I am 55 years old and I have never even spent $6,000 on a car. Puts things in perspective. (although I will admit I have spent over $5,000 a piece on three different lenses)
I think the use cases most people are missing are concert photography which is traditionally a nightmare with he flickering potentionally mismatched lights and photojournalism with the silent shutter at artificial lighting.
@@TonyAndChelsea As a wedding photographer, I'd definitely add weddings to the list of genres for which the a9 iii is ideal. The resolution is high enough, silence is much appreciated and awful LED lighting that gives me terrible banding even with my original a9 is super common in reception venues and even churches nowadays.
Great job Tony and Chelsea comparing this camera to the Z8/Z9 for wildlife. As an amateur, I'm sticking with my Z7 (mark 1) and Z9 for the foreseeable future.
I think that's kinda the point - to be able to have so many frames that it's basically like being able to pull a super high resolution RAW file from video. As Tony says, one will undoubtedly get images that are a little better because you can cherry pick the very best positioning of everything when shooting fast action like running dogs, flying birds, batters swinging at a ball, etc.
In between sensor read out speed, dynamic range, pixelcount, weight, size, cost and lens options, Nikon is back in the driver seat. Z8 is more than 2k$ less and offers the best of all.
The A9 III autofocus is impressive though. It probably depends, if your style is animals in natural wild action, the A9 might be better, whereas if you like shooting e.g. birds sitting in trees, then it doesn't matter of course. The A9 III seems also geared more towards professionals, such as event photographers, who don't want to suffer from LED light banding (as they would do with e.g. Z9 or any other conventional sensor camera). Or pros who shoot people outdoors and benefit from an infinite flash sync speed. Whereas Nikon seems to look after retired hobbyists (at least those who shoot after birds in their spare time). Hence also all their retro nostalgia stuff (which has horrible ergonomics a pro wouldn't accept, but that's OK for the intended elderly hobbyist target customer segment).
@@tubularificationedlol completely disagree with the last paragraph. For one plenty or professionals use Nikon. Secondly, ZF appeals to younger demographic. I’m not elderly, neither are my friends yet it seems everyone wants a ZF
@@livejames9374 yes sure, there are also hipsters, i.e. younger by definition, but I always assumed they rather want the "cool" film era stuff, like old film SLRs from the 60s to the 90s. Or at most these now super cheap, used DSLRs from the past two decades? Because they are so cheap but interesting toys to get one's hands on. Such hipsters are never pixel peeper nerds, so old stuff is cool enough for them.
@@tubularificationed am not here for argument but if you think 250 base iso is great then you are an amateur already . You talk about infinite sync well above 16000th of seconds you scant see nothing even your subjects and there are couple of cameras that can go that far without sacrificing base iso and dynamic range . If you shoot people tell me which strobe can sync at 50000th of seconds? Needles to speak of 80th k ? Tell me one thing the A9iii is best at shooting?
It’s hard to have an actual review of a camera if you can’t dive into the raw files. I love the tech and can’t wait to see how it evolves in the future, and filters down to other less expensive camera models over time.
Great review guys. After shooting with the A7R5 with 60MP I would find it difficult to go back to 24MP. I'm finding shooting slightly wide and cropping is almost essentially with fast moving wildlife when there is only one take. At least for me 🙂
Why do you show comparisons at 800-900% zoom? I get that you're trying to show your subjects up close, but I don't get it. What do the pics look like at 100% crop? At first, I was looking at your examples and thinking WOW my R5 produces significantly cleaner and more detailed images....then I saw the magnification level.. LOL
I see many people waiting for the A1 II or even an a9 IV in hopes of getting the global shutter AND higher resolution. For kids, pets, sports, weddings, concerts, journalism and other use cases where MP isn't as important, this is perfect. But for wildlife, art, etc, it's not enough MP! When you start cropping and enlarging images, the quality decreases very quickly.
Who likes to sit behind a screen for hours and select a few pictures from a bazillion and than trash the rest of the bazillion? If spending hours behind a screen is your thing. The a9III is your camera. I loved my D700. Grab it, go on a trip. Archived the pictures, deleted the few redundant pictures and maybe crop a few. That was fun, because I love the being outside part of the hobby.
Great review and thanks. There’s no way I am going to pop $6,000 for a second body I will only pull out on special occasions. I agree with all the comments about a higher pixel count and am waiting for the R5 II, but the lower pixel R6 II often gets the call because I just enjoy using it more than my current R5 I.
I think this is such an honest review, thanks! (And I would love to see a dog-shoot (or other fast animal) comaprisations between the Nikon Z9, Canon R3 and Sony A1 camera's)
When comparing the Nikon z9 and Sony A9 III at 07:00 (flying bird), it is more than the resolution making the Nikon better. The Sony A9 III has a lot of more noise in the pictures. In other words the ISO sensitivity is a lot better in the Nikon than the Sony.
A9iii seems to be behind with generating a clean image considering noise and dynamic range. But that’s to be expected since it has a global shutter. Similarly stacked sensors aren’t quite as clean as non-stacked but it seems to a much smaller degree. I think the lens has something to do with it as well.
I checked the comments section, but I can't see anyone complaining about the HDR video. I watch this on a Macbbok Pro 14 M1, and besides the fact that the screen gets so bright on the video even though I have the sdr brightness set to half or lower (pretty dim, as this is comfortable for me). It also looks a bit like an iPhone video. And then there are bits like when you show a screen recording of your computer that's sdr, and you put an overlay of the Adorama link at the bottom that's so bright. It's a bit inconsistent on which parts of the video gets bright. The Adorama link is too bright even when you have it over the HDR video where you are in the picture. This is only my opinion, but I feel like this HDR thing lowered the video quality compared to the older videos you produced. It's either your editing is not right (at least for now, cuz HDR movies look good though) or this is not really for youtube (not sure). Take this as you will, it's just a feedback.
