Sony A9III & FE 300 F2.8 GM Announcement Discussion

[Tim Mayo]

So we now have a new Alpha 9 Mark III and the FE 300mm F2.8 GM OSS lens.

The Alpha 9 III camera is available for pre-order Nov. 8, 2023 for a suggested retail price of $5,999.99 USD and $8,299.99 CAN. The estimated European price for the camera body only is approximately €7,000/£6100. (B&H Photo Aff Link).

A new VG-C5 vertical grip is also available for pre-order Nov. 8, 2023 for a suggested retail price of $399.99 USD and $549.99 CAN. The estimated European price is €450/£390. (B&H Aff Link).

The FE 300mm F2.8 GM OSS lens will be available for pre-order starting November 8, 2023 with shipping starting in February 2024, for a suggested retail price of $5999.99 USD and $8199.99 CAN. The estimated European price is approximately €6700 / £5800 (B&H Photo Aff Link).

Sony A9III Key Features

• 24.6MP global shutter full-frame image sensor
• Blackout-free, 120 fps continuous shooting with full AF/AE tracking
• Preserve split-second moments with maximum shutter speed of 1/80,000 second
• Exmor RS image sensor with global shutter system
• BIONZ XR™ image processing engine boosts overall processing speed by up to 8x
• Composite RAW Shooting reduces noise
• Advanced optical 5-axis image stabilization detects and correct camera shake
• Blackout-free shooting for uninterrupted view during fast-paced shooting
• Up to 120 AF/AE tracking calculations per second
• Never miss a moment with Pre-Capture
• Continuous Shooting Speed Boost rapidly increases frame rate to capture the action
• Real-time Recognition AF identifies and tracks subjects even if face/eye obscured
• Reliable recognition of a wider range of subjects
• Wide, fast, precise autofocus and tracking
• Match AF tracking response to subject movement
• Customizable focus area to match the subject
• Flash sync at up to 1/80,000 shutter speed vastly expands creative possibilities
• Flicker-free shooting compensates for interference from artificial lighting
• Global shutter eliminates flash banding
• 4K movies free of rolling shutter with high resolution and detail
• 4K 120p without cropping for the first time in an α body
• S-Cinetone™ for a cinematic look without the need for color grading
• Breathing compensation for consistent angle of view when focusing
• Dynamic active Mode stabilisation
• Auto Framing keeps the subject in a prominent position when shooting movies
• Uniquely flexible tilting monitor for enhanced shooting flexibility
• New front Custom button provides easier operation while holding the grip
• QXGA 9.44 million dot viewfinder with up to 240fps refresh rate
• Dual CFexpress Type A /SDXC/SDHC compatible media slots
• Optional VG-C5 Vertical Grip
• Rugged reliability for challenging environments
• Robust and durable
• Shading curtain closed on power-off
• Ergonomic grip design
• Improved group display
• Built-in Wi-Fi for FTP and smartphone transfers plus PC Remote tethering
• Clearer voice memo recording
• Multiple IPTC presets
• Dedicated Still/Movie/S&Q dial for flexible hybrid operation
• Anti-dust system increases dust removal efficiency
• 1000BASE-T Ethernet for fast communication
• USB Type-C® connector supports SuperSpeed USB 10 Gbps (USB 3.2)
• Touch operation during shooting and playback
• UVC/UAC support for high-quality webcam applications
• USB PD (Power Delivery) supports fast charging

Sony also announced new firmware updates for the Alpha 1 and Alpha 7S III full-frame. The new software will provide both models with some of Sony’s latest imaging technologies including the highly requested Focus Breathing Compensation feature, IPTC and FTP workflow enhancement, and C2PA format support. The firmware will also update the Alpha 1 with Relay Playback, and the Alpha 7S III with DCI 4K 24.00P shooting format. The camera software update will be available in Spring 2024.

 

[AlphaWorld]

Holy cow!

I was hoping the 300 GM might be as light as 2kg, maybe. There are 2.9kg and 2.4kg 300mm f/2.8 lenses.

The new 300mm GM is under 1.5kg!!! That is astonishing! I want one.

