Sony coming in hot! Announces Alpha a1 50.1 MP Full Frame

[Fishrrman]

Canon's response will be the R1, either late this year or early next year.

It may not have 50mp, but it -might- be the first Canon camera with "global shutter".

This may become "the next big step beyond mirrorless".
That is to say, getting rid of the moving mirror was step A.
Getting rid of the mechanical shutter may become "step B"...

 

[MacNut]

They also co-announced an Xperia Pro smartphone that connects to this camera. Maybe that is their solution to the GPS and focus stacking questions? The shocker is that they want $2500 for the phone, which is way more than the most expensive iPhone you can buy. Maybe I’m missing something regarding what that phone offers, and it’s more about what it can do as a camera companion, but it looks like an attempt at vertical integration. I guess it just comes down to how many Pro-level photographers/videographers will find those features appealing for that price.

Sony wants you to use their crappy app for GPS.

 

[Clix Pix]

That Xperia Pro phone/camera isn't meant for everyday consumers, it's meant for professionals shooting in the field, at sporting events, on film sets, other situations of that sort, and the phone can act as a way of instantly transmitting the footage or images back to someone else (useful when in a sports stadium shooting an event and needing to send the stuff immediately to one's editors). The device also will mount on to a Sony camera and can act as a monitor for better visibility of what is being shot. Undoubtedly Sony intends for this to be coupled with the new A1 and that pair would make a terrific combination shooting events at the Olympics, for example.

 

[MacNut]

That Xperia Pro phone/camera isn't meant for everyday consumers, it's meant for professionals shooting in the field, at sporting events, on film sets, other situations of that sort, and the phone can act as a way of instantly transmitting the footage or images back to someone else (useful when in a sports stadium shooting an event and needing to send the stuff immediately to one's editors). The device also will mount on to a Sony camera and can act as a monitor for better visibility of what is being shot. Undoubtedly Sony intends for this to be coupled with the new A1 and that pair would make a terrific combination shooting events at the Olympics, for example.

The Olympics being delayed a year really helped Sony here. They rushed out the a9ii last year when they could have waited for this camera.

 

[Clix Pix]

Exactly! That delay made a huge difference, as then they could take their time with this new A1 camera and refine it, make sure it was really ready for prime time, etc. With the A9 II there were still some issues around which some users are still complaining and I guess that is why there may (or may not?) be, as rumored, an A9 III.....

My guess is that a lot of people who have already bought or who were planning to buy an A9 II or A9 III are instead going to jump to the A1 instead. It just offers so much more flexibility and versatility!

 

[MacNut]

Exactly! That delay made a huge difference, as then they could take their time with this new A1 camera and refine it, make sure it was really ready for prime time, etc. With the A9 II there were still some issues around which some users are still complaining and I guess that is why there may (or may not?) be, as rumored, an A9 III.....

My guess is that a lot of people who have already bought or who were planning to buy an A9 II or A9 III are instead going to jump to the A1 instead. It just offers so much more flexibility and versatility!

I think this is the a9iii. The a1 is the new flagship. I think the a9 series is done.

 

[Clix Pix]

That would make the most sense to me, too. Even as I was typing my response that thought was drifting around in my head trying to snag my attention. Right, why should they bring out an A9 III now when this A1 does it all and more?

People who want a backup/ second body can use the A7 R IV or an A9 II with it if they want, unless they can afford to buy two A1 cameras, and still have the advantages of being able to use the same battery, the same SD cards, etc., in both the A1 and the backup camera. I am planning to hang on to my A7R IV as a backup/second camera body, as I've missed having that.

Not that I've gone on any big photography trips lately, which is usually the situation where it's most convenient to have two bodies, each with a different lens mounted on it so that one can shoot with a long lens on the tripod and use a shorter, different lens on the other camera and hand-hold it. Even here at home it would be handy at times to have one camera already mounted to one of my long lenses so that I could just grab it and run out to the deck, the way I do now with the RX10 IV. Sometimes when there is action going out on lake there isn't a lot of time to put the camera on the Bazooka, take the tripod out to the deck and get it set up and then take the camera-with-Bazooka out there and get it on the Wimberley, ready for action. Until this news of the new A1 broke I'd been thinking on-and-off of getting an A9 II but kept hesitating......

