Sony A9 – Paradigm Changing - a photo on Flickriver

In April, when Sony announced the A9, just based on the specs, I said it was the death of the DSLR.

Now, I've played with my A9 for a couple of weeks, and even though I don't yet have all the right lenses with long focal length, I can already see this is every bit as good as the specs implied.

I think the term "mirrorless cameras" will disappear from use in the next 2-3 years. Because, by then, all cameras will be mirrorless, and there will be no need to say a camera is mirrorless, when the only kind of cameras being made is mirrorless. (Even the Leica M and SL cameras, with their irrelevant sub-0.25% market share, are mirrorless, anyway.)

The real news is, the A9 is simply the most advanced 35mm camera ever built, and the final nail in the DSLR coffin. It's over for the venerable DSLR. Unless Nikon and Canon have a death wish, they must be working around the clock to bring out their own mirrorless cameras to at least put up a semblance of a fight. But the reality is, Sony has already won the battle.

With my Nikon D3S, Nikon D4 and Canon 1DX II, I had to RTFM and spend a lot of experimenting with autofocus to reach even a basic level of competence with autofocusing. With the Sony A9, all I did was put the camera in AF-C, and keep shooting. I can't believe how well the A9 nails the initial focus, then tracks it as my subject moves around.

The efficiency of initial focus acquisition, the ability to track, the accuracy of focus and the high frame rate, are all nothing short of stunning. Not to mention the high res viewfinder, silent shutter and the high frame rate with zero blackouts.

Once someone experiences these first hand, I can't understand how anyone would go back to a DSLR. Or a rangefinder or a pin hole camera or anything else.

The Sony 24MP full-frame, stacked CMOS sensor also opens new capabilities that were simply impossible before, and the DSLR mechanism is imply incapable of taking advantage of Sony's sensors.

The problem for DSLR technology is, not only the Sony A9 is ahead, but the DSLR technology can NEVER catch up with what the A9 can already do today, never mind where the A9 is going in the next 3-4 years: which is much, much further along.

It's over for the DSLR, even if Nikon / Canon keep flogging a dead horse for another 2-3 years, much as Leica has been flogging the Rangefinder for a decade. But Leica had the benefit of gullible loyal customers who didn't know their pockets were being picked. Nikon and Canon don't have that benefit, so they cannot sit and hope for customers with holes in their pockets.

I won't bother pointing out all the features of the A9 – there are plenty of blogs that do a pretty good job of it. So I will just say that between the A9 and the rumored 60MP A7R-III due to come out later this year, Sony is the King of 35mm photography.

There are always going to be some losers who will want to point out some drawback or the other in the A9. These are the same people who would discount the entire Apollo 11 mission, because the Eagle lunar module squeaked while landing on the moon. They too, are irrelevant.

One other point to note: for all these technical advancements, the A9 is also quite a bit cheaper than the CaNikon DSLRs, it is also significantly lighter. See the table below that compares how a Sony A9 compares with a Canon 1DX II.

After several hours of lugging around, the extra 500-750 grams makes a substantial difference, believe me!

June 19, 2017 add: Nice review by Tony Northrup:
youtu.be/WyPc7g_W6yg

DSC06576

Taken on: June 12, 2017

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Camera: Sony NEX-5N, f/5.0, 1/80 sec, 50mm (=75mm), ISO 1600 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Sony NEX-5N
Lens:	E 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
Aperture:	f/5.0
Exposure Time:	0.013 sec (1/80)
Focal Length:	50mm (35mm equivalent: 75mm)
ISO:	1600
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 6.10.1 (Macintosh)
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