(Pocket-lint) - When Sony introduced the A1 in 2020, it was hailed as “the all the pieces digicam”. It is the highest canine, the crème de la crème, the bee’s knees. You get the purpose. That is the machine that is capable of do all of it, after which some.
So what is the catch? The place’s its Achilles’ heel? The one apparent place to look is the asking worth. Earlier Sony A-series cameras have by no means been low-cost, so it is no shock that this one instructions an eye-watering quantity. Get it with a few worthy lenses - just like the G Grasp 135mm f/1.8 and the 24-70mm f/2.8 zoom - and also you’re quickly dropping five-figures on a setup.
The shocking factor is that, for the proper particular person, that is completely price it. Learn on to search out out why the Sony Alpha A1 is the one digicam to rule all of them.
Design
- Dimensions (physique): 128.9 x 96.9 x 80.8 mm / Weight: 737g
- 0.64-inch digital viewfinder (EVF), 9.4m-dot decision
- 3-inch tilt-angle touchscreen LCD, 1.4m-dot decision
- Twin SD card slots - suitable with CFexpress Sort A
- Sony E Mount lenses
The Sony A-series of full-frame cameras has gained a number of followers over the previous few years, and it is led the way in which in terms of delivering critical energy in a compact, mirrorless physique. The A1 retains that ethos. The truth is, choose the physique up by itself with no lens hooked up and it is surprisingly compact and light-weight.
Stick one of many aforementioned G Grasp lenses on it, nonetheless, and it quickly turns into heavy and a little bit unbalanced. You may want a shoulder strap or bag to hold it in, that is for certain. Chances are high for those who’re this digicam significantly, you already knew that.
Regardless of the digicam’s compact physique, it incorporates a plethora of ports and buttons. To at least one aspect, there is a dual-stacked dial: the highest dial lets you swap between single, burst and timer modes; whereas the main focus choice dial sits beneath that.
The capturing mode dial sits on the opposite aspect, together with the customisable dial - which we set to regulate the aperture in Handbook mode, however you possibly can set as you please - and the publicity compensation (EV) dial to the proper of that.
There’s one other dial on the entrance of the digicam grip which we had set to regulate the shutter velocity.
On the again, there is a rotating management that you’re going to use most for navigating the menu system, however may also be used to regulate the ISO sensitivity when capturing.
There are different buttons, naturally. Sony insists on protecting the Menu button awkwardly on the left aspect of the digital viewfinder (EVF), which is likely to be useful when peaking by the EVF, however does make utilizing the digicam one-handed a little bit of a problem, when all the opposite controls are on the opposite aspect of the digicam’s rear.
There’s additionally pretty, grippy joystick which is beneficiant in measurement, permitting for extra exact focus; a AF button that permits you to rapidly autofocus; plus 4 customisable operate (Fn) buttons and a film button (once more, awkwardly positioned proper subsequent to the EVF, however on the proper aspect).
For essentially the most half, it is a well-spaced and sensible set of buttons. As soon as setup in the way in which you want, it does not take lengthy earlier than utilizing it appears like second nature. Simply be ready to do a number of tweaking while you first energy it up. We discovered ourselves wanting to alter the dial features instantly, however this might be all the way down to earlier expertise and choice.
In addition to the repositioning of the menu and film buttons, there are a few different issues we would like to alter. As an illustration, the capturing mode dials on the proper and left are continuously locked, so you possibly can’t change your choice with out urgent the highest button to unlock it. We might moderately there was a approach to click-to-lock then click-to-unlock, much like the button added to the EV dial. We will perceive that is sensible in some conditions the place you do not wish to unintentionally change the capturing mode or focus kind. Nevertheless it made altering these settings fairly fiddly after we did wish to.
Then there’s the touchscreen. It is a pretty, sharp monitor that gives an important canvas to have the ability to see what you are capturing. Sadly, nonetheless, it does not have the vary of movement provided by a few of Sony’s current cameras. It tilts up and down, however cannot be flipped out to the aspect, and has barely greater than 100-degrees rotation on its hinge. Therefore, it isn’t essentially the most versatile mechanism on this planet.
