The Sony A9 III from 2023 is a 24 megapixel full-frame mirrorless digital camera that has a transparent concentrate on offering as a lot pace as potential for sports activities and wildlife images.
The Sony A1 from 2021 is a 50 megapixel full-frame mirrorless digital camera that is designed to be be extra of an all-rounder that excels at each stills and video.
We’re bringing you this Sony A9 III vs Sony A1 head-to-head comparability that can assist you select between these two full-frame cameras.
It’s also possible to learn our detailed Sony A9 III overview and Sony A1 overview to search out out precisely what we consider each in far more depth.
Sensor
These cameras provide very completely different megapixel counts and likewise use very completely different sensor applied sciences.
The Sony A1 has a 35mm full-frame stacked Exmor RS CMOS sensor providing a decision of fifty.1 megapixels.
The Sony A9 III has a 35mm full-frame stacked Exmor RS CMOS sensor providing a decision of 24.6 megapixels.
So if decision is essential, the A1 is clearly the higher selection because it provides twice as many megapixels.
Each fashions have a stacked CMOS sensor with integral reminiscence, which delivers quicker efficiency and far quicker burst speeds than cameras with out.
World Shutter
The important thing distinction between them is a giant one although – the A9 III makes use of the world’s first ever 35mm full-frame international shutter picture sensor, whereas the A1 has a extra standard progressive sensor design.
So whereas the A1 reads out the sensor line by line, a worldwide shutter permits the A9 III to immediately learn all the sensor in a single go.
This has numerous necessary advantages. It nearly eliminates rolling shutter in video, distortion of motion if the topic strikes rapidly throughout the body, and flicker and banding underneath synthetic lights, while offering an extremely excessive shutter pace of 1/80,000th second.
The technological leap to a worldwide digital shutter implies that the A9III utterly dispenses with a conventional mechanical shutter, whereas the A1 has each an digital and a mechanical shutter.
Processor
Each the A9 III and the A1 use two of the very newest BIONZ XR processors, which supply 8x extra processing energy than the BIONZ X processor present in some older Alpha cameras.
ISO Pace
The native sensitivity vary of the Sony A1 is ISO 100-32,000, which might be expanded all the way down to ISO 50 and as much as ISO 102,400.
The ISO vary of the A9 III is 250-25,600, expandable to 125-51,200 for stills, as a attribute of the worldwide shutter sensor is a better base ISO pace.
Pixel Shift Multi Taking pictures
The Sony A1 has a particular multi-shot taking pictures mode wherein it takes 16 completely different photos that may then be mixed utilizing the Imaging Edge Desktop software program to supply a single, 199-megapixel picture.
Amazingly, you’ll be able to even use flash throughout this course of if required due to the brand new sensor’s quick readout pace.
The A9 III would not provide this mode.
Video
The Sony A1 provides 8K/30p 10-bit 4:2:0 XAVC HS video recording with 8.6K oversampling, along with 4K 120p 10-bit 4:2:2 and Full HD at 240fps film taking pictures capabilities, and also can output 16-bit Uncooked video over HDMI.
The A9 III options 6K oversampling for 4K 60p and 4K 120p with out cropping, all distortion-free (no jello impact) in 10-bit 4:2:2 S-log3 / S-Cinetone, with Dynamic Lively Mode stabilisation, respiration compensation and customized LUTS all out there.
Autofocus
The Sony A1 has an AF system with 759 on-sensor part detection factors that cowl roughly 92% of the picture space and might auto-focus all the way down to EV-4 in low mild.
The Sony A9 III’s AF system additionally has 759 on-sensor part detection factors, however they cowl roughly 95% of the picture space and it might focus all the way down to -5EV.
The largest distinction between the 2 fashions when it comes to their auto-focusing efficiency is topic recognition.
It is because Sony has added an AI deep studying processing unit to the newer A9 III digital camera which allows it to recognise extra topics than the Alpha 1, and likewise vastly improves the detection of people and animals/birds.
The A9 III can recognise a human through its pose in addition to its eye and face. So if the individual’s head is turned away from the digital camera, it can nonetheless precisely detect the topic as human primarily based on its AI deep studying.
It may possibly additionally recognise animals, birds, bugs, airplanes, and vehicles/trains. Within the latter class, it’s now able to specializing in helmets, it might recognise the eyes of some grazing and small animals, and extra simply pinpoint the eyes of quite a lot of chook sorts in addition to recognising chook our bodies.
A brand new Animal/Chicken setting on the A9III eliminates the necessity to swap between these settings to shoot animals or birds.
Burst Taking pictures
If you need quick burst taking pictures, the Sony A9 III takes issues to a complete different stage by having the ability to shoot at an astonishing 120 frames per second for 192 frames / 1.6 seconds at full 24 megapixel decision for each JPEG and 14-bit Uncooked codecs with full-time AF/AE and no blackout between frames.
The Alpha 1 isn’t any slouch both, taking pictures at as much as 30fps with the digital shutter for 165 JPEGs or 155 compressed RAW photos earlier than the recording charge slows down, though the highest pace remains to be solely 10fps when utilizing the mechanical shutter.
