I’ve been asked a number of times about the experience I’ve had with my new Sony A9 II cameras and so I’ve written this rather long blog to share some thoughts.
INTRODUCTION
Here at PRiME Media Images the two Directors, Andy Rowland and myself, David Horn, made the bold decision to switch from Canon to Sony’s Mirrorless system. It’s not a decision that's made lightly, both from a cost perspective and ease of transition. We work directly with a number of sport clubs and we need to maintain a high level of service; providing high quality images live during sporting events. For this reason, this wasn’t a decision made lightly. The three key driving factors for us initially considering the switch were;
1. Aging prime telephoto lenses. Canon have a habit (not sure if it’s the same with other manufacturers) of stopping their support for ‘older’ lenses. Due to this, Andy and myself found ourselves with expensive 400m 2.8 IS lenses that, while working without a problem, would not be looked at by Canon if they were to fail. Due to the contracts we have, we can’t be without these lenses for any length of time. As such, we needed to replace these anyway.
2. Technology in cameras is developing at a rapid rate and the two big manufacturers in Canon and Nikon appear to be lagging behind in the adoption of these technology advances. Not sure whether it’s complacency, mindset or problems with development but Sony seems to be pushing ahead and seem at least a couple of years ahead following their learning from the A9 that has been adopted in the A9 II.
3. Positive Feedback. From speaking with fellow professional sports photographers that had made the switch to Sony, from whichever manufacturer they were tied to before, they were all very positive! None seem to have any regrets, which is either because they were truly impressed, or they didn’t want to admit a mistake!
EQUIPMENT
We started off with two Sony A9IIs each, a Sony 70-200 2.8 G Master lens and a Sony 400mm 2.8 lens each. There was a backlog on orders for the 400mm lenses and so while waiting for delivery of them, we were using the A9II with the Canon 400mm 2.8 and the MC11 converter. The combination worked well and there were only a few instances of focus hunting. Our initial impressions on the 400mm are very positive; the speed of focus is quick, focussing accuracy is spot on and the lens is light. Other equipment we also have is a Sony A7RIV, a Sony 200-600 lens and a series of other Zeiss, Sony and Samyang lenses.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Firstly, and probably most obvious is the move from a DSLR to Mirrorless. The biggest benefit of this is the What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) view in the Electronic Viewfinder (EVF). If you’ve ever been in the situation where a setting has changed accidentally you'll know the heartache when you eventually look at the images on the back of your camera. Looking through the viewfinder on a mirrorless system you would immediately see the impact of the setting change before taking a shot. I had a situation a few years back now where, sitting behind the Goal line at Wimbledon v Liverpool in a Cup game, Lucas of Liverpool came sliding into me and my cameras went flying. He helped by picking them up for me and Wimbledon took a quick corner – I nailed the shot of Akinfenwa scoring – only to see the shot about 4 stops over exposed because the setting had changed when the cameras went flying – yes I know you can lock most of them! Lesson learnt!
The other impact of the Mirrorless cameras is the size! This has pros and cons. To some degree the bodies do seem to be more ‘toy like’ than a Canon 1Dx but I do actually like the small form factor. I’m finding that I’m taking the camera more places, not just when I’m working, because the size is more manageable. I haven’t got the biggest size hands and after 3 or 4 weeks I’m pretty used to the change in size of the bodies. If you’ve got shovels as hands then it may take some more getting used to! I would like to try the body with the battery grip – just need to justify to myself the £400 price tag!
What comes with the smaller form factor is the lower weight as well. This comes into its own if you’re spending a weekend walking round motorsport tracks, clocking up the miles for example!
The silent shutter is also worth a mention. There’s an artificial shutter sound to let you know that you’re actually taking a photo – which is needed. However, if you shoot weddings or sports like Golf or Snooker this would be a massive plus and allow you to get shots non-mirrorless shooters would be unable to.
One negative I’ve found working with the mirrorless technology is that the EVF goes to sleep. Now this may be a setting I haven’t found – I’ve found the one that stops the camera going to sleep but this doesn’t seem to impact the EVF from what I’ve seen. This impact of this is that you’re shooting away with your 400mm lens and quickly need to switch to your shorter lens, often a 70-200. You pick up the camera, look through the viewfinder and see…. Nothing, A sea of black. You half press the shutter button, or another button and half a second or so the EVF lights up. I initially found this frustrating – it took longer to kick into action but increasing the time before the camera goes into sleep mode has helped. To get over this, I’ve got into the habit of when I pick up the body with the short lens I immediately half press the shutter button and I find that by the time the camera is up to my eye, the EVF is alive.
Lets talk FPS. The Sony shoots at 20 frames per second. Now if you’re shooting something like motorsport I think it’s overkill. I even dialled down my 1Dx when shooting British Superbikes. For the likes of Football, I wasn’t expecting the extra 6fps to make that much difference – how wrong I was! If you take the example of two players going up for a header and you shoot a burst – how long is that burst? 3 seconds maybe? If so, that’s an additional 18 frames you’ve got to choose from. With the 1dx I’d probably get one without the ball in to start with as I anticipate the action then maybe 2 or 3 frames with the ball in and then the rest with no ball. Now I have a much bigger selection to choose from to get the ball exactly where I need it while the faces can be seen and with some great facial expressions – it opens up a whole new range of possibilities.