Yeah we're still learning HDR but we're doing it so we can teach the usage. It's difficult because screens have different capabilities so your screen might have more contrast than what I edited it on. I probably need a higher quality monitor.
It's nice to hear the reason why you are doing it. Thanks @@TonyAndChelsea ! I hope with time you get it right, because if there are specific uses cases for HDR, it's nice to see it as intended on a monitor that is capable of good HDR (and these screens are getting better and more accessible as years go on). Keep up the great work!
please keep uploading in HDR, it's much much better than just regular videos. To fix the overly bright text issue you just need to set the brightness level for graphics. And in terms of overexposed skies that look almost white and very bright - you can just add a custom curve the particular clip and roll it off manually so it stays consistent with other parts of the scene. MacBook Pro screen is more than good enough for HDR grading, just make sure you grade it in HDR Video P3-ST 2084 mode (in system settings)@@TonyAndChelsea
HDR video! I'd love to have this camera to compliment my A7RV, but I only use third-party lenses so I wouldn't even be able to use it properly, assuming the 15fps limit still exists
I would take No Mechanical Shutter over Not fit for purpse for Wild Life Global Shutter ..now pass me my Z8 which can also do 180 Shots in 1.5 Secs but at ISO 64
Where there is no review of canon 200-800 lens? That is one of the most interesting lenses which is sharp all the way from 200mm to 800mm without having to use teleconverter. These high end lenses are great but very handful number of people can afford that lens.
I am not saying this is not good. With ingesting that much data, they should include internal storage like the Hasselblad X2D. They could really use that for the buffer. It could write to that much faster then transfer to the cards.
@@ktcool4660 one can hope however, I think he said he only got like 180 shots, which was a little over one second and it took nine seconds for the buffer to clear. I don’t think “insanely fast” cards are going to help there. It is a matter of math. If once you fill the buffer which is under two seconds and under 200 frames and then it takes nine seconds to clear the buffer, “insanely fast” cards aren’t the solution. It sounds like a throughput issue, aka design flaw. Again, I am not saying this is a bad camera, it was just not properly designed. If it were a SoC (System on a Chip), everything would be on the chip, transfer speeds would be fast. Put the buffer there. Then as the buffer fills, automatically send the buffer to the “insanely fast” cards. It is engineering. It is math.
@@michaelsurratt9593 I don't think internal SSD is going solve the buffering under two seconds. It's need more RAM. With a fast CF express card you can quickly clear the buffer.
Wow! 4K hdr video, not bad. If possible, it would be interesting to see the comparison z9 vs. a9iii video autofocus in low light and in straight back light. The image stabilizer is also interested in comparison, even with 180/200-600 lenses. The animal's eye autofocus comparison is also of interest, now that A1 and A7S3 can't do it at all.
24MP is not great for wildlife photography at all. Look at zoom pictures like you are handling a cheap camera compared to Z9. Not regret buying R5 and R6 II during this Black Friday :)
He was zooming in 800% lol. Who does that. Just saw this latest youtube video.. Sony a9iii pre capture ..on sudhir sriram photography - holly cow i regret buying ar5 for wildlife photography
Wow!!!! I would love to catch a stroke of lightning…usually Timelapse for the show..but occasionally just time it, thank you for the info! Shooting a Rugby tournament would be a nitemare for culling the photos
It should be illegal to sell a camera with card system as expensive as the camera itself. 1300dollar for a card which is slower than competitor with 1/4 of storage and 3-4 times expensive. A pro must have at least 2 or three set of cards that means Sony system will cost 4000-5000 USD more than competition and then you get about 1/3rd or 1/4th of total storage size.
When people use the 'so many amazing pictures have been taken without feature x and y' I always reply "so much amazing houses and buildings have been built before electricity, but that doesn't make the electric screwdriver a useless, pointless excessive invention"
Time -where do we get time to evaluate 4000 photos for one shot , and procrastinate over which is the right shot , and its highly possible the shot u like is not perfectly in focus , im not to sure about this .
Agree. I could honestly NEVER see myself using 120fps. I have a hard enough time shooting my sports assignments at 30fps and slow it down to 15 or 20 depending on the body. That's even a lot to dig through on the fly while on a deadline. But I guess it's a fun option to have and to each their own. Just speaking from my personal pov.
@@TonyAndChelsea So, have you asked Adobe to put AI culling in their software? Why not? I've often thought that...why should I cull out all the stinkers.
There is one big problem with the 120 per sec A9. I shot barrel racing the other day and had over 10,000 photos to go through. Too many for me to go through. 🙂
It felt like bragging rights trumped rote functional advances on this particular release. Not many will be shelling out the $$$ to make this a "second camera", def a sports-focused camera as intended. Love seeing Sony continuing to innovate but this was not as colossal a release as I was expecting the A9iii to be. 24mp is too small for me now, I personally need at least 33, my A7iv just gets me there, but compressed 40-50 would be my personal sweet spot. Hoping the A75 is a 50mp that can be downsized to 25-30mp in camera. Great review, thanks.
Ive been torn on upgrading from a7rIII to a9III or A1. I do portraits and afl sports and rIII really struggles in sport. After watching this video i think i will go for the cheaper A1 as its on special right now 7.5k AUD vs $9999 aud for a9III not accounting for fact i would need those super expensive cards on top of that price and probably a cpl of extra batteries for a9III to
I capture predominately in low-light events so this would be right up my alley. I don't do enough landscape stuff to need ISO 100. However I absolutely don't need 120fps. I shoot usually at 5-10fps because culling after isn't fun every time I do burst.
