Well Sh*t just got real...now what to do?

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Steve said:
Nice :)

I'm looking forward to getting mine and from one of the reviews I saw today, it looks like the 200-600 works just fine with it. I'm still trying to talk myself into a pair of those 160GB cards. I'll get one for sure, but I think I may find out how many images I get per card first.
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Yeah the 160 is the biggest they make. Figured I’ll use one for now and see if more affordable options come out. I’ve got some 126G SD V60 cards to run as overflow.
I really wish Sony had went to CFExpress B. Going to miss the speed and lower cost.
 
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dtibbals said:
Yeah the 160 is the biggest they make. Figured I’ll use one for now and see if more affordable options come out. I’ve got some 126G SD V60 cards to run as overflow.
I really wish Sony had went to CFExpress B. Going to miss the speed and lower cost.
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Agreed. I have a feeling they went this way so they could use it in conjunction with SD cards since a lot of their shooters probably have a stockpile. Or they just like to be difficult, I think that's possible too!
 
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Steve said:
Agreed. I have a feeling they went this way so they could use it in conjunction with SD cards since a lot of their shooters probably have a stockpile. Or they just like to be difficult, I think that's possible too!
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I agree they are trying to support their legacy customers but the reality is when you shoot 8K and 30fps on a 50MP sensor you need better cards and frankly the A version is outdated when compared to xqd and CFE B cards.
I’m glad the buffer clears ok but I’ve enjoyed the download speed with the CFE B cards and thunderbolt 3 on the iMac. It’s as good as it gets and now I’m spending $6,500 on a camera that is a step back. It’s a bit annoying but if the AF is as good as everyone says it’s a small price to pay.
 
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Steve said:
Nice :)

I'm looking forward to getting mine and from one of the reviews I saw today, it looks like the 200-600 works just fine with it. I'm still trying to talk myself into a pair of those 160GB cards. I'll get one for sure, but I think I may find out how many images I get per card first.
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Went ahead and also got the 1.4 to try. Figure I’m going to need it on a 600f4 which is the next lens to order in a couple of months.
 
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@Steve seeing what I go we have as of today what’s your gut feeling about the camera? What do you see that you want that say your a9II doesn’t do?
 
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Steve said:
Agreed. I have a feeling they went this way so they could use it in conjunction with SD cards since a lot of their shooters probably have a stockpile. Or they just like to be difficult, I think that's possible too!
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It would not be the first time Sony has done things just to be different, typically to support a format that they created, or took part in creating. During the early years of digital cameras Sony only shipped cameras with memory stick duo slots, no SD card support at all. They finally relented and added dual memory stick and SD slots as a concession that they lost out to SD. They only gave up on memory stick within the last 8 years I believe.
 
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Testing in one of the German videos got 600MB/s write in camera for CFE-A and the best I’ve ever seen 260 MB/s SD V90.

I hope it is okay to link out to FM because over there some members worked out a spreadsheet to figure out how the different cards will perform depending. On settings (like FPS and compression etc): https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1685546/2#15489197

After looking at the sheet I’m sticking with my plan to just use my Sony and Delkin V90 cards until CFE-A becomes more reasonably priced. $520+tax CAD for 160 GB is ridiculous.

But I still support Sony’s decision on using this new format and even more so the super versatile dual/dual slot. This camera is clearing a full buffer to CFE-A as fast as the R5 does to CFE-B

I hope Delkin and Prograde get some CfeA to market ASAP and drive prices down. But one must keep in mind that there can be a wide range of performance between different CFE cards as we see with the cards in the R5. Sony always has one of the fastest cards out there and the priciest. It also should be noted that for CFE-B cards with the unfamiliar GB sizes like Prograde Cobalt 325/650 actually have 1TB/2TB of memory in the card to increase performance and especially sustained write speeds that isn’t labeled on the cards. I would bet the Sony CFE-A being the odd 80/160 sizes have 2-4x that much NAND flash in them to get max performance and some f the cost comes from that alone just like Prograde Cobalt are higher priced than there Gold line that has traditional 128/256 etc sizes.
 
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dtibbals said:
@Steve seeing what I go we have as of today what’s your gut feeling about the camera? What do you see that you want that say your a9II doesn’t do?
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I'm still in the same place. The reviews I've seen today / yesterday are, frankly, not very enlightening, save for a couple. Still, the specs are the specs and the a1 outclasses the a9ii in a lot of areas - like viewfinder performance, AF updating speed, rolling shutter performance, flash sync, FPS, resolution, etc etc, so I'm keeping my per-order :)
My only concern is ISO performance - jpegs are not a good way to compare and that's all we seem to have at the moment.
 
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Steve said:
I'm still in the same place. The reviews I've seen today / yesterday are, frankly, not very enlightening, save for a couple. Still, the specs are the specs and the a1 outclasses the a9ii in a lot of areas - like viewfinder performance, AF updating speed, rolling shutter performance, flash sync, FPS, resolution, etc etc, so I'm keeping my per-order :)
My only concern is ISO performance - jpegs are not a good way to compare and that's all we seem to have at the moment.
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I agree 100%. If they can give me the same iso performance I get out of a D850 along with topaz I’d be pretty happy.
 
