Silence Is Golden

There’s been a lot of hype about the fast and silent Sony Alpha 9, so what does top sports shooter Bob Martin think after using one?

- Bob Martin

My first experience of the Sony system was with an Alpha 7R II, which offered good quality but was fiddly to use and the viewfinder was ropey. However, I was intrigued by its silent shooting ability. When I saw the Alpha 9 it had a better menu and better view finder, but what really caught my eye was the fact that not only was it a silent camera, but it was a 20fps silent camera. For a sports photographer, silent shooting is invaluable. If you are sitting next to Tiger Woods and you motor drive your camera with a loud whirr, you will quickly be carted off by security. If you are at a snooker game, or cause a runner to have a false start, the same thing will happen. Silent shooting is great for portrait work, too. Take Premier League footballers: they tend to be high-profile, precious types, so if they hear the shutter a few times they will be up and ready to leave. Working silently means that you are telling the subject when you like the picture, not the click of the camera.

Obviously, I don’t want to interfere or ruin the sports I love by my picture taking. There are lots of shots I have been unable to get as I won’t take the risk of clicking the shutter at the wrong time, and the Alpha 9 removes that risk. While it’s nice to have 20fps, to be honest I would have also jumped at 10fps with silent motor drive.

Class glass

It has taken me a while to get used to the Alpha 9, but it’s been quicker than I thought it would as I had already used the Alpha 7. It’s still a different way of shooting, though. To shoot sports, you must be at one with the camera, and not make silly mistakes. Even as a long-established Nikon user, it took time for me to make the jump from the D3S to the D4 and then the D5.