You can develop a good strategy for culling. I did for selecting a few keepers from tonnes of 20fps shooting on my R5. 1 - use a 32" 4k monitor, these can be had ofr $350 now. 2 - use an image previewer, eg Irfanview set to 200 to 300% as defalult play back. Most times critters are smaller in the frake, and in a burst of 20, only 2 to 4 images of the 20 might be truely sharp around the eye when using lower shutter speeds 3 - clear your recycle / trash folder 4 - move the RAWs to another folder 5 - tap though the jpegs at speed and hit delete (non permanent delete) for any image you want to keep. If you 'delete' more than you need, meh 6 - go to your recycle / trash folder and move those images out to the RAWs folder 7 - permanent delete the remaining jpegs 8 - go to the RAW folder and permanent delete all raws that dont have a paired jpeg file. You will find it easy to delete huge slabs of sequences, eg 50 RAWs at a time that do not have a jpeg. I can cull 2000-3000 images in 1.5hrs this way. There might be only 50 keepers.
ChelTone you should try the a9iii’s heif files in your next test. Much lighter on the disk space. Unfortunately PhotoMechanic crawls with heif, although Lightroom is not too bad with them. JPEG file sizes with almost raw control of highlight protection and shadow recovery.
It would help to stop pretending that there is only one "perfect image". If a portrait session includes the furry members of the family. the emotional connection between everyone is much more important than having the ears look like bunny ears. The only person who will care is the photography equipment geek who is busy passing g.a.s.
I think it is an amazing bit of kit but are we at a stage where 30fps is not good enough.. we need to find a balance as the storage issues are fundamentally too expensive
I am going to pass but I can see many concert photogs picking up one. At the last music festival I noticed many pro concert photogs using Canon R3 which tells me 24mp is enough for concert photography. I doubt many birders who are used to 40+ MP full frame cameras are willing to step down to 24MP these days.
I'd take a guess that video AF performance may be user error. I find that shift sensitivity for focus in video works better at 4 than at max being 5... what sony need to do is put out videos with sony development specialists showing best af parametres in different scenarios. There's no way the A9iii will have average video AF when my A7iv has decent AF performance
Maybe, but every time I've tried tweaking those settings I only make things worse. They really need to work on putting the AUTO in autofocus and automatically recognize and adjust to different scenarios.
It could be just a first-generation firmware issue. These cameras are so advanced that calling it firmware is questionable 🤣. They are full-fledged multicore computers running advanced AI algorithms. The days of microcontrollers running fuzzy logic are over.
Any photos where you use a faster lens and try to shoot near that 1/80000 second shutter speed? I'd imagine the sharpness in motion (like a hummingbirds wing) would be untouchable.
I can't think of anything. Maybe something scientific, but nothing really moves fast enough to require 1/80000, and absolutely freezing motion isn't usually a good thing even for hummingbirds. I'm happy with 1/8000 even in the most extreme circumstances.
@@TonyAndChelsea Fair enough. I've seen somewhat sharp 1/8000 shots of hummingbird wings at the top of their figure 8 pattern where it is the slowest, but never razor sharp, I imagine going to 1/10th of that might do it. Or maybe something like 1/80000 at 120 shots per second to get the tip of a bullwhip as it breaks the speed of sound, or even of a bullet going by at a fixed focus could be cool.
The still image you showed at the 2:01 mark was soft as hell and certainly a missed focus shot. The buffer for fast action burst shooting is horrible and with a 9 second downtime to clear the buffer? That is a game ender for wildlife shooters. The image you used as an example of cropping heavily with the Gull, you need to start with an actual sharp image first. I regularly crop in 100% and retail insane level of detail with the Z9. That example was a cherry picked soft image that doesn't show or support the actual quality of a 45MP Z9 image fully cropped. The Z9 has video eye AF and if you use the right settings, there is no issue of lost AF like you are witnessing with the A9III. The settings you should be using are AF-F with Auto Area AF mode and Bird SD for birds and Animal SD for anything else. That's also a VERY expensive recommendation to buy the A9III as a 2nd body to just sit in the bad for a small use case for wildlife. Very few will buy a $6,000 camera to use 5 or 10% of the time with a main body A1 or Z9 high MP body.
Just saw this latest youtube video titled. Sony a9iii Pre capture ..on sudhir sriram photography - holly cow i regret buying ar5 for wildlife photography
If you compare a 24 mp photo from any camera at the same dimensions as a 50 mp photo, it will always looks less sharp. You are just stretching the pixels more of the 24 mp sensor. It has nothing to do with the sensor or camera brand. Compare an A7II with the the A1 and you get the same different result in sharpness.
I don't know if it's the youtube compression but I keep seeing that it has a problem with the image quality. Something is off. Still, I believe the camera is the future, and Canon and Nikon are for a world of pain.
TN mentioned in the comments that he accidentally bumped the exposure compensation so some of the images were blown out. But perhaps you saw something else.
How this cfexpress type A cards are expensive, a twice as fast 1TB card from Prograde (generation 4, 3.4GB/s) costs just $399 in B&H a Silicon Power generation 3.0 (1.8GB/s) just $172, the AV PRO gen 3 1.7GB/s is $269.
Instead of the convertor can't the A9III do auto apc mode like the a7IV? or other A series cameras I just use a button on the lens as a quick swap when I need the extra length. Quick simple and less weight than a convertor.
At 24 mpix sensor aps-c mode will give you only 10 mpix. Not enough most of times. At A7IV you will get 14 mpix - so-so OK. Most reasonable to use APS-C mode with joy and versatility is with 50mpix A1 - there you will get nice detailed 26 mpix cropped stills.
As highlighted in this video 1.Only has a 24mp sensor 2.The price..... 3.Noise is bad comparatively to other 24mp sensors 4.The PRICE !!! 5. Dynamic range is poor based on other reviews. Its good that its out, but its not worth it until they address the above issues and the price comes down. The price is disappointing because the hobby based camera market is already struggling to stay alive and to bring out cameras at this price point just makes them largely unobtainable by most casual photographers especially when you factor in the cost of living issues we are seeing due to inflation.
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Didn't really miss focus. Some of the shots are cropped, but 65" is a big screen. At best you'll see 67 DPI, limited by the 4k video quality. If more people were using big screens I'd probably switch to 8k.