As for ports, there is not any scarcity of these both. The truth is, the A1 has virtually all the pieces, all below sturdy, well-constructed flaps on one aspect of the digicam.
You may discover 3.5mm ports for each headphone out and microphone enter. Beneath which can be the full-sized HDMI port and USB-C port (which you’ll be able to conveniently use for charging). There is a energy port for instantly powering the digicam from a socket, a multi-purpose Micro-USB port, and even an Ethernet port.
There isn’t any XLR, however with a digital multi-interface snapped onto the multi-purpose hotshoe on the highest, you possibly can rapidly add XLR inputs if you wish to, and Sony will fortunately promote you its personal home-made adapter.
Bursts of glory
- 30fps burst in JPEG & Uncooked at full 50MP decision
- Mechanical/digital shutter choices
- Silent capturing (digital)
- Actual-time monitoring
Undoubtedly, the headline characteristic of the A1 is its wondrous administration of burst capturing. It could possibly shoot actually excessive bitrate pictures at ludicrously fast speeds, and with none display or shutter blackout. Or a minimum of, that is the declare. Particularly - it might probably seize 50-megapixel pictures at 30 frames-per-second. That is excessive decision nonetheless pictures captured on the similar fee as commonplace video recording.
We examined it on a number of events, capturing bursts of children operating and leaping, and numerous different snippets of movement, and had been fairly blown away at its efficiency.
Wanting on the display whereas holding down the shutter button and it was virtually unattainable to inform that it wasn’t capturing video - it is that fluid. There isn’t any black display at any level, only a delicate pulsing in our framing information to tell us that it was certainly capturing a set of quick bursts. And with the shutter being so so quiet, we might barely hear it working both.
Contemplating the dimensions and determination of the sensor, and the mind energy in Sony’s picture processing unit, that is simply mind-boggling. It is doing a lot monitoring and adjusting focus between every picture, and it is processing and capturing with out skipping a beat.
With the real-time monitoring following the topic, it made it fairly straightforward to get good photographs with out shedding focus between every body. This turns into more difficult if the topic is coming in the direction of the digicam rapidly, and it’d generally lose focus throughout the odd body right here and there, however not usually.
Sensor, focussing and stills
- 50-megapixel full-frame Exmor RS sensor (35.9 x 24.0mm)
- 5-axis stabilisation - 5.5 stops
- Bionz XR picture processor
- 759 phase-detection factors
- 425 contrast-detection factors
We alluded to the sensor already, but it surely’s price reiterating what this digicam is provided with. It is obtained a 50-megapixel, full-frame Exmor RS CMOS 3:2 sensor. Mix that with Sony’s highly effective Bionz XR picture engine and there is little it might probably’t do.
Then after all there’s the same old improbable autofocus and real-time monitoring. Half enabled by the intelligent brains of the digicam, half by the sensor with its mixed array of 759 phase-detection and 425 contrast-detection factors.
Set the touchscreen to ‘contact to trace’ mode and you may simply faucet on a topic and watch because the digicam retains it in focus - whilst you document video or shoot steady bursts.
As you’d count on from a high-end Sony digicam, that works rapidly with none extreme looking, protecting the topic usually locked in. It would battle at occasions with actually fast-moving objects, but it surely’s uncommon for the A1 to drop a body until the topic is not straightforward to differentiate visually from the background.
You too can set the digicam to concentrate on faces or eyes - be that individuals, animals and birds. Though, but once more, you do must set it to a kind of settings manually earlier than making an attempt it. Need to shoot your pet? Higher be sure you’ve obtained ‘animal’ chosen within the AF settings menu.
With the proper lens hooked up, the outcomes are nothing in need of scrumptious to have a look at. Pictures are so sharp, that particulars look actually life-like, whereas human faces are very pure wanting. Colors are very good and you may get some pretty bokeh when stopped down. It has been exhausting to shoot a bad-looking image with this setup.