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@Steve Claus Fisker has been posting in a Facebook Sony a1 page of wildlife pictures with the a1. He’s been getting some impressive results. I asked about the high iso and he had this comment:
AD19C934-0307-40FB-BFB3-44F2E9AC6F83.jpeg
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.
 
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Copied from Sony A1 FB page
***********************

I got the chance to use the SonyA1 for some sport assignment.
In Brief - my name is Claus Fisker - a Denmark based photographer. I been working in the field for over 30 years now. Mostly as a staff at the danish agency Ritzau / Scanpix - but the last 5 years as freelance. My main income is sport. Soccer, Handball, Badminton you name it. Olympic, WC etc. I been on the all most normal road from Nikon to Canon, back to Nikon and then changed to Sony a little over a year ago. I’m not paid by Sony to share this. Today I use Sony A9ii’s and A7siii - lenses from almost zero to 400 mm.
I’m a hand on photographer and at all not a guy who jumps into manuals and specs. I don’t think I ever read a camera manual.

Sony A1: I only took jpeg x-fine. Normally I shot raw but I use PS and have to wait a little.
My workflow is a fast one. Transmitting pictures directly from the camera to ftp server via Nighthawk wifi net. Before the event I make a iptc text which is automaticly attached to all the files I transmit. It is not the iptc in the camera I use but a template in the receiver end. In the break of an event I edit some pictures in Photoshop and text them with the needed data. Mostly all the pictures - direct from camera and the edit ones goes automaticly out to all end costumer - in this case all Danish Newspapers, national TV stations and many web based sites. Internationally the pictures goes to AP, AFP, Reuters and so on. The wifi (two of them) on the Sony A1 seems to be better - my modem get on at once. Futhermore it’s ready for 5G - there might be a battery issue - I’m not sure - but two wifi anttenas, bigger censor will need more battery. At yesterdays soccer game it was minus 5 degree Celsius so not totally sure, but I used more battery than normal.

File size and Buffer. I´m impressed. This is the first - as I know - camera with this speed - 30 fps - and a file size of 50 mp. This opens some doors. The buffer is fast as …. (remember only jpeg until now) but the buffer was of my concern - not anymore - it is much faster then the A9ii. The file size is then it comes to sport a nice way to crop .
Inhouse crop function. Sony’s big problem. Then some of us changed to Sony 1,5 year ago we asked for the inhouse crop function. Sony told us: a matter of a few months - and they told us again and again and again. This have been the biggest downside in making the step from Nikon to Sony. We need that tool and we need it in a fast workflow - so not via a phone, tablet or Mac. And now it’s here. It works and it works well. I programmed the c2 for crop mode. The dial on the back is the tool and hit OK and in my case hit the c3 for ftp. Fast and very easy. Jubiiii. But the downside is no way to level the horizon in the camera - no way to adjust the RAW before crop - Hopefully Sony will come with an update on this one. Nikon/Canon had this for years.
On the crop side you also can program a function key (ex the one on the lens) to crop 1.6 - that means a 400 mm 2.8 goes to be a 640 mm 2.8 - with a resolution of 21 mp as I recall nearly the same as a A9ii - I know another way to crop but…
The autofocus have been improved - no doubt. It’s faster and more precise. It is impossible to test this during 2 games of soccer. With my collegues we discuss autofocus details almost every time we are in a press room, and it is very small adjustments that make big big changes in how the AF is working. On this one the time have to show who much better and precise.
Banding - On this one I´m not sure - it is better - but if its good will again depend on more work. There is in the Sony A1 tools to finetune, but I have not been around them.
The view finder is fantastic! The menu is a big step up.

Iso in lowlight.
I think the result was OK. I’m happy with it. The first game was at 6400 iso - the second game was at 3200 iso, by the way in a snowstorm. I attached some photo’s so you can make your own judgement. I know you can look at this issue from many sides - my way is to see the result I transmit and if I’m happy with the result I’m fine. This is a give and take. There is camera out there which preform better on single things - but I have not seen a camera like this one. It is not the perfect camera, but for my work and needs we are getting closer

Video - did not try it at all - was told that you now are able to transmit video from the camera and work while it transmit - if that right it’s a big thing for news.
If you can’t work with the camera then you transmit it’s an issue

Downs - If you want the 30 fps you need to invest in sony express cards - and they are priced in the sky.

Ups and Downs - Inhouse crop - Jubii, but they still need to work on this regarding leveling and adjust raw

Downs - In this flagship the contacts for the flash is still not good - and totally open for everything - I know I also leaned to put on the protection - but please Sony….

Downs - The price. This can be discussed I know - It is a expensive camera - In my eyes a fantastic camera. The problem is also that the speed of new models of Sony is fast. Maybe to fast.