Pre-capture is a brand new characteristic on the A9 III that we have seen earlier than on different producers’ cameras, however is a primary for Sony. When activated, as much as 120 frames per second are briefly saved whereas the shutter button is half-pressed, and as much as 1 second earlier than might be captured as soon as the shutter is absolutely pressed, offering a level of leniency for fast-moving motion.
The Steady Pace Taking pictures Increase perform offers a straightforward method to have interaction the headline-grabbing 120fps burst mode – sure, 120 frames per second for 1.6 seconds at full 24 megapixel decision for each JPEG and 14-bit Uncooked codecs with full-time AF/AE! – on the press of a button, when you’re not already taking pictures at 120fps.
Shutter Pace
The A1 has a really quick most shutter pace of 1/32,000th second due to its digital shutter (1,8000th with the mechanical shutter), however the A9III ups the ante by providing an much more spectacular 1/80,000th shutter pace for stills.
Word that for the second the utmost shutter pace is 1/16,000th second when the A9 III is about to any burst taking pictures mode, even the Low setting. This can apparently be modified to 1/80,000th sec in March 2024 through a firmware replace.
Flash Sync Pace
Flash-sync is accessible at any shutter pace as much as 1/80,000th sec on the A9 III due to its international shutter, utterly eliminating the necessity for a high-speed flash sync setting,
This probably permits the photographer to overpower the solar and management the background publicity even at noon at base ISO with a excessive shutter pace, and simply use a small, reasonably priced flashgun as a fill-in mild.
Compared the A1 has a flash sync pace of 1/400 sec when utilizing the mechanical shutter and 1/two hundredth for the digital shutter, which is far more typical.
Physique
The A9 III is wider and however a little bit lighter than the A1, measuring 136.1 x 96.9 x 82.9 mm and weighing 702 g / 1 lb 8.8 oz, versus 129 x 97 x 81 mm and 737 g / 1.62 lb on the A1.
Sony have considerably tweaked the design of the A9 III’s hand-grip, which is bigger than its predecessors and maybe extra importantly spaced additional away from the lens mount, which permits for extra room to your fingers to twist across the grip with out touching the hooked up lens.
Different delicate modifications to the A9 III embrace shifting the shutter button barely ahead to raised facilitate its launch, and a brand new customized button (C5) on the entrance of the digital camera.
Viewfinder
Each fashions provide precisely the identical class-leading 9.44M-dot OLED Quad-XGA digital viewfinder with 0.90x magnification and a refresh charge of as much as 240fps.
LCD Display screen
The A9 III inherits the three.2-inch, 2095K dot decision, 4-axis LCD display from the A7R V which is exclusive to Sony. It may be flipped out to the aspect, rotated to the entrance, folded in opposition to the again of the digital camera to assist shield it, and set to many different positions in-between.
The A1 has a 3-inch, 1,440K-dot decision LCD display which might be tilted as much as 41° downwards to shoot over crowds or as much as 107° upwards, however not forwards or out to the aspect.
IBIS
Each cameras have 5-axis optical in-body picture stabilisation that corrects for pitch and yaw shake.
Due to a newly redesigned stabilisation unit, the A9 III provides as much as 8 stops of in-body stabilisation, making it essentially the most succesful Alpha digital camera on this regard.
The Sony A1 has a stabilisation unit which solely provides as much as 5.5 stops of in-body stabilisation.
The A9 III additionally advantages from having two digital stabilization modes for video recording. There is a particular Lively Mode that will increase stabilization for hand-held film taking pictures by utilizing the BIONZ XR processors.
Offering much more compensation on the expense of an elevated crop issue is the brand new Dynamic Lively Mode, which improves the stabilisation by greater than 30% over the Lively Mode.
Reminiscence Playing cards
As you’d anticipate from a contemporary skilled digital camera, each fashions have twin reminiscence card slots.
Each slots on each cameras can be utilized for both SD UHS-I/II compliant reminiscence playing cards or quicker, however costlier, CFexpress Kind A playing cards.
Battery Life
The Sony A9 III makes use of precisely the identical giant capability NP-FZ100 battery because the A1 mannequin.
The A1 is able to recording 530 photographs per cost when utilizing the LCD monitor and 430 photographs when utilizing the EVF.
The A9 III’s battery life may be very related, being formally rated for 530 photographs utilizing the LCD display and 400 when utilizing the EVF.
Each cameras may also be powered and charged through a USB connection, which is beneficial when you’re out and about and have a suitable powerbank to plug the digital camera into, and each use the newer USB-C variant.
Value
The Sony A9 III is priced at £6100 / $6000 / €7000 body-only within the UK, US and Europe respectively.
The Sony A1 had an RRP of £6,500 / $6,500 within the UK / US when it was launched in 2021, a worth that it nonetheless instructions at present.
Conclusion
Selecting between the brand new Sony A9 III and the A1 actually comes all the way down to the quantity of decision that you will want and the type of topics that you simply images. The A9 III may be very a lot skewed in the direction of capturing sports activities and wildlife, whereas the A1 is far more of an all-rounder.
So what do you suppose? Would you select the Sony A1 or the A9 III, and why? Depart a remark under!
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