Discussion: Sony a9 - FF Mirrorless for Sports?

[grantwhitty]

Sony released their new a9.

I feel there really has never been a solid mirrorless option for sports shooters i.e. skiing.

I wanted to go mirrorless, but I couldn't justify it for skiing because fps and AF wasn't good enough.

This thing is a beast though from what it sounds like...

Mirrorless

24 mp Full-Frame

It has a RIDICULOUS 20 FPS Continuous

693 Auto Focus Points. Wut.

Only thing I can't find a ton about it its AF tracking, which is huge for ski-photogs

Of course as it is Sony and a very fancy camera... price tag is $4.5k

Thoughts?

 

[IanAvery-Leaf]

the A9 looks insane, I really hope some of its features like 2x bigger battery and full frame 1080p 120fps without the 2.2x crop on the A7Sii makes its way to an A9S or an A7Siii, because Sony definitely purposefully gimped the video (no S-LOG...) on the A9 to not cannibalize sales of their other video cameras. But thats ok though because the A9 is really a photo camera and from what I've seen it really gives the D5 and 1DXii a run for their $, and makes the $4500 price look "decent" in comparison, since those are $5-6k cameras.

I love using silent shutter on my A7Sii and Rii but not in any fast moving environments because of the noticeable distortion, so its awesome that they fixed that with the A9, clicking off 20fps without blackout on the EVF is going to be a gamechanger. I'm also curious to check out the brighter 120fps high res EVF in person, since the current EVF is decent but definitely not great, and the new one sounds like a huge step up, and will help with the transition of people who only like optical VF

I shoot 90% video so I'm definitely not interested in buying but I'm incredibly stoked at what Sonys been doing since ~2014 and this camera should hopefully light a fire under Nikon/canons ass to step up their game. I'd bet we'll see an A9S or A7Siii with a ton of things borrowed from the A9 before the end of 2017. The new Z series battery, duel card slot, better EVF, new (and better IMO) record button placement with the joystick, full frame 120p. New feature would hopefully be 4k 60p, and bring back S-LOG obviously. Looking forward to that camera, and an A9R/A7Riii would be interesting as well

 

[JAHpow]

I'd bet we'll see an A9S or A7Siii with a ton of things borrowed from the A9 before the end of 2017. The new Z series battery, duel card slot, better EVF, new (and better IMO) record button placement with the joystick, full frame 120p. New feature would hopefully be 4k 60p, and bring back S-LOG obviously. Looking forward to that camera, and an A9R/A7Riii would be interesting as well

I'm very much considering picking this up when it's released but I'm interested as well to see if there are any other versions coming out. I would like to get one that tackles both photo and video well.

 

[Forcillo]

I'm very much considering picking this up when it's released but I'm interested as well to see if there are any other versions coming out. I would like to get one that tackles both photo and video well.

It is 10000% fact that more iterations of the a9 will come out, just like the r and s did when the a7 first launched. They wouldn't take log out if they're not saving it for a video-oriented cam.

 

[MNSkiers]

the A9 looks insane, I really hope some of its features like 2x bigger battery and full frame 1080p 120fps without the 2.2x crop on the A7Sii

agreed. One of the biggest things I hate about the a7sii. Especially if your lens is 20mm or up you cant get any close range 120fps shots like skiing, which is kinda a downer

 

[ascent_studios]

I feel there really has never been a solid mirrorless option for sports shooters i.e. skiing.

I wanted to go mirrorless, but I couldn't justify it for skiing because fps and AF wasn't good enough.

The a6000 series has 11fps, 24mp and a ridiculous AF system as well. Granted they aren't full frame but still... I see where you're coming from though

 

[grantwhitty]

The a6000 series has 11fps, 24mp and a ridiculous AF system as well. Granted they aren't full frame but still... I see where you're coming from though

I looked at the a6000 series but I wanted to go full frame, for the weddings I do on the side, and I wanted to go mirrorless but they fps and AF weren't there. So I went back to canon and got a Full-Frame with decent fps and pretty darn good AF. I am happy with my set up, but this thing for sure catches my attention. This is essentially the perfect camera I was looking for a month ago. Maybe I'll get this after the the a9 II comes out so it's cheaper hahaha

 

[ascent_studios]

I looked at the a6000 series but I wanted to go full frame, for the weddings I do on the side, and I wanted to go mirrorless but they fps and AF weren't there. So I went back to canon and got a Full-Frame with decent fps and pretty darn good AF. I am happy with my set up, but this thing for sure catches my attention. This is essentially the perfect camera I was looking for a month ago. Maybe I'll get this after the the a9 II comes out so it's cheaper hahaha

I understand, makes srnse

 

[IanAvery-Leaf]

agreed. One of the biggest things I hate about the a7sii. Especially if your lens is 20mm or up you cant get any close range 120fps shots like skiing, which is kinda a downer

if you learn to shoot around the crop limitation then you can get some awesome shots.

In this edit I shot 100% with a 16-35mm, but the 2.2x crop helped me get some tighter shots that I otherwise would have had to go to my car, swap the lens and re-balance the gimbal.

[VIDEO]863095[/VIDEO]

the shot at 2:57 is normal full frame 1080 60p @35mm, and the shot at 3:00 is still @35mm but with the 120p crop so its basically ~77mm, a way more engaging shot IMO. Also 0:39 and 1:22 were shot with @35mm cropped in to ~77mm, both of those shots would look way worse without the crop.

I agree when trying to be on the wide end of things it sucks, but a workaround I've found is to use the APS-C Tokina 11-16, which vignettes on full frame anything less than ~15mm, then when you're at 11mm shooting 120p its basically a ~24mm lens, plenty wide for skiing follows. Hopefully the A9S/A7Siii lets you shoot both full frame and 2.2x crop 120p, because theres a lot of cool possibilities with the crop