SONY a1, GREATEST OF ALL TIME?

WOW! Specs and perspective about the NEW SONY A1. If it is as good as it sounds it will be amazing. It just might be the GREATEST OF ALL TIME Crossover Camera! #SonyA1, #Crossover, #Camera

Hi, this is JP Morgan. And this is Kenneth Merrill. Today on The Slanted Lens, we’ve got the news of a new camera from Sony, the Sony A1. It is a blockbuster camera. It’s like everything and the kitchen sink, dumped into one mirrorless camera body.

But there’s one thing that it doesn’t do. And that is it doesn’t articulate it’s screen, which I don’t understand. I knew that was going to come up almost immediately. It does not articulate the screen, which you know, if you’re a still photographer, that doesn’t matter to you as much because you’re going to pop that screen out and you’re going to use it below you. It’s pretty easy to use. Some still photographers can’t stand having to use that out to the side. So from a still photography standpoint, it’s not such a bad thing. But from a video standpoint, it’s a little bit of a cripple, and everyone goes, “Oh, we just want to use it for vlogging”. Now. It’s not for that. But anyway, let’s get past that.

There’s a million other things. Let’s get into some of the specs of this camera. This is a 50 megapixel camera, it’ll shoot 30 frames a second up to 150 frames when you’re doing still work. But really the big thing about this camera is 8k. You know, we’ve heard 8k before. And 8k always makes me groan because, you know, of course the R5 and the whole 8k debacle there. You know, this is only marginally better, it seems the recording limit is like 30 minutes. They said if set the heat tolerance to the highest level, it’ll record for 30 minutes. And they’re not saying how long it will take to cool off once you power down. So I still think that the 8k thing is such a gimmick. But it does do 4k 4.2.2 10 bit up to 120 frames per second, which is amazing.

But I’ve always thought that was a great marketing position. You take a camera and you put everything in it. But it’s $6,000. Yeah, that’s the question. So how does this compete in terms of segments. If you are a stills photographer, you don’t care about 8k video. You don’t care about 4.2.2 or  s-log or any of that. Why would you buy this over the R5 or the Z7 II? You wouldn’t, you would buy the R5.

I’m thinking in the summer Sony lineup, if I am in the Sony ecosystem, and I just do stills, I would probably buy the R4. It gives you a large megapixel image. And you don’t need to spend the $6,000. You know, so this really becomes a camera about – pick three, you know, you have the a7S III, you have the a7R III, you have the a7R IV and the a9. Or take one that has it all but you’re going to have to pay $6,000 for it.

In my mind, this is really, in some ways a big blow to Canon because they have the C70, which is launching right now. And this outplays the C70. And it seems on paper all respects, it has the 4k Super 35 4.2.2 10 bit. It has image stabilization and it has an incredible EVF. We haven’t even talked about the nine point EVF that refreshes at 240 frames per second. So it’s crushing the C70 out of the gate. And it also does really high resolution stills. And the C70 does not shoot stills at all.

No, it doesn’t shoot stills, it doesn’t have IBIS. It doesn’t have an EVF. I mean where does the C70 win this equation? I do feel like this checks all the boxes in the stills category and in the video category and it is going to be hard to compete with that, for the other companies in terms of hybrid. They can launch a C200 Mark II or something like that, but it’s just hard to compete with a camera that does it all.

Well, if you’re really a high end shooter doing high end sports or doing video like I my friend who shoots for Chevron and travels around the world. This is a perfect camera. So if you’re a wedding photographer, would you buy this camera? Would there be a reason to buy this camera and spend that money? You could buy two or three other cameras. Yeah, if I was a wedding photographer, I would probably go for something lower. You know something costs less. I would go for an R6, even a couple R6s. I think as an event or wedding photographer, it would be better to have two bodies on you all the time with two different lenses. You would do better work that way than having the latest and greatest. So who do you feel like this is targeted towards? I mean, we’ve talked about weddings.

If you are a photojournalist, do you buy this camera? I think so. Though, I don’t think you’re getting paid enough to buy this camera. Maybe they’ll lend you this camera from wherever you’re shooting for. I think photo journalists will invest in this camera. I think they will. I think any kind of sports shooters if you’re doing any kind of Olympic events or sports in any high level, you’re going to have this camera. I think in terms of not just travel photography, but there are several photographers that I follow who do travel all the time for work, and they are doing a lot of still landscapes and wildlife, but they’re also shooting a lot of video content for whoever’s commissioning the work. So I suppose there is a market for it, but it’s definitely a niche. I mean, this is not a hobbyist camera by any means.

No, this is way beyond a hobbyist camera. This is for a full on professional. You’re going to have to spend for what you get, this kind of camera is for people like my friend who travels the world and shoots video and stills for different companies. I mean, this is a perfect camera for that. He’s got it all in one package to be able to shoot.

I think this is a great camera for fashion and studio photographers. Because a lot of those guys are doing little video vignettes and things like that in the studio as well. So you can switch back and forth pretty quickly. And you know, it doesn’t hurt to be able to shoot really high frame rates. I think this camera really becomes a great companion to the Sony Venice and that ecosystem. You now can use it as B cam on set. I think this is really going to be an onset camera in a lot of ways.

If you own something like an FX9, or maybe the new FX6 or something, this could be a good companion for it. Especially because not only will it serve as your video B cam, but you can grab the stills you need for the client right there on set. And they’ll be a really nice and high quality. I did this the other day with my Panasonic and I use Leica R lenses on it. So I’m shooting stills with a manual focus lens. And it’s not a big deal, but it was a little awkward. Not quite as seamless as some of the other setups. So it’ll be interesting to see when it comes out when we start to test it and see exactly what it does. So I’m excited to get it in our hands and I hope to see that happen very soon.

So let us know what we should test this against. I’m curious what this is competing against with the other brands. And if you’re in the market for this camera or something like this, what else are you looking at? Because we’d like to know.

Alright, like Kenneth said, let us know what we should test with this camera. We’ll get it in our hands as soon as we can and take a look at it. We’ll run through the paces and see if it’s as amazing as it looks right now on paper. So keep those cameras rollin’ and keep on clickin’.