What would you like the A9iii to be?

[FB101]

All rumors suggest the A9iii will be announced in 2022, so what would you like it to be?

Let me start:

A1 body

33MP stacked sensor
No shutter
1/200s flash synch
DR at least equal to A1
high iso performance at least 1/2 stop better than A1

20fps in lossless and lossy raw
10s burst in lossless raw, limitless in lossy

improved eye AF and tracking (auto mode, more birds recognized etc…)

2x CFE type B cards (ok that won’t happen)

5.6mm dot EVF, 120 fps lag free, blackout free and no drop in resolution or fps under any circumstance. High luminosity and HDR.

New ibis and better ibis + lens stabilization performance to deliver handheld video equal to canon R5 + R lens

video specs equal to A7mk4

Oh, yes… and below $4000

Your turn.

 

[arbitrage]

Sounds good to me. But I think the A9III is going to have a FPS to at least match A1 and probably surpass it. A9III should have 30FPS in Lossless RAW and 60FPS in Compressed. But unfortunately I think it will stay at 24MPs to achieve that. I would love 33 though. At 24 it will be a hard sell for me, at 33 much easier sell.

A9III also needs to add "ProCapture" and then give it to A1 in FW

Price will either stay at $4500 or creep to $5K.

 

[StefanSC]

Affordable ...

 

[John Navitsky]

in some ways it makes more sense for the a9 to use cfe-a cards and the a1 to use cfe-b. but i guess that ship has saled

 

[arcticfocus]

Is the A9II blackout free with no rolling shutter effect? What is missing other than high resolution?

Yes, the original A9 and A9II were the first mirrorless cameras that had full frame stacked sensors, blackout free shooting and did it at 20 FPS. Nothing really missing, other than the most up to date tracking AI (no bird eye af), doesn’t have the most recent bionz XR processor/menus and yes “only” 24 megapixels, etc.

It’s mostly the quality of life features that are missing compared to the latest and greatest. Outside of the A1, Z9 and R3, they are still at the top of the heap for action.

 

[BorderBirder]

… a Nikon?

 

[DavidT]

I think the OP has a solid list. I have to say unless it could deliver significantly better high ISO performance over an a1 I wouldn't give up the MP. Even if it is $2K cheaper I would still spend the money for the MP and the performance the current a1 is giving me. I guess I am hooked on what the a1 delivers and while saving money is great I would still feel like I am compromising.

 

[arbitrage]

I’d buy it as my 2nd cam to the A1 just to save a bit of money over a 2nd A1.

 

[FB101]

Is the A9II blackout free with no rolling shutter effect? What is missing other than high resolution?

The A9ii is a solid camera, but the first generation stacked sensor lags a bit on the dynamic range, the EVF is also last generation, so are the more advanced a.I. assisted autofocus features and the video. I don’t expect a revolution, more an evolution but was wondering what others had in mind.

For me, it it stays at 24mp it’s not a candidate to be my second body but if they cross above 30mp and give it a solid EVF, then it will be very attractive. I hope they don’t do the race on fps and rather focus on resolution, image quality and next level AF performance.

 

[FB101]

I wonder about rolling shutter effect. I know a lot of birders like the A9ii so I doubt it’s an issue.
I plan on buying another A1 when they upgrade it.

Rolling shutter with birds doesn’t seem to be an issue with stacked sensors. Even the R5 with “only” 1/60s readout has minimal rolling shutter so anything faster should be fine. If electronic shutter flash sync is 1/180 or better it means the readout is at least that fast and we shouldn’t have any issue.

 

[arbitrage]

I wonder about rolling shutter effect. I know a lot of birders like the A9ii so I doubt it’s an issue.
I plan on buying another A1 when they upgrade it.

A9/A9II scans at ~1/160 which is fast enough to not be getting leaning lines in your backgrounds and doesn't distort hummingbird wings.

As mentioned by FB101, even the R5 at 1/60 doesn't often distort wings, even hummer wings can make it out unscathed if the bird is small enough in the frame. But the R5 does suffer from a lot of leaning lines in the background.