mark Galen’s channel.
Thanks.
Mark’s pretty good for going through all the nitty gritty settings. 👌🏻
Mark Smith, who has a UA-cam channel under that name, has just what you want. There are three free videos, for the A9, the D850, and the D500. You can buy copies of each as e-books for a nominal fee.
Great review! I am on the fence with the camera and the Nikon Z7 - any thoughts on your preference?
What do you shoot?
I have a Nikon D5, but looking for smaller gear
Oh, I meant what sort of photography/videography do you do :)
I shoot photography
Weddings, portraiture, sports, family, real estate, etc? Natural light, flash, what sort of flash, etc? Looking for specifically what kind of work You do! Every camera has different strengths and weaknesses, depending on your use case.
Spot on 👍🏻
Regarding PDAF striping. There is one web based tool that fixes compressed RAW files and gives a new one back (see here: aggregate.org/DIT/KARWY-SR/ ). Also the free RawTherepee software can fix both compressed an uncompressed ones.
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Regarding AF-S/AF-C, in low light with stopped down lens for group portraits (like f5.6-8) AF-S is much better in my experience than AF-C. In all other use cases AF-C is the winner though.
I only go down that low of real estate 😏
@@WesPerry How do you do your group portraits? Only one person sharp?
Also, my AF-S comment is for low light only (I shot low light club events).
Come now, you don’t have to go all the way to 5.6 to get more than one person sharp 😏
Usually I’ll try to keep them all on the same plane of focus, or near enough, if it’s an organized thing, and shoot at 2.0 to 2.8. If that can’t be managed I’ll go with a wider lens, and get up higher, which reduces increases the depth of field while reducing the focal plane between the people, and go from 2.8 to 4.0. I very rarely go higher than that. Lots of off camera flash, and by this point, if it’s a low light situation, I’ll have my live view preview turned off, and it tends to behave a little better in low light that way.
@@WesPerry I use the FE35/1.4 or FE28/2. I need to have people I capture close to me, otherwise others start to walk between us. Club environments have their challenges. And people don't take directions to well in those environments either due to high sound and often not fully sharp mental states (= they are drunk). And their attention span is like 0.3 seconds and they always wants to make a cool pose where one or two are in front of the others. No standing nicely on a focus plane there....
If Sony could make a face detect function that could track all in a group and set the needed aperture automagically to gain the needed DOF, that would really help me.
Wow, that would truly be a magical function. Maybe for the a9ii 😂
You notice much of a difference with the new firmware update?
The only huge difference is the presence of the real time eye-AF, which is actually a huge shift. You don't have to press a button to do it anymore. I remapped that button to switch between eyes instead, but it definitely frees up a bit of your time and fingers.
While using real time eye-AF the battery takes a bit of a hit, though. Life expectancy has gone down a little now.
Thanks, wouldn't have thought battery would be impacted. @@WesPerry
Lot of extra processing power to always be watching the eyes!
You mentioned you can switch between eyes when using eye af, what is that setting called?
In the custom key menu it’s called “Switch Right/Left Eye”. I just switched my eye-AF button for that, since it’s automatic now.
I couldn’t demonstrate it, though, as it doesn’t seem to work on a computer screen. Probably the camera knows that both eyes are the same distance away/it’s totally fake. I’ve tried it in person and it works about 80% of the time, though. The other 20% is generally when you’re trying to switch to the eye further from you, which the camera is having a little trouble seeing...so that doesn’t really matter anyway. Haha
@@WesPerry Thanks!
Owned an A7R3 for 5 months last year. Ditched it because of poor ergonomics and the damned disappearing grey AF reticule, which both cost me shots. If only Sony'd packaged their mostly great technology in an ergonomic, comfortable body, they'd have my patronage...and more of my cash!! :-)
I go back and forth between wanting an a7riii and a9. I would love a9 for weddings and events, and the a7riii for studio work.
That’s a tough one. You should probably get both 😏
(But seriously, you do need to bring at least two cameras to a wedding)
@@WesPerry well I already have an a7iii, the a9 or a7riii would be my main and a7iii would be the second body.
Aha. What is the a7iii missing that you want for studio? Really need all those pixels?
@@WesPerry they would be nice to have for sure. I do tend to crop a lot, but not necessarily to the point where 24mp can't handle it. The silent shooting of the a9 and faster focusing is what excite me about that camera. I love shooting silently with my a7iii when the lighting permits. It would be great to be able to shoot the a9 silently in most lighting scenarios.
Says he's not going to talk about the specs because it's available online...immediately then starts to state the specs lol. Good review though!
A9ii before the Olympics.
Probably. But that’s over a year from now.
Here we are on Oct 1 2019 and we are less than a month away from the A9ii! I can't wait for the next a9 price drop!
Is sensor dust as big a deal as the internet makes it out to be?
Not really
I’ve literally never cleaned my sensor after all these years and I have 5 dust spot friends now that only appear when I’m around f/9+ 🤷🏻♂️
I guess it depends how careful you are. I use a rocket blower a lot, make sure the camera is off during lens changes, make ‘em quick, etc
@@WesPerry Call me clueless, but why is switching the camera off for lens changes important? Have I done terrible things to my DSLRs in the past decade or is this just for mirrorless? :D Also, rocket blowing "a lot" is somewhat open to interpretation. Like every other day or multiple times during a single wedding?
When a mirrorless camera is on, the sensor is on, and carries a charge, which can actually attract dust (like static electricity).
This isn’t as important with DSLR’s, since the sensor isn’t usually active when the camera is on, but just for taking a photo.
@@WesPerry Makes sense. That might explain why some people have issues and others don't. I would not have known to switch the camera off for lens changes and I'm reasonably sure I'm not the only one...
Got my 2-A9s working sports events.
Ethernet port is 100MBPs, I believe.
I could swear they said it was gigabit back at the press release day. But it most definitely doesn’t work at that speed regardless. Doesn’t even max out 100baseT speeds.
@@WesPerry Yeah, I thought it was Gigabit too. But someone tested it on Reddit recently.
The A9II press release says it gets an upgraded 1Gbps chipset.
Yeah, I generally got an average of 5.34MB/s when I tested it. 16.9MB/s over micro usb, so no reason to use it.
Long term? In a Sony? Its a miracle. All the other Alphas had shutter, sensor, hardware, and firmware issues. The black plague of cameras.
You must be digging deep and far to hear that stuff to feed your bias. I have three Sonys approaching 100,000 clicks each and they’re all fine. Just ordered my fourth tonight!
@@WesPerry - Nah, just what owners are reporting on FredMiranda and DPreview forums.