Sony a9M2 ILCE 9M2 Review 4K

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Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott, and I am here to give you my review of the A9 Mark 2
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Sony's flagship sports camera that is really designed around capturing fast action
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with blistering frame rates of up to 20 frames per second using its electronic shutter mechanism
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Unlike the original A9 released a few years back, however, the response to the A9 Mark 2's announcement and release has been met with more of a
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rather than the excitement that was found with the original A9. Today's review is designed, however, to give you an overview of how the two models compare
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and a little bit more of a nuanced perspective on the role of the A9 Mark 2, who it's for and who it is not for
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Now, if you want all of the details and really the process of how I arrived at my conclusions
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I recommend that you check out the definitive review. It's quite a bit longer
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However, it will give you all of those details. And if you're really interested, it may help you to make a more informed decision about the A9 Mark 2
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Now, just so you know, I am filming on the A9 Mark 2 along with the Sigma 85mm F1.4DN lens today
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So it does give you a little bit of a sense of how it does. for video work and for tracking kind of a static scene like this today
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So first of all, we're going to take a look at some of the changes
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in terms of the features and the build and handling. What we have is a fairly similar body to the A9, original A9
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but it's received some of the modifications that we have seen very similarly in the A7 R mark four
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Namely, you have a ever so slightly larger body in terms of the dimensions
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It is a couple of millimeters wider. It's a little over a millimeter taller, but more importantly, it's around 14 millimeters
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deeper when it comes to the grip. And that makes a huge difference
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On the original A9 with my size of hands, my pinky has no resting place at all
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And so I've had to rely on grip extenders and things like that. The difference in the A9 Mark 2's grip is that, number one, the deeper grip allows me to get
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a hold of it a little bit more. It's also got a little bit of bebble towards the bottom of the grip that gives you a resting place for the pinky
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And so while I would still like the camera to be a few millimeters taller to give me a little bit more grip space
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I'm much happier with the way that it feels in my hand. If I owned one, I would still probably use a grip extender because I love having Arca Swiss compatible plate at the bottom to where I can just go right onto a tripod
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But, you know, I could actually live with the either A7R Mark 4 or the A9 Mark 2 when it comes to the Griswiswisw
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grip and and so great progress in that direction. We also see some modification to all of the feel of
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the buttons. The buttons have a little bit more throw to them. They, uh, in many cases, they stick out a
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little bit further to make them easier to find by feel less flush to the camera and, you know
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just have a little bit more precision to them. There is some relocation, um, particularly of the a
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off, a f on button to a much more prominent, easier to find location. And that has necessitated a change on the
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rear wheel or dial as well, which is rotated up a little bit higher onto the top of the camera
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body, but it's in a better position. It's easier to find with your thumb. Likewise, the front wheel
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near the shutter button has been canted up at a little bit of a degree that allows you to access
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it a little bit more easily. Over on the left side of the top plate, you find that the two level
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dials that are there, particularly the bottom dial has been modified, and so, and that's the one where
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you access the various AFC, AFS, etc., things like that. And the modification there is that rather than having kind of a two-finger operation
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to where you have a back button and then you need to rotate the dial, there's actually a lock release on the dial itself that makes it easier to use just with one finger
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and definitely an improvement when it comes to that. Over on the right side, there is also a change in the locking mechanism
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or the addition of a locking mechanism on the exposure compensation dial
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I'm less of a fan of that change, mostly because they've gone to a completely different kind of locking mechanism
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that's more like what you find on Fugis. And so it's a always, either I always off or lock down always on
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not the holding down and rotating style that we see typically with Sony's other dials
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And so I would prefer them to have just been consistent in the way that they implemented that
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But of course your mileage may vary in terms of what you're comfortable with
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Unfortunately what we did not see is improvements when it came to the ergonomics when it comes to either the rear LCD screen It remains the same resolution 1 million dots And the touchscreen capabilities unfortunately are not really expanded at all over what we have seen on previous
