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The Sony A1 is a flagship mirrorless camera with amazing features and a pretty amazing price tag. We tested it.
The Sony A1 is everything Sony claims to be. It's a technological triumph, a camera that can truly do it all. Previously, cameras could offer speed, resolution, or video capability, but the A1 offers all three, and beats even specialized sports and video cameras at their own game. So is it the perfect camera? Not quite. Price is, and will remain, a major obstacle, and its appeal is limited to photographers who need everything it does, not just one or two of those things.
The Sony A1 has a list of features that would look like a fantastic camera if it hadn't actually existed. It's not the first full-frame hybrid camera to shoot 8K video, it's not the first to offer 50 MP resolution, and it's not the first to offer high-speed burst modes - but it's the first to do ALL of that.
We're used to seeing professional cameras with exorbitant specs, but they usually specialize in specific areas at the expense of others, such as sacrificing resolution for burst speed or video features. The Sony Alpha A1 makes no such compromises. It is actually better than the Sony A7S III for video, better than the Sony A9 II for sports, and only slightly worse than the Sony A7R IV for resolution.
The only problem is that it costs as much as those other two cameras combined. In other words, while the Sony A1 is technically better than the A7S III and A9 II in the areas those cameras were designed for - and that's already a feat - its price only makes sense if you need everything it does.
And while countless amateur photographers covet the Sony A1 and its capabilities, most professional photographers will take a closer look at their real needs and ask themselves if this camera is worth the price. It costs more than a Leica (the Leica SL2), for example, and even the 100 megapixel Fujifilm GFX100S.
If we were to list all the key features of the Sony A1, it would be a book, not a camera review, so we will try to be brief.
First of all, it features a 50.1-megapixel, back-illuminated, gap-free, stacked CMOS sensor with separate pixel and circuit layers, combined with a BIONZ XR processor that is 8 times more powerful than the previous version. This not only improves performance and image quality, but also the responsiveness of the camera itself.
If the 50.1 megapixels aren't enough, there's also a 199-megapixel pixel-shift multi-shot mode that merges up to 16 separate images taken in succession - this for static subjects with the camera mounted on a tripod.
The Sony A1 has a sensitivity range of ISO 100-32,000, expandable to ISO 50-102,400, and Sony says it can capture a dynamic range of up to 15 stops.
The resolution may not be the highest for a full-frame camera (it's beaten by Sony's A7R IV), but it's the second highest, and it's even more impressive given the camera's terrific video and continuous shooting capabilities.
On the video front, this is the first consumer hybrid camera, after the Canon EOS R5, to capture 8K video; in addition, the Sony alpha 1 can capture 4K video at up to 120 frames per second. Footage can be recorded internally to the A1's two CFexpress Type A/SDXC card slots as 10-bit 4:2:0 footage or as 16-bit raw footage via HDMI.
What about heat build-up? According to Sony, the A1's passive heat dissipation system allows for up to 30 minutes of 8K 30p recording, which is a marked improvement over the Canon EOS R5 (although the Canon's recording time was improved by a firmware update).
The Sony alpha a1 matches the 4K recording capabilities of the Sony A7S III and then surpasses them with 8K capture. In addition, the higher resolution sensor allows 4K capture even in Super35 mode with 5.8K oversampling. That's a big plus for any filmmaker using APS-C E-mount or Super35 format cinema lenses and adapters.
It's hard to say which is more impressive: the Sony A1's video capabilities or its continuous shooting. Just as it shadows the Sony A7S III in video, it makes the A9 II look pedestrian, beating its 20fps with 30fps and with equivalent buffer capacity (up to 155 compressed raw frames in a burst). In addition, the Sony alpha A1 has superior electronic distortion control, thanks to its BIONZ XR processor, which almost completely eliminates skewed verticals in fast-paced panoramic shots, for example.
Continuous shooting capabilities are assisted by a 759-point phased-array AF system covering 92% of the frame and 425 contrast AF points. These work with enhanced real-time eye AF for animals and new real-time eye AF for birds.
Other key features include a 9.44 million-dot electronic viewfinder with the highest resolution ever, 240 frames per second refresh rate and fog-free shooting in burst mode, as well as a 5-axis SteadShot INSIDE image stabilizer built into the body to compensate for vibration up to 5.5 stops, a 500,000-shot mechanical shutter and 1/400-sec flash sync speed.
