SONY ALPHA 9 II

A game-changer for professional photographers

- James Artaius

To understand the Sony Alpha 9 II, you need to understand that there’s pro shooting and then there’s pro shooting – and this latest Sony flagship full-frame mirrorless camera caters firmly to the latter category of photographer. The A9 II is not the highest-resolution camera you can get; but it’s designed for speed, not resolution. Its two rivals in the pro sports camera stakes aren’t mirrorless models but DSLRs: the Canon EOS-1D X Mark III and the Nikon D6.

All professional photography has its own challenges and requirements. Yet no matter how frenzied a wedding might be, it will never torture your camera’s autofocus the way that photographing Olympic swimmers in action does – and while you might need a decent burst mode to photograph a dance troupe or catwalk model, decent just doesn’t cut it when you’re shooting champion kickboxers or divers.

It’s in the fire of such elite sporting arenas that the Sony Alpha 9 II has been forged. For photographers who don’t shoot fast action professionally, the camera may seem like an incremental update over its predecessor; however, put through the rigors of a professional environment, the A9 II proves just how instrumental its upgrades are.

Key features

The camera uses the same 24.2MP sensor and Bionz X processor as the original A9, yielding an impressive 20fps continuous shooting output with the electronic shutter, 14-bit raw output, 4K video up to 30fps, five-axis in-body image stabilisation and a remarkable autofocus system that can make 60 AF calculations per second.