Sony A9 II A9II Purchase Advice

[Rob V]

G’day all,

I have an option on an A9II secondhand from a camera store with 8200 shutter actuations. Price is A$3850. Although the price seems ok, i am not sure. I would prefer the 33mp from the A7IV and eye tracking. I will use it for birds and airshows with the 200-600 and maybe 1.4x as i the reach of around 800mm. I understand that the A7IV is pretty good and newer. I have currently eye tracking on my Olympus camera and i like it. Any advice?.

 

[Gaz]

Hi Rob,
The actuations wouldn’t bother me and the price is a steal.

I’ve found my A7iv plenty fast enough without hitting the buffer on a V60 Sony card, which is not the fastest card for the camera. Chance again, I’d still buy my A7iv for stills, including Birds in flight. My next body will be A7r* format but that won’t be this year or probably not next year either.

G

 

[Deleted Member 5045]

I only buy brand new as then I know it hasn't been mishandled. I almost picked up an A7IV as a second body about 6 months ago when they were on sale with the cash back as well, but I ended up holding off.

You can't go wrong with either but the A7IV is newer, it would be brand new, and you'd also be leaving $800 in your pocket because of DigiDirect doing good prices for it right now. They're a lovely camera. ️

 

[Rob V]

I only buy brand new as then I know it hasn't been mishandled. I almost picked up an A7IV as a second body about 6 months ago when they were on sale with the cash back as well, but I ended up holding off.

You can't go wrong with either but the A7IV is newer, it would be brand new, and you'd also be leaving $800 in your pocket because of DigiDirect doing good prices for it right now. They're a lovely camera. ️

Yes, the A7IV is newer and is probably the better choice in this case. Thanks!

 

[spudhead]

I do not have the a74 so I am fairly biased on this one the a9 all day long, super fast focus, awesome silent shutter, no blackout, high frame rate, stacked sensor , but low pixel count if that matters to you and I know the guys on here with the a74 really rate it so it is though but we all have to pick

 

[iain clyne]

It's a hard choice, I have both and find myself reaching for the 7iv more and more for birds as the eye focus is great but you do have a bit of black out. If someone said I could only have one....it would be the 7iv...maybe!

 

[MeowZzz]

I also have both, and was considering selling the A7iv on from lack of use - I don't have a lens for birds that isn't MF, and the A9 puts the focus peaking redness on the object/eye/fur faster than the A7 and actually makes MF easier. I had lots of misses with the A7 in MF --- so, if I use the 7, I tend to focus without the peaking and just eyeball it!

 

[spudhead]

I would just add I have only ever bought one new camera body, in my life the rest including the a 9 a99ii a73 and the other bodies I have were low miles excellent condition from a retailer with a one year cover on everything, in fact the a 9 had a shutter count of only 9

 

[iamdlewis]

I owned an A9 and have used an A7iv (while another photographer was testing my A1) to photograph eagles. I can tell you that without a doubt the A9ii would be the better option for BiF. The reasons for the this is 1) no blackout which matters for when photographing mid-sized and smaller birds, 2) the frame rate and processing speed is much higher than anything in the A7 line which means that the AF will be more accurate and less chance of rolling shutter and 3) the ability to basically shoot 100% of the time in electronic shutter (shutter sounds annoy me now).
For airshows reason 2 is still a very strong argument for going with the A9ii. The no blackout would still be nice but aircraft are rather large and tracking them shouldn't be a big challenge if you get good with BiF.
Also the A9 and A9ii both have eye auto focus.

 

[Rob V]

Not A BIF shooter, but have done many, many airshows with cameras far less capable than the A7IV. That part of it is a no-brainer.

On Mirrorless Comparison, the A9 ranks #3 for BIF, behind the A1 (#1) and Nikon's Z9 (#2). The A7IV ranks #5.

The Best Mirrorless Cameras for Birds in Flight Ranked - Mirrorless Comparison

A few years ago, our reader Alfredo suggested an idea for an article. Since we test the autofocus performance of many cameras at the same red kite feeding stations, why not publish a list of all the cameras we use with their keeper rate for birds in flight? I liked ... Read more

mirrorlesscomparison.com

There's a couple of charts worth looking at in that link. Here's the top part of the first one. Green color is the percentage of shots in perfect focus, blue is the number of 'usable' shots. You'd need to read the article in the link to find out what the author considered usable.
View attachment 34820

94% vs 96% is still very high compared to the price and few limitations.

