Every few months the industry goes down this road where they claim Canon and Nikon should be put on notice because this newest of the newly new camera bodies is finally going to be the one camera to kill the DSLR market.
They all tout the impressive spec sheet of this newest, latest little darling as the reason for this heaping praise. But we’ve all been here before haven’t we? As the saying goes, “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me”. And though the spec sheet of the new Sony a9 looks quite impressive, sporting an industry first 20fps “Black Out Free” shooting mode as well as 1/32000 of second electronic shutter and a remarkable 693 Phase Detection Autofocus points system covering over 90% of the frame, making this camera an absolute BEAST on paper, the DSLR has withstood this kind of competition before, AND IT’S STILL HERE. Sony even managed to fix one of my biggest gripes with their cameras (and why I have NEVER chosen to buy one) and that’s the lack of a dedicated AF Point selector. They’ve finally addressed this with a joystick on the body! Way to go Sony! It only took you several years and numerous body updates to finally get there (extreme sarcasm).
The spec sheet of the newest “DSLR Killer” reads more like a dream sheet than a spec sheet. Here are some of the highlights.
Sony A9 Key Features:
- Durable camera body that retains the compact form factor of previous full-frame E-mount bodies
- Joystick and AF-On button for enhanced autofocus control
- Higher-capacity battery
- 3-inch touchscreen display
- High-resolution, 120 frames per second electronic viewfinder with no blackout
- 5-axis in-body image stabilization
- 24.2-megapixel stacked back-illuminated full-frame CMOS sensor
- ISO 100 to 51,200, expandable to 50-204,800
- 20 frames per second continuous shooting
- UHS-II support
- 4K video with full-pixel readout
More information available on Sony’s Website: HERE
Only time (and real world usage) will tell if Sony has finally dealt a death blow with this latest offering. After all “9” is my favorite and lucky number.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, “it’s an exciting time to be a content creator (as long as you have deep pockets)”.
Imagine having a 52MP camera that fits in the palm of your hand or better yet, fits in your pocket?
That’s what the makers of the Light L16 are promising to deliver. And now with a $30 million dollar investment from Google, this dream might actually have a real chance at becoming a reality. I for one am really hoping they can deliver as my eyes have gotten so used to seeing images with a high pixel count and stunning detail, that it’s hard for me to look at anything less. Yes I know I have been tainted. What can I say, I shoot with the Canon 5DSR and Fujifilm GFX 50S on a daily basis. I’m aware that high resolution is not the only thing that makes an image beautiful, but it is pretty to look at and great if you have to print. So the prospect of having a portable camera that can deliver that kind of detail is intriguing.
However, I must admit, so far I’m not impressed. Like I said, my eyes have grown accustom to seeing and shooting with some of the Highest Resolution cameras on the market and this camera just doesn’t seem to deliver on that boast when looking at the images posted in their online gallery: HERE
That’s Not to say that these images are bad, in fact many (if not most) of them are quite good, but are they 52MP good? I’ve seen iPhone 7 images that are just as beautiful albeit without the resolution, so again I must ask, are they really that good? They don’t seem to be what I’ve come to expect from a 50+ MP image in terms of detail. Even images taken my old Olympus OMD E-M5 (see below) seem to have more detail using it’s sensor shift technology which results in 40MP images. Granted it’s a lot bigger than this camera and has to be held perfectly still shooting a stationary subject to achieve it, but the results are stunning for such a small lightweight camera. The Light L16 has a lot to live up to if it expects to make a dent in this ever growing market with very capable photographic tools.
I really hope I’m wrong about this little camera as it would be awesome to have such a compact image creation tool that fits in the pocket and at 52MP, this thing would be a BEAST!
Please, please, please don’t be another Lytro getting our hopes up just to become just a forgotten gimmicky toy with no real world interest.
Professional Photographers are routing for you Light.