Sony A9 II Is Still Relevant For Wildlife

I’m here to talk about the sony A9 ii so like all reviews I made consider that I’m not paid or sponsored unless I’m telling you with that let’s talk about the A9 ii the newest version of their flagship camera with a very high-performing camera.

it’s aimed squarely at a professional market primarily professional sports shooters this definitely will see an incremental upgrade over the original Sony Alpha A9.

it’s not a huge leap but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t a number of useful features that the target market is going to find very useful on this camera.

this is because Sony’s wanting this whole lineup of cameras to start to be referred to as alpha rather than a9.

we’ll see if that sticks but bear with me semantics aside we’ll start by taking a look at the body of the Alpha 9.

this year Sony actually pulled out of the trade show and did their own thing like down the street which is pretty brilliant.

so essentially they leased out SAR Studios which is a legendary space this is where like bands rehearsed to go on tour.

I had some experience with the camera and now I want to talk about this a little bit because I’ve had a lot of experience shooting on the original a9 over the last two years

so I’ve had the opportunity to shoot events, wildlife and I’ve used it for just general purpose photography and I’ve always been a huge fan of the original a9.

After Sony has announced a firmware update for the Sony Alfa A9 II, I want to give you a quick rundown of what it’s all about.

now, this is a review unit like many of the products that I review.

18 Things Why Sony A9 II is Better than A9

• Anti Flicker
• Improved AF Performance
• Improved Image Color Quality
• Voice Memo Record direct to camera
• Auto to text conversion on app
• Greep Feel Buttons
• Red AF Frame
• Weader Sealing
• Video Eye AF
• Custom Video Files Name
• 2 X UHS-2 Card Slot
• 10 fps Mechanical Shutter-1/200th sync
• Same sensor as A9 with a faster processor
• 5G WI-FI
• Exposure Comp. Lock
• USB C Charging
• Digital Audio
• 24 Function Selections
• Future FW Improvements

Sensor

So, A9 II shoots at 20 frames per second at 24 megapixels compressed raw file if you want to shoot uncompressed raw it then drops down to 12 frames per second even with that electronic shutter.

if you want to shoot in a mechanical shutter mode the A9 II only shoots 10 frames per second and it’s really not as fast if you want to be shooting uncompressed raw files.

Autofocus

the Sony A9 II using 693 autofocus points and that camera is going to be a game changer for wildlife photographers this camera can automatically find the eye of your subject and lock focus onto it.

Sony A9 II Specs

• Front-End LSI
• 693 Point Phase Detection AF System
• Up to 20fps Shooting
• Blackout free Monitoring
• SteadyShot INSIDE
• Image Stabilization
• Manual Focus
• AE Bracketing
• WB Bracketing
• Video 4K 30
• Video full HD 120
• Video Format MPEG-4, AVCHD, XAVC S
• Microphone
• USB 3.1 Gen1 5GBit/sec
• HDMI
• Microphone
• Headphone

so there is some upgraded functionality for the camera starting off with high-frequency flicker reduction on the A9 2 already.

So you can reduce flicker up to 120 Hertz but a lot of lighting works at a higher Hertz rate than that especially if you’re in big holes or stadiums.

A9 II is a mash-up of these two cameras with a twist same 24-megapixel sensor same 3.7 million EVF same Z battery same left top plate dial of the A9.

A9 II Speed

• UP to 20fps continuous shooting
• Blackout free shooting
• 60 AE/AF
• Silent shooting

A9 II Autofocus

• 93% Coverage AF Points
• Real Time tracking
• Real time Eye AF Human / Animal

Image Quality

• 24.2 mp CMOS sensor
• BIONZ X
• QVGA EVF
• 4K Movies 3840 x 2160

same blackout 320 frames per second burst rate and buffer – updated processor improved battery life about 10 percent upgraded Ibis.

So now five-and-a-half stops Stills and video the ability to move the focus point while the shutter is half-pressed.

autofocus algorithms improve weather sealing color science dual UHS to high-speed card slots 10 frames per second mechanical shutter additional rear control dial and improved grip all from the a7 arm for.

now when the A9 II was announced I did my PR press review on that and I was really kind of surprised at the reaction that I got a lot of people expected more cameras from Sony.

and to be honest with you the camera is a little bit faster and there were some autofocus improvements.

when I actually got to get hands-on with this camera it was impressive.

so this camera will adjust autofocus and exposure 60 times per second the top shooting speed is 20 frames a second.

so essentially it will adjust autofocus and exposure three times for every image that you’re able to take.

So what I love about both being originally not in the A92 is that it’s such a fast camera and the autofocus and auto exposure are so on top of things that really you don’t come back with any blown shots.

and this totally opens it up to you as a photographer to do what you want to do with composition and with lighting.

it really just it’s an amazing camera and the A9 it’s hard to put it into words it’s even better.

and I didn’t think I would notice much of a difference because when I looked at the press release and the specs on this camera it looked to me like networking capabilities were the big draw here.

the only really technical improvement was a 10 frames per second mechanical shutter rate as opposed to five on the original A9 which is really nice to have.

I really like the improvements that they did on the body you get a little bit thicker grip some of the buttons are a little bit bigger it just feels better as a camera.

I had not had a chance to use that body on a battery grip the Sony creative space I got a chance to use it with the grip and this is ergonomically.

So, in my opinion, this is the best camera Sony has ever designed it’s really comfortable to use it’s not heavy it’s lightweight it’s fast.

I think that’s where Sony has made all of its gains it’s like the speed of autofocus the speed of what the camera can do with that live data.

So what most people see it as in other words there’s no blinding feature that never has happened before.

it tends to be improvements on feature sets that we already have and the way that’s received when my preview on the A9.

I was really surprised to see a lot of the comments and a lot of the negativity that came out of it and actually having used that camera now guarantees you it is mind-blowing.

Sony A9 II Price

Advantages

• Multicolor AF points
• Save custom settings to SD
• Blackout free capture at 20fps
• Superlative autofocus system
• Improved gigabit connectivity
• Hotshoe digital audio interface
• Dust and splash protection
• Voice memo tagging
• Interval time lapse shooting
• Wired and wireless file transfer
• Fast autofocus system
• Improved battery life
• High speed wired data transfer
• Reliable remote shooting
• Refined keys buttons for smooth control
• Redesigned grip for comfort and sure hold
• New vertical grip can hold two Z type batteries
• Improved dust and moisture resistance at all seams
• Store camera settings as profiles
• UP to 10 fps mechanical and anti-flicker shooting
• remotely access

Conclusion

the A9 II is fantastic for capturing fast action and it can do it silently sony’s animal IAF is great you can shoot in complete silence with the A9 and the A9 II and both cameras have animal eye autofocus which the Canon 1DX Mark III doesn’t have.