Sony Alpha 9
£4,299/$4,498 (body only)
Will it steal the sports market from Canon and Nikon?
Un like the Sony A7R III, which is designed to offer a balance between continuous shooting and resolution, the A9 is all
about sheer speed. Its 24-megapixel sensor might be a step down in resolution from the A7R series, but it’s still plenty for big, detail-rich images – and it can capture these at an incredible 20 frames per second at full resolution, and with AE and AF tracking.
Frame rates like this are no good without a substantial buffer capacity: the A9 has this covered too, with the ability to capture 362 JPEGs or 241 raw files in a burst.
This is just the start. The A9 also has a completely silent electronic shutter, opening up whole new opportunities for sports photographers at moments where cameras would normally be banned. There’s no screen blackout during shooting either – instead, the screen refresh rate drops from 120fps to 60fps. All this is made possible with a stacked sensor design incorporating its own memory and Sony’s Bionz X image processor.
Moving subjects are tracked by a powerful 693-point autofocus system covering 93% of the image area, and images are stabilised using a combination of the A9’s own in-body five-axis stabilisation system and the optical stabilisers in some of Sony’s latest professional lenses, such as the FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS.
Naturally, the A9 shoots 4K video and uses oversampling (no pixel binning) to produce the best results. This is all in a camera hardly larger than the A7, which is why the A9 scoops our ‘innovation’ award.
WINNING features
20fps continuous shooting Silent mode AF points cover 93% of the image area