The new A9 III really scary:

• 1/80000 shutter speed (but 1/16000 in continuous shooting)
• global shutter
• flash sync at ANY speed (yes, 1/80000, and full TTL)
• 120fps with AF
• pre-capture! Up to 1s in advance
• -5EV AF
• spot focus points in extra small and extra large sizes
• A7RV rear screen and EVF, but now you get 120fps on the EVF at full detail

Ah - 120 frames/second for 1.6s (192 frames) - you can be shooting at 20fps, then switch to 120fps, then back, IN THE MIDDLE OF A BURST!

And yes, it gets rid of dark bars under PWM light.

Full eye AF at 120fps.

6k over-sampling for 4K 60p
4k 120p without crop

 

[AlphaWorld]

Now we have to wait for the answer to the big question: how much?

A9 III is US$6k
So is the 300 GM.

Oh, and there are firmware updates, including the A1. Several improvements, including Sony's proof of authenticity (C2PA support). Coming March next year.

 

[Uncle Kevriano]

Massive overkill for wildlife in everyday shooting. It will be good for shooting fleas leaping ..

 

[AlphaWorld]

Not a question for me. No way I am paying for features I don't want. Are you still watching? 120FPS will shoot up to 192 frames to fill the buffer. They're saying that's 6G of information per burst. How long will your storage last at that rate?

Some nice features for flash users.

And all that at a remarkable 24MP.

This is ludicrous for the sake of specifications.

The C5 button lets you flip into 120fps in the middle of a burst. You can shoot at a lower speed, then flip into high gear for the critical moments. I haven't seen the details of the slower frame rates, but you definitely do not have to run at 120fps for the whole burst - they showed that during the presentation.

Not clear, but I got the impression you can cull in-camera.

Sure, I'll be filling cards ridiculously quickly while I learn how to use it. I think we finally see why they announced the 320GB and 640GB CFeA G cards, and the 960 and 1920GB CFeA M cards.

Yeah, it's ludicrous. But when they said it was going to be the fastest camera ever, I didn't even speculate how fast they meant. I was imagining 40fps. Nikon Z9 can do something like 120fps, but using 11Mp JPEG. This is doing it with 24Mp 14bit RAW.

 

[AlphaWorld]

I think I pay for features I don't use on every camera I buy

 

[iamdlewis]

This is ludicrous for the sake of specifications.

I think it is more like lint speed

The Tick travels through Lint Speed

The Tick, Arthur and the Whats are being chased by the Infinity Ball. That means they must travel through the fastest speed in the universe, the Speed of Lin...

youtu.be

 

[Roland]

I don’t think they had wildlife photographer in mind, when they designed the camera. I rarely have my A9ii on the highest picture rate, even when taking pictures of hummingbirds. I can see sports photographer using 120fps for baseball to get the picture of the batter with the ball sticking to the bat every time with no rolling shutters.
I would use that feature just for fun.

 

[spudhead]

a9mk3 Wtf were they thinking

 

[Tim Mayo]

I was thinking about how much fun it would be to cull one billion photos to find the perfect frame when they announced the nifty video feature to view these groups. It's probably overkill for 99% of shooters though. Still, it's an impressive camera!

 

[Uncle Kevriano]

There's a guy here in Norfolk that uses a high speed multi flash set up to shoot sequences of moths and insects in flight. This camera will negate the need. Let's be honest though, it's not shooting at that speed really, it's recording high spied video and taking each frame as a still. It's clever, but so not needed. The world has gone nuts

 

[Tim Mayo]

They did it to remain king of the hill in specs and make Canon and Nikon try and play catch up, that's it and that's all.

Yep. It's the megapixel wars all over again but this time it's the frame rate.

 

[Tim Mayo]

FE 300mm F2.8 GM OSS Early Reviews

 

[iamdlewis]

I have a hard time believing that anything happens in the sports world in 120th of a second that you couldn't catch at half that speed

Bat to ball for baseball/cricket and club to ball for golf.
In 1/60 of a second a 95mph pitch has moved 1/2 inch. Average MLB player swing is 70mph so in 1/60th it has move 1/3 an inch. If you want to get the bat deforming the baseball you want all the FPS you can get.
Yes it would suck to go through all of them but that's what it would take to get the shot you want.

