Is the Sony a9 the Perfect Camera for Wedding Photographers?
Paul Gero, Orange County photographer and a Sony Artisan shares his 10+ reasons why the new Sony a9 ($4,498 at Amazon, B&H, Adorama) flagship mirrorless camera is a perfect choice for wedding and portrait photographers.
While presented as the state of the art camera for professional and serious amateur sports and news photographers, this camera certainly has a place in the bags of wedding shooters.
On the heels of returning from Sony’s announcement on Wednesday April 19, 2017 in New York City, Paul gives his reasons why this camera will turn heads in the industry and entice many DSLR shooters from Canon and Nikon to switch to Sony.
His top 10 reasons:
#1 Speed 20 FPS to capture peak action!
#2 Focus Precision 693 Phase Detect AF cells cover nearly 93% of the full frame sensor!
#3 Silent Shooting! Perfect to quietly and discreetly record wedding ceremonies with no shutter blackout and up to the full 20 FPS!
#4 New Battery! Pro wedding photographers have been clamoring for a stronger battery and Sony delivered. This battery should put it on par with typical offerings from Nikon and Canon.
#5 Pro Grade Lenses to go with this pro camera. Sony has been amassing a murderer’s row of the finest professional glass and now they have their most professional body to date to go with that glass.
#6 Improved controls. A new joystick and touch focus help make this camera be even more of what pro photographers require to do their work!
#7 Small Camera Size is Maintained. Somehow Sony engineers made this camera more robust, and perform like a Porsche, while still keeping it small — especially when compared to the flagship DSLR sports cameras like the Canon 1dx Mark II and the Nikon D5.
#8 Improved the EVF — this is Sony’s best and sharpest EVF ever and makes working with an EVF even more realistic and immersive. With an EVF when shooting with available light or continuous light such as LED — What You See Is What You Get with this camera.
#9 Insanely fast, brand new sensor!. This probably should have been #1 because everything that is possible is because of this new Sony Innovative full-frame stacked CMOS sensor with integral memory. Because of this sensor which is 20X faster than anything Sony has ever released before, the camera can perform as it does.
#10 More TTL flash options (with Sony’s launch of their first radio transceiver flash — the HVL45M in November of 2016, Sony has more offerings that will work wonderfully with this a9 camera. Flash is important and imperative to most wedding photographers and now there are more options from Sony and third party manufacturers because Sony is gaining such critical mass in the marketplace.
#11 Improved High ISO capabilities. With each subsequent generational leap (Sony a7 to a7RII) I have gained an effective full stop of high ISO performance and I surmise and expect that to be the case with this camera. For example, with the original Sony a7, I felt comfortable at a top ISO of 6400 for color; with the a7RII I felt comfortable with a top ISO of 12,800. I expect to be able to work at 25,600 with this new camera.
#12 Improved 5-axis IBIS (In Body Image Stabilization). This is a must have for still and video shooters and will change how you work.
#13 Sony’s commitment. If anyone stills doubts that Sony is 110% committed to this market, the a9 should dispel that notion. I’ve believed that for a long time and was the reason for switching from DSLR to mirrorless. Sony gets it and sees the future and mirrorless is the future of photography.
#14 Dual SD Card slots. Wedding shooters who have held out switching because of the previous lack of dual slots can not make the move knowing that their requests have been answered. And, by using SD cards (and releasing their fastest SD card to date to go with this camera), Sony kept the size and weight of the camera down.
So those are the top 10+ reasons why Paul Gero thinks that the Sony a9 is the perfect camera for wedding and portrait photographers!
What do you think?
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Read more video reviews at Paul Gero’s Youtube Channel.