 

[MacNut]

This camera looks like a striped down FX6. Take the best of their cinema line, combine it with their best stills camera.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

That Xperia Pro phone/camera isn't meant for everyday consumers, it's meant for professionals shooting in the field, at sporting events, on film sets, other situations of that sort, and the phone can act as a way of instantly transmitting the footage or images back to someone else (useful when in a sports stadium shooting an event and needing to send the stuff immediately to one's editors). The device also will mount on to a Sony camera and can act as a monitor for better visibility of what is being shot. Undoubtedly Sony intends for this to be coupled with the new A1 and that pair would make a terrific combination shooting events at the Olympics, for example.

I dunno, I don’t see why any other flagship smartphone wouldn’t be as equally capable of pairing and transmitting live streams from a camera, with proper software, of course. The only reason to not offer the software elsewhere is to lock buyers into this device. The newest iPhones also have mmWave 5G, for example, and they should handle RAW 4K video streams just fine. While I suppose this Xperia Pro offers a larger display, modern smartphones are very wide in landscape, so shooting in 16:9 or 16:10 results in letterboxing on the sides of this display, which starts to really take away from the “larger screen” component (you can see this in the product photos, where 1.5” of width is letterboxed out for 4K video). At that point, how much more screen are you actually getting over the rear panel built into the camera. I would think you'd want a bigger display, especially at this price. I don't necessarily see an issue with Sony offering a phone like this to pair, it's the price that seems like a big reach. Apple gets criticism for selling a "Pro" phone north of $1k, and this Xperia is almost double the price of the most expensive iPhone Pro you can buy. Heck, it's almost $1k more than the most expensive iPad you can buy, too.

 

[mackmgg]

On further reflection, it seems that there is one glaring omission: GPS. Why isn't GPS included by default these days? Is the problem really battery life?

I’ve seen two excuses which don’t really add up. One is battery life, but if anything that’s a reason it should be better in mirrorless not worse. A Canon 6D Mark II battery will last multiple days of shooting with the GPS on continuously, especially since it doesn’t need to sample very often. So while the GPS on/off on a DSLR means the difference of a week of battery vs a few days of battery, that‘s negligible on a mirroless camera which rarely gets more than a day anyway. There are just so many other power hungry parts that you wouldn’t even notice the GPS being on vs off.

The other one is the antenna. The DSLRs with GPS had the antenna above the viewfinder, a space that used to be mostly empty but now contains all of the electronics for the EVF. But in reality, using the same antenna design would maybe add 2mm of thickness at the top, which I don’t really think is that big of a loss to add GPS. And in addition, there are other smaller GPS antennas that could be used as well. Cell phone GPS antennas are super tiny, and don’t need to be pointed up so could be added anywhere (outside of the metal chassis on metal camera bodies) and barely be noticeable size-wise.

I‘d expect in the end it’s just about cost. That’s extra engineering that would need to be done to get it to work with a mirrorless camera, and none of the major players have decided it’s worth the cost of R&D. Maybe if one does it, the rest will jump in, but it doesn’t seem like any of them care to add it. As it is, you either use their apps, or buy their GPS add on. Or get a running watch that records GPS to a GPX file, and then add that to your photos later. I’ve got a Garmin watch that works ok with Lightroom, but it was definitely much more convenient when the camera had built-in GPS. Especially because it meant there were never any timing offsets to worry about.

So hopefully the R1 will have it? It seems like in a pro photojournalist camera having an always accurate time stamp for the photos is worth it. The 1D X III has GPS, so hopefully they’ll keep it in the R1. But both the 6D and 5D had it, whereas neither the R6 nor R5 do.