Look at the photos again. In the 30 FPS photo, one real leg is awkwardly touching the ground and her front paws are bent awkwardly. At 120 FPS, I caught her completely in the air. There's diminishing returns, for sure. But if you're a perfectionist, higher FPS gives you more perfect options in unposed scenarios.
@@TonyAndChelsea I guess Im not a perfectionist lol. didn't even notice the back leg, I guess I am in the diminishing returns camp. both are very nice.
Do people really _need_ a $6000 camera body to take pics of birdies? Man, everybody is totally full of sht about the economy being 'horrible' if they are making cameras like this and people are actually buying them.
Yes and no. They gave us a production camera part-way through the production of this. Most of the dog photos are production, most of the bird photos are pre-production, but honestly I couldn't tell any difference.
😂😂😂 24mp FF sensor is never found to be an ultimate wildlife body unless you're shooting at a zoo. These are the two of claims you get with non wildlife shooters
You know, when we get global shutters doing 200+ fps the same arguments will be made: why do we need 200 fps when we had 120? Will we still be arguing that you can get just the perfect moment that 120 just couldn’t get us? And on and on and on... When is the frame rate high enough? Will it ever be high enough? Putting data transfer speeds aside, why not be able to capture a shot every microsecond so we can be sure we get juuuuust the absolutely perfect moment that nothing less can provide? And then we will have the impossible time-consuming chore of culling through million of photos because we held the shutter button down for a few seconds. 😏 At what point do other aspects of sensor performance get priority over continuing to increase the video and still photography fps?
Yea. As much as not missing the moment. But 120fps seems reallly silly. I cant imagine myself sitting behind my computer looking a thousand or many hundreds of the almost same photo n needing to go thru them and cherry pick. Oh yes. Its about the perfect moment n best shot u can choose. But come on. At this point its Too much and too time consuming. Its suppose to make things easier and quicker. I would say 30 or even 60 fps is cap. 120fps is just wow but no. Thanks
I have Nikon gear - Z8 plus full lens lineup including my 600mm 6.3. But I also have the OM1/150-400mm 4.5 TC combo, capable of shooting 50 fps raw and including pro-capture. Here’s the thing. I NEVER shoot 50 fps on the OM1, even using pro-capture. Why? I’ve tried it and, frankly, it’s a royal pain in the ass. Simply too many photos, mostly useless (even though the OM1 AF is on par with Sony). NOBODY needs 50 or 120 fps except one type of photographer - that photographer is the pro (and I mean pro, not amateur) sports photographer, mainly shooting JPEGs to get his/her “money” shots into his employer ASAP. For all others, it’s supreme overkill. I don’t say that because I’m anti-Sony. It’s clearly a great camera. But for 99% of photographers it’s overpriced and useless. You won’t lose shots shooting 5, 10, 15 or 30 fps. Five years ago, 8-10 was incredibly fast. Did I mention anything above 20-25 fps is a royal pain in the ass.
A9iii as a second camera for 6000$? These birds better be paying for those photos 😂
8:00 I know plenty of people have much more money to spend on gear than me but saying a $6k camera makes a good second camera really cracked me up😊
8:05
If you say this to people not into photography they will give you a stare :)
I am 55 years old and I have never even spent $6,000 on a car. Puts things in perspective. (although I will admit I have spent over $5,000 a piece on three different lenses)
well. There are many people who earn way more than 6k a mth. So… to those people a 6k camera that could last afew years for them is cheap.
I think the use cases most people are missing are concert photography which is traditionally a nightmare with he flickering potentionally mismatched lights and photojournalism with the silent shutter at artificial lighting.
Yeah I think the biggest win is for concert photography.
In general, any kind of photography that involves flickering lights and moving elements that are meant to be frozen or not distorted.
@@TonyAndChelsea As a wedding photographer, I'd definitely add weddings to the list of genres for which the a9 iii is ideal. The resolution is high enough, silence is much appreciated and awful LED lighting that gives me terrible banding even with my original a9 is super common in reception venues and even churches nowadays.
This case scenario is the reason I'm considering it
Tony with his camouflaged lens and bright red jacket. No wonder the birds are far away.
Great job Tony and Chelsea comparing this camera to the Z8/Z9 for wildlife. As an amateur, I'm sticking with my Z7 (mark 1) and Z9 for the foreseeable future.
Don't you think we've reached a point with these insane shutter speeds where we should simply call this filming?
I think that's kinda the point - to be able to have so many frames that it's basically like being able to pull a super high resolution RAW file from video. As Tony says, one will undoubtedly get images that are a little better because you can cherry pick the very best positioning of everything when shooting fast action like running dogs, flying birds, batters swinging at a ball, etc.
Sony didn't have animal eye autofocus in video before the A9III?? That's not correct
The more I watch the Sony A9iii reviews the more the Nikon Z9 looks like the perfect camera.
In between sensor read out speed, dynamic range, pixelcount, weight, size, cost and lens options, Nikon is back in the driver seat. Z8 is more than 2k$ less and offers the best of all.
The A9 III autofocus is impressive though. It probably depends, if your style is animals in natural wild action, the A9 might be better, whereas if you like shooting e.g. birds sitting in trees, then it doesn't matter of course.
The A9 III seems also geared more towards professionals, such as event photographers, who don't want to suffer from LED light banding (as they would do with e.g. Z9 or any other conventional sensor camera).
Or pros who shoot people outdoors and benefit from an infinite flash sync speed.
Whereas Nikon seems to look after retired hobbyists (at least those who shoot after birds in their spare time). Hence also all their retro nostalgia stuff (which has horrible ergonomics a pro wouldn't accept, but that's OK for the intended elderly hobbyist target customer segment).
@@tubularificationedlol completely disagree with the last paragraph. For one plenty or professionals use Nikon. Secondly, ZF appeals to younger demographic. I’m not elderly, neither are my friends yet it seems everyone wants a ZF
@@livejames9374 yes sure, there are also hipsters, i.e. younger by definition, but I always assumed they rather want the "cool" film era stuff, like old film SLRs from the 60s to the 90s.
