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The ideology and concept of the Sony camera was briefly mentioned in the first part of the review. An illustration of the ideology of Sony can serve this page. Sony has created a global digital environment for imaging and sound with its own cloud service, and now the software is downloaded directly to the camera (here is the list of applications), each camera is one of the elements in this global digital environment. I would like to once again point out that all new Sony cameras, inherently from intelligent systems, are photographic computers with the concept of graphical user interface, but it seems that without buttons and other familiar mechanical controls – manipulators, disks and dials, until do without.
Drive and focus mode dials
That’s why on the left upper panel of the camera are united with each other, each of them is a disk of the stretching modes, as well as focus disk resources, both discs are equipped with locks. Probably, someday in the future there will be new, yet unknown to us interfaces, thanks to which it is possible to avoid physical buttons, but while it is often convenient and practical to use the usual solutions.
The most important button – the shutter release button has undergone, it changed the geometry and became slightly convex, slightly more elastic than in 7-th cameras and the shutter lag time is now a record 30 milliseconds, like no other camera in the world!
Sony a9 shutter button
I already wrote about the speed of shooting in the previous part, I will clarify only an important detail: at a shooting speed of 20 frames per second, the camera will refocus with a frequency of 60 times per second! And all this in a noiseless mode. Each photographer needs to monitor the shooting process, it is necessary to see the display of this process and its speed. When the shutter screams or the sound is turned on in the electronic shutter mode, everything is clear and obvious, and when is silence? – Sony engineers solved this problem. Sony a9 offers a choice of four types of indication: a pulsating gray or blue frame around the focus area, as well as pulsating gray or blue squares at the corners of the frame.
Photographers who shoot reports, it is important to forget about the battery. For Sony a9, a new, powerful NP-FZ100 battery was developed and created, the so-called Z-series, which is a little bit larger in size and twice the capacity of the Sony a7R II-NP-FW50 W-series battery. The charger has a three-level indicator of the level of charge – very useful, in my opinion. My shooting experience shows that on one W-battery on the Sony a7R II camera, 1200 frames can be shot for 5-6 hours and 10-15% more charge remains, which is very impressive. There is a nuance – all the batteries are different, this is confirmed by many photographers. On the Sony a9, I shot 2180 frames for 8 hours, with 14% of the charge left — it’s phenomenal! Although, the officially cited figures are noticeably more modest.
Well, and, of course, if you install an additional battery in the optional vertical handle VG-C3EM, then you can accurately forget about the power of the camera.
SONY a9 with vertical grip VG-C3EM
Some photographers still complain that Sony’s 7th and 9th series cameras are too small for their hands. Sony offered not only a battery grip, which completely solves the problem, but also an elegant enough ergonomic solution in the form of an additional handle-grip GP-X1EM, for those who still want to stay within the concept of lightness and compactness.
SONY a9 c доп. хватом GP-X1EM
GP-X1EM
Many years ago, in the film era, I developed the habit of necessarily carrying a sync cable to all shoots, like a safety device for launching light devices. Now, of course, I use radio transmitters, but just in case, I always take a compact camera flash, as an additional synchronization channel would take a sync cable, but I do not connect the sync cable to the Sony 7th Series cameras, because they do not have a sync connector. But in Sony a9 sync connector is and it will be very useful, some tribute to the old professional cameras? – I think this is a tribute to professional reliability. In some parts of the city there is such a quantity of radio interference that it is not only impossible to shoot with the radio transceiver, but it is also difficult to remove the car from the alarm system, I’m sure many people know this. Here you can not take photoshooting without a sync cable.
Sony a9 Ethernet
Sony a9 is the first mirrorless camera with built-in Ethernet port.
Such giants as Gettyimages or Reuters will be able to receive images of any events in real time immediately on their servers and immediately publish them. Yes, and such photo-plants as Vente-Privee will certainly appreciate the Ethernet port.
“A new terminal for wired LAN connection lets you transfer still images to an FTP server for viewing and management. Since FTPS (File Transfer Protocol over SSL/TLS) is supported, image files can be encrypted while being transferred.”
Two slots for SD-cards! Hooray! — one of them for high-speed UHS-II (300MB/sec), the other for conventional maps. The presence of two slots provides reliability and maximum convenience in the distribution and primary organization of photos and video materials: six recording scenarios are proposed.
Sony a9 media slots
“With two slots (for SD and SD / Memory Stick), you can record photos and videos, save RAW / JPEG images to different memory cards and copy files from one card to another.”
In the Sony a9 camera there appeared the so-called “My Menu” — this is what is lacking in the 7th, an extremely useful story for a large, rich menu. I hope Sony implements this feature on the A7R II in new firmware, if at all possible to port it. By the way, about the menu: in the Sony a9 — pages of the menu are numbered inside each section like — 1/9 … 8/9, 9/9, it’s just brilliant.
Sony a9 «My menu»
The screen of the monitor became a touch-screen, I learned to operatively manipulate the functionality of the touch-screen during the short time to which the camera was provided, but I’m sure it is no less convenient than a great multi-selector (it same joystick) to select the focus point.
Almost the first in our country owner of the Sony a9 camera was the famous and most experienced Petersburg photographer, member of the Photographers’ Guild — George Kurgin. Here is his opinion about the Sony a9 camera shortly:
“Every day I discover new and new possibilities of the camera. Most of all I am pleased with their huge number. That is, the camera initiates the development of the photographer himself and the development of his imagination, the camera inspires creativity, especially when you realize that the camera’s functionality exceeds the real needs — this is a powerful creative stimulus.
