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Sony's new camera A9

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Pradeep

Member
Vivek said:
Here is an interesting review (in Dutch but some of the pic tests are obvious):

https://www.cameraland.nl/blog/review-sony-a9-the-beast/213#.WRdbNMkaSEJ

I am intrigued by the battery claims of even up to 8000 snaps per charge while Sony's own numbers are very modest.

K-H, It appears that there will be distortions from the silent shutter (air plane propeller shots in the review)though they appear to be much less.
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Vivek, I may be wrong, but I think the propeller on this plane is actually slightly curved and not straight.

On battery life. I just did a shoot over NYC in a chopper where since the doors are removed you cannot change batteries - in case you drop it :). I took my A7RII with a fully charged battery. I took 2100 shots, on the continuous shooting setting. At the end of the session, still had around 45% of the battery left. I was amazed, since I never expected anything more than say 500 shots with the battery. There was no chimping and I was pretty much at 24mm with AF (which being at infinity most of the time did not require much power for the lens). I guess if you just take rapid-fire shots without using the LCD and without changing focus too much even the lowly A7RII battery can last quite long.
 
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Pradeep

Member
BTW, I just heard back from Nick Didlick. I had emailed him about the Derby shoot and he very kindly responded by saying that he did use wired remotes for the session due to fear or potential RF interference. However, he advised me that that Pocket Wizard system would work flawlessly and would be the most comprehensive approach to RF remote control. He also stated that in his opinion, the new A9 technology is way ahead of anything from the main competitors and that he fully agrees with my decision to move to Sony full time.
 
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Pradeep

Member
OK, so this is what I am trying to do. First a little background. Usually when we do wildlife safaris in Africa we are in a vehicle and depending upon where in Africa, all the photographers could be at the same level or some could be higher, i.e. the ones at the back of the vehicle. This puts your perspective above the animal which is not aesthetically pleasing at all. This is particularly a problem when the animals are close.

In the following image the lion cubs were right next to us and I would have loved to have a close up but at eye level. Since one of them was barely three feet away, it would not be possible to lean over and lower the camera even with the tilting LCD. If you are sitting on that side, you could however lower the camera on a monopod setup.

GDPI_01.jpg

Sometimes the animal gets right under the vehicle. In that case, would be great to get a peek without putting one's head in the lion's maw :)

So what I am trying to do is to have the A7RII (or similar) camera mounted on a monopod in a reverse fashion with a remote release so I can lower it gently and without a fuss to the eye level of the animal even if they are close to us. Can't zoom with the remote (does not seem to work, will figure it out).

Here is the wife holding the camera.

The LCD is turned up so I can get some sort of a look at where the camera is pointed.
 

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H

hcubell

Well-known member
Pradeep said:
OK, so this is what I am trying to do. First a little background. Usually when we do wildlife safaris in Africa we are in a vehicle and depending upon where in Africa, all the photographers could be at the same level or some could be higher, i.e. the ones at the back of the vehicle. This puts your perspective above the animal which is not aesthetically pleasing at all. This is particularly a problem when the animals are close.

In the following image the lion cubs were right next to us and I would have loved to have a close up but at eye level. Since one of them was barely three feet away, it would not be possible to lean over and lower the camera even with the tilting LCD. If you are sitting on that side, you could however lower the camera on a monopod setup.

View attachment 127018

Sometimes the animal gets right under the vehicle. In that case, would be great to get a peek without putting one's head in the lion's maw :)

So what I am trying to do is to have the A7RII (or similar) camera mounted on a monopod in a reverse fashion with a remote release so I can lower it gently and without a fuss to the eye level of the animal even if they are close to us. Can't zoom with the remote (does not seem to work, will figure it out).

Here is the wife holding the camera.

The LCD is turned up so I can get some sort of a look at where the camera is pointed.
Click to expand...
I don't think any of the rangers/trackers driving safari vehicles I have been on in Tanzania, Botswana and Zambia would ever permit anyone to have used a monopod with a camera on it extended outside the vehicle right in front of a group of lions.
 
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Pradeep

Member
hcubell said:
I don't think any of the rangers/trackers driving safari vehicles I have been on in Tanzania, Botswana and Zambia would ever permit anyone to have used a monopod with a camera on it extended outside the vehicle right in front of a group of lions.
Click to expand...

Howard, I agree with you completely. By the same token a huge 600mm f4 lens when extended outside the vehicle by somebody sitting inside almost always spooked the animals even though they were over 50 ft away. Which is why most people cover the white lenses with camo from say Lenscoat. In Tanzania and Kenya you have the ability to stand up inside the vehicle with head and shoulders sticking out above it through the roof hatch. You can then keep the long lenses either outside all the time or lift them out when needed. However, that movement needs to be made very slowly and deliberately. We once had a woman in the vehicle who kept lifting her white lens out like a bazooka, invariably making the zebra or lions run away.

