Sony Alpha a1 Mirrorless Digital Camera

[Michael Erlewine]

WOW!


https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1619483-REG/sony_ilce_1_b_alpha_a1_mirrorless_digital.html

[golunvolo]

Impressive

[pluton]

You know what's amazing?  That camera does not have a top deck info display, so you cannot know the shutter speed, aperture, or ISO settings for stills, or the shutter settings, aperture, frame rate, ISO, and resolution in video....without turning on a monitor or EVF. 

[Bill De Jager]

Impressive but really just Sony's newest and best entry into the fully professional sports/wildlife camera arena.  Nikon and Canon have their work cut out for them, but most of us will never buy this sort of camera.  And yes, Keith, that is an unfortunate omission.

From my point of view this camera has lots of capabilities I'll never need.  I'd rather spend the money on good lenses.  Let's see... 14-24 S, 20/1.8 S, 300/4 PF, 500/5.6 PF.... I think I could put those to good use.

[Luc]

Impressive specs but I much prefer the body layout and ergonomics of the Nikon Z cameras. I agree with Keith on the top display, I value this feature a lot on my Z6.

[Akira]

Impressive but not surprising: the improvements and new features are not at all unpredictable.

I want the new sensor employed for the follower of SIGMA fp. 

[Frank Fremerey]

WOW!


https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1619483-REG/sony_ilce_1_b_alpha_a1_mirrorless_digital.html

call it Z9 ... the stuff I am waiting for. Hope I can afford it at the time it arrives

[Fons Baerken]

I would rather have my hands on

https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/news/fujifilm-gfx100s-to-be-announced-on-27-january

[Michael Erlewine]

I seem to be at a turning point in my camera purchases. The camera world is suddenly a cornucopia, a wonderful time indeed, but one I can’t afford personally. I can’t buy all this stuff, and don’t even need much more. Lenses are morphing exponentially in quality!

I am totally thrilled by the Sony A1 and get the message, but very unhappy for the lousy LCD LiveView monitor on it, which has less resolution than the Z7 that I use all the time. I also realize that Nikon is falling behind and may not have the kind of resources that produced the new Sony A1. Yet, as I just mentioned, so are all of we buyers and owners of equipment falling behind. I can’t afford everything that is exploding or even want it.

As for the new Fuji GFX 100S, too late and too crude, still. I stopped dreaming medium-format quite a while ago. Yes, I nervously look at the Sony A7r IV, but am stopped by the neglect of the LCD, which has less res than my Nikon Z7s, and the sloppy implementation of the sets of images to get the hi-res that have to be combined in the computer. That’s a no-go for stacking, for sure.

I have a bunch of Sony lenses in E-mount that work on my Z7s (with adapters), but there seems to be no way to convert all the Nikon lenses I have to the Sony mount. Is there? Here is my main question:

If I made the move to the A1, what are the most brilliant Sony lenses I would just have to have?

I have the Noct95 and it is just a wonderful, wonderful lens for my work. The new Nikon S 70-200 f/2.8 is also an amazing lens too, better than my FL version, IMO.

Fellow photographers, in your wisdom, I wish you would leave a breadcrumb trail for those of us who are not about to go medium-format, but fear being stuck in the backwater of Nikon. Something I have come to realize is that I am quite content with the 50-ish MPX sensor in the Z7, and really don’t need a 60 or 00 megapixel sensor.

Anyone out there, I could use some guidance on how one might convert to Sony. Or, do we just wait for whatever Nikon will bring, if they can afford the research to keep up. I am not about to sell my Nikon Z7, but I might sell my D850 and return my new Z7 II, and so forth, and get my toe in the water for a Sony A1. Your thoughts please?

[Jack Dahlgren]

I seem to be at a turning point in my camera purchases. The camera world is suddenly a cornucopia, a wonderful time indeed, but one I can’t afford personally. I can’t buy all this stuff, and don’t even need much more. Lenses are morphing exponentially in quality!

I am totally thrilled by the Sony A1 and get the message, but very unhappy for the lousy LCD LiveView monitor on it, which has less resolution than the Z7 that I use all the time. I also realize that Nikon is falling behind and may not have the kind of resources that produced the new Sony A1. Yet, as I just mentioned, so are all of we buyers and owners of equipment falling behind. I can’t afford everything that is exploding or even want it.

As for the new Fuji GFX 100S, too late and too crude, still. I stopped dreaming medium-format quite a while ago. Yes, I nervously look at the Sony A7r IV, but am stopped by the neglect of the LCD, which has less res than my Nikon Z7s, and the sloppy implementation of the sets of images to get the hi-res that have to be combined in the computer. That’s a no-go for stacking, for sure.