 

[iain clyne]

I think they have dropped the ball with the A9iii. I have done sports for years and have caught ball on racket/bat/foot without 120fps.
Not a camera for me. Roll on the A1 firmware update.

 

[spudhead]

just seems they did not know what to do with the a9iii without it killing the a1 so for the second time Sony mess up the a9

 

[iamdlewis]

Let's be honest though, it's not shooting at that speed really, it's recording high spied video and taking each frame as a still. It's clever, but so not needed. The world has gone nuts

That isn't what it is. That is what Canon and Nikon are doing with their high-speed burst rates since they both use an 11mp image for this mode. Also with the ability to change from one FPS speed to another and back again is not something you see in cameras of this type for video.

And yet...

Nice studio setup. I didn't say it wasn't possible to get it before but if you want it, it is far easier to get it with 120fps than it is with 60 or 40 or anything less than 120. You don't know when or if you will ever have an opportunity to get a shot again so why would you not go for the frame rate that gives you the best chance to get that shot when you do have that opportunity?

 

[Uncle Kevriano]

I still reckon it is, you can't physically fire a shutter at 120fps and high speed video is 120fps, regardless, it's computational photography albeit very smart indeed. It has such limited use though, see my comment about the guy shooting flying insects. The OM1 can do 120fps BTW, but only in jpeg and not with AF alteration of course.
It's all moot, at 6k I won't buy one, and, apart from the fan boys who have to buy the latest Sony so that they can tell everyone that it's the most revolutionary thing since the wheel was invented, and that everyone who doesn't have one is a plebian, I don't think they will sell many at all.
What's next? 150fps 100mp cameras with a shutter that fires just by you thinking?

 

[RogerSmith]

Well my .02 is that the A9III moves that line definitely into the "sports" part of "sports and wildlife". I'll be watching for the spate of "influencer" YouTube videos that push the camera for wildlife, since I think its a pretty substantial market. My answer will be please, really? I don't think 24mp cuts it and you don't need 120 FPS. I get the video clip / culling functionality for those bursts, but how will that look / work in Lightroom or processing environments? As for the 300 f2.8, I'm more interested than I thought. I used to have a Canon 300 2.8 (first gen) and really loved the sharpness and subject isolation. I'm used to working at longer focal lengths with the 200-600. But wow, it is small and light.
My other reflection is price point, $6K for the A9III. Imagine the A1II, I bet that beast will go $7500 when released (and curious if global shutter at 50mp is even possible with BionzXR or will there be a new processor? )

 

[Tim Mayo]

More interesting than the 120 FPS is the composite RAW feature.

Composite RAW Shooting captures multiple images (4, 8, 16, or 32, selectable) which can then be merged using Sony's Imaging Edge Desktop™ computer application software to create full-resolution images with very low noise.19 This makes it possible to shoot wildlife at high shutter speeds or portraits in low light, achieving exceptionally high image quality with low noise, even at higher ISO settings. What's more, when shooting at low sensitivity levels, the α9 III can take advantage of camera shake that occurs during handheld shooting and use Composite RAW to create images with reduced false colour and jaggies. (1) Standard (2) Composite RAW.

So can we now shoot at ISO 51,200 and get a nice clean image?

 

[Deleted Member 5045]

They've fallen short by about 175mp here...

 

[AlphaWorld]

Bat to ball for baseball/cricket and club to ball for golf.
In 1/60 of a second a 95mph pitch has moved 1/2 inch. Average MLB player swing is 70mph so in 1/60th it has move 1/3 an inch. If you want to get the bat deforming the baseball you want all the FPS you can get.
Yes it would suck to go through all of them but that's what it would take to get the shot you want.

That's why they explained how you can go through a burst looking for the shot - the camera replays it as a video and you can move back and forth looking for "the shot", then tag it (or them). I was wondering why my A6700 was grouping the shots of a burst together, and now it looks like that was the first sign of this new feature.

 

[iamdlewis]

I still reckon it is, you can't physically fire a shutter at 120fps

It is a global shutter so the theoretical FPS rate well beyond 120FPS.

I don't think they will sell many at all.

They will sell a ton. We are not the primary market.

