Sony Electronics
Sony has just launched its most impressive, and most expensive mirrorless camera ever, the 24.2-megapixel Alpha A9. Equipped with the first ever full-frame stacked CMOS sensor, it's all about speed, not resolution. The pixel resolution isn't that high compared to the 42.4-megapixel Alpha 7R II, for instance, but it can shoot up to 241 RAW images at a scorching 20 fps, thanks to a processing speed 20 times faster than previous models. It also has a hugely dense 693-point focal plane phase detection autofocus that can do 60 AF/AE tracking calculations per second.
Sony's excitement is palpable at the A9 launch event, and for what sounds like good reason. It has by far the best sensor tech on the market, supplying most other camera-makers, but the new model is the first to use its full-frame stacked CMOS sensor, driven by an upgraded BIONZ processor. That allows the A9 to track "complex erratic motion with higher accuracy than ever before," Sony says. It also yield an ISO range from 100 to 51,200, expandable to 204,800 -- not quite in Alpha 7S II range, but the A9 has double the megapixel count.
It's got a Quad-VGA, 3,686 dot OLED viewfinder, the highest resolution model Sony's ever used. During shooting, you'll never get any blackouts, even at 20fps. That'll give you "all the benefits of an electronic viewfinder ... that not even the finest optical viewfinders can match," Sony claims.
The A9 also has a new, compact body with 5-axis image stabilization and a wired ethernet port for studio-based shooters. At the same time, it has over double the battery life of previous full-frame A7 models, two media card slots, including support for high-speed UHS-II SD media in one.
AS for video, as you'd expect, the A9 supports 4K recording, but it reads out the entire full-frame sensor at 6K, and oversamples it to produce "high quality 4K footage with exceptional detail and depth." That's a step up from past Sony models, which have only oversampled a smaller, Super-35mm chunk of the frame, though the A9 can do that, too.
The A9 will start shipping in the US on May 25th for $4,500 and Europe in June for €5,300 -- that's a lot, but comparable to competitors like the Nikon D5. Pre-orders will open up this Friday.