Sony A1 II: The ALMOST Perfect Camera!

It appears many of those commenting here have not exactly listened to what Jan actually said all along his otherwise very dense video.
He used it in real-life situations for images of the hardest-to-capture animals.
And also, please... this is a PRE-PRODUCTION model.
What you have witnessed here shall change, sometimes radically, before this camera gets in buyers hands. I include AF behaviour and internal programming... engineers are currently reviewing and analysing all feedbacks returned to them, just give them a few weeks so the job gets completed.
Does anyone here SERIOUSLY believe folks at Sony will send their new flagship hybrid camera with flawed functionalities ? 👏😂
Can't you just relax, breathe calmly, listened to what seasoned photographers say... in fewer words : use your brain ?
If not, stop writing nonsense comments and just skip ahead. There are many "influencers" out there, waiting for brains to influence and they'll be happy to have yours into their audience !

DO use still use back button focus on mirrorless camera ??

Jan,

I know most people don't pay much attention to MFT, but before you say that this is the best implementation of pre-capture, you should really look at how much control you have of it on the OM-1.

I can tell it exactly how many pre-frames i want, frame rate, and set a frame limit (meaning it will stop the capture after a predetermined amount of frames. not a feature i'd use, but it's there, and it doesn't seem to exist in other precapture implementations.) and you can set several different precapture settings for different drive modes.

I'm not saying they're equivalent cameras in the large swathe of other features, but for this particular feature, OM seems to have put more control in the hands of the photographer than anyone else.

Great review. Best AF analysis I have seen of the A1 II. Interesting how it struggled slightly when picking up the falcon against he cliff compared to the Canon R1.

I may buy α1 II late next year for some 5000 USD net, since Sony had sufficiently restrained α1—its lowly monitor and lack of precapture—that this α1 II is compelling despite Sony's sheer laziness making it. Reusing the image sensor was wise, but the processor seems too weak. Wildlife photographer Duade Paton, reviewing a preproduction sample, reports asking 40 fps of Sony, which replied merely that the processor cannot generate 40 raw files plus calculate focus 120 times per second.

Functions that merge multiple images still task the user to export and combine them out of camera. More importantly, full-frame raw stills at 30 fps, being exclusively the "compressed" format, are locked at the full resolution, 50 MP, often unwieldly. The lower resolutions—medium/M as 21 MP or small/S as 12 MP, being exclusively the "lossless compressed" formats—are capped at 20 fps. Meanwhile, both smaller sizes are foolish as the sole alternatives to 50 MP. Covering broad use cases would be XL as 50 MP, L as 36 MP, M as 24 MP, S as 18 MP, and XS as 12 MP.

Admittedly, my wishlist was somewhat overzealous in places: a new innovation, an inbuilt flash transmitter open to third parties, a new luxury, an OLED monitor ultrabright for direct sunlight, and a new convenience, an inbuilt variable ND filter. Reasonable, though, were waveform and vectorscope displays in movie mode as well as ProPhoto RGB color space in photo mode. Overdue are exposure tools via raw histogram, although I expected them to remain only via JPEG histogram. By contrast, CFexpress 4.0 and USB-C at 20 Gps, doubling write and transfer speeds, seemed mandatory.

I would just use expand spot focus area if it struggles AF. Wide is best when in flight in the sky etc.

Thank you for a well thought out video. I’ve seen several on this body so far, and they all SUCK. Pretty much everyone rushed to be first and sacrificed quality and content. Thank you for a thoughtful, in depth, and worthwhile video.

Am I wrong or did I mention a rolling shitter effekt in the flying eagle poo ... 😉
Seems that sony has at least an edge in sensor technology even if they use an old one. 50 MP with that performance, instead of 24 from Canons "flagship". The features of both camreas combined would be perfect. Even though I'm a Canon user, in the end I would rather buy the A1 than the R1.

Sony has a Canon R1 moment. Essentially the same camera with minor improvements. The Z9 II with RED video features will be amazing

That body looks tiny. How does it compare to the R5ii in terms of overall feel???

I guess both are pretty awesome bodies.

No, the prerfect marketing.Bravo Sony 10/10.

Waiting for the flagship war! Sony A1ii vs. Canon R1.

Good

Do you have Black Friday sales for your masterclass? Thanks! 😊

I just saw your video and found it very interesting and informative. I have been waiting for almost a year for Nikon to release Z 7iii. I am a retired (scientist) 80 year old photographer and am not sure sure, because of its weight if I can manage Sony's A1 ii. If A 1 ii was lighter I might have considered it. I currently own Nikon D750, and Sony A7iii. For Nikon, I have multiple lenses (24-120, 28-300, 300PF, 105, 50 (1.4), 24, 10-24, 1.4X teleconverter etc) for Sony I have a Sony wide angle zoom 16-24 and Tamron 28-75. I have been doing a lot of event photography, landscapes, travel, wild animals not as much BIF and some macro, mostly flowers. I have an adapter to use my Nikon lenses on Sony as well. I am planning a trip to Africa next summer. Would like to buy another mirrorless body. What would be your recommendations. The trip has a weight limited of 40 lbs per person. What camera body and lens combination would be ideal? Would love hear from you. Thanks. Valmik Bhargava ([email protected])

yawn

Jan, the 45MP sensor in the Z9 and Z8 literally do all those things, and has a faster readout and better DR to boot.