In July 2020, the Associated Press announced its switch to Sony mirrorless cameras for all its photo and video journalism requirements. Last summer, the PA in the United Kingdom and Ireland announced the same switch, moving exclusively to Sony full-frame cameras and lenses. In November, the USA Today Network and Gannett Co. partnered with Sony. - imaging-resource.com

What's next? 150fps 100mp cameras with a shutter that fires just by you thinking?

That sounds like nice idea. Remember nobody is forcing you to use the max FPS. You can just set the FPS to 1 or 5 or 10 something else and just do that. There are people that will have a use for 120FPS and there will be people that find new uses for it.

Sometimes tech people just push things to the extremes without really having any idea what people will do with those extremes, sometimes people can't find a use and others who new ways of doing things come about, but nobody will know until it happens. I would rather be in a camera system that continually pushes the boundaries than one that only takes baby steps.

 

[Deleted Member 5045]

Hopefully the EVF quality loss fix comes to the A1 and the RV in firmware updates.

 

[Deleted Member 5045]

Did anyone watch the video and see the image samples of the 300? Simply breathtaking.

Mark Galer obviously took them...

 

[AlphaWorld]

Not on purpose.

Tell me one thing you shoot that needs this kind of speed? Unless you're hooked on hummingbird wings, there isn't much advantage over the A9 II.

Oh, I think I buy every camera on purpose, and buy features I don't use to get the ones I do use. I own two cameras capable of shooting 8k video. I have no expectation of ever shooting 8k video. I have owned at least three cameras with pixel shift multi-shot, and apart from one brief experiment, I've never used it, and I don't expect to. Lots more examples.

Would I use all the features of an A9 III? Absolutely not. But there are things I see as useful to me.

The global shutter means that I get a camera which is silent shooting all the time (which I do on the A1), but shows no dark bars under PWM lighting - I've tried to adjust shutter speeds on the A1 to shoot in the nocturnal animals enclosures without dark bars, and it's difficult; I have lots of shots with dark bars. The A9 III can do that automatically. I think people shooting at concerts will appreciate that feature, too. I know someone who shoots for an opera company, and he needs silent shooting and in finding dark bars an increasing problem with stage lighting.

I can picture people using the 120fps when shooting high diving - that's an Olympic sport where catching the diver doing twists and turns makes for better shots. Gymnastics, too - capturing the whole of a tumbling run so you can see each piece.

I will definitely be using the pre-capture. Probably not at full speed (well, maybe during early play-time!), but at some speed.

 

[AlphaWorld]

Did anyone watch the video and see the image samples of the 300? Simply breathtaking.

It looks like an extremely sharp lens, even with the 2x + heavy crop. Mark Galer's review is very positive.

Some of the shots in the Sony promo videos are compelling - loved the "stroboscopic" sequences.

 

[Deleted Member 5045]

Mark was conspicuous in his absence at the reveal. That other guy they had on there was pretty impressive.

Might have to watch it soon.

I think this is the first time I've seen a piece of gear come out and not have all the full reviews from the YouTube guys on the moment of announcement.

 

[spudhead]

Mark was conspicuous in his absence at the reveal. That other guy they had on there was pretty impressive.

A Brit I think so bull s--t

 

[Paul stuart]

well sony sets the bar again 24mp is not for me though or 120fps ,not as though you have to use 120fps they have placed a handy button for this which shoots 120fps when required ,i would love it to be on my A1 but just 30fps when needed turbo mode or something and just use 10 for everything inbetween ,in fact my a1 at current is being retired by my a7r5 i do not need high frame rates,the biggest or one off is no speed sync needed for flash as well as zero banding.jury will be out on iq though will it take a dip like the stacked sensors ,the 300mm f2.8 is on my wish list can not believe so light 420mm f4 and 600mm f5.6 will replace my 200-600mm although will hold out for comparisons but 1.4kg is so nice ,a built in t/c would of been welcome but the price is better than expected ,well the a1 was unispiring for firmware ,on another note if sony can make a 300mm f2.8 so light i am sure a 600mm 5.6 prime would be feasable also ,how many users would jump on a 600mm f5.6 prime at less than 1.5kg many i am sure.