Reviews |Sony Alpha 9: price, release date, specs confirmed

Sony Alpha 9: price, release date, specs confirmed

Sony Alpha 9
News

Tricking journalists by inviting us to a masterclass, Sony used today’s London event to announce the Sony Alpha 9, price tag £4,500 with a release date set for June 2017.

The α9 interchangeable lens camera will will join the pro Alpha E-mount series and is aimed at the high-end sports photographers. As with the 7 series the 9 will feature a full-frame sensor.

The high-end 24.2mp stacked Exmor RS CMOS sensor has been designed with speed in mind and is capable of high-speed readout.

This sensor is a huge step up in speed in comparison with the Alpha 7 series with data processed some 20x faster. This new sensor is coupled with a completely new Bionz X processing engine and front-end LSI to boost performance.

This also means that the Alpha 9 has a completely silent electronic shutter capable of shooting at an 20fps and it can do this for more than 241 RAW/362 JPEG frames.

Everything about the Sony Alpha 9 has been designed with speed in mind and alongside a top shutter speed of 1/32000 and because of that electronic shutter there’s no blackout time so you can keep your eye on the subject.

When it comes to fast focusing the Alpha 9 packs in 693 point focal plane phase detection AF points with 60 AF/AE tracking calculations per second.

These focal point cover 93% of the sensor. The body also includes 5-axis image stabilisation with a 5.0 step shutter speed advantage.

Sticking with focus the Alpha 9 will be the first of the new shape Alpha cameras to feature a touch screen, increasing the ease of focus and accuracy.

Video will also be well catered for with 4K recording capability.

With the leap in performance Sony have had to look to a new power source and the 9 will feature a new Z-type battery, so those upgrading from a 7 to the 9 will need to invest in the new battery type.

The Alpha 9 will also fit a second SD card slot which will be UHS-II compatible.

The new FE 100-400mm GM Super Telephoto Zoom Lens will start to ship from July 2017, priced at approximately £2,500.

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