I tried taking various photos with Sony's 990,000 yen luxury camera 'α1 II' Review, 'Don't miss the shutter opportunity with object tracking & high-speed continuous shooting' 'Shooting handheld even at night' and other flawless performance
The '
α1 II | Digital single-lens camera α (Alpha) | Sony
https://www.sony.jp/ichigan/products/ILCE-1M2/
·table of contents
◆1: What kind of camera is the α1 II?
◆2: 50.1 megapixel high-resolution sensor
◆3: Tracking trains while shooting 30 frames per second
◆4: Shooting 30 frames per second while tracking an airplane
◆5: Photographing food at a restaurant to check AWB performance
◆6: Powerful image stabilization and high sensitivity allow you to take handheld shots even at night
◆7: Summary
◆1: What kind of camera is the α1 II?
The α1 II is a mirrorless camera equipped with a back-illuminated full-size image sensor, and has a high effective pixel count of approximately 50.1 million pixels, while being capable of high-speed continuous shooting at 30 frames per second. In addition, the AI processing unit also enables an advanced autofocus function that 'recognizes people and vehicles, automatically focuses, and continues to focus according to the movement of the subject.' In addition, it is equipped with an image stabilization function with 8.5 stops in the center and 7.0 stops on the periphery, allowing you to take pictures with reduced blur even in dark places. Details of the appearance and ports of the α1 II are summarized in the article below.
Sony's mirrorless camera 'α1 II' with 50.1 megapixels and AF tracking, capable of shooting 30 frames per second, exterior review - GIGAZINE
This time, I attached the Sony zoom lens ' FE 28-70mm F2 GM ' to the α1 II and took photos in various situations. By the way, the price at the Sony Store is 990,000 yen including tax for the α1 II and 498,300 yen including tax for the FE 28-70mm F2 GM, so the total price of the equipment is just under 1.5 million yen.
◆2: 50.1 megapixel high-resolution sensor
The photos taken with the α1 II are below. Note that all the examples below have not been edited except for reducing the size, and you can see the original photo at full size by clicking on each example.
When I shot with the JPEG quality set to 'FINE' and the JPEG image size set to '50M,' I was able to record an image file measuring 8,640 x 5,760 pixels (total number of pixels: 49,766,400).
The α1 II has a mode called 'APS-C shooting' that can reproduce the angle of view when shooting with an APS-C sensor by using only the center part of the sensor. By using APS-C shooting, you can shoot with the focal length of the lens extended by 1.5 times.
In the case of the FE 28-70mm F2 GM used this time, the maximum focal length is 70mm, but it can be treated as a 105mm lens when shooting in APS-C. Below are photos taken with APS-C shooting enabled. Even with APS-C shooting, you can record relatively high-resolution photos of 5616 x 3744 pixels (total number of pixels: 21,026,304).
◆3: Tracking trains while shooting 30 frames per second
The α1 II can automatically recognize 'people,' 'animals and birds,' 'animals,' 'birds,' 'insects,' 'cars and trains,' and 'airplanes,' and can automatically focus on people and trains in the frame. As a test, I set the recognition target to 'cars and trains' and took a picture of a train.
If there is a train in the frame and you press the shutter button halfway, the train will be in focus.
I recorded a video of what was happening inside the viewfinder while I was taking continuous shots at 30 frames per second while keeping the train in focus. The screen does not go dark during continuous shooting, so you can mass-produce the best shots by following the subject and pressing the shutter button at the right timing to take continuous shots.
The photos I took are below. The camera automatically focuses, and the high-speed continuous shooting reduces the need to pay attention to shutter timing, so you can concentrate on adjusting the composition.
The destination board was not captured well in the above photo, so I set the shutter speed to 250/1 second using
◆4: Shooting 30 frames per second while tracking an airplane
I went to
Now the plane will automatically be in focus.
The view inside the viewfinder looks like this. In addition to being able to track the entire plane, when the cockpit area comes into frame, the tracking target will switch to the cockpit area.
The result of the shoot looks like this.
Back view.
When you combine the α1 II with the FE 28-70mm F2 GM, focusing is extremely fast, so you can always maintain focus even when shooting fast-moving subjects.
◆5: Photographing food at a restaurant to check AWB performance
The α1 II has improved auto white balance (AWB) performance by utilizing the 'visible light + IR sensor' and 'AI processing unit.' Therefore, I tried to see if I could take a picture of a dish in an 'indoor restaurant' where the lighting is irregular and dark, and shoot a color close to that of the naked eye.
I shot
I photographed a chicken dish served on a yellow plate. This yellow plate is a 'plate that easily distorts color' and has caused trouble for
However, the colors do not match perfectly in every restaurant, and when I photographed tsukemen in a restaurant with white lighting, the color turned out warmer than it did with the naked eye. The auto white balance performance of the α1 II is quite good, but there are times when the white balance does not match well, so you need to be flexible and check the results before you get too confident.
◆6: Powerful image stabilization and high sensitivity allow you to take handheld shots even at night
The α1 II has the highest image stabilization performance in the history of the α series, with 8.5 stops in the center and 7.0 stops on the periphery. It is also said to be possible to shoot with reduced noise even at high sensitivity. I actually took photos at night to check the image stabilization performance and the amount of noise.
First, I tried to focus on the front of a red bus on a road in front of a station with many streetlights and signs. The shooting settings were 'focal length: 70mm', 'F-stop: 9', 'shutter speed: 1/60 seconds', and 'ISO sensitivity: 12,800'. If you click to see the full-sized photo, you can see that the noise is significantly reduced even though it was shot at a high ISO sensitivity of 12,800.
Take another photo on the same road. The settings are 'focal length: 47mm', 'F-stop: 11', 'shutter speed: 1/30 sec', and 'ISO sensitivity: 8000'. Even if you set the ISO sensitivity high, noise is not noticeable, so you can narrow the lens to express the headlight beams.
I moved to a dark place where only street lights were lit, and adjusted the exposure to make it as dark as the naked eye could see. The settings for the shot were 'focal length: 48mm', 'F-stop: 2.8', 'shutter speed: 1/50 sec', and 'ISO sensitivity: 10,000'.
And the following photo was taken with the shooting settings changed to 'focal length: 40mm', 'F value: 2.8', 'shutter speed: 1/4 second', and 'ISO sensitivity: 3200'. I took the photo handheld without using a tripod at a longer shutter speed of 1/4 second for a focal length of 40mm, but I was able to take a bright photo with less blur.
◆7: Summary
When I actually took photos with the α1 II, I found that the camera performed focus and white balance adjustments with high precision, allowing me to focus on the composition and exposure settings. The high-speed continuous shooting of 30 frames per second means you can capture every shot without missing a shot, and the high image stabilization performance means you can take handheld shots even in dark places, so the scope of your photography will definitely be expanded.
The α1 II is available at electronics retailers and online shops, and is sold at Sony Store for 990,000 yen (tax included) and at Camera no Kitamura Rakuten Ichiba store for 907,498 yen (tax included). However, at the time of writing, the delivery date has not yet been decided.
Sony α1 II Body [ILCE-1M2] {Delivery date TBD}
A review article testing the video recording capabilities of the α1 II will be published soon.
Continued
Review: Sony's mirrorless camera 'α1 II' is suitable for handheld Vlog shooting - GIGAZINE
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