Sony Alpha A9 II Mirrorless Camera Body

I love photographing wildlife, especially birds. My previous kit was a Canon 70D, with 100-400L IS II USM. This combination, despite the grade of the camera, gave me some fantastic shots during the six years I owned it. After some years of use though, I started to demand more, especially in AF performance. The news that Canon decided to ditch the single digit APS-C line (the 7D series) was hugely disappointing as I lost my upgrade path.In the meantime, I became more aware of lush reviews poured on the Sony A9, primarily for their insane frames-per-second performance, and somewhat later, improved AF performance post some major firmware updates.As a traditional DSLR shooter, one aspect I was very very sceptical of the A9 series was its AF performance. Throughout ... MoreI love photographing wildlife, especially birds. My previous kit was a Canon 70D, with 100-400L IS II USM. This combination, despite the grade of the camera, gave me some fantastic shots during the six years I owned it. After some years of use though, I started to demand more, especially in AF performance. The news that Canon decided to ditch the single digit APS-C line (the 7D series) was hugely disappointing as I lost my upgrade path.In the meantime, I became more aware of lush reviews poured on the Sony A9, primarily for their insane frames-per-second performance, and somewhat later, improved AF performance post some major firmware updates.As a traditional DSLR shooter, one aspect I was very very sceptical of the A9 series was its AF performance. Throughout my DSLR years, I learned the importance of retaining total control over which AF point/area to use, and concentrating on keeping the main subject under that AF point/area no matter what. Therefore, the crazy number of phase-detect AF points over the almost entire expanse of the image sensor, and the use of AI to detect and focus on your main subject sounded too good to be true until I started using my current model, the SONY A9II.The A9II is blessed with so many different AF modes, with varying sizes of AF points, with tenacious AF tracking to boot should you need that, too. I even go so far as to say that the camera focuses perfectly as long as you use the most suitable AF setting for the scene at hand. Plus, with the joystick, it is so easy to instantaneously change and move the position of AF point, too.As they claim, the camera is massively capable of achieving and retaining focus of an oncoming approaching subject which traditional DSLRs struggled with.But one thing that could be improved in terms of the model’s AF performance is to equip its AI with more subject information. When your subjects are dogs, cats and humans, yes, the camera performs phenomenally well but when you are trying to photograph a relatively obvious and unobscured bird perched on a branch or a squirrel on the grass, it struggles. In such cases, you realise how much of the camera’s AF intelligence depends on the knowledge-base preloaded onto the camera. But in fairness I would add that when the camera struggled, I was mostly using a 1.4x teleconverter, and the atmospheric light was getting rather low.Although the camera impressed me with its insane AF performance and fast continuous shooting, as the most expensive model in the current Sony line-up, there are certain quibbles, too, which I hope will be addressed in the near future, hopefully with firmware updates if these suffice, whilst some others can only be put right by hardware improvements.One thing that bugs me currently is the colour temperature variations between the EVF, the rear LCD screen, and the real scene in front of you. I know from my past experiences that Sony tends to give their screens (TVs, LCDs, etc.) a slight cooler tinge. That is very much the case with the EVF. The thing is, when the main benefit of using a mirrorless camera is meant to be WYSIWYG, it becomes far from the truth when the picture you see in the EVF is bluer than the real scene, therefore, you change white balance accordingly, only to realise later that the picture is way too warm. It is possible to adjust the colour temperature of the EVF and I had mine set to -2 (the warmest setting available as it looks more true to real life scene), but still, some vegetation, reeds especially, carry a tinge of blue when looked through the viewfinder. This is a major flaw and I am surprised that not a single well-known reviewer online mentioned this.Another disappointment is again related to the EVF. The resolution needs to be a lot higher. A higher resolution should help the photographer know if part of the subject you are trying to focus on is in sharp focus or not. Another downside of low-res EVF is not being able to appreciate the beauty of whatever scene you are trying to capture as it unfolds in front of you - especially how the ever-changing light falls onto a particular part of your subject, etc. Photography is all about catching such fleeting beauty and capturing it at the right moment - with the current EVF in the A9II, the experience is still inferior to that through an OVF. You need a bit of guessing and imagination. I also add that the exposure compensation setting isn’t reflected faithfully inside the EVF - I tend to find that the final image ends up looking way too dark when uploaded to a computer.The rear LCD needs a higher resolution, too, for the same reason. Normally on locations, I am rarely blown away by the image quality when reviewing taken pictures as the screen lets the camera down. Only when I get home and uploaded all my pictures to a bigger screen do I get to appreciate the full capabilities of the A9II. It’s an amazing camera with tremendous image sensor inside. It’s sad that this cycle of taking a picture and reviewing it in situ before adjusting the settings is hindered by the lack of faithfulness in the way the pictures are shown on the various screens on the camera. Please fix this as this is crucial for serious photographers.Another thing I want Sony to fix is the lag from the sleep mode. I half-press the shutter button to wake my camera up but the EVF takes a bit of time to wake up. Whatever else you do before the EVF fully wakes up, such as trying to get the right AF mode, etc., isn’t met with a response. As a sports model, the slow recovery from sleep mode is embarrassing.AWB - auto white balance - is another major letdown. It performs admirably under the clear blue sky. However, the moment the light level drops, the AWB seems to get it wrong. Where the ‘Shade’ setting should have been applied, I still see the ‘Daylight’ kelvin applied. I shoot in RAW so it is possible to adjust in post, however, given the pricing point of the camera, I expect it to do way better. The only saving grace is that the Sony’s image sensor is capable of capturing so much detail and information therefore a post adjustment, if done right, can bring so much more life to a picture.Another thing is related to AF yet again. If you are into photographing small birds that like to hide in shrubs and trees, you might wish the smallest AF point to be a lot smaller. In shops when testing the camera, I didn’t think I would wish for this, but in real life situations, the smallest AF point is still big and the camera refuses to see the bird I see.I might sound way too critical of such a ground breaking, highly acclaimed camera of the twenty first century, but that’s because I know that this little camera has got a big potential to be even greater. The camera really shines and impresses when it is doing what it’s meant and designed to do in ideal situations. Dogs running, jumping, running around a tree, birds in flight with no confusing background, no problem! So I know if Sony put their minds to it, they can turn this into an even more unbelievable performer for bird photographers.The direction for the camera industry is definitely mirrorless even at the high-end. The slow response and commitment from Canon to the technology meant I simply refused to invest my hard earned cash in their dying EF mount system, which as they admitted recently has stopped receiving any more R&D money as Canon need to focus on the RF mount. If you already own a high-end DSLR system and happy with what it can do for you, then don’t consider jumping ship until the gear has failed or broken. But if you are like me, needing a high speed model/system now or soon with a future worth investing in, the Sony A9II is a very worthy addition to your shortlist.