Or at most these now super cheap, used DSLRs from the past two decades? Because they are so cheap but interesting toys to get one's hands on.
Such hipsters are never pixel peeper nerds, so old stuff is cool enough for them.
@@tubularificationed am not here for argument but if you think 250 base iso is great then you are an amateur already . You talk about infinite sync well above 16000th of seconds you scant see nothing even your subjects and there are couple of cameras that can go that far without sacrificing base iso and dynamic range .
If you shoot people tell me which strobe can sync at 50000th of seconds? Needles to speak of 80th k ?
Tell me one thing the A9iii is best at shooting?
It’s hard to have an actual review of a camera if you can’t dive into the raw files.
I love the tech and can’t wait to see how it evolves in the future, and filters down to other less expensive camera models over time.
Great review guys. After shooting with the A7R5 with 60MP I would find it difficult to go back to 24MP. I'm finding shooting slightly wide and cropping is almost essentially with fast moving wildlife when there is only one take. At least for me 🙂
Just saw this latest youtube video.. Sony a9iii ore capture ..on sudhir sriram photography - holly cow i regret buying ar5 for wildlife photography
Why do you show comparisons at 800-900% zoom? I get that you're trying to show your subjects up close, but I don't get it. What do the pics look like at 100% crop? At first, I was looking at your examples and thinking WOW my R5 produces significantly cleaner and more detailed images....then I saw the magnification level.. LOL
I see many people waiting for the A1 II or even an a9 IV in hopes of getting the global shutter AND higher resolution.
For kids, pets, sports, weddings, concerts, journalism and other use cases where MP isn't as important, this is perfect.
But for wildlife, art, etc, it's not enough MP! When you start cropping and enlarging images, the quality decreases very quickly.
Who likes to sit behind a screen for hours and select a few pictures from a bazillion and than trash the rest of the bazillion? If spending hours behind a screen is your thing. The a9III is your camera. I loved my D700. Grab it, go on a trip. Archived the pictures, deleted the few redundant pictures and maybe crop a few. That was fun, because I love the being outside part of the hobby.
Great review and thanks. There’s no way I am going to pop $6,000 for a second body I will only pull out on special occasions. I agree with all the comments about a higher pixel count and am waiting for the R5 II, but the lower pixel R6 II often gets the call because I just enjoy using it more than my current R5 I.
I think this is such an honest review, thanks! (And I would love to see a dog-shoot (or other fast animal) comaprisations between the Nikon Z9, Canon R3 and Sony A1 camera's)
I love when Tony just says, "bye" and the video instantly ends😂
Great video!!
When comparing the Nikon z9 and Sony A9 III at 07:00 (flying bird), it is more than the resolution making the Nikon better. The Sony A9 III has a lot of more noise in the pictures. In other words the ISO sensitivity is a lot better in the Nikon than the Sony.
A9iii seems to be behind with generating a clean image considering noise and dynamic range. But that’s to be expected since it has a global shutter. Similarly stacked sensors aren’t quite as clean as non-stacked but it seems to a much smaller degree. I think the lens has something to do with it as well.
I checked the comments section, but I can't see anyone complaining about the HDR video. I watch this on a Macbbok Pro 14 M1, and besides the fact that the screen gets so bright on the video even though I have the sdr brightness set to half or lower (pretty dim, as this is comfortable for me). It also looks a bit like an iPhone video. And then there are bits like when you show a screen recording of your computer that's sdr, and you put an overlay of the Adorama link at the bottom that's so bright. It's a bit inconsistent on which parts of the video gets bright. The Adorama link is too bright even when you have it over the HDR video where you are in the picture.
This is only my opinion, but I feel like this HDR thing lowered the video quality compared to the older videos you produced. It's either your editing is not right (at least for now, cuz HDR movies look good though) or this is not really for youtube (not sure). Take this as you will, it's just a feedback.
Yeah we're still learning HDR but we're doing it so we can teach the usage. It's difficult because screens have different capabilities so your screen might have more contrast than what I edited it on. I probably need a higher quality monitor.
It's nice to hear the reason why you are doing it. Thanks @@TonyAndChelsea ! I hope with time you get it right, because if there are specific uses cases for HDR, it's nice to see it as intended on a monitor that is capable of good HDR (and these screens are getting better and more accessible as years go on).
Keep up the great work!
please keep uploading in HDR, it's much much better than just regular videos.
To fix the overly bright text issue you just need to set the brightness level for graphics.
And in terms of overexposed skies that look almost white and very bright - you can just add a custom curve the particular clip and roll it off manually so it stays consistent with other parts of the scene.
MacBook Pro screen is more than good enough for HDR grading, just make sure you grade it in HDR Video P3-ST 2084 mode (in system settings)@@TonyAndChelsea
HDR video! I'd love to have this camera to compliment my A7RV, but I only use third-party lenses so I wouldn't even be able to use it properly, assuming the 15fps limit still exists
I have animal / person eye-AF (amongst other stuff) in video on the A6700 and it's really quite amazing!
8:35
I want those features in my a1!!
I would take No Mechanical Shutter over Not fit for purpse for Wild Life Global Shutter ..now pass me my Z8 which can also do 180 Shots in 1.5 Secs but at ISO 64
but at 11mp jpg?
Where there is no review of canon 200-800 lens? That is one of the most interesting lenses which is sharp all the way from 200mm to 800mm without having to use teleconverter. These high end lenses are great but very handful number of people can afford that lens.
I pre-ordered it but it's not yet shipping
I am not saying this is not good. With ingesting that much data, they should include internal storage like the Hasselblad X2D. They could really use that for the buffer. It could write to that much faster then transfer to the cards.
Yeah absolutely
or may be uses insanely fast type b cf express cards which are only going to get faster.