What I am talking about is a situation in South Africa, Botswana or Zambia where there is no roof hatch and you are sitting in pretty much an open vehicle at the edge of your seat. In the picture above, I was less than four feet from the cubs as they wanted to sit in the shade provided by the vehicle. I could not even lean over, but had the camera in my arm with the LCD tilted towards me. It was going well and I could have lowered the camera further by stretching my arm down slowly but then the guy on my left stood up to take the shot of the pride since he could not see them otherwise. That simple act of him standing up suddenly was enough for the lion family to jump up and run away. It happened so fast, one second they were doing nothing, the next they were all running away, I had no clue what had happened until our leader from the other vehicle shouted 'no standing up inside the vehicle'!

The idea behind this little project of mine is to get a perspective that is usually not available to most of us without getting out of the vehicle and on the ground. We did that briefly with a warthog family that had wandered close to us during our 'inspecting the tires break'. It was a magical experience, shooting from low on the ground. Nothing beats that look. Of course you cannot do that with most other wild animals and certainly not with lions or buffalo. I think if you are slow, deliberate and extend the monopod gradually without bringing it out like a pole it is possible to shoot this way unless the lions are right next to you as in the picture above - I agree it would be a might dangerous :eek:

GDPI_201601-2.jpg

Here is one with elephants in Botswana that I was lying on the ground for. We had been with them for a while and they were far away enough (around 200 ft or more) and our guide said it was okay to get out. Granted not a great photo but I love the perspective.

GDPI_201-2.jpg
 
H

hcubell

Well-known member
Pradeep said:
Howard, I agree with you completely. By the same token a huge 600mm f4 lens when extended outside the vehicle by somebody sitting inside almost always spooked the animals even though they were over 50 ft away. Which is why most people cover the white lenses with camo from say Lenscoat. In Tanzania and Kenya you have the ability to stand up inside the vehicle with head and shoulders sticking out above it through the roof hatch. You can then keep the long lenses either outside all the time or lift them out when needed. However, that movement needs to be made very slowly and deliberately. We once had a woman in the vehicle who kept lifting her white lens out like a bazooka, invariably making the zebra or lions run away.

What I am talking about is a situation in South Africa, Botswana or Zambia where there is no roof hatch and you are sitting in pretty much an open vehicle at the edge of your seat. In the picture above, I was less than four feet from the cubs as they wanted to sit in the shade provided by the vehicle. I could not even lean over, but had the camera in my arm with the LCD tilted towards me. It was going well and I could have lowered the camera further by stretching my arm down slowly but then the guy on my left stood up to take the shot of the pride since he could not see them otherwise. That simple act of him standing up suddenly was enough for the lion family to jump up and run away. It happened so fast, one second they were doing nothing, the next they were all running away, I had no clue what had happened until our leader from the other vehicle shouted 'no standing up inside the vehicle'!

The idea behind this little project of mine is to get a perspective that is usually not available to most of us without getting out of the vehicle and on the ground. We did that briefly with a warthog family that had wandered close to us during our 'inspecting the tires break'. It was a magical experience, shooting from low on the ground. Nothing beats that look. Of course you cannot do that with most other wild animals and certainly not with lions or buffalo. I think if you are slow, deliberate and extend the monopod gradually without bringing it out like a pole it is possible to shoot this way unless the lions are right next to you as in the picture above - I agree it would be a might dangerous :eek:

View attachment 127085

Here is one with elephants in Botswana that I was lying on the ground for. We had been with them for a while and they were far away enough (around 200 ft or more) and our guide said it was okay to get out. Granted not a great photo but I love the perspective.

View attachment 127084
Click to expand...
I haven't had the opportunity to try it, but I understand that some safari vehicles have been configured with a cage like enclosure that is attached to the front or rear of the vehicle at a level close to the ground so that a photographer can shoot close to ground level...safely!
 
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Pradeep

Member
hcubell said:
I haven't had the opportunity to try it, but I understand that some safari vehicles have been configured with a cage like enclosure that is attached to the front or rear of the vehicle at a level close to the ground so that a photographer can shoot close to ground level...safely!
Click to expand...
I haven't seen it yet, or heard of it. It would be a very cramped situation especially if you were in it while the vehicle was moving. In Botswana, in the Okavango delta, the water would often come up into the floorboards of the vehicle, cannot be in a cage on the bottom then. Would also be an extremely bumpy ride overall.

Another option of course is to have the camera on the ground in a fixed or movable dolly with a remote control, allowing the animals to come close without danger to oneself. However, one then has to be prepared to lose the camera to an inquisitive elephant or lion. It is also difficult to do when you are with a group of people, can only be done if you are on your own, with a big budget, like the BBC or a major pro like Nick Brandt.
 
V

Vivek

Guest
Even BBC teams use fairly inexpensive cams (carmouflaged footballs to film elephants, for example) like GoPro as crash cams!
 
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Pradeep

Member
Got mine today. Looks about the same size as the A7RII. The battery is not much larger but of course they say packs a bigger punch. Taking it for a wedding trip to CA tomorrow. Don't know how much time I'll get to play with it. Will do some formal tests next week.
 
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Pradeep

Member
Been checking the new A9, a little difficult to assess IQ fully as I cannot yet convert the RAW files in LR.

The combo with the 70-200 GM is amazing. The Sony 100-400 will probably not be available until July, so have no choice but to take my Canon version with me to Africa this month.