While it’s shooting these 20fps you get no blackout as well – during a burst with the 1dx bodies there would often be some images in the burst that were out of focus, even though it appeared the focus was locked on. I believe the reason for this is two-fold. Firstly, while the mirror is flipping up and down, how can the camera track the subject that is moving in all sorts of directions and, secondly, if the camera can’t keep up then how can I as the photographer keep those focus points on the subject when what I can see through the viewfinder is flicking in and out.
This brings me on to focussing. The Sony has over 600 focus points spread across the whole sensor. This is where I think the photographer needs to rethink the way they shoot. My conclusion is that you continue to shoot how you’ve always shot then you’re not going to maximise what you can get from the Sony. I’m still experimenting with the best focus modes (which are a bit more easier to understand than those on the 1dx!) for the different sports I shoot. I’ve shot with Back Button Focusing (BBF) for a good number of years now and I now have the Sony set up with 2 BBF type options. The first, the * button is set up in the traditional BBF mode, with an expanded flexible focus point, which is a little closer to how I shot with the 1Dx. This is useful where you’ve got a lot of players in the frame – you can then take advantage of the amazing face and eye recognition of the Sony – however, I now have the AEL button set up with a Custom Shooting function that uses a much wider focus area, which looks for faces and eyes and locks on – I use this for when I’ve got a single prominent player in the viewfinder and just let the camera find the person, lock on and track them wherever they may be in the sensor – this works particularly well where you’ve got a celebration coming straight at you, for example.
One of the big improvements in camera technology over recent years is the high ISO performance and the 1Dx Mark II takes some beating. With the Sony I’ve shot as 12,800 and as long as you expose to the right, then the noise is definitely manageable. Whether it’s better or worse than the 1Dx, I’m not sure, the jury is out but the fact that I can’t yet decide means that it’s certainly close.
I mentioned earlier than I used one body with the Canon converter while waiting for the Sony 400mm to be delivered. I wouldn’t say this has been ideal but hasn’t been too bad. I’ve had some instances where the lens hasn’t focussed and I’ve needed to use the manual focus ring to get close and then it locks on. While this has been an exception, it is a little annoying and you can miss shots as a result. As far as image quality is concerned, it’s not quite as good as shooting full Canon but not far off, I’d have a stab at about 90% but there’s no science behind that. Working with the Sony A9 II and the Sony 70-200 2.8 has been a dream and it is quick!!
It’s worth talking about usability. I’ve read a lot about the Sony menu system not being user friendly but my conclusion is that it’s just different and takes some getting used to – after a couple of months I knew where most of the options are. The Camera is also very customisable, much more than the 1Dx. Every button and every menu option can be put onto a favourites, customised menu. As with every camera, when you’re trying to find that option you know exists that you use once every year or so, its always going to be tough, whatever make of camera you’re using.
A few other observations:
Battery life – the batteries on the 1D range have always been big and good. The Sony batteries are more like those on the 5D, 6D and 7D cameras for example. It’s unfair to expect the same battery life from one Sony battery to a 1Dx. However, it was a bit of a shock to me when shooting my first couple of rugby matches with the Sony – to see the battery at 60% after the game when the 1Dx battery would still be showing all its bars alight. Just to be safe, I did buy another couple of Sony batteries but I’ve not yet got into a position where I needed to use one at a game, even with the pre and post match work that needs to be done when working for a club. It’s also worth noting through that the batteries charge quicker and I believe you can charge them while they’re in the camera through a cable.
Waterproof – The Sony A9 II has improved weather sealing over it’s predecessor and it is something I’m still a little nervous about but I don’t have any experience of this yet as the weather has been fairly kind to me while shooting so far and when it has rained I’ve used my Thinktank covers in the same way as I always did with my Canon cameras and lenses – I’ve never wanted to take the chance!
Robustness and Longevity – When I now pick up my 1Dx bodies, they are like picking up a tank. How the Sony copes over time with the abuse it will inevitably get remains to be seen but I’ll keep you updated.
Image buffering – There’s not a lot that’s going to beat the 1Dx range in image buffering and card write speeds. I’m not sure that anyone is really going to want to shoot a burst of two minutes though – hang on, I think I may have sat next to some that do though during games!!! I haven’t experienced any issues with the Sony although I don’t tend to shoot long bursts like some do. It is noticeable in that you can see the image numbers of those being written to the card and it does seem to take a while to clear but shooting isn’t impacted when this is happening – I think it’s more of the case that it’s just more transparent to the photographer that it’s still writing the images and while it is writing to the card there are a lot of camera functions that aren't accessible.
Shooting with flash – it has to be remembered that you cannot use the flash with the electronic shutter and need to move it to the mechanical shutter if you’re using flash. I’ve got this set up on a customisable key to make this easier, which is worthwhile if you shoot flash regularly.
As time moves on, we'll focus on some specific elements of the Sony setup in detail.
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