@@ktcool4660 one can hope however, I think he said he only got like 180 shots, which was a little over one second and it took nine seconds for the buffer to clear. I don’t think “insanely fast” cards are going to help there. It is a matter of math. If once you fill the buffer which is under two seconds and under 200 frames and then it takes nine seconds to clear the buffer, “insanely fast” cards aren’t the solution. It sounds like a throughput issue, aka design flaw. Again, I am not saying this is a bad camera, it was just not properly designed. If it were a SoC (System on a Chip), everything would be on the chip, transfer speeds would be fast. Put the buffer there. Then as the buffer fills, automatically send the buffer to the “insanely fast” cards. It is engineering. It is math.
@@michaelsurratt9593 I don't think internal SSD is going solve the buffering under two seconds. It's need more RAM. With a fast CF express card you can quickly clear the buffer.
@@ktcool4660 you may think what you want
i wish that screen were on everything, best of both worlds, also this camera is so awesome and my only complaint is no type b cfexpress
Wow! 4K hdr video, not bad. If possible, it would be interesting to see the comparison z9 vs. a9iii video autofocus in low light and in straight back light. The image stabilizer is also interested in comparison, even with 180/200-600 lenses. The animal's eye autofocus comparison is also of interest, now that A1 and A7S3 can't do it at all.
24MP is not great for wildlife photography at all. Look at zoom pictures like you are handling a cheap camera compared to Z9. Not regret buying R5 and R6 II during this Black Friday :)
He was zooming in 800% lol. Who does that. Just saw this latest youtube video.. Sony a9iii pre capture ..on sudhir sriram photography - holly cow i regret buying ar5 for wildlife photography
Can we talk for a second about how gorgeous this video is? 4K 60p HDR my eyeballs are happily melting.
Okay, carry on…
Wow!!!! I would love to catch a stroke of lightning…usually Timelapse for the show..but occasionally just time it, thank you for the info! Shooting a Rugby tournament would be a nitemare for culling the photos
I am erring on not replacing my A1 with the A9III . An addition would be nice but for 6K video superb of course . 👍
Would love to have that camera, but in Australia the price is AU$10,499.00. I will have to stay with the A7R1V.
It should be illegal to sell a camera with card system as expensive as the camera itself. 1300dollar for a card which is slower than competitor with 1/4 of storage and 3-4 times expensive. A pro must have at least 2 or three set of cards that means Sony system will cost 4000-5000 USD more than competition and then you get about 1/3rd or 1/4th of total storage size.
I love photography
When people use the 'so many amazing pictures have been taken without feature x and y' I always reply "so much amazing houses and buildings have been built before electricity, but that doesn't make the electric screwdriver a useless, pointless excessive invention"
Time -where do we get time to evaluate 4000 photos for one shot , and procrastinate over which is the right shot , and its highly possible the shot u like is not perfectly in focus , im not to sure about this .
Yeah we need Lightroom to do some AI culling.
Agree. I could honestly NEVER see myself using 120fps. I have a hard enough time shooting my sports assignments at 30fps and slow it down to 15 or 20 depending on the body. That's even a lot to dig through on the fly while on a deadline. But I guess it's a fun option to have and to each their own. Just speaking from my personal pov.
@@TonyAndChelsea That's a good idea for sure.
@@TonyAndChelsea So, have you asked Adobe to put AI culling in their software? Why not? I've often thought that...why should I cull out all the stinkers.
There is one big problem with the 120 per sec A9. I shot barrel racing the other day and had over 10,000 photos to go through. Too many for me to go through. 🙂
It felt like bragging rights trumped rote functional advances on this particular release. Not many will be shelling out the $$$ to make this a "second camera", def a sports-focused camera as intended. Love seeing Sony continuing to innovate but this was not as colossal a release as I was expecting the A9iii to be. 24mp is too small for me now, I personally need at least 33, my A7iv just gets me there, but compressed 40-50 would be my personal sweet spot. Hoping the A75 is a 50mp that can be downsized to 25-30mp in camera. Great review, thanks.
Ive been torn on upgrading from a7rIII to a9III or A1. I do portraits and afl sports and rIII really struggles in sport. After watching this video i think i will go for the cheaper A1 as its on special right now 7.5k AUD vs $9999 aud for a9III not accounting for fact i would need those super expensive cards on top of that price and probably a cpl of extra batteries for a9III to
I love my mark III . But damn . Wish canon lends were alittle more affordable
I think A1 ii will have a global shutter and with 50MP, it will be an ultimate wildlife camera
4500 Euro/ Z8 vs. 7000 Euro/A9III = Z8!!!!
I capture predominately in low-light events so this would be right up my alley. I don't do enough landscape stuff to need ISO 100. However I absolutely don't need 120fps. I shoot usually at 5-10fps because culling after isn't fun every time I do burst.
there is TON of camera out there for your needs.
@@rosetzu_nagasawa I know. I wasn't seeking advice
You can develop a good strategy for culling. I did for selecting a few keepers from tonnes of 20fps shooting on my R5.
1 - use a 32" 4k monitor, these can be had ofr $350 now.
2 - use an image previewer, eg Irfanview set to 200 to 300% as defalult play back. Most times critters are smaller in the frake, and in a burst of 20, only 2 to 4 images of the 20 might be truely sharp around the eye when using lower shutter speeds
3 - clear your recycle / trash folder
4 - move the RAWs to another folder
5 - tap though the jpegs at speed and hit delete (non permanent delete) for any image you want to keep. If you 'delete' more than you need, meh
6 - go to your recycle / trash folder and move those images out to the RAWs folder
7 - permanent delete the remaining jpegs
8 - go to the RAW folder and permanent delete all raws that dont have a paired jpeg file. You will find it easy to delete huge slabs of sequences, eg 50 RAWs at a time that do not have a jpeg.
I can cull 2000-3000 images in 1.5hrs this way. There might be only 50 keepers.
@@nordic5490 I didn't ask for help
ChelTone you should try the a9iii’s heif files in your next test. Much lighter on the disk space. Unfortunately PhotoMechanic crawls with heif, although Lightroom is not too bad with them. JPEG file sizes with almost raw control of highlight protection and shadow recovery.
