Sony a1 Review: On Safari
Table of Contents
After three months in the field with the Sony Alpha 1, shooting over 40,000 images, this is my field review.
It is important to note up front that this Sony a1 review will not contain side-by-side image comparisons, MTF charts, or technical spec reviews. This review will compare the Sony a1 to my previous primary camera, the Sony A7RIV. For technical reviews, I would point you to Ken Rockwell’s detailed review, the review conducted by the Digital Photography Review, or the review on Fstoppers.
Another note about this review: I paid for the Sony a1 with my own money. I was not provided any item to review, nor has anyone paid me for this review.
The Good
High ISO Performance
I am a strong believer that purchasing decisions should be made only once you have reached the limitations of your current gear. I love the Sony A7RIV, especially for my landscape work. The high megapixel count allows me to create images that print large with stunning detail. This high megapixel count was also a challenge when I turned my lens from the landscape to the wildlife within. As the light fades and ISO climbs, once ISO passed 3200, I had to think about my images, and images beyond ISO 6400 were usually unusable.
Story time. The day after I picked up the a1, my wife and I visited a tulip farm in the Pacific Northwest. As the sun set and we were walking to the truck, we noticed an Anna’s Hummingbird around some of the Cherry Blossom Trees in the parking lot. I quickly grabbed my 100-400 lens and started shooting. It happened so fast; I didn’t think about my settings. After the moment was gone, I looked down and saw that I was shooting at 1/640s, and the AutoISO had calculated at a value of 12800. I had not dialed down the Auto ISO maximum setting.
I assumed that the images would be unusable, but when I opened the images in Capture One, I was shocked that while the image does have the noise you would expect at such a high ISO value, it was not usable. Below is the image processed via Capture One and then the image processed via Topaz DeNoise AI. I’m quite pleased with the image quality at ISO 12800 and how the image turned out; let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
Capture One with Topaz Denoise
Capture One Processed
High Frame Rate
The a1 is capable of shooting at a blistering 30fps. This is faster than the 24fps frame rate I usually use for 10-bit 4 2 2 4k video recording. It is hard to comprehend what that means until you see and hear it in action. The A7RIV, by comparison, can shoot at 10fps; this is nothing to shake a stick at. What this means is when photographing animals, there are more poses to choose from.
There was rarely a time using the a7RIV that I “missed the moment” because it was not fast enough. However, I was headed to Africa and didn’t want to take that chance. So, the real question is, was I able to capture the moment with the a1? I think so, but I’ll let you judge based on the images below.
Electronic Shutter
This is one of the things I loved about my move to Mirrorless and the A7RIII a few years ago. The electronic shutter allowed me to take images of wildlife without disturbing them and spend more time photographing them. This was a brilliant feature when the animals were slow-moving or static. When the animals moved, the electronic shutter could suffer from a significant rolling shutter.
Sony addressed the rolling shutter issue in the a9 and the a9II, and this has transferred over to the a1. To drive home the difference, since getting the a1 and shooting over 40,000 images, I have not used the mechanical shutter for one of them. The only shutter actuations have been when I turn the camera on or off (a feature I will cover below).
AutoFocus
I would be remiss to do a review of the a1 and not mention how good the auto-focus system is. I was able to use the eye AF with fantastic results and recall only a few times I was not able to get the AF system to pick my intended subject. Most of the time, this was because I was intentionally trying to put something between the camera and the subject, like with this image of this lioness hunting in the tall grass.
I mapped a custom button to allow me to change focus areas quickly. I tried to leave the system on wide but found most of my success in a little smaller zone or expanding spot modes so I could keep my composition and get my focus correct.
Can you see the lion hunting?
Dust Shutter
This is one of the features that fall into the “it’s about time” category. For the first time on a Sony mirrorless system, you can now set the mechanical shutter to close when the camera is powered off. In a DSLR system, the mirror would protect the sensor from dust, but in modern full frame mirrorless cameras, there is no mirror, so as someone often working in dusty environments outdoors, I would find myself cleaning my sensor often. Sometimes daily. After three weeks in Africa, changing lenses, no dust. It is a simple thing, but it saves time and the anxiety of worrying about damaging your camera when you don’t have to touch the sensor as often. In contrast, I had to clean my a7RIV and a6400 sensors at least three times on the trip.
New Menu System
While I have found the Menu system on Sony cameras to be less than optimal, I eventually memorized them and/or mapped most of the features I needed to the custom menu or function buttons. The new menu system is much improved. I still map most of the items I use to custom buttons, so I don’t spend much time on the menu.
So, with as much as many people hated the old menu, it didn’t bother me. The new system has a much better layout and is easier to navigate. I would assume it will be the menu system that we will see on all future models of Sony cameras, and it is a great move.
The Bad
With all the things I love about the camera, it still has room for improvement. Below are the things that I don’t like about the Sony a1.
CF Express Type A Cards
One of the drawbacks of the Sony a1 is its choice of memory card compatibility—specifically, the use of CF Express Type A cards. While the compact size of Type A cards may initially seem like a benefit, this advantage is overshadowed by the limitations in speed and the prohibitive cost of the cards. Compared to the more commonly used CF Express Type B cards, Type A cards offer slower data transfer rates, which can be a bottleneck when capturing high-resolution images or 8K video. The price point for these cards is also notably higher, making the overall investment in storage media more expensive for the photographer. Ultimately, this choice by Sony appears to be a money grab as, at the time of writing, they are the only provider of type A cards.