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Sony models. And so it's still, this is still an area where Sony unnecessarily lags behind the
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competition, and I do not get it at all. The other thing I'm a little puzzled by is that they
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elected to not go to the higher resolution EVF viewfinder that they put in the A7R Mark 4
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And so we have essentially the same viewfinder that was in the original A9, and so not a huge improvement on that front
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What is improved, however, is that there are better seals throughout the body and a much better design when it comes to the side doors and compartments
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On the left side of the camera, we have actual doors that open up and don't just hang and flop in the way
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I really despise the way that the A9's, you know, covers. They're really just covers
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They're not really doors or design. and they just flop and they're constantly in the way. This is a much cleaner design
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We also find there that there is upgrades to the connectivity, which is kind of a key priority for this camera in terms of its upgrade
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Sony has really focused on making improvements that are designed around the kind of target audience, which is working professionals
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be they sports photographers, you know, sideline photographers or photojournalist. And so connectivity has been really, really important
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There's an upgrade to the Ethernet speed to allow you to have blazing. fast Ethernet connections, but on top of that there is also now protocols to allow for
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FTP and other type encryptions and so that you can, you know, in situations where you're
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you have a line into your camera and you're quickly getting information out to a client that way
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They've also increased wireless capabilities from, you know, a 2.4 gigahertz standard up to a 5
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gigahertz standard. And so, you know, obviously that's an improvement there. beyond that they have added on a USBC port and so to allow again for transfer of information coming off much more quickly from the camera
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and so there's other aspects of this some of which you use the app that you can use but basically all across the frame we've been we've allowed for faster communication
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more options and faster ways to get information off the camera and to a client and so that's really been a key focus of the upgrades here now over on
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on the other side of the camera the there's a redesign to the SD slots and the door much more
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logical in a lot of ways the door opens up better it opens up wider but also they now have
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top slot being slot one rather than the bottom slot which has always you know been a head scratcher
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when it comes to that they've also made both of the cards us us hs two compatible and so that you
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have you know more speed in your second card uh slot now there are some
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some that thought that Sony should have moved up to a faster, you know, maybe a CF Express
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card in at least one of those slots. But Sony obviously felt like they had enough data transfer speed that was there with
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UHS2 on SD cards. And you know, it's it is somewhat hard to argue with that because we continue to have an
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amazing, amazing buffer depth, you know, about around 240, 241 raw files and then beyond
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that somewhere like 370 or so JPEG files and so I mean I can just say this even with
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the original A9 I've never personally filled the buffer to the place to where the camera
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stopped you know actually stops taking photos and and so you know you can also argue
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however that we have not the buffer depth has not grown at all here but on a
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practical level what I did find is that the buffer does clear much faster and so
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the camera is more usable again after shooting a prolong burst, it's pretty much ready to go, if not instantaneously, very quickly. And so that
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certainly is an improvement on that front. Now, while there isn't really a change to the electronic
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shutter, it's still up to 20 frames per second. What has really been focused on is, again
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around working professionals, and that was focusing in on the mechanical shutter. So the mechanical
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shutter has been upgraded in every way. It's now capable of up to 10 frames versus 5 frames per
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second and so it's doubled the speed there but beyond that it's also a much smoother more refined
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shutter mechanism and much more functional I promise you than on the A9 so what that gives you
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number one is more flexibility if you're using strobes which are required for that but probably
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more importantly for the target audience is that you now also have an anti-flicker technology employed
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here that of course requires using the mechanical shutter for that but this helps to avoid if you're
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shooting under cycling lights you know so podium lights, for example, that are quite common in large venues and stadiums
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They are terrible for cycling both color temperature and intensity of the light
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And so the anti technology helps to avoid that and helps you to have frames that are you know throwaways because they unevenly lit or really discolored And I definitely encountered that a fair bit with the A9 And so that a very welcome feature on the A9 Mark 2