The 1920GB cards cost as much as my camera body 😂
Any guesses on if/when Canon and Sony will bring out a 400 2.8 TC and a 600 4.0 TC?
Canon maybe never, Sony possibly in a couple of years?
@@phelanwolf6747 not good for canon shooters.
I just got the a7 iv a year ago. Now i need this 😂. Very impressive.
Nice review. Raises more questions. I would haven like to see more wildlife and less . Dogs are more predictable in a domestic setting
Tony, which system do you prefer for wildlife still photography - Nikon, Sony, or Canon? Thanks, JP
It would help to stop pretending that there is only one "perfect image". If a portrait session includes the furry members of the family. the emotional connection between everyone is much more important than having the ears look like bunny ears. The only person who will care is the photography equipment geek who is busy passing g.a.s.
I think it is an amazing bit of kit but are we at a stage where 30fps is not good enough.. we need to find a balance as the storage issues are fundamentally too expensive
I am going to pass but I can see many concert photogs picking up one. At the last music festival I noticed many pro concert photogs using Canon R3 which tells me 24mp is enough for concert photography. I doubt many birders who are used to 40+ MP full frame cameras are willing to step down to 24MP these days.
The picture quality isn't quite what I expected.
Many of the shots they have zoomed in at like 800%. I have no idea why...not realistic at all.
Thank you for the videos!
My pleasure!
Great review, but I won’t buy it because it isn’t worth a 6k camera due to those global shutter and fast AF video features.
@7:23 so you're saying the a higher shutter speed and a drop from F4 to F6.3 results in less detail?? Respectfully, what am I missing here?
HDR content looking good!
A1 mk2 global shutter would be EPIC
I'd take a guess that video AF performance may be user error. I find that shift sensitivity for focus in video works better at 4 than at max being 5... what sony need to do is put out videos with sony development specialists showing best af parametres in different scenarios. There's no way the A9iii will have average video AF when my A7iv has decent AF performance
Maybe, but every time I've tried tweaking those settings I only make things worse. They really need to work on putting the AUTO in autofocus and automatically recognize and adjust to different scenarios.
It could be just a first-generation firmware issue. These cameras are so advanced that calling it firmware is questionable 🤣. They are full-fledged multicore computers running advanced AI algorithms. The days of microcontrollers running fuzzy logic are over.
I am sticking with my A1. No point of having 120fps if the definition of the images is not as good. Quality over quantity
Need more dynamic range.
When you missed the hawk did you have the focusing mode set to spot, or something else ???
I would expect to get good images with the set up you're using what price is the lens your using...
Isnt it amazing how Nikon caught up?
Grande come sempre....... A quando la bella notizia del tuo passaggio a nikon? 😊
Great video. Can you provide some A9iii raw files. Can the focus point be seen with Sony IEDT Viewer software ? Thanks
Where Sony will use the stacked sensor now?
Great video.
Any photos where you use a faster lens and try to shoot near that 1/80000 second shutter speed?
I'd imagine the sharpness in motion (like a hummingbirds wing) would be untouchable.
I can't think of anything. Maybe something scientific, but nothing really moves fast enough to require 1/80000, and absolutely freezing motion isn't usually a good thing even for hummingbirds. I'm happy with 1/8000 even in the most extreme circumstances.
@@TonyAndChelsea Fair enough.
I've seen somewhat sharp 1/8000 shots of hummingbird wings at the top of their figure 8 pattern where it is the slowest, but never razor sharp, I imagine going to 1/10th of that might do it.
Or maybe something like 1/80000 at 120 shots per second to get the tip of a bullwhip as it breaks the speed of sound, or even of a bullet going by at a fixed focus could be cool.
So informative!!
Thanks Frank!! And of course for your filming, stills shooting and editing in this video!
Anytime!
The still image you showed at the 2:01 mark was soft as hell and certainly a missed focus shot. The buffer for fast action burst shooting is horrible and with a 9 second downtime to clear the buffer? That is a game ender for wildlife shooters. The image you used as an example of cropping heavily with the Gull, you need to start with an actual sharp image first. I regularly crop in 100% and retail insane level of detail with the Z9. That example was a cherry picked soft image that doesn't show or support the actual quality of a 45MP Z9 image fully cropped.
The Z9 has video eye AF and if you use the right settings, there is no issue of lost AF like you are witnessing with the A9III. The settings you should be using are AF-F with Auto Area AF mode and Bird SD for birds and Animal SD for anything else.
That's also a VERY expensive recommendation to buy the A9III as a 2nd body to just sit in the bad for a small use case for wildlife. Very few will buy a $6,000 camera to use 5 or 10% of the time with a main body A1 or Z9 high MP body.
Just saw this latest youtube video titled. Sony a9iii Pre capture ..on sudhir sriram photography - holly cow i regret buying ar5 for wildlife photography
If you compare a 24 mp photo from any camera at the same dimensions as a 50 mp photo, it will always looks less sharp. You are just stretching the pixels more of the 24 mp sensor. It has nothing to do with the sensor or camera brand. Compare an A7II with the the A1 and you get the same different result in sharpness.
I don't know if it's the youtube compression but I keep seeing that it has a problem with the image quality. Something is off. Still, I believe the camera is the future, and Canon and Nikon are for a world of pain.
TN mentioned in the comments that he accidentally bumped the exposure compensation so some of the images were blown out. But perhaps you saw something else.
They also are showing comparisons zoomed in WAY TOO MUCH. Some were at 800%.
@@duncangroenewald I did not get it, so it could easily be that.
How this cfexpress type A cards are expensive, a twice as fast 1TB card from Prograde (generation 4, 3.4GB/s) costs just $399 in B&H a Silicon Power generation 3.0 (1.8GB/s) just $172, the AV PRO gen 3 1.7GB/s is $269.
Yeah exactly cfexpress type a absolutely sucks.
The expensive spray and pray camera ...