No Tilt Screen
For what seems like years, the feedback to Sony has been adding a flippy screen. I understand why bloggers do this. I don’t care about a screen that flips around for filming myself, but the ability to articulate a screen in multiple directions is so helpful. Imagine you are shooting a wide angle where you are low to the ground, and you have the camera tilted up. Now, add a manual focus lens to the scenario; now, to properly focus, you may have to lie on the ground to look through the viewfinder and achieve critical focus. While the EVF is undoubtedly preferable to the screen, an articulating screen keeps me out of the mud.
I have seen quite a few photographers say they don’t like the flip screen. I understand that. I would have been happy with a screen that articulates like the one on the Fuji GFX 50 or the Panasonic Lumix S1. I don’t want to have to press my face in the mud to focus and compose my images. The mud cakes in my beard are just as bad as ice.
Screen Resolution
I don’t know if I would call this a bad or a missed opportunity. The screen resolution of 1.44m dots sounds quite big until you put it into comparison. The above-mentioned Lumix S1 has a 2.1m screen and retails for a third of the price. It is 2021, and we are currently on the iPhone 12. We are used to high-quality touch screens; for $6,500, I expect something better than the screen on the back of the a1.
High Frame rate
If you have been reading this whole review, you will note that I mentioned the high framerate as a plus, and it is. The reason I have the high framerate listed as a negative comes from understanding what 30fps at 50 megapixels means from a storage perspective. When I left for Africa, I had two SSD drives, one with 1TB of space and the other with 2 TB. (I thought they were the same size, but that is a different story). I was planning on ingesting images from my memory cards to both drives to have a copy in two places. One week into our three-week trip, I had already filled up 1TB of storage on both drives. I wasn’t even shooting at 30fps, I had been shooting at 20fps but realized in reviewing my photos that it wasn’t necessary for every scene.
What I found was shooting in a burst mode of around 10fps was adequate for most of the things I was shooting, and I mapped a custom shooting function for action to a custom button. This way, when the action heated up, I could pick up both my frame rate and shutter speed.
Display Customization
Sony has a fixed number of display options. I can see everything on the screen: the focus point, exposure information, a histogram, a level, etc. However, I am not able to customize the screen to have a level and a histogram at the same time. Why? I think this could be a firmware update that would be very welcome.
Eye Autofocus
It might be strange to see eye autofocus listed under the bad column. And the eye autofocus is fantastic; I never want a camera without it. What I don’t like is that I must select between animals and birds. In a dynamic wildlife environment like Africa, my subject changes rapidly. I can go from shooting a bird to a lion that emerges from the tree line. Today, I must consider changing the setting to get Eye Autofocus working. I hope in future firmware updates that, Sony will merge these two as Canon has on the R5.
Pixel Shift
Starting with the a7RIV, Sony introduced a Pixel Shift mode that will use the Internal Body Stabilization (IBS) to take a series of images that can be combined and create an even higher megapixel image. The a7RIV took four images that could be combined. The a1 steps up to sixteen images that can be combined to create a staggering 200-megapixel image.
The Pixel Shift seems like a fantastic feature; why would I see it as bad? The issue is not the concept; it is the execution. These pixel shift images are not combined in the camera, so if there is an issue with any of the images in the stack, the photographer won’t know until after they have returned and processed the images.
Pixel Shift is not a feature exclusive to Sony. The Pentax K-1, Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II, and the Panasonic Lumix G9 all have a pixel shift function. They all also combine the images in the camera, so on location, you can check for focus or movement where you may want to re-capture the images.
One additional issue worth mentioning is that to combine Pixel Shift images, they must be imported into Sony’s Image Edge Software to combine them. I would venture a guess and say that this software is not involved in 99% of Sony photographer’s workflows. What I would love to see is for Sony to provide an update that would add the combining of images in the camera or even combine a single focus point so I can check to see that the merge will combine well.
If you want to know more information on how some of these cameras handle Pixel-shift, check out the evaluation done by B&H Photo.
Sticking EV Lock
With my a7RIII, I often complained that I would adjust the exposure compensation dial and then forget to check it, causing exposure issues with a scene that was not using full manual mode. When Sony released the a7RIV, they included a push button lock that remedied this issue. This is the same dial on the a1.
I may have a copy variation issue, but often, when I click the dial, the locking mechanism can stick, causing the EV dial to remain locked when I need to adjust it. This may be something I have to have Sony look at one day.
Conclusions
For Wildlife
For many wildlife photographers, this may be the perfect camera. The images that it produces are fantastic, and at 50MP, there is plenty of room to crop. The autofocus system locks onto animals and creates razor-sharp images. The high ISO performance is incredible, especially for a sensor this large. And all of this at 30fps, that means never missing the moment. This is the best camera on the market for wildlife.
For Landscapes
If I were only shooting landscapes, I would say this is not the right camera. The a7RIV would be the smarter choice with its larger 61MP sensor; it provides a larger image with excellent quality for half the price.
Last Word
The real question is, would I spend the $6,500 again to purchase the Sony a1? For me, the answer is yes. I can shoot both subjects with a single camera as a wildlife and landscape photographer. What about you, are you getting the Sony a1? Do you have one? What are your thoughts on the camera? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below. If you would like to see more images from my trip to Kenya or show for prints from Africa, please click the buttons below.
