Most of the capabilities of the sensor in A9 are disabled.
https://www.sonyalpharumors.com/the-sony-a9-full-frame-sensor-sheet-is-now-available/
My hunch was correct and this is the reason why I am waiting for it hit my target price.
Very interesting, of course I don't understand half of it
Vivek, I suspect the greatest strength of Sony has been their sensors, but like a fast car that can only come into its own on a clean highway without other traffic to slow it down, the rest of the camera - the pipeline, memory, write speed has to be improved for it to reach its true potential.
Sony's sensors have been used by Nikon and Pentax quite successfully.
I don't believe it is a deliberate ploy on Sony's part to 'disable' the sensor. When the a9 was first released it was already the most advanced camera in many ways, IMHO. The fastest fps of any camera, without any blackout in the EVF, largest frame buffer, blisteringly fast AF - I still had my 1DX MkII at that time and in straight comparison, the Sony won out, especially for BIF. All of this in a small, mirror-less body.
The fact that they have now been able to tweak the system with firmware upgrades suggests they built a lot into the sensor/body and have been slowly working on the software side to maximize its abilities. They have also taken into account a lot of things people asked for, though there is still room for improvement and one can hope they are still listening.
I am not a software expert so I cannot say if all the new firmware upgrades could have been done right off the bat on the first release, I suspect not. Most other makers only correct their bugs and errors with FW upgrades. In my 17 years of using Canon DSLRs, I do not recall them doing anything significantly new in terms of features with FW upgrades.
As I've said elsewhere, no camera is perfect. I was hoping for an upgraded model in the a9 series this year, but I am happy that they chose the software route instead, means I don't have to shell out for yet another body.
What I would really like is for the A7rIII to have the same superfast AF of the a9. But that would probably require a hardware upgrade which means wait for the next model release.
Pricing is not ideal, but given that the Canon 1DX II is $1000 more, the Nikon D5 is $2000 more, I think the a9 is competitively priced, especially since, IMHO again, it does a remarkable job where needed. As far as price drop is concerned, it is bound to happen, but maybe if you don't have an aversion to it, used bodies may be a better value right now.