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On paper, we have the exact same focus system, 425 contrast AF points that are supporting 693 phase detect, selectable phase detect points
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that basically cover almost all of the frame. I mean, it's 93%, I believe, is the statistic, but practically it covers the whole frame
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And tracking has always been an effortless joy on the A9. I mean, you put a good lens on an A9 body, and it feels like cheating, tracking action
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There's no blackout in between frames. You can stay right there in the action, and the focus system is just so fantastic
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So on paper, we have got the same focus system. However, what we have definitely got is better processing of that information, and real-world
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better results. And so what I found when I did, once again, I did dog tracking sequences. I have a
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friend who is a dog breeder and she is kind enough to bring out dogs to run for me. And so I have good
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fast action to track. And what I found in those sequences is that with the A9 under identical
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conditions, I would get some back focused results. And that would typically be because I got a much
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less of the actual IAF tracking on the dogs and I got more of just the dancing pattern of phase
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detect points and so there would be a little bit of variability there with the A9 mark two very early on
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I saw that box appear on the eye and it would stay locked on and as a byproduct I had even fewer
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missed shots to where my keeper rate was was very close to perfect with it even in demanding situations
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and so there definitely is a real world improvement of the results and and so
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So you can see from start to finish, the tracking is basically impeccable in this series
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I also found a little bit of improvement when putting an adapted Canon 100 to 400 L Mark 2 on there
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However, you know, it doesn't compare to using a native mount lens
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However, Sony does continue to improve that aspect of it. As the focus system gets better, adapted lenses work better as well
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I will say this, however, there's much less a need for adapting lenses than what they're used to be on Sony
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Cosoni's catalog has filled out really nicely with not just first party, but third party options as well that make things less expensive
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You know, lenses like the Sigma 100 to 400 millimeter DN lens that I reviewed a few months back, which is a very competent lens
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and the one actually that I use for these tracking sequences. Now, when it comes to the image quality, once again, on paper, we have the exact same sensor
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It's a 24 megapixel stacked BSI system, and then there's a buy-on Z
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processor and this is the X version of that. But there's clearly, while it's the same sensor on paper
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again, you get a better result in reality. And so what I found is that when testing for a dynamic range
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for example, I found that there was just more latitude and more clean results when recovering
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shadows and even in recovering highlights with the A9 Mark 2 as compared to the A9. And you can see from this
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result that it's just a little bit cleaner, less noise, and if you want more information about that
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I encourage you watch the definitive review, and you can jump ahead to the sensor quality
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aspect of that and really get a definite breakdown on that. But I did find an improvement there
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In fact, DXO Mark, when they rated the sensors, they found about 13.3 stops of dynamic range
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for the original A9. They found 14 stops for the A9 Mark 2, so not a full stop of improvement
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but close to it. And that is a real indefinitely. improvement and it makes the A9 Mark 2 now more competitive with Sony's very best and I
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think that the best rated sensor from them is about 14.7 stops of dynamic range and so while it's
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not at the very top it's now at least in the conversation and I think the most people will find
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there's enough dynamic range there for any of their practical use likewise while there is the same
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ISO so a native range of 100 base ISO to 51,200 on the top end and you can
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expand out in either direction with the expanded modes. But what I found once again was
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is that as you started to climb up, I liked the performance out of the A9 Mark 2 better. You
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retained more contrast. There was less noise and the noise was more evenly distributed
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when it started to show up. And so less kind of clumping or banding or, you know, striations
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in there. And instead what you got is very, very much a kind of a film grain type look at
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higher ISO values. I found up through ISO. so 25,600, I actually found the image quality
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to be very, very usable. I would say for most applications, and I would say that 51,200 is more useful
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for reportage editorial type use I wouldn use it like for portraits unless you looking for a particular look but bottom line is is that you can shoot in the more typical range that you might be required to as a sports photographer when you