 

[iamdlewis]

94% vs 96% is still very high compared to the price and few limitations.

The testing done with based on a Red Kite which is a mid-sized hawk which is good middle of the road choice for a consistent test subject for BiF. A mid-sized hawk though is pretty much at the end of which the A7 line will handle. If you have interest in shorebirds, swallows (or whatever the AUS equivalent is) or things like insects in flight the A9 will be what you want. Once you start shooting small birds you will love it.

This is from an A9 of a young Barn Swallow, images 5, 7 & 9 of a 10 shot sequence (I sh*t you not my first sequence taken with the A9 & 100-400GM). This is not something that you would get with the A7iv

 

[Rob V]

Bear in mind the author is a BIF shooter and has tons of experience. I know my own success rate would be far less than his for that type of shooting. Try not to get too hung up on a specific camera for such specific reasons. Any of the cameras cited (and a few more) are capable. Whatever you get, take the time to learn it and you'll be fine.

Thank you!. Very wise words!

 

[Rob V]

The testing done with based on a Red Kite which is a mid-sized hawk which is good middle of the road choice for a consistent test subject for BiF. A mid-sized hawk though is pretty much at the end of which the A7 line will handle. If you have interest in shorebirds, swallows (or whatever the AUS equivalent is) or things like insects in flight the A9 will be what you want. Once you start shooting small birds you will love it.

This is from an A9 of a young Barn Swallow, images 5, 7 & 9 of a 10 shot sequence (I sh*t you not my first sequence taken with the A9 & 100-400GM). This is not something that you would get with the A7iv
View attachment 34828

Yes, we call the Swallows. That is an awesome sequence btw!.

 

[iain clyne]

I’ve taken small birds in flight with a Nikon d200 so most modern cameras are capable of doing it if the person behind the camera knows what they are doing.

 

[Gaz]

The testing done with based on a Red Kite which is a mid-sized hawk which is good middle of the road choice for a consistent test subject for BiF. A mid-sized hawk though is pretty much at the end of which the A7 line will handle. If you have interest in shorebirds, swallows (or whatever the AUS equivalent is) or things like insects in flight the A9 will be what you want. Once you start shooting small birds you will love it.

This is from an A9 of a young Barn Swallow, images 5, 7 & 9 of a 10 shot sequence (I sh*t you not my first sequence taken with the A9 & 100-400GM). This is not something that you would get with the A7iv
View attachment 34828

My A7iv would not be capable of photographing swallows like that, but it’s not going to stop me from trying now that I’ve seen your shots!

 

[liggy]

Biased opinion here - but regardless of subject recognition algorithms I'd choose the A9II over the A7 IV if BIF was a big priority. 24 vs 33mp is barely detectable imo. I do like the menus better on the A74 but prefer the controls of the A9II and the stacked sensor / e shutter are really excellent.

Air shows? Any modern camera can do them with ease IMO.

 

[AlphaWorld]

The A7IV has bird's eye focus, the A9's do not. The A7IV also has bird's eye focus in video. At the time of release it was the only Sony that had this feature. It was later added to the A1 in a firmware update. I suspect the A7RV also has it, and odds are the A9III will as well.

The A7RV does indeed have bird eye AF, and a neat combined animal/bird setting, too. Plus aircraft (seeing you showed aircraft...). However, it does not have the frame rate of the A9 or A1.

 

[iamdlewis]

My A7iv would not be capable of photographing swallows like that, but it’s not going to stop me from trying now that I’ve seen your shots!

Good luck. I like photographing swallows because they are one of the more eccentric. Also if you can get good a getting them in frame other birds or things should become easy to get.

 

[AlphaWorld]

I know that, I was pointing out the AF recognition. I was really going for the bird eye in video, is that present in the RV?

I'm sorry, but I don't know - I have never turned the switch to Video.