Instead of the convertor can't the A9III do auto apc mode like the a7IV? or other A series cameras I just use a button on the lens as a quick swap when I need the extra length. Quick simple and less weight than a convertor.
That's the same as cropping in post.
At 24 mpix sensor aps-c mode will give you only 10 mpix. Not enough most of times.
At A7IV you will get 14 mpix - so-so OK.
Most reasonable to use APS-C mode with joy and versatility is with 50mpix A1 - there you will get nice detailed 26 mpix cropped stills.
As highlighted in this video
1.Only has a 24mp sensor
2.The price.....
3.Noise is bad comparatively to other 24mp sensors
4.The PRICE !!!
5. Dynamic range is poor based on other reviews.
Its good that its out, but its not worth it until they address the above issues and the price comes down. The price is disappointing because the hobby based camera market is already struggling to stay alive and to bring out cameras at this price point just makes them largely unobtainable by most casual photographers especially when you factor in the cost of living issues we are seeing due to inflation.
no more high speed sync limit
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Do you have a affiliate link for the tipod ?
What do you use to shoot your video?
Yes it’s fast, but so many of these images have clipped highlights... The dynamic range of this sensor is just plain bad.
This isn't the sensor; I accidentally hit the exposure compensation.
The DR is bad regardless of exposure compensation. I've seen sever reviews and it's just not good.
You might want to do a follow up and call out this point. Most are watching dynamic range and noise with great interest.
A lot of photos look soft on an 65 inch oled TV. Are these badly focussed or is it the new sensor?
Didn't really miss focus. Some of the shots are cropped, but 65" is a big screen. At best you'll see 67 DPI, limited by the 4k video quality. If more people were using big screens I'd probably switch to 8k.
2:13 the comparison is weak. the 30fps shot looked just as good as the 120fps shot. your onw photos deflated the argument for needing 120fps.
Look at the photos again. In the 30 FPS photo, one real leg is awkwardly touching the ground and her front paws are bent awkwardly. At 120 FPS, I caught her completely in the air.
There's diminishing returns, for sure. But if you're a perfectionist, higher FPS gives you more perfect options in unposed scenarios.
@@TonyAndChelsea I guess Im not a perfectionist lol. didn't even notice the back leg, I guess I am in the diminishing returns camp. both are very nice.
Are those memory cards really 1400 dollars?
Yeah
The camera will be prized among press photographers
I don't really agree. We work on deadlines and even the current speed cameras end up with overkill amounts to dig through. At least for me.
Imagine mounting your camera to a lens 😂
It's not a bird photography camera. It's a sports camera. Bird photography cameras are crop sensor cameras.
Those ears! ❤
Wake me up when half this tech 60 fps at 35+ Mpx finds its way in an A7VXX body ..managing 4100 shots in 10 mns cant be fun or practical 😮
Do people really _need_ a $6000 camera body to take pics of birdies?
Man, everybody is totally full of sht about the economy being 'horrible' if they are making cameras like this and people are actually buying them.
For some people, the economy has not improved much. But for many others, the economy is just fine. All these expensive cameras will sell very well.
Imaging getting an a9 to take pics of pets.
Still running pre firmware?
Yes and no. They gave us a production camera part-way through the production of this. Most of the dog photos are production, most of the bird photos are pre-production, but honestly I couldn't tell any difference.
I have 2 A1’s and I want that baby, is that an illness? 😬
Only if you can't get it!
😂😂😂 24mp FF sensor is never found to be an ultimate wildlife body unless you're shooting at a zoo. These are the two of claims you get with non wildlife shooters
My Pentax K10D is still the best camera.
$6000 camera to take pictures of your pets 🤔
why not? people spend $15,000 on a 600mm f4 to take photos of birds that have no connection with you or any human being
You know, when we get global shutters doing 200+ fps the same arguments will be made: why do we need 200 fps when we had 120? Will we still be arguing that you can get just the perfect moment that 120 just couldn’t get us? And on and on and on... When is the frame rate high enough? Will it ever be high enough? Putting data transfer speeds aside, why not be able to capture a shot every microsecond so we can be sure we get juuuuust the absolutely perfect moment that nothing less can provide? And then we will have the impossible time-consuming chore of culling through million of photos because we held the shutter button down for a few seconds. 😏 At what point do other aspects of sensor performance get priority over continuing to increase the video and still photography fps?
you are correct sir! lol
Yea. As much as not missing the moment. But 120fps seems reallly silly. I cant imagine myself sitting behind my computer looking a thousand or many hundreds of the almost same photo n needing to go thru them and cherry pick. Oh yes. Its about the perfect moment n best shot u can choose. But come on. At this point its Too much and too time consuming. Its suppose to make things easier and quicker. I would say 30 or even 60 fps is cap. 120fps is just wow but no. Thanks
What about the A7SIII ? Mark Smith seems to shoot every video with it
I thought he was using the A1?
That 120 fps is ridiculous… I can see if you are a serious pro at the Olympics etc.
I have Nikon gear - Z8 plus full lens lineup including my 600mm 6.3. But I also have the OM1/150-400mm 4.5 TC combo, capable of shooting 50 fps raw and including pro-capture.
Here’s the thing. I NEVER shoot 50 fps on the OM1, even using pro-capture. Why? I’ve tried it and, frankly, it’s a royal pain in the ass. Simply too many photos, mostly useless (even though the OM1 AF is on par with Sony).
NOBODY needs 50 or 120 fps except one type of photographer - that photographer is the pro (and I mean pro, not amateur) sports photographer, mainly shooting JPEGs to get his/her “money” shots into his employer ASAP.
For all others, it’s supreme overkill. I don’t say that because I’m anti-Sony. It’s clearly a great camera. But for 99% of photographers it’s overpriced and useless.
You won’t lose shots shooting 5, 10, 15 or 30 fps. Five years ago, 8-10 was incredibly fast.
Did I mention anything above 20-25 fps is a royal pain in the ass.
Only 24mp - no deal.
Calm duck 54