Sony a9 II - Hands-On Review

Описание: The Sony a9 II builds on the strengths of the original a9, with blazing fast AF, ergonomic updates, and other improvements.
Find out more about the Sony a9 II: http://bit.ly/2neDSHO

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Intro - 0:00
Body - 0:58
Sensor & Image Quality - 3:05
Autofocus - 3:51
Image Stabilisation - 5:57
Video - 6:15
Conclusion - 6:53

Today we’re looking at the Sony Alpha 9 II, the newest version of Sony’s flagship camera. This camera represents the pinnacle of performance and is aimed squarely at the working professional, generally someone shooting sports or similar for a living - so it’s likely no coincidence that this is releasing in advance of the Olympics next year. This is certainly an incremental upgrade over the original Alpha 9 rather than a huge leap, but that doesn’t mean there’s not some useful features on here for it’s target audience. We’ll start with the body of the Alpha 9 II, although feel free to check the video description to jump to a certain section. And as always, if you find this video helpful, please be sure to like and subscribe

While the body looks pretty similar to the original version, there are definitely some ergonomic improvements. Sony has taken many of the upgrades found in the Alpha 7R IV and put them in the Alpha 9 II. This means we get a deeper grip, which is pretty significant considering this camera will often be paired up with longer, heavier lenses. We also see improvements to the buttons and joystick, raising them up and making them a lot easier to use. The weather sealing has also been improved across the board, and the card slots have been upgraded so that both are compatible with UHS-II SD cards - in the Alpha 9 only one slot was UHS-II compatible.

We have the same excellent large FZ-100 which lasts for ages, and the Alpha 9 II even slightly improves on battery life by 10%. The viewfinder is the same 3.69 million dots as the original. The hotshoe mount has been updated and can now receive audio data, we have a mic and headphone jack, HDMI, USB-C 3.2, a multiport, flash sync port and a gigabit ethernet port. Connectivity has been improved here, that gigabit ethernet port allows for very high speed data transfer, the USB-C is great for fast tethering, and the camera also has a new 5GHz Wifi which can provide reliable transfer in interference-high environments. Also both wired and wireless can do background FTP transfer so you can keep shooting while transferring, and you can store 10 sets of FTP settings on an SD card. These are all points that are aimed squarely at the pro market who might be shooting sports images that are transferred in real time to a data centre for immediate upload and publish. This is how major sports events - like the Olympics - are shot, so it shows Sony’s awareness of the specialised workflow needs of this audience. There’s also the option to record a voice memos, remote operation improvements and you can transfer data while the camera is off

I won’t dwell much on the sensor and image quality here because this is basically unchanged from the original version. It’s the same 24.2 MP sensor which is fine as the quality level here is sufficiently high. It does have a newer processor though, which Sony claims results in better colour and improved ISO performance, plus a few more aspect ratios. The mechanical shutter has also been upgraded, it has a 500 000 shot life cycle, has reduced vibration, and it doubles the mechanical burst shooting to 10 fps.

Let’s touch on the biggest strength of the Alpha 9 II, and that is autofocus. This is hands-down the best autofocus system I’ve ever used. It’s the same 693-point phase detection system from the original, but Sony has tweaked the algorithms to result in even better performance, if that was even possible. I literally could not get this camera to take an out of focus photo, and it’s tracking capabilities were unreal. The much-lauded eye autofocus is also improved, and it now also works both on animals and in video. Of course the camera retains the much-lauded no viewfinder blackout when shooting even at the max 20 fps via the electronic shutter, which is how these images were all shot. The camera also has a large buffer of 361 JPGs or 131 uncompressed RAWs, so you can shoot for extended periods. The camera also gains an anti-flicker mode for indoor shooting

There’s also been a slight improved to the in-body image stabilisation, it is now 5.5 stops, up from 5 stops on every other Sony camera.

Video features on the Alpha 9 II remain the same as the original, which means the camera can shoot 4K, although it still can’t use S-Log 2 and 3 picture profiles, which is a bit of a shame. The video still looks quite good though, and it does benefit from the autofocus improvements. Realistically this camera is aimed at stills shooters, but it’s nice that it can function decently for video as well