The fantastic thing about this sensor although as that - as a result of it is such a high-resolution one - you possibly can crop into it with out actually shedding any noticeable element. As you possibly can see from the 100 per cent crops in our pattern collections, above, the element remains to be there. That offers a number of flexibility to shoot and crop till you may have the framing you need. It additionally means you may snap a close-up photograph with out having to shoot an extra shot.
Video capabilities
- 8K (7680 x 4320) 10 bit as much as 30p
- 4K (3840 x 2160) 10 bit as much as 120p
- Sluggish & Fast modes from 1fps to 240fps
- 48kHz 24bit audio recording
With the A1 being all about that sensor and the spectacular burst charges, you may virtually neglect it is greater than well-equipped for video too. Sony allows 8K recording as much as 30fps on the A1, with a wide selection of bitrates and frame-rates out there in 4K and 1080p resolutions too.
At 4K, you possibly can shoot 10-bit video at 60fps, whereas 1080p goes as much as 120fps. On condition that the Sony A7S III additionally shoots 4K at 60fps in 10-bit, it virtually appears a waste to get the A1 over it for those who’re primarily a videographer. These additional pixels within the sensor do not actually profit you right here, besides in enabling 8K recording. Which is - as of proper now - not supported on very many screens in any respect.
Nonetheless, the autofocus and highly effective engine makes mild work of any video work you may wish to attempt, whereas these ports on the aspect imply you get the flexibility to make use of it any which approach you please - together with plugging in skilled sound recording gear and exterior displays.
The 5-axis stabilisation additionally signifies that capturing handheld is a largely shake-free affair, with any minor wobbles simply handled, and those who aren’t not being very extreme. Or, a minimum of, simply fixable in put up.
Efficiency and battery
- Wi-Fi 2.4GHz/5Ghz help
- Wired LAN + Bluetooth 5.0
- NP-FZ100 battery - as much as 530 photographs/90 minutes video
- Prices through USB-C with Energy Supply help
The A1 is a beast in terms of efficiency. Maybe what’s most shocking is that it does not chomp by its battery life. We had only one battery throughout testing and infrequently felt the necessity to take a battery pack with us when out capturing.
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In its spec sheet Sony says you’ll get anywhere between 430 and 530 shots with a full battery, which isn’t bad. Or up to 90 minutes of video recording. That’s a solid amount of longevity from a full cell. Obviously, our uses are less intense than a studio photographer or professional. If you’re one of those who can easily rack up 1,000 shots in no time, that’s where a battery pack and the USB-C charging capability will come in handy.
Combined with the performance and ease at which the camera handled everything we threw at it, the A1 is one of the most effortless cameras available. It’s a real workhorse.
There aren’t many cameras on the planet capable of doing everything the A1 can. It’s a magnificent machine. From 8K video recording through to intense 50-megapixel bursts at lightning speed, all without breaking a sweat, it’s got pretty much everything.
It’s safe to say this is a real investment, and those likely to buy one aren’t just your casual amateurs or wannabe vloggers and photographers. The people who’ll gravitate toward the A1 are those who know exactly what they need from a camera in a professional setting and will see the price pay for itself over time, given the results.
If you’re after primarily a video camera (without 8K) then we think Sony’s A7S III is a much more sensible choice given its screen design, shooting options and price point. The A1, we feel, is a camera for those who need to capture fast-paced action in still photos.
Sure, the Sony A1 is niche and out of reach for most. But those who do reach out and take the plunge will be highly rewarded with a magnificent beast. It really is the one camera to rule them all.
Also consider
Sony A7S III
As mentioned, if you’re after a video camera primarily, the A7S III makes arguably more sense. No, it’s still not cheap, but it’s considerably less painful to the bank balance than the A1. It’s great for low-light too, thanks to the large pixels in the relatively low-resolution sensor.
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Panasonic Lumix S1
For full-frame goodness without as big an outlay, the Lumix S1 represents great value for money. It’s not as fast as the Sony, and doesn’t feature the same number of ports, but if you’re looking for a stills camera first and foremost then the Leica lens mount means quality is guaranteed.
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Writing by Cam Bunton.
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