Please please please consider your comments!

Great review, I keep coming back to it. I have seen other reviews comparing the Sony to the Canon R5 Mark II that say the Canon autofocus is clearly superior to Sony, do you support that view? Also, with all the cameras you have available, which one do you prefer for your own use?
Thanks, Ken

As a sports photographer I trigger remote cameras. I'm wondering how long the camera can sustain the pre release mode?

I take the R5 II for that price, don't see why this A1 II should cost so much more.

@jan_wegener I’m on the fence bc I’m a current A1 200-600 user and want to be able to upgrade to lenses to get more light and I’ve been eyeballing the z9 bcc of lens choices but I’d hate to lose the Sony autofocus, but being at f8 where I live cuts me out of the last hour of light most the time and pushing iso 800-12000 that is pushing DXO making images look a little too overdone sometime, but sometimes not depends on the situation. Is the switch a bad call and just upgrade the A1ii, or go to Nikon to have more reach more light. I’m doing more video as now as well and the lack of bird detection in the A1 is quite annoying

Dear Jan, I belong to A1 and A1ii FB Group and asked question about how NR feature of both A1 and A1ii works. No one seems to know. in A1 one has to shoot 1 sec or long exposure (i.e. shooting Eastern Screech Owl ... it is possible since it sits very still), and A1ii stack post processing if shot at 1/30 sec or longer (I think ). Do you know how this is done? Is A1 / A1ii using some algorithm internal to the sensors / processor achieve this? I shot A1 with 1 sec and it looks bright with very little noise.

Jan - Thanks for the thorough review.

I have tried to photograph songbirds using the pre-capture on my Z8 (because they are small usually 20 to 30 ft away). It works, but if the Bird moves out of the initial plane of focus from before takeoff, it doesn't seem to be able to keep up, resulting in a blurry image. Not complaining......these Birds move fast and depth of field is shallow at such close distances. Curious how the A1 II does here. Is the auto focus on the A1 II able to keep up with small fast birds taking off and quickly moving out of the initial plane of focus? If it offers a significant improvement, to me that would make it worthwhile purchase.

Thanks Ron

Not a big difference from the Z*, why waste $2500 more? Video specs are pathetic just a big disappointment…

Hello, how can you recording your screen real time, please

Hi Jan, seems that you have small af box, with the falcon in the clifs. A1 mk1 limits the af in the af box.

Did you try with the Wide? Just asking bqs the video shows Only small af box.

How is the menu system in the A1ii? I had an A9 years ago and hated the menus.

Is the a1ii or R1 viewfinder better? Minus the eye tracking, just quality/brightness?

Thank you for this Review. That helped me for my decision to order one. Hope it will be here for Christmas. Jo

what happens to the pre-capture photos? Are they stored in the smae location and under the same format (Raw)?

video shaking and AF difficulties might be the deciding factors, it's unacceptable for a 6500 dollars camera

Iso 60 ??

Sony A1 II VS CANON EOS R5 MARK II WTCH IS BETTER AND WHY??

The original A1 can also shoot in Slog 3. There are few video improvements here.

This is an amazing new camera, just coming out as I switched from Sony back to Nikon; However, I wonder if it really is worth the money over a Z8? 10 more FPS and raw pre-capture are tempting, better AF, but in terms of image quality, I wonder if there is that much of a difference and I just love the Nikon colours much more over Sony

Is your light room masterclass only for learning how to edit birds? I am looking for something that does it for portraits.

Hi Jan, did you notice an improvement in image stabilisation for handheld video by any chance?

It’s so interesting how the A1 II quickly and accurately locked on to and tracked the Peregrine falcon in flight. But when the falcon was perched, the camera had some difficulty focusing on it.

Seriously considering splurging in the coming months for this camera. Lots of the other reviews out at this point dont even come close to this sort of info that I wanted to know. Thanks!

This is the best review on the camera I've seen from a true photographer, unlike the pretenders that waffle on with specs.

I just got my Sony a1 M2. I had the exact experience you did regarding the AF finding the bird. I had it set on animal/bird. Next time I go out I'll try just bird. On my local walks I get both so I thought this setting would be great. Maybe I'll setup a custom button to switch. Thank you for your wonderful videos, I think your work is jaw dropping and stunning.

Great video as always. Thank you.

Bought it

Great and honest review. Superb peregrine special image.
U talked about a lot on various functions but I could not find your view on dynamic range of A1 mark2 and cannon R5 mark 2. Please let us know which camera has better dynamic range. Thanks

If money wasn't an object would you choose the A1 ii over yhe R5 ii?

The focus area thing when switching between photo and video i've also noticed on the Sony A7IV :D Its a small thing but its still annoying!