I tested the A9 with the Canon lens through the Metabones IV adapter. Happily the AF is so much better than on my A7RII, almost instantaneous now. Of course the native Sony lens focuses faster but the Canon is acceptably good right now. What a difference between the A9 and the A7RII indeed. Have not tested moving subjects yet but simply focusing on different things at varying distances, at least in good light there is a HUGE improvement.

What is also interesting is that the Sony teleconverters are so much smaller and better than the Canon. I tested the 70-200 with the 1.4X against my super sharp Canon 100-400 and it seems to hold its own quite well. With the 2X I need to get up to f8 and then the Canon is only marginally sharper.

So the good news so far is that the 70-200GM lens is very usable even with the converters. The A9 focuses very well with the Metabones and Canon lens.
 
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Pradeep

Member
Congrats Guy!

I am sure many will gradually find this replacing their current DSLRs. I know I have already. Will know how it performs in the field in two weeks :D

Sure, the speed is already amazing but there is a lot more going for it.

For me what is already impressive is the sheer amount of customization that is possible with this camera. There are four custom buttons that are programmable, three custom shooting settings that can be stored in camera and an additional four that can be saved on a card. All can be transferred to another camera by copying to an SD card. Then there are three pages with a total of 18 menu items that can be stored in 'my favorites' section like on Canon. To top it all, the key settings can now be set via two dials on top left, so you can change frame rate instantly, the bracketing, self timer, Auto vs manual focus etc. The custom shooting settings can be recalled as sticky or if you assign them to a custom button you can have the aperture/shutter/ISO/Focus all instantly change for a particular shot while pressing a C button and then going back to your regular settings once you release it.

On my Canon 1DXii this was possible too, but you could only change to one set of parameters and to alter those was a pain. So why is this useful? Imagine you are shooting an animal running, you take your usual shot to freeze the motion, then you instantly press C1 and take the shot while panning the camera and you instantly get a motion blur. Works amazingly well for a flock of birds too.

Just did some testing last night with the buffer and various cards. Interesting stuff. You can store the same or different images on the two cards (i.e. RAW or jpg) in various combinations. However, it only writes at UHS-1 speed to slot 2 even if you have a higher speed card in it. Wish they had allowed both slots to be equally fast at writing.

What is interesting is that jpg files seem to write much slower than RAW. So even if you have a superfast Lexar 2000X card, jpg are not much faster in either slot, at around 50 MB/s (fine quality). RAW files OTOH do benefit from a faster card. I measured the Lexar 2000x to write at 190MB/s while the Sandisk 95MB/s UHS-1 card manages respectably at 89 MB/s. Not bad for a card that costs almost four times less.

The buffer is giving me around 230-240 RAW images before it begins to go single shot. I am getting over 400 images in the buffer with the jpg setting.

In the 'Sort' mode where you write RAW to slot 1 and jpg to slot 2, it is still amazing. I am able to get around 230 files in the buffer before it becomes single shot and of course the time to write to both cards gets longer though not by a whole lot.

So here is the rough summary on the buffer and time to write to the card(s):

RAW images: 230 to 240
Jpg images: 440-460

Time to clear buffer (depends upon the card):

RAW: 30 seconds with Lexar 2000X UHS-II card, 68 seconds with Sandisk 95Mb/s UHS-1 Extreme Pro card.

Jpg: 65 seconds regardless of speed of card

Dual mode:

Both RAW: 75 seconds, slot 2 card does not matter
Slot 1 RAW, slot 2 jpg: 44 seconds with Lexar 2000X i slot 1 - slot 2 card does not matter.

I did not test jpg in both slots.

what is also interesting is that the battery life is amazing, I must have shot off 7000 images in the above tests, battery was still at 72%. Of course there was no focus tracking or chimping during this process, simply setting the camera down and shooting away.
 
iiiNelson

iiiNelson

Well-known member
Sony A9 v. D5 Shootout.

Max Yuryev is an online YouTube trainer and gear reviewer (that's mostly known for his Hackintosh and video oriented content). He was one of the people that was recognized for criticizing Sony at he NY event for not making the A9 slightly larger by 10-20% (which is a fair assessment for people with larger hands). In any case, he and Paul Nelson (no relation) did a similar test a little while ago with the A99ii in which the D5 beat it (though the A99ii clearly had superior IQ). Results on this one back up the hype somewhat but I will let people watch it for themselves.

https://youtu.be/KX1sfy__7A4
 
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Vivek

Guest
The D5 is dated. Even so, they still have plenty of lenses to go with it.
 
iiiNelson

iiiNelson

Well-known member
Vivek said:
The D5 is dated. Even so, they still have plenty of lenses to go with it.
Click to expand...
Dated as it may be (about a year old or so as it was released alongside the D500) it is still widely considered the penultimate DSLR today. If the A9 meets or exceeds it in most tests then that says a lot about Sony addressing shortcomings (real or perceived) regarding mirrorless. There are many lenses for the Sony but many focal lengths are covered in many lenses too. There also aren't many extreme value lenses but we've seen the 28, 50, and 85 value lenses released within the last 2 years. So I'd say to expect more in a wider range of options including more premium lenses.
 
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