Let’s talk about the possible three limitations of the Sony A9III: Image Quality, Human “bias” and Type A card as “bottleneck”
Liek with any nw camera release testers are trying to find out the limitations of this camera. We found a couple of them being discussed:
ThePhoBlographer pointed out towards a “racial bias” in the human AI:
Better autofocus performance for people of color: Nikon did it. Why can’t you, Sony?
They also still don’t like the Sony colors:
With the a9 III, the color issues seem to be fixed a bit. Sony still isn’t touching Canon, Fujifilm, or Leica on color quality — but it surely is better than it was. You have to think about shooting with the a9 III, like shooting with slide film. Your exposure has to be perfect, or else you probably won’t get anywhere otherwise.
It’s still not the perfect camera, but it surely has improved over previous ones.
Phototrend (google translated) believes the “older” A9II has a better noise performance and writes:
The first experience with the Sony A9 III was fleeting and intense. We appreciated the revised ergonomics of the case, as well as the ultra-fast burst. The camera responds perfectly, the images do not suffer from any distortion and with bursts of up to 120 fps and an exposure time of up to 1/80,000s, it is possible to obtain THE shot at the right time.
Even if this must be confirmed with more in-depth tests, it would seem that the increase in sensitivity of the camera is less convincing than with a device with a similar sensor, but with a more traditional shutter. Indeed, at first glance, it could be that a shot taken at 1000 ISO on the A9 III would correspond to an image at 2000 ISO on the A9 II, for example.
PetaPixel sees the potential bottleneck in the Type A cards:
Sony has put a bottleneck on how fast it can clear its camera’s buffer, which is where all photos it captures go as they are shot before they are written to memory, that can possibly happen by not using the CFexpress 4.0 standard. For those who argue it’s probably because the standard was only announced this past August, that doesn’t hold water: memory card makers and camera manufacturers are directly involved in setting the standard. That’s why memory card makers like ProGrade Digital were able to release a new CFexpress 4.0 standard card and reader almost immediately.
Sony knew it was coming a long time ago and still chose not to include it in the a9 III. It is also worth noting that the CFexpress 4.0 standard is fully backward compatible with no drawbacks, meaning there is no disadvantage to include it from a user’s standpoint.
Sony declined to explain why CFexpress 4.0 was not included in the a9 III.
To end this on a positive note:
Dpreview posted a short hands-on report and writes:
Ergonomics has long been an area of criticism of Sony, with the company generally making improvements, generation on generation. The a9 III continues this pattern with a significantly reworked hand grip. There’s a more pronounced bump at the top of the camera and a grip that encourages a slightly curved-in hand-hold, pushing your finger back towards the shutter button. The two custom buttons behind the shutter release are now raised, making them easier to reach.
We used the camera with the new 300mm F2.8 and other sizable lenses for several hours and found it to be the most comfortable Sony camera yet.
Preorders (shipment start Feb 23):
Sony A9III at BHphoto. Amazon. Adorama. FotoErhardt. Fotokoch. Calumet. WexUK.
Sony 300mm at BHphoto. Amazon. Adorama. FotoErhardt. Fotokoch. Calumet. WexUK.
Sonny A9III Vertical Grip at BHphoto. Amazon. Adorama. FotoErhardt. Fotokoch. Calumet. WexUK.
Sony Holiday deals now live at BHphoto, Adorama and Amazon.
Sony Europe 500 Euro/Pounds cashback at FotoErhardt, FotoKoch, Calumet, WexUK, Amazon EU.