Sony Alpha 1

Live: Watch Sony's latest camera announcement | Photofocus

 

I ordered two. Retiring a9, a7RIII and 6400.

DP Review has some sample images and I thought of your work when I saw the sea eagle shot there (Sony Alpha 1 full-resolution sample photos).

DP Review has some sample images and I thought of your work when I saw the sea eagle shot there (Sony Alpha 1 full-resolution sample photos).

 

Thank you Howard. The equipment is getting so good that I feel like I'm cheating.

 

Even with my three-year old a9, this eagle flew behind the small branches of this tree and all 10 or so shots were in focus! Now, with the a1, I'll have bird-eye AF!

 

Juvenile Bald Eagle Landing On Tiny Branch by David Stephens, on Flickr

And I bet Sony are working on a robot to hold the camera and take the photos ... but that would take the fun out of it, I guess!

Live: Watch Sony's latest camera announcement | Photofocus

 

I ordered two. Retiring a9, a7RIII and 6400.

Specs look awesome. Expecting you're full review and sample shots.

The A1 has impressive specifications, and seems to do everything well. It is primarily a still camera, at which task it excels. The video is competent but not near the front of the pack. If you need to do both without switching cameras, the A1 is probably the best choice.

 

It's not hard to imagine "wanting" an A1, an option to anyone who can afford it. Who might "need" the A1 requires a little more thought. A nature photographer on the level of DCSTEP would want/need two, for backup or added flexibility, doing things you are paid for (or simply fulfilling a passion). It's no fun to travel thousands of miles to suffer an equipment failure. The A1 might be ideal for news gathering, but probably beyond the budget for ordinary news photographers and private contractors, unless they have belong to a pool. Most I've known use equipment until they can't. Wedding photographers fall in between, but their equipment suffers much less abuse than from those used for news gathering.

 

I took a slightly different tack. I suspected the deep discounts by Sony this season were precipitated by an impending blockbuster introduction. That proved to be the A1. I picked up an A7Riv and an A7Siii for about the same price as a single A1. That gives me superlative 4Kp60 (600 Mb/s) video, for which I'm paid, and a backup which can do everything else too.

I ordered one from a local store in Denver and the other from my Canadian supplier. The Canadian store told me that demand is so high that Sony won't meet the first wave and is asking, in Canada, for proof of Sony Professional Support membership for initial orders. I haven't heard of that happening in the US, but had to supply my SPS number with my order.

 

I've preordered certain popular from big, online NYC retailers and just missed being in the top-200, or something like that and had to either wait for the second wave OR, in at least one case, buy locally.

 

Apparently, initial demand is very high.

Update, Sony PRO Support contacted me and asked me to fill in a form, if I'd ordered an a1. The form was mainly asking where in the US I'd ordered my a1 and they wanted the order number so that they could give it priority.