At the same time, it’s strange that such function are not implemented, as, for example, on Olympus’s – Live Composition. Apparently, it will be in one of the applications.
Sure, the Sony a9 camera is fully electronic and, I would say, even more electronic. There is no possibility of over-saturation!
Instant viewfinder and the parameters displayed on the screen. I’m delighted with the focus function, which allows me to change the composition after pressing the shutter button. That is, the camera remembers the object. You can take a step closer, a step further and the camera will refocus. The camera will not only refocus, but will also change the exposure, if necessary. ”
It seems that the time has come when it became necessary to have a guide for each new camera. Since often the request: “Help me deal with my new camera!” – remains without a proper answer even if this request was addressed to a professional.
Taking the fourth year of the Sony 7R and 7R II cameras, I can say that I’m slightly disappointed only by the lack of the ability to rotate the camera’s monitor around the vertical axis, which becomes critical when you shoot vertical shots from a low point. However, I solved this problem with the help of an additional screen CLM-FHD5, sacrificing with this compactness, and everything would be perfect if it could still rotate the monitor of the camera and vertically.
Sony a9 c монитором CLM-FHD5
Dream and reality
I would like to, as on the left.
This year, the EISA – the European Imaging and Sound Association – the international award in the field of image and sound transmission technology awarded Sony a9 the title of the best product of 2017-2018 in the nomination “Best Camera”.
«The Sony α9 is a groundbreaking mirrorless camera that in many ways surpasses traditional DSLR rivals. Thanks to an innovative design, the 24.2 million pixel full-frame image sensor captures up to 20 frames per second in full resolution with no EVF blackout and offers completely silent, vibration-free shooting at up to 1/32,000th second. The new super-fast autofocus system, with 693 phase detection AF points covering 93% of the image area, ensures that even fast-moving subjects are in focus. The 5-axis image stabilisation allows a 5-step slower shutter speed. The oversampling process and full-frame pixel read-out result in excellent 4K movie quality.»
As the well-known Moscow photographer Vladimir Morozov rightly remarked: “Sony a9 is a camera created for the Olympic Games 2020, which will be held in Tokyo”, which is confirmed by the recommendations for setting the autofocus for all possible sports. Flip the page to the end, there is a special setting, even for shooting Sepak Takraw, like this!
I would add that in addition to sports, the Sony a9 will be great for shooting wildlife, theatrical filming, fashion shooting, filming children and pets, for any kind of reporting, including for wedding photography and will certainly be excellent for street photography .
Undoubtedly, Sony a9 camera aroused a huge interest among photographers around the world, here are some remarks from the comments:
— Sony a9 – this is an extraordinary camera — mind blowing gear!
— A camera that is studied and studied
— Fantastic camera
— Sony a9 is an amazing camera, and if you have money, I sincerely recommend it to you
— It is a new era of photography, the electronic revolution
— I probably had 15 digital cameras since 2002. Sony a9 is the most perfect camera I’ve ever owned. She has all the opportunities that I have ever needed and, probably, all that will be needed in the future.
— The new Sony A9 is crazy, and it seems that you can tie a file to a node and squeeze everything out of it
— I feel like an impostor when I have such a perfect instrument in my hands)
The tool is really very serious and, despite the fact that in the rating of dxomark.com it is not on the first place in the evaluation criteria, but for its direct purpose — in shooting sports and action photos — the Sony a9 camera is the second in the world with ISO 3517, second only to the Sony a7S camera.
dxomark.com
Here it should be explained that unlike the shooting of portraits, when the photographer is working with studio light, or unlike the shooting of landscapes, when the stability of light is guaranteed, photojournalists and action photographers often struggle with low available light and high motion. Achieving usable image quality is often difficult when pushing ISO.
When shooting a moving scene such as a sports event, action photographers’ primary objective is to freeze the motion, giving priority to short exposure time. To compensate for the lack of exposure, they have to increase the ISO setting, which means the SNR will decrease. How far can they go while keeping decent quality? Our low-light ISO metric will tell them.
The SNR indicates how much noise is present in an image compared to the actual information (signal). The higher the SNR value, the better the image looks, because details aren’t drowned by noise. SNR strength is given in dB, which is a logarithmic scale: an increase of 6 dB corresponds to doubling the SNR, which equates to half the noise for the same signal.
An SNR value of 30dB means excellent image quality. Thus low-light ISO is the highest ISO setting for a camera that allows it to achieve an SNR of 30dB while keeping a good dynamic range of 9 EVs and a color depth of 18bits.
In a nutshell: 3500 ISO fully working sensitivity for Sony a9 camera!
At all times artists understood the power of the expressiveness of a precisely captured moment and mood or, as Eugene Delacroix put it: “If you are not able to sketch a person jumping from the window during the time that he flies from the fourth floor to the ground, then you can never write Great paintings “(Will Gompertz “What are you looking at?”). I will assume that Sony a9 for Great pictures.
© Alexander Nasonov / Sony a 9 + Sony FE 24-70 mm F2.8 GM — 70 mm, f2.8, 1/32000 sec, ISO 6400;
100% — Sony a 9 + Sony FE 24-70 mm F2.8 GM — 70 mm, f2.8, 1/32000 sec, ISO 6400;
Cameras continue to improve, probably soon there will be cameras with “spherical” sensor, now they write a lot about this and say, but in fact, in 2011, when dpreview.com published the first message about a patent for a “spherical” sensor — the message went unnoticed by a wide range of photographers. Subtle signals tend to drown in general noise, namely, the subtle and weak signals are the most significant in their consequences, but this is already from the story: “I told you so!”