I have a bunch of Sony lenses in E-mount that work on my Z7s (with adapters), but there seems to be no way to convert all the Nikon lenses I have to the Sony mount. Is there? Here is my main question:

If I made the move to the A1, what are the most brilliant Sony lenses I would just have to have?

I have the Noct95 and it is just a wonderful, wonderful lens for my work. The new Nikon S 70-200 f/2.8 is also an amazing lens too, better than my FL version, IMO.

Fellow photographers, in your wisdom, I wish you would leave a breadcrumb trail for those of us who are not about to go medium-format, but fear being stuck in the backwater of Nikon. Something I have come to realize is that I am quite content with the 50-ish MPX sensor in the Z7, and really don’t need a 60 or 00 megapixel sensor.

Anyone out there, I could use some guidance on how one might convert to Sony. Or, do we just wait for whatever Nikon will bring, if they can afford the research to keep up. I am not about to sell my Nikon Z7, but I might sell my D850 and return my new Z7 II, and so forth, and get my toe in the water for a Sony A1. Your thoughts please?

As seen in other threads, Nikon uses Sony technology in many/most of their cameras. I expect this to continue - and would not consider Nikon to be a "backwater". Indeed Nikon is ahead of Sony in some areas. I think that the new generation of lenses enabled by the short register distance of the Z mount is exceptional. I expect that next generation of Z cameras will match capabilities of the Sony. It has always been true that the lead goes back and forth as technology generations continue, and it is not always economical to always pay to keep switching to the equipment that is at the forefront.

If you have a system that works for you, that you enjoy using, and can afford, keep using it. Having read your observations and careful approach to photography, I think if you switch to Sony you will be unhappy with the way it affects your working process. I also think that the Z7 has enough resolution for what you do, and until you begin printing at wall size, there will be little difference in outcomes as resolution scales.

When I think about purchasing something new, I try to look beyond what it is and to what it does for me. Some things save time. Some allow me to do things I want to do and can't do without. Some are a pleasure to have around. As a result, there are many things I don't buy. Making that decision about what not to choose is often harder than choosing to purchase something.

[Michael Erlewine]

Jack -- I hear you. I am just scoping it all out as best I can. I like the Z7 camera a lot. Seldom use my D850. I do see tht there is probably a coming lag from Nikon, and the gap will widen. It could be that the next generation of the Sony A1 will be the one to wait for, unless Nikon does, as you suggest, do some kind of leap frog, which (unfortunately) I doubt.

[golunvolo]

I´m afraid you can not adapt your Z lenses in a Sony body, only the other way around as the back of the lenses is closer to the sensor on the Z bodies. You can always add more distance with adapters but cannot get closer.

  I might be wrong on this

[Birna Rørslett]

Unfortunately, you are spot on, Paco.

One would need closer to 100MPix on an FX sensor to have any significant improvement potential over the Z7 series.

[Michael Erlewine]

Unfortunately, you are spot on, Paco.

One would need closer to 100MPix on an FX sensor to have any significant improvement potential over the Z7 series.

But pre-Z7 Nikon lenses can be adapted to Sony, right?

[Bill De Jager]

Michael, the Sony A1 is optimized for sports and wildlife photography rather than portrait, still life, or landscape photography. The specifications are amazing but I wouldn't consider it personally for what I do.  However, the technological improvements will filter out to other models over time, not just Sony but Nikon as well.  I expect Nikon to issue a competing model sometime this year or next, and perhaps that would be a better time to consider whether switching systems would make any sense at all.  Personally, I'm going to keep riding the Nikon horse for a while more.  I'm sure Nikon is working on major improvements in their cameras to compete with Canon and Sony.

One would need closer to 100MPix on an FX sensor to have any significant improvement potential over the Z7 series.

Resolution is a subject that fools a lot of people, who (for instance) think that 61MP is much larger than 45MP when it actually only means an increase of 15% in linear resolution, barely noticeable at best.  To get the improvement in linear resolution from a higher-megapixel camera, one can take the square root of the ratio in areal resolution (assuming the same aspect ratio for the sensor).  Alternately, the sensor width in pixels can be compared.  The Sony A7R IV has 9504 pixels across while the Nikon D850 has 8256, nice but not a big difference.

I recently upgraded from the D810 to a D850, more for the better image quality and camera features than for any increase in resolution.  I just want to be able to take it and a few good lenses to places farther afield where I can enjoy a much better range of good subjects!

But pre-Z7 Nikon lenses can be adapted to Sony, right?

If you mean F-mount lenses, yes.

However, another consideration is focal plane - sensor parallelism.  This is already an issue in some cases given today's manufacturing tolerances, and adding an adapter adds two more surfaces that can be out of alignment.  That's why I'm mostly sticking with my D850 for my quality F-mount lenses (best Nikkors plus Zeiss and Sigma) for landscape use.