I just used a tiny bit of this camera and I think this camera is going to set new standards, and in my work it will probably be a must have.

It went a little longer than planned - Sorry.

PS Im not paid by Sony in any way
 
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Here's another video that showcases the new ability to multitask with crop mode while the buffer is working. You used to be locked out of a lot of functions like this during a buffer. I'm not so concerned with shooting on SD cards now... until the Type-a's drop in price at least.

I hope they can introduce 30 FPS with RAW UNcompressed while in crop mode.
 
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DPReview also released their first video - seems all the findings are going in the same direction and this is going to be a very strong camera (with a matching price) but that bird eye-AF is still not up to the task. But everything else is quite impressive, especially if you need a machine that excels at stills and video. I am thinking we'll see some slo-mo footage in Steve's videos in the near future :)
 
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FB101 said:
DPReview also released their first video - seems all the findings are going in the same direction and this is going to be a very strong camera (with a matching price) but that bird eye-AF is still not up to the task. But everything else is quite impressive, especially if you need a machine that excels at stills and video. I am thinking we'll see some slo-mo footage in Steve's videos in the near future :)
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Idk about saying bird eye af is not up to the task. Doing test like this with a 135mm lens and not even close to filling the frame with a bird by people who have no clue what they are doing isn’t a definitive review in my opinion. When seeing reports by those who do know what they are doing and do have the proper lens are seeing good results.
 
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What the Dpreview trial of bird eye focus tracking on static birds shows is that it's unreliable.

Jordan would've got better results if he'd got at bird level and shot in good light. But the conditions he shot in are conditions we all try to shoot in at times.

Since it's unreliable, when you have to get the shot you'll be doing it the way you normally do - which is hardly a trial with static birds.

What Sony has to fix is unreliable AF on small static subjects full stop.
 
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Ziggy said:
What the Dpreview trial of bird eye focus tracking on static birds shows is that it's unreliable.

Jordan would've got better results if he'd got at bird level and shot in good light. But the conditions he shot in are conditions we all try to shoot in at times.

Since it's unreliable, when you have to get the shot you'll be doing it the way you normally do - which is hardly a trial with static birds.

What Sony has to fix is unreliable AF on small static subjects full stop.
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I believe it's just complimentary to the normal AF mode. You can shoot over the eye like a normal DSLR, but it will also use the technology to assist if it can see the eye. I will be doing plenty of testing in March to see if it causes more lost shots with it turned on... but from what I can tell, it looks to be win/win as long as it doesn't pick up false eye's.
 
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A lot depends on your tolerance for misses.
For folk out for record shots they do need good focus but don't need images to be tack sharp.

I used to use tracking on birds in flight with the A9 and firmware 4 and 5 but felt it got less reliable in 6.0 and don't bother any more. The only thing it offers is less cluttering of the view by the dancing green boxes.
 
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One more short example of BEAF....this is as good as an R5 can do for a bird landing on a perch. This guy at least used a more appropriate AF mode to start BEAF with. Zone to just keep a couple points active on the perch before the bird lands, perfect technique. Then the Zone covers the bird when it lands. BEAF activates whenever eye is visible, resorts to Zone dots when turned away. If he'd used Zone:RTT then instead of the dots we would see the RTT icon when bird turns away. R5 does it different, R5 will draw a larger box on either head or body of the bird when eye is missing. May look like it is smarter but in reality they are doing the same thing...graphics are just graphics.

https://flic.kr/p/2kz7JR8
 
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Ziggy said:
A lot depends on your tolerance for misses.
For folk out for record shots they do need good focus but don't need images to be tack sharp.

I used to use tracking on birds in flight with the A9 and firmware 4 and 5 but felt it got less reliable in 6.0 and don't bother any more. The only thing it offers is less cluttering of the view by the dancing green boxes.
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You can always turn off the dancing green dot overlay if you want to.

One thing that is intriguing on the A1 is that now in APS-C mode you still get 759 green dots just like in FF. This means that the A1 is using more AF points per sensor area in APS-C than it does in FF. On previous Sony cameras if you go into APS-C the green dots space out more as the density of dots per sensor area remains the same. Not so on the A1.
 
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Ziggy said:
What the Dpreview trial of bird eye focus tracking on static birds shows is that it's unreliable.

Jordan would've got better results if he'd got at bird level and shot in good light. But the conditions he shot in are conditions we all try to shoot in at times.

Since it's unreliable, when you have to get the shot you'll be doing it the way you normally do - which is hardly a trial with static birds.

What Sony has to fix is unreliable AF on small static subjects full stop.
Click to expand...

Actually what the DPreview bird eye focus "shows" is absolutely nothing as it didn't show any examples nor a recording of the LCD or EVF. Jordan's findings don't match anything I've seen in the videos I linked above. I'll bet a lot of $$ he was using Wide AF and in the low contrast it may have been confused by some other pattern. Now of course the current Eye-AF on A9II gets confused by chequered/cross-hatched patterns so I hope the A1 has eliminated that but I will have to test it myself in March.
 
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