 

[Clix Pix]

I dunno, I don’t see why any other flagship smartphone wouldn’t be as equally capable of pairing and transmitting live streams from a camera, with proper software, of course. The only reason to not offer the software elsewhere is to lock buyers into this device. The newest iPhones also have mmWave 5G, for example, and they should handle RAW 4K video streams just fine. While I suppose this Xperia Pro offers a larger display, modern smartphones are very wide in landscape, so shooting in 16:9 or 16:10 results in letterboxing on the sides of this display, which starts to really take away from the “larger screen” component (you can see this in the product photos, where 1.5” of width is letterboxed out for 4K video). At that point, how much more screen are you actually getting over the rear panel built into the camera. I would think you'd want a bigger display, especially at this price. I don't necessarily see an issue with Sony offering a phone like this to pair, it's the price that seems like a big reach. Apple gets criticism for selling a "Pro" phone north of $1k, and this Xperia is almost double the price of the most expensive iPhone Pro you can buy. Heck, it's almost $1k more than the most expensive iPad you can buy, too.

I have never handled a Sony Xperia smartphone of any generation but I did notice when looking at photos of this new Xperia Pro that it seems awfully long and narrow -- probably much taller than my iPhone 11 Pro or the 12 Pro Max. Bet it sticks out of pockets into which it is tucked! I think the thing works with Android software [yuck!!] and Sony probably does have some special app that it includes with the Xperia Pro for those who will be using it in collaboration with the Sony A1. I get the impression that this smartphone will also work with other Sony cameras as well, such as my A7R IV, but it certainly is nothing I would want or need. I'm more than happy with my iPhone, thank you very much! .

Again, this Xperia smartphone isn't meant for someone like me, it's meant for professionals out there in the field shooting national sports events and of course the Olympics, with their lovely new Sony A1 camera in hand..... Sony, having been awarded the honor of providing gear to the AP, is definitely stepping up to the plate and meeting the challenge head-on!

Someone on another forum mentioned the absence of focus stacking/focus bracketing in the new Sony A1 camera (it is absent from all Sony cameras to date, actually), and it occurs to me but I haven't actually looked for detailed information, that probably that is a feature/function that someone who purchases the A1 could also get by purchasing an accessory: yep, the $2500 Xperia Pro! Couple the two devices together and probably there is some setup in which you've got your focus stacking/focus bracketing. Not something in which I'm the least bit interested, and of course there are other ways of also getting into that currently trendy shooting style which don't require as expensive an outlay of $$$$.

GPS seems to be another item curiously missing from the new A1, and again my hunch is that it is available when one also buys and uses the new Xperia Pro....

I'm definitely interested in the Sony A1 camera body, but that's as far as I'll be going; the Xperia Pro is not an item in which I'm interested at all. I'm too hooked into the Apple system and plan to remain so for many years to come....

 

[MacNut]

The video embargo was released today. So far testing shows over an hour of 8K recording before overheating in extreme conditions.

 

[OreoCookie]

Again, this Xperia smartphone isn't meant for someone like me, it's meant for professionals out there in the field shooting national sports events and of course the Olympics, with their lovely new Sony A1 camera in hand...

MKBHD's review said that the smartphone is cheap when you think of it as a live view monitor when taking video that can also live stream the content immediately. But as he also said: that's probably the smallest niche ever for a smartphone.

 

[Clix Pix]

That is why it will be valuable to professional videographers and those who are shooting live action sports -- perfect for them, that combo of the Sony A1 and this Xperia pro model..... Mom or Dad shooting the kids playing in the back yard don't need this level of sophistication. They can share the video later with the grandparents by using other methods.

 

[MacNut]

That is why it will be valuable to professional videographers and those who are shooting live action sports -- perfect for them, that combo of the Sony A1 and this Xperia pro model..... Mom or Dad shooting the kids playing in the back yard don't need this level of sophistication. They can share the video later with the grandparents by using other methods.

The grandparents don't need anything more than an iPhone really. Even that is hard for most folks to learn.

The SteakSauce as it's been referred as, is really Sony going after Canon's high end market.

 

[Clix Pix]

Yep -- agree all the way!

Those photos of Sony's A1 posed with a bottle of A1 Sauce just crack me up!