Sony A9 III Review | Trusted Reviews

Introduction

Any photographer worth their salt will be aware that to achieve the best image possible with a mirrorless camera, you need one with a full-frame sensor, equivalent in size to a traditional 35mm film frame.

Such chips are typically found in the most expensive, range-topping digital cameras, of which the DSLR-resembling Sony A9 III is its manufacturer’s latest example. 

The brand has gone one step further with the A9 III, however, incorporating the world’s first full-frame stacked CMOS image sensor with a global shutter system. This allows for the capture of stills and videos without any rolling shutter.

Freed from the limitations of mechanical shutters, the promise here is that users can now shoot up to a blisteringly fast 120 fps without camera blackout. The theory is that the camera can capture moments even the naked eye cannot register, thanks to a maximum shutter speed of 1/80,000 sec, or 1/16000 sec during continuous shooting.

Unsurprisingly, in this regard, the camera suggests itself as a benchmark tool for sports or wildlife photography, though its price tag puts it out of the reach of all but the most dedicated or monied photo hobbyists.

So, is all this landmark tech actually worth paying for?

Design and handling

• 136.1 x 96.9 x 82.9mm body dimensions
• 702g with the essentials of battery and memory card inserted (no lens), or 617g body-only
• 3.2-inch angle adjustable touchscreen

The feature-rich Sony A9 III is a chunky beast even without the likes of the G Master series FE f/1.4 50mm lens we attached.

The body alone feels heavy in the palm with its large handgrip, a refinement based apparently on user feedback, already proving a stretch for my fingers. With my thumb resting on the pad at the back, my forefinger naturally hovered over the forward-slanted shutter release button, which is, in turn, encircled by an on/off dial.

So far, so ergonomic and intuitive.

Outwardly resembling a DSLR and boasting the kind of control layout you’d expect to find on that format of camera, it’s clear from the off that this mirrorless example is a professional’s tool.

For those shooting handheld, the weight of the body and lens combined ensures the camera sits steadily and well balanced in the hand, while five-axis in-body image stabilisation – here equivalent to eight stops – also helps prevent image blur.

I mentioned the 120fps capture speed in my introduction. Sony achieves this by utilising AI to turbo-charge performance and carry out the required 120 AF/AE focus calculations per second, as well as being able to sync shooting speed with use of flash. That’s if using Sony’s separately available HVL-F60RM2 or F46RM units.

Speaking of speed, you won’t be surprised to see Sony’s latest generation Bionz XR processor on board the A9 III, with the impressive promise of being eight times more powerful than prior versions.

We found the camera responsive enough that I soon stopped thinking about how it operated entirely. The camera just works and works fluidly, allowing you to concentrate fully on the subject matter.

As well as burst or continuous shooting, there is, of course, the ability to take a more considered approach and shoot a frame at a time. Here, again, I found the camera locked onto targets before I’d even noticed, with a squeeze of the shutter release button atop the handgrip instantly committing the shot to a memory card.

Though I initially found the lack of a mechanical shutter and familiar clunk disconcerting, there is the ability to turn off silent shutter mode and instead hear an audio sample of a shutter firing, which at least reassured me that the unit had actually taken the shot.

While there is much about the Sony A9 III that feels familiar, at the same time much about it feels alien.

Features

• Five-axis internal image stabilization system providing the equivalent of up to 8 stops
• 24.6MP effective back-illuminated 35mm (35.6 x 23.8mm) full-frame Exmor RS CMOS sensor
• Maximum 1/80000 sec shutter speed, with flash sync

Aimed at power users, the Sony A9 III offers up dual card slots, each of which, in turn, can house either a CFexpress or regular SD media card. This increases the camera’s accessibility and provides you with four slots in total.

While stills photography may be the main focus here, no pun intended, the A9 III is also the first model in Sony’s long-running Alpha series to be able to capture 4K resolution video at a 120fps frame rate without cropping, or, alternatively, 4K at 60p.

Battery life is good for up to 400 shots when using the eye-level viewfinder (which I was), or 530 shots if relying instead on the touchscreen LCD monitor. The latter proves useful at times if you simply want to tap a portion of the frame to bias focus towards a particular element and automatically fire off a shot.

One area in which this camera has been criticised is its core light sensitivity range, which seems modest for this class of camera. It starts out at a base of ISO250, rising to ISO25600. That said, this is user expandable if desired to ISO125 to ISO51200.

At this price, a maximum effective resolution of 24.6MP from a 25.2MP sensor also feels a little underpowered. However, unless you want to shoot billboard-sized images, even with cropping, a 24.6MP image from a combination of this camera and lens delivers a sensational amount of detail, so most users won’t need to worry.

Image quality

• 24.6MP stills photography in JPEG, Raw or HEIF formats
• 4K resolution video at up to 120fps
• 120fps high-speed continuous shooting with AF/AE tracking

Photojournalists, sports and wildlife photographers are the ones who are going to get the most out of the A9 III’s quicker-than-the-blink-of-an-eye response times and seamless operation. At times, it almost felt like the AI was governing and controlling the camera’s response rather than myself.

That said, if it’s the case of jobbing photographers either getting that one-in-a-million photograph or not, then this feeling of relinquishing control is probably a sacrifice worth making.

Images straight out of the camera are as detail-rich as we’d expect from a Sony with this pedigree and lineage, with colours captured with the camera in extra fine JPEG mode appearing well saturated without being at all unnatural to look at. The combination of sensor and our loaned 50mm lens here produced some lovely, soft ‘bokeh’ effects, maintaining subject sharpness but subtly blurring its surroundings.

Overall, the Sony A9 III is capable of delivering a faithful rendition of the scene in front of you, which is exactly what any photojournalist wants and requires.

Should you buy it?