A9ii and the A7Riv are the perfect pair for me.They both have their strengths and weaknesses but compliment each other very well! I’ve had the A7Riv since it became available and instantly liked the new ergonomic design, deeper grip and more pronounced buttons than the prior Alpha R models. Needless to say the 61mp sensor is phenomenal and excels at landscape, macro and architecture genres. The ability to crop aggressively in post is not to be understated as one of the main strengths of the A7Riv. Oh yeah this a review for the A9ii! I’ve had my eye on the A9 for awhile because of the auto focus performance and the max frame rate. I’ve used my A7Riv for fast moving wildlife and in my experience the performance is mediocre for that purpose, keeper rate for me has ... MoreA9ii and the A7Riv are the perfect pair for me.They both have their strengths and weaknesses but compliment each other very well! I’ve had the A7Riv since it became available and instantly liked the new ergonomic design, deeper grip and more pronounced buttons than the prior Alpha R models. Needless to say the 61mp sensor is phenomenal and excels at landscape, macro and architecture genres. The ability to crop aggressively in post is not to be understated as one of the main strengths of the A7Riv. Oh yeah this a review for the A9ii! I’ve had my eye on the A9 for awhile because of the auto focus performance and the max frame rate. I’ve used my A7Riv for fast moving wildlife and in my experience the performance is mediocre for that purpose, keeper rate for me has been 50-60%. I knew the A9 was built for fast moving subjects but I also knew the body design was not the same as the A7Riv. So before I was going to shell out the big bucks for an A9 I needed to feel it in my hands, could I deal with the different feel? I went to a local camera shop that had the A9 and I held it and decided the answer was no, to much of a difference in feel. Yes, feel is very important to me! If I’m going to be switching between bodies I want them to feel very similar. I was thinking, come on Sony put A9 capabilities into a A7iv body. When the A9ii was announced and I read the specs and the body changes I got excited of course but again waited until I could get one me in my hands, ahhh the perfect pair! They feel exactly the same.I’ve only had the A9ii for a couple weeks but it has not disappointed me so far, auto focus speed and accuracy are off the charts and the 20fps is beyond impressive! My first wildlife outing I was going after indigo buntings, very fast and very shy, the keeper rate was 80-90% and more images than I needed. Word to the wise, if you buy an A9ii be very light on that shutter button or you’ll end up with LOTS of extremely similar images and your post editing session will be a major time sponge! With the silent electronic shutter and no blackout between frames the only way to stay in touch and realize you’re still capturing images are a couple of small kind of hard to see visual indicators that can be turned on in the settings. I do wish that Sony would have had made the visual indicators a bit more obvious, who knows maybe Sony will make them more obvious in a future firmware update, hint hint Sony! I highly recommend you turn these indicators on! The sensor is very clean, minimal noise so I’m going to take it for a lowlight test drive, I expect with a fast glass in front of it, it will do quite well. The A7Riv’s gigantic sensor is a bit noisy in lowlight with iso values above 1600. Back to the A9ii, besides the sensitivity of the shutter button my stand out early impression is that I’ll have long focal length, quality, fast lenses on it most of time to keep up with this rapid fire beast of a camera. Of course when you compare crop ability with the A7Riv it’s not a comparison, the cropping is limited so go long with the glass is my choice, less need for cropping that way. That’s not a negative for me, I knew that limitation of course before I had the great folks at B&H send me my A9ii.There are 2 mechanical dials on the A9ii for shoot mode and focus mode, that’ll take a little getting use to. Those two settings cannot be changed in the Fn menu which is unlike any of the other Alphas I’ve owned, maybe they can be set as custom buttons, hmmm? I’ll have to check on that possibility. I believe the two added mechanical dials are the only physical difference from the A7Riv body.Finally in conclusion, the A9ii is off the charts good in so many aspects but for me it’s not all about the awesome internal electronics. I can close my eyes and pick up either the A9ii or A7Riv and it’s very hard to tell them apart, just what I was hoping for a perfect pair of cameras! -The End Finally

I was looking to upgrade from a different make/model and the lovely people at Wex recommended the Sony A9ii after listening to my requirements. Although being a little nervous having never used Sony photography equipment before. I'm extremely happy with both the camera, lens and 1.4x teleconverter. It has been really simple to transition from my previously preferred model. I really like the layout of the buttons across the camera, the easy to use menu and really love the AF and real-time eye. Love it!