Digitalcameraworld A9III preview: “the most remarkable camera I’ve ever used”

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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.

Digitalcameraworld shared a first impression review after testing the A9II:

I am nothing short of gobsmacked, blown away, bowled over and wowed by the Sony A9 III. In terms of sheer technological firepower, there’s no camera on the market that can touch it. And in terms of what it does with that firepower, it stands in a league of its own. 
There will be some who scoff at the specs. That ask who the hell will ever need a 1/80,000 sec shutter, or what the point of 120fps shooting is. And no doubt, there will be naysayers at the other end of the spectrum, whining about why the resolution is only 24.6MP. 
To put it kindly, this camera isn’t meant for these people. Because the people this camera is meant for – the crème de la crème, the Reuters photographers, the news agency shooters, the Premier League and NBA regulars, and all those who aspire to be them – know precisely what these specs mean and what they represent. The global shutter era is here, and photography will never be the same again. 
My one and only misgiving is the AF system. Whether it’s because the camera is pre-production, the AI-based predictive AF needs more dataset training, the firmware on the lens I was using needed updating, whatever the reason – the autofocus at times felt a step slower than that of the A9 II. But then again, I was shooting at a whole lot more than a step faster. Occasional AF wobbles happen, even under ideal circumstances – and the most demanding test cases at ridiculous frame-rates are far less than ideal.
For now, I’m happy to say that the Sony A9 III is the most incredible sports camera I’ve ever used. Can it be even better? Yes, it can be. And, with a firmware update, it no doubt will be. 

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Let’s talk about the possible three limitations of the Sony A9III: Image Quality, Human “bias” and Type A card as “bottleneck”

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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.

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PetaPixel Sony a9 III Initial Review: This Changes EVERYTHING!

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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.

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New Sony A9III hands-on videos (Sidney Diongzon, Jason Hermann, Terry Warfield, Popescu, Photolari)

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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.

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LIVE: Sony a9 III Discussion with Sony manager Mike Bubolo: “There is no compromise in Image Quality”

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This was today’s Live Panel with Sony Manager MIke Bubolo. Watch it to learn some more details about the A9III. The most important message is that the Image Quality is uncompromised. Sony managed to work around the limitation of Global Shutters that usually had less dynamic range than rolling shutters.

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.

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