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need to get shutter speeds up so it may not be unusual for you to shoot at
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ISO 6,400 and I think you can do that with with remarkably little penalty 12,800
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and even if necessary 25,600 and get a cleaner results in what you did with the
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a nine likewise on the video we basically have all the same technologies in terms of our firm rate and so we still cap out at 4K 30 essentially 30p and there's no 4k 60 option there and so you know pretty much same technologies one update that we do have is that we now have real-time i a f tracking during video as well which certainly is going to be useful particularly for the kind of things that i do but the one area that i do want to really kind of be critical of sony is that for some reason we
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We still don't see picture profiles implemented here. And so you have no S-log, you have no, you know, HDR-type capabilities
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And it's really kind of a puzzler, considering that that is something that's been rolled out on a number of, you know, other lesser Sony cameras
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And so basically everyone thought that that would be added to the original A-9 via firmware update
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And I believe that Sony even hinted at that. It never happened. And then to have a new camera and to not have that is really a puzzler
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And so the ironic thing is that the A9 Mark 2 is a great video platform
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I really do love the footage out of it and I love the focus system, but it's really limited to those that want to just use out-of-camera footage
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which fortunately I typically do. But if you want to grade or have more flexibility as an actual filmmaker
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it's probably not going to be your camera because of those limitations
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So I think that you're seeing an overall trend here, and that is that on paper the A9 Mark 2 is a fairly tepid upgrade
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And part of that is because Sony's fault. They have kind of trained their audience to expect, you know
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these technical marvels every time that they release a new camera that is, you know, innovating technologies that no one else is utilizing yet
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But what we have seen rather with Sony is more kind of a maturation of their approach
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in that, you know, now going back a year and a half, two years ago, they started doing something that I had been criticized
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them for not doing for a long time. Namely, they would always pioneer new technologies
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and never quite bring them to maturity. You know, it's like they're always kind of ADHD
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moving to their next idea rather than supporting the ideas that they've already had
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But through firmware updates to the A9 and also to the A7 third generation cameras
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we really saw them start to mature some of their tech, you know, real-time IAF, for example
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and things like that that made the cameras promise or the potential actually live up to the promise
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And what I kind of view the A9 Mark 2 as is essentially doing that on the hardware side
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to where now it's just a more mature camera. It's more functional
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It works better in every way. However, it's not going to wow you with any kind of new sensor, new focus technology
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I think that Sony feels like what they have here is already very, very functional and kind
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of at the sweet spot for what the working professionals are looking for
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And I think there's some validity to that. I think that in many cases, 24 megapixels is probably sufficient for, you know, for sports photography or reportage like that
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And moving up into the A7, R, you know, series, particularly the R4, is really overkill for a lot of those applications
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But what it's going to do is to leave people that are really buy into the marketing and the hype
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They're going to look at the A9 Mark 2 and say, why? And so I think that if that's you, then I think that you're right
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I think this is not necessarily the upgrade for you. I would say that this is a camera to consider upgrading to if you really fall into the target market for this
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And particularly if you need to deliver images to clients in an efficient way and have, I would say, at least in my testing capabilities
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I would say that this is the most robust body for tracking action that I have ever seen thus far
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And so it is still an incredible tour to force, but it's not necessarily because it's pioneering new technologies
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It's because it's perfecting the existing ones that Sony already had and making this a more useful camera at the end of the day
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I'm Dustin Abbott, and if you'll check out the description down below, there is linkage to my full text review
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along with linkage to an image gallery if you want to look at photos, you know, and see what I've captured during my review period with this camera
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Beyond that, there's also buying links if you'd like to purchase one for yourself, and of course, linkage to follow
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me on social media to become a patron or to sign up for my newsletter and if you
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haven't already please click that subscribe button right here on YouTube thanks for watching have a great day

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Sony a9M2 ILCE 9M2 Review 4K

Dustin Abbott