Sony Announces the Alpha A1

Today Sony has officially announced their new flagship body, the Alpha A1. The full press release can be found here and highlights from the specs are below.

• New 50.1-megapixel (approx., effective) full-frame stacked Exmor RS™ CMOS image sensor in combination with an upgraded BIONZ XR™ imaging processing engine with eight times more processing powerⁱ
• Blackout- free continuous shooting at up to 30 frames per secondⁱⁱ
• Fast sensor readout enables up to 120 AF/AE calculations per secondⁱⁱⁱ, double the speed of the Alpha 9 II, even during 30fps continuous shooting
• Bright and large 0.64-type 9.44 million-dot (approx.) OLED Quad-XGA electronic viewfinder with the world’s first^iv refresh rate of 240 fps
• Silent, vibration-free electronic shutter
• World’s first^v anti-flicker shooting with both mechanical and electronic shutter
• Electronic shutter flash sync^vi up to 1/200 sec. for the first time in the Alpha™ series
• World’s fastest^v mechanical shutter flash sync up to 1/400 sec.
• 8K 30p^vii 10-bit 4:2:0 XAVC HS video recording with 8.6K oversampling for extraordinary detail and resolution, in addition to 4K 120p^viii 10-bit 4:2:2 movie shooting capabilities
• Wide dynamic range of 15 stops for stills^ix and 15+ stops for video^x
• Improved Real-time Eye AF (autofocus) for humans and animals, and new Real-time Eye AF for birds^xi, as well as Real-time Tracking that automatically maintains accurate focus
• 5-axis optical in-body image stabilization for a 5.5-step^xii shutter speed advantage
• S-Cinetone color matrix as seen in FX9 and FX6 to deliver expressive cinematic look
• Professional workflow support with the industry’s fastest^xiii built-in Wi-Fi, SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps, 1000BASE-T Ethernet and more

Below is a first impressions video from Pro photographers selected by Sony.

This is certainly an impressive camera which is undeniable but at $6498 USD, it certainly isn’t a Canon R5 killer which some people are already labeling it as. At this price point, it’s more competition for the 1DX3 or the upcoming R1.

It will be interesting to see some real world previews from independent reviewers so we can get a good impression on performance. Will you be buying this camera or is it out of your price range? It’s sure out of mine!

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