Buying Sony A1 now or wait Sony A1 II ?

[Rockvivien]

Hello friends,

I'm currently shooting wildlife with my Sony A7IV but I'm decided to upgrade to the flagship A1.
Should I buy it now or wait for A1 II?

It will be a camera I will keep for long time so it's an important decision, especially due to the pricing.

Many thanks for your feedback,

Viv

 

[Alan Clark]

I am also considering the A1ii, I use the A7iii at present. One rumoured new feature is precapture, which would be a big advantage for wildlife photography. Another possibility is a viewfinder that gives a continuous view in burst mode, which would also be a siginificant advantage for wildlife photography. Of course, there will be a number of other significant improvements.
Some people expect it to be announced this year, with release perhaps in December or January, so with these substantial improvements in mind I am willing to wait a few months.

PS Welcome to the forum!

 

[iamdlewis]

Things I am sure the A1ii will have:
- Pre-capture
- Dedicated chip for AF stuff for more and better AF and subject detection
- The faster CF-A card slots
- Higher price
Things I hope/pretty sure it will have:
- Burst mode like the A9iii but just not as fast
- New battery - same physical size but larger capacity and backwards compatible
Other things:
- Improved video stuff that I know nothing about
- New battery grip

Should you wait? It will probably be announced by/in Q1 next year. If you get an A1 now and feel the features are worth the upgrade I think it will have been an expensive rental.

 

[Unframed Dave]

The A1 already takes cf A cards?

Buy one now, it's an awesome camera.

 

[Richard A]

The A1 already takes cf A cards?

I think what @iamdlewis means is that there is a new faster interface specification now for CFexpress A cards. I'm not sure if the A9iii uses it. I don't think it does just off hand.

 

[Unframed Dave]

I think what @iamdlewis means is that there is a new faster interface specification now for CFexpress A cards. I'm not sure if the A9iii uses it. I don't think it does just off hand.

Ah, gotcha!

 

[iamdlewis]

I think what @iamdlewis means is that there is a new faster interface specification now for CFexpress A cards. I'm not sure if the A9iii uses it. I don't think it does just off hand.

Correct the new gen was announced in Sept 2023 and some were expecting the writer to appear on the A9iii but it did not. About CF Gen 4

 

[Uncle Kevriano]

Get the A1, the Mk II is a long way off IMO.

 

[Rockvivien]

I am also considering the A1ii, I use the A7iii at present. One rumoured new feature is precapture, which would be a big advantage for wildlife photography. Another possibility is a viewfinder that gives a continuous view in burst mode, which would also be a siginificant advantage for wildlife photography. Of course, there will be a number of other significant improvements.
Some people expect it to be announced this year, with release perhaps in December or January, so with these substantial improvements in mind I am willing to wait a few months.

PS Welcome to the forum!

Many thanks for your warm welcome Alan.

Pre-capture would be awesome for me.

The a7V has already been delayed, wouldn't be at all surprised if you don't see an A1 MkII before the end of next year..... But what do I know, just a hunch?

What you should be asking yourself is do you need the A1 over what you have now, what features/shots are you currently missing with your setup or is it just G.A.S?

I will wait until the end of the year and decide according to what may be announceed.

I need the A1 for better focus and better resolution. In my experience with A7IV, I got too many out of focus, and delay to focus, especially for bird in flight - the tracking is not good and it's not always sharp. And while shooting wildlife, you can be far, and I almost always cropped my pictures. So, if I have better resolution, I can have better cropped pictures.
In addition, pre-capture would be appreciable but better Bird eye AF would make the difference.

Get the A1, the Mk II is a long way off IMO.

 

[Tim Mayo]

I will wait until the end of the year and decide according to what may be announceed.

I need the A1 for better focus and better resolution. In my experience with A7IV, I got too many out of focus, and delay to focus, especially for bird in flight - the tracking is not good and it's not always sharp. And while shooting wildlife, you can be far, and I almost always cropped my pictures. So, if I have better resolution, I can have better cropped pictures.
In addition, pre-capture would be appreciable but better Bird eye AF would make the difference.

It might be worth hiring an A1 if you can to see how you get on with it. The extra resolution is very useful for wildlife and yes you will probably get a few more keepers than the A7IV but not drastically so. If you could post some samples of images from the A7IV that you are not happy with then we might be able to make some suggestions. Personally I've never found Bird Eye AF to be a deal breaker. It's handy sometimes for perched birds that are close enough for depth of field to come into play but for birds in flight they will typically be far enough away that the entire bird will be in focus anyway.

 

[Richard A]

I will wait until the end of the year and decide according to what may be announceed.

If your main concern is focus, have you considered the A7RV?

 

[AlphaWorld]

I think what @iamdlewis means is that there is a new faster interface specification now for CFexpress A cards. I'm not sure if the A9iii uses it. I don't think it does just off hand.

Yes, there is a new standard for CFexpress (V4) which is much faster than the old standard (V2). I have the Prograde version (can do 1800MB/s vs 800MB/s for V2)

No, the A9III does not support it

Right now, the V4 cards work at V2 speed in the camera, but run at full speed when downloading in a V4 reader using a USB 4 cable plugged into a USB 4 or Thunderbolt 4 port. You could argue that when you have thousands of images on the card, fast download is nice. I still want the speed in the camera

Maybe the A1 II will support it, maybe it won’t - I suspect it will require changes to the BIONZ chip, and maybe it’s too late to get those in for this iteration.

Interesting to note that people have benchmarked the speed of CFexpress type B cards in certain cameras (at least Nikon, I think Canon, too), and despite the higher speed of CFexpress B V2 cards, they are seeing the same transfer speed as Sony us giving us from V2…

 

[AlphaWorld]

Things I am sure the A1ii will have:
- Pre-capture
- Dedicated chip for AF stuff for more and better AF and subject detection
- The faster CF-A card slots
- Higher price
Things I hope/pretty sure it will have:
- Burst mode like the A9iii but just not as fast
- New battery - same physical size but larger capacity and backwards compatible
Other things:
- Improved video stuff that I know nothing about
- New battery grip

Should you wait? It will probably be announced by/in Q1 next year. If you get an A1 now and feel the features are worth the upgrade I think it will have been an expensive rental.

I think the A1 II will have:

• Pre-capture - hopefully like the A9III, with selectable amount
• ‘AI’ chip for all the new AF - that’s a certainty
• A mid-range frame rate (at least 30, hopefully 40 or more) for a decent length of time (many seconds)
• Flash sync with e-shutter (don’t know if it will support faster sync with mech shutter)
• Possibly the “turbo” button on the front of the body
• The new body design, including the A7RV rear screen

Things I don’t think will happen:

• Faster CFexpress - I’d really like it, but I fear it won’t due to BIONZ XR limits
• Higher capacity battery in the same size - to be honest, I have no problem with the existing one
• Integral portrait grip
• Cross-point PD AF

I would like it to have a faster sensor readout (not reuse the old sensor) - faster than 1/300, maybe even faster.

I’d like it to be able to shoot at its maximum speed without forcing use of lossy compression (original A1 can’t, A9III can)

I don’t know if it will have a mech shutter.

I would be tempted to wait, if you can, just for precapture + the new AF. However, we don’t know if it will be this year or next, and you could be enjoying an A1 all that time.

 

[Rockvivien]

Dear all,

I came accross the display of my Camera Shop and spotted a second hand A1. I think it was a good bargain.

Happy to have taken the decision.

 

[Landshark99]

congrats great camera