Digital_Camera_World_Issue_192_July_2017

KIT Zone
SonY ALphA 9
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CSC www.sony.co.uk
Sony alpha 9
£4,500/$4,500 (body only)
Canon and Nikon look out! This camera could topple
the twin titans of professional sports photography
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SpeCifiCationS
Sensor 24.2MP full-frame Exmor RS
CMOS (35.6 x 23.8mm)
Focal length conversion on lens 1x
Memory 2 x SD card slot (1 x UHS-II, 1
x UHS-I)
Viewfinder OLED EVF, 3,686k dots
Max video resolution 4K UHD 3,840
x 2,160
ISO range 100-51,200, expandable
to 50-204,800
Autofocus Hybrid AF, 693 phasedetection
AF points, 25 contrast AF
Max burst rate 20fps (electronic
shutter), 5fps (mechanical shutter)
Screen Tilting 3-inch touchscreen,
1,440k dots
Shutter speeds 30-1/8,000 sec,
Bulb, 30-1/32,000 sec (electronic)
Weight 673g (body only,
with battery and memory card)
Dimensions 127 x 96 x 63mm
Power supply NP-FZ100 lithium-ion
battery (supplied)
Just when we
thought the Sony
Alpha 99 II was
the ultimate camera for
continuous shooting and
autofocus performance, it
gets the rug pulled out from
under it by a rival – and it’s
another Sony.
In many respects, these two
camera lines are in direct
competition. We wondered how
long Sony’s ageing Alpha system
would be allowed to keep its
technological lead over the
mirrorless A7 series: the Alpha
9 is our answer.
The A99 II still wins for
outright resolution – 42MP
versus the A9’s 24MP, but the
A9 thrashes it with its 20fps
continuous shooting speed (with
AE and AF tracking), massive
buffer capacity (362 JPEGs,
241 raw files) and an on-sensor
autofocus system with no fewer
than 693 AF points covering 93%
of the image area.
The A9 is an out-and-out
action specialist, sacrificing
resolution for speed in the same
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The A9’s 24MP fullframe
sensor swaps
outright resolution for
stunning continuous
shooting speeds.
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The ‘quad-VGA’ OLED
electronic viewfinder
boasts a 120fps
refresh rate.
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The touchscreen
display is not fully
articulating but does
tilt up and down.
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The controls are
well-spaced, despite
the A9’s compact size.
The stacked drive
mode and AF mode
dials (left) work
especially well.
way as the Canon EOS-1D X Mark
II and the Nikon D5. These two
professional DSLR workhorses
have had the world of pro sports
photography to themselves for some
time now. They may not have been
particularly rattled by the A99 II,
but the A9 is different.
This is not just because of its speed
and the sophistication of its autofocus
system. It’s different because when
it’s running at 20 frames per second
it’s completely silent. In theory, the
A9 could let you shoot at sporting
events, musical performances and
speeches where any other camera
would be banned.
It’s all made possible with an
electronic shutter mechanism that
has a third crucial advantage – no
screen blackout. With any camera
that uses a mechanical shutter, the
screen blacks out for an instant
during each exposure. This gives the
autofocus less of a ‘window’ to work
in during continuous shooting, and
makes it harder for the photographer
to follow a moving subject in the
viewfinder. With the A9’s electronic
shutter mode, however, there is no
screen blackout, even when shooting
102 Digital Camera JULY 2017 www.digitalcameraworld.com