Promising a full-frame sensor and speedy video capture, we put the Sony A9 mirrorless camera through its paces
A full-frame camera that’s enjoyable to use and packed with impressive features
Good things come in small packages, and when we opened the Sony Alpha 9 (A9) box we were surprised at how compact the enclosed camera body was; being about two-thirds the size of other fullframe cameras on the market. Indeed, this is a camera we know we won’t have any issues with when we are balancing it with a long lens or small telescope. The body fits nicely in the hand, while the control wheels – for changing ISO, exposure time and f/numbers – are very accessible and easy to locate by touch in the dark. While such a compact camera is always desirable for astrophotography, we did however note that the gap between the grip and lens mount was quite small, which may pose an issue for larger hands.
We liked the Sony A9’s four customisable ‘C’ buttons from the outset; these give the user a lot of flexibility when it comes to adapting the camera configuration. The LCD screen is moveable, but not fully articulated; while we could pull out and tilt the screen at an angle, we couldn’t rotate it.
As clear summer skies beckoned, we headed out to put the Sony A9’s 24MP sensor through its paces with some Milky Way imaging. The first thing we noticed while setting up was that the Sony A9 has a touchscreen – up to a point. We found that we could tap to set the focus point of our image, but we could not change the settings or take images via the LCD monitor. This isn’t an issue if using an intervalometer (interval timer), or if the shutter button is sensitive. Luckily, the A9 is very responsive, and even when we weren’t using a remote shutter release it didn’t pose an issue. Indeed, in lighter summer night skies, high ISO test images appeared clean.
Deep-sky impact
The Sony A9 really excelled when we used it to locate and focus on deep-sky objects. The ‘Live View’ was exceptional and sped up our setup time considerably. While stars showed up easily on screen, we found the camera’s focusing was impressive. By switching on ‘MF Assist’ (manual focus assist) in settings, it allowed the ‘Live View’ to automatically zoom in on our set focus point whenever we moved the focus ring on our lenses. (This avoids the hassle of finding a ‘Magnify’ button to press, which risks nudging the setup). While
we didn’t think the Sony A9 was particularly sensitive to Hydrogen-alpha (Ha) wavelengths, this may have been due to the seasonably light skies and a rising full Moon.
The Sony A9’s ‘Interval Shooting’ function is a game changer; it allows astrophotography newcomers the chance to try multiple long exposure deep-sky shots without the need for an intervalometer. While the maximum exposure time is only 30 seconds in this mode, this is ample enough to do justice to many deep-sky objects and is certainly enough for Milky Way wide-field imaging.
For those wishing to attach the Sony A9 to a telescope, it’s worth noting that a Sony E-mount T-ring is required, which is different to the standard A-mount T-ring many Sony cameras use. An A- to E-mount adaptor is also available to purchase, which may come in handy for astrophotographers who are moving from cameras with crop sensors into Sony’s full-frame line. While crop sensor lenses can be used – as long as the A9 is in crop sensor mode – there are full-frame variants available up to 600mm.
Shooting the Moon
With the full Moon cutting our deep-sky object time short, we tested out the five-axis image-stabilisation by taking some handheld shots. We were impressed, as we were able to keep the Moon central over several images and recover good details on the lunar surface later in post-processing. The battery lasted across three nights of imaging before it needed charging, totalling about 4.5 hours. This is about the fastest, quietest ‘mirrorless DSLR’ we’ve tried – every long exposure, high ISO frame we took was read and processed with no ‘blackout’, meaning we were able to minimise the interval between shots.
Overall, the Sony A9 is an easy to navigate, enjoyable compact, full-frame camera with plenty of pleasing hidden extras. It also transitions seamlessly from daytime to night-time photography.