Tony Northrup finds the new A9 autofocus tracking is better than the Nikon D5

Nikon recently stated that high end DSLR sports camera are still superior but this might not be true anymore:

The new Sony A9 5.0 firmware has been tested by Tony Northrup. He now states the A9 AF tracking is better on the Sony A9 than on the Nikon D5. Mirrorless finally did beat DSLR in their last bastion.

And here two more videos:


Sony a9 video tracking fix


Sony a9 Firmware 5.0 Menu walkthrough

First real world Sony A9 autofocus testing shows this is the best firmware update ever made by Sony yet!

Finally Sony learned the leasson from Fuji’s camera support philosophy and released their best firmware update to date. This adds a ton of features and fixes for the A9 making it become a sort of A9II :)
But they key here is the new autofocus system which simply works like a charm. Here are a few examples but please feel free to add your test in the comment system!

And a discussion about the new fw upgrade:

Tested: The Sony A6400 has no overheating issue

David Oastler tested the new A64000 to see if it had some overheating issue. Luckely he encountered no issues at all.

Photogaphyblog tested the A6400 and the conclusion is rather mixed feeling:

Ultimately, the new Sony Alpha A6400 is a frustrating camera – outstanding in some aspects, most notably the AF system, good in others, but mediocre in some key areas by today’s high standards. Overall, it’s still a good bet, especially if you shoot a lot of moving subjects, but it also could potentially have been so much better…

Testing the real time tracking AF on the Sony A6400, videos and samples (Enthusiastphotoblog).

Sony A6400:
USA at BHphoto, Adorama, FocusCamera, Buydig, Amazon.
Europe at Calumet Germany, ParkCameras UK, Jessops.
Asia at Sony Australia and Sony Japan.

Oh yes folks! The new Sony A6400 Real-Time Tracking beats the Canon Dual Pixel Autofocus!

Sidney Diongzon compared the Sony’s new Real-Time autofocus system of the Sony A6400 versus the highly accliamed Canon Dual Pixel Autofocus system. And the good news is that Sony managed to beat the Canon!

This very same new AF system is coming on the A9 via firmware update on March 25.

Sony A6400:
USA at BHphoto, Adorama, FocusCamera, Buydig, Amazon.
Europe at Calumet Germany, ParkCameras UK, Jessops.
Asia at Sony Australia and Sony Japan.

Canon EOS-R sensor gets tested at DxOmark: The Sony A7III has a considerable one-stop advantage at Low ISO

DxOmark tested the new Canon EOS-R sensor and found it can in no way come close to the Sony sensors used by the A7III and Z6:

At its base sensitivity of ISO 100, the Canon EOS R has a very good dynamic range of 13.5 EV. However, the BSI sensors in the Nikon Z 6 and Sony A7 III are wider still, with around a 1 EV advantage. At ISO 200, their advantage is eroded to a difference of no more than 0.4 EV, as seen in the relatively flat slope to ISO 400 in the chart below. Although practically negligible, this may be consequential in some situations when using software later on to try to correct exposure errors, especially when lifting shadows.

After that, though, both the Nikon Z 6 and Sony A7 III sensors have a wider dynamic range, measuring around 0.7 EV more at every ISO setting through to ISO 51200. At 102,400, however, the EOS R’s range is practically the same as the Nikon’s, but the Sony’s smoothing at that setting widens its dynamic range.

Noise levels are relatively well-controlled in the Canon EOS R sensor, but it can’t quite match the inherently lower noise levels of the BSI sensors used in the Nikon Z 6 and Sony A7 III. The difference in signal-to-noise ratios is more noticeable at low ISOs, though, and the values are so close at higher ISOs that it’s unlikely you’d be able to distinguish among them, at least for out-of-camera JPEGs. However, in testing for our low-light ISO score (see here for the protocol), both the Nikon Z 6 and Sony A7 III still have a noise advantage of 0.25 EV and 0.44 EV, respectively, which could prove beneficial when adjusting exposure levels post-capture.