Sony A9 II Review - Hands on
Key Features
1:10 frames per second mechanical shutter
2:Add 5 GHZ wifi+ Gigabyte Ethernet
3: 2 UHS-II SD Card slots
4: Improved weather-sealing
5: Voice Memos
The looks
While most of the buttons are the same as the Sony 7R IV, the new Sony A9 II has improved its body width. The overall operating experience is much better than the previous generation.
The A9 II also comes with a variety of accessories, including the camera body, the straps, charging cable, charger, battery, USB Type-C cable, Warranty Card and cable cover.
From the front side, we can see that sony a9 II looks similar to the Sony a9. The logo of Alpha 9 is still there.
From the top, you can see that the right buttons have the same layout as the 7R IV ( move the rear dialing wheel to the top of the camera ). In the meantime, Sony a 9II has a wider body which gives you a much more comfortable operating experience.
The dialing wheel on the left is still the combination of driving mode and focus mode, but unlike the 9, the 9II has removed the locking lever next to the focus mode turntable, and users can now adjust the focus mode by simply pressing the lever on the front of the fuselage, more convenient than it used to be.
The handles of Sony 9II have been redesigned, The camera body is much bigger making them wider and easier to grip, especially with large telephoto lenses.
While most of the buttons on the back are the same layout as the 7R III, the AF-ON button is larger and gives a greater sense of feedback. Much better than the machines of the past. The focus lever is also enlarged, allowing the photographer to move the focus better while shooting.
The left dialing wheel is still the combination of the drive mode and the focus mode. Different from a9, a 9II has canceled of the design of the locking lever. If you want to change the focus mode you can simply press the lever on the front of the camera which is more convenient than before.
The right side of the camera is still where the memory card is located, but because of the redesign of the handle, the memory card cover is relatively wider than before. The lock button is removed to make it easier to operate. The 7r IV supports dual UHS-II memory cards and adjusts the slot position to meet the user's needs.
The left side of the Sony A9 II is the data interface position including a cable interface, Flash, microphone, headphones, HDMI, USB-C and multimedia interface, and so on.
The EVF has been constantly improving in the mirrorless camera market. The A9 II comes with 3.68 million Quads VGA OLED Tru- finder.
Menu
The main menu of A 9II is still the same design as other Sony mirrorless cameras.
When shooting with LCD backscreen, all kinds of shooting information will be displayed on the screen. It includes the current shooting mode, number of shots available on the memory card, battery capacity, focus mode, white balance, color mode, and so on. Users can directly understand the important parameters of the camera indicators, do know, through the DISP button can also switch between different UI display different information.
The camera is also equipped with the Fn menu, which can be pressed to bring up a number of commonly used parameters for change.
The camera menu also allows the user to set up two sets of custom Fn menus for different photos and videos.
As a professional camera, the custom button function is naturally very important. Each photographer has a familiar set of controls. The 9ii not only allows users to change the function of the button but also saves the settings for use on a new body.
Picture quality test
The 9II still uses a full-frame high-speed stack of 24.2 megapixels and built-in DRAM memory, where image data can be temporarily stored to speed up photography and image processing. It also comes with Sony's own Graphics Processing Unit, which keeps the camera's image quality at a high level while also improving focus and processing speed.
White Balance Test
Auto White Balance
Tungsten White Balance
Custom white balance
In the incandescent light source environment, when using the body of the preset incandescent light balance, the picture has been significantly modified, some partial cold. The camera's automatic white balance mode is relatively accurate in color balance. When we used the custom white balance mode, we found that the results were basically the same as the automatic white balance. This shows that the 9II's automatic white balance performance has been greatly improved, even in a complex light environment that can be assured to use.
ISO test
9ii In the electronic shutter of the original sensitivity adjustable range is ISO100 to 25600, mechanical shutter up to 51200, users can also achieve a maximum of 204800 ISO. Basically, it meets the photographer's needs in different light environment shooting. I shot in the room, the camera set by default and turn off the Lens Correction. Shoot RAW files and use Sony's Imaging Edge editing software to turn JPG (turn off all noise reduction options in the software) , and compare it with JPG files straight out of the fuselage (noise reduction is standard).
Original Test Photo
ISO 100
ISO 200
ISO 400
ISO 800
ISO 1600
ISO 3200
3200
ISO 6400
6400
ISO 12800
ISO 25600
From the actual ISO contrast, in ISO800 no matter in JPG or RAW have a good sharpness and detail performance. Starting with ISO 1600, the dark parts of RAW files began to get rough. ISO 3200, RAW files began to have a certain amount of color noise, and the JPG noise reduction is still good, little loss of detail. Starting from ISO6400, the color noise of RAW increased significantly, while JPG files appeared a certain sense of smudging, the details began to decline. After ISO6400, the noise of RAW file is more serious. The details of the JPG loss began to increase, but the noise control is still good. ISO 25600,9II picture USABILITY is not big, although the JPG noise after the picture is relatively clean, the loss of detail is also very big. For 9II, the use of daily shooting ISO6400 is basically not a big problem, but also this type of high-speed news machine should have the performance.
Main performance features
1: Focus System
The focusing system has been a technology Sony prides itself on. With the introduction of newly developed AI technology, cameras like a9 have achieved some more intelligent real-time tracking focus. The 9II undoubtedly will follow this awesome focus function. The 9II also comes with 693 phase detection autofocus and 425 contrast-detection autofocus. The focus area covers up to 93%, almost the full range of the viewfinder, allowing the camera to quickly track even the subject at the edge of the frame. With such high constant focusing and real-time tracking, sony 9II is able to perform satisfactorily in real-time snapshots. The focus accuracy and speed are much better than the a9.
One notable improvement of the 9II is that the maximum continuous speed of the mechanical shutter has been increased to 10 frames per second. The 9II allows you to switch to a mechanical shutter, giving you the advantage of a 10 shot per the second sequence.
What's more, the real-time eye AF that sony is proud of has also been applied to 9II. Stable and fast recognition and focus function make focusing much easier when shooting the athletes or portraits.
2: Improved in-body stabilization
The 9ii still comes with a built-in 5-axis anti-shake system but has also been updated to compensate for up to 5.5 shutter speeds shakiness. Photographers can hold the camera to shoot even without a tripod.
3: Voice memos
Voice memos are a useful feature for news sports photography, where photographers can annotate photos by recording them with voice. You can use this feature to quickly annotate the images quickly when encountering some important events and athletes. We're pleased to see that the 9II is finally equipped with voice memos. The 60 seconds recording function enables you to record some complicated notes.
4. Convenient connectivity & transfer performance
For a news sports photographer, it's important to be able to quickly send your photos. The sony a 9II has also improved the camera's transmission performance. First, the top speed level of the Ethernet port has been raised to 1000BASE-T, allowing photographers to use the Ethernet port for faster delivery. The built-in WI-FI also supports the 5 GHz, allowing photographers to choose from different working environments.
The Sony 9II provides a variety of connectivity options for professional photographers。 The especially launched Imaging EDGE MOBILE &TRANSFER & tagging add on software allow us to transfer data and control the shooting via wireless and mobile phones. The T & T, in particular, enables the sports photographers to upload photos to their phones for editing and then send them to FTP servers.
Sample Images
Summary:
In the run-up to the Olympic year, Sony first launched the top speed mirrorless camera 9II which proves the reputation of the mirrorless camera in the news & sports area. No matter the upgraded focusing, the continuous shooting, the transfer performance. are all get further improvement which makes sony a9 9II serve better for professional photographers. Based on the practical shooting, 9II still continues the AI intelligent shooting performance, after taking the advice, the α9 II answer the demands of professional workflows.