There is more - much more - but these are the main points
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The Sony A1 is a bit larger than the Sony A7 series and comparable to the A9. Still, it's fairly compact for a full-frame hybrid camera. If you mount a high-end G Master zoom lens like the FE 24-70mm f/2.8, for example, you'll still have a very front-heavy camera kit. That would be a good reason to get the VG-C4EM battery grip, which will also extend battery life - although the 530 shots you get from the A1's Z-series battery are pretty good.
The 9.44 m viewfinder is very impressive. The resolution means you can't see the dots. On top of that, there is no lag, jerkiness or smearing if you move the camera quickly.
The rear screen is altogether less impressive. It's a 3-inch screen when most competing devices have 3.2-inch screens, and the 1.44 million-dot resolution is adequate, but nothing more. Worse, it's a tiltable screen with no side-to-side movement, and you can't even flip it to face forward. Sony continues to amaze us with its technical advances, but its physical designs seem to be moving much more slowly, if at all.
There are three control wheels - four, if you count the EV compensation wheel - and they all have a good, positive feel, although the combined rotary controller and four-way pad on the back are a bit smaller and harder to hold with the thumb than we would like.
Sony has replaced its old, complex and often random menu structure on the Alpha 1. The new menu system is color-coded for easy navigation, but there are now three levels of navigation - tabs, menus and options - and you still have to find where to find the settings you need. For example, we wanted to increase the Sony A1's heat threshold for longer 8K recordings, and it turned out to be among the power settings.
The handle on the right side of the unit is substantial, but offers just the right amount of height for an average-sized hand (see our comments on the handle above).
The shutter has a short and silent action, unlike the longer mechanical action of previous generations.
The superimposed focus mode and drive mode selectors on the far left of the top plate are a good idea - it's kind of annoying to see them buried in the menus.
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We haven't had the Sony A1 long enough to fully test it for the wide range of applications for which it is designed. We intend to bring a more complete analysis of its continuous shooting and video capabilities in due course.
But we tested its still image performance in daylight and in the dark, and we did some testing with its 8K recording times and video stabilization.
First of all, the quality of the still images is what we expected and hoped for. Exposures are accurate, resolution is fantastic, and, unless it's our imagination, Sony's BIONZ XR processor has improved depth and color fidelity. Even the camera's JPEGs are impressive, although the Sony A1 seems to have a tendency to overexpose heavily backlit subjects, which requires keeping an eye on the histogram.
The video recording test was interesting. Sony advertises a recording time of 30 minutes in 8K 30p, but we did not get that result. Our camera shut down after just over 9 minutes. Even worse, it wouldn't restart until the temperature dropped. It wasn't like waiting for the buffer to empty after a burst - the camera was actually unusable for about three minutes.
This was curious. Some research revealed that the Sony A1 has two sensitivity settings. Once we changed ours from standard to high, it went over the 9-minute limit and only stopped at 18 minutes when our memory card became full. (Unfortunately, at that point we couldn't test it any longer with our 128GB V90 card because it failed after the previous test - we think it was the card, not the camera.)
Stabilization results are also mixed. For static shots, the body's built-in stabilization works very well. If you enable active stabilization, which comes with a slight crop factor, you can also make slow, smooth camera movements. However, despite the active mode, the Sony Alpha A1's stabilization is not at all suitable for burst (or walking) shots. We compared the two stabilization modes (active mode was obviously better), no stabilization (terrible) and a Ronin SC gimbal (much better than the camera's built-in stabilization).
Interestingly, we were able to balance the Sony A1 and FE 24-70mm f/2.8 on our Ronin SC, but we had to mount it so far back to balance it that the EVF fouled the roller motor, and the combo was quite heavy to hold and shoot.
The Sony A1 seems like a great camera for video, but its IBIS is no substitute for a gimbal, and you might want to use lighter lenses or primes to shoot with. On a tripod, it's fine, obviously.
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The Sony A1 is such a powerful and versatile camera that we weren't able to cover everything it does and can do in one article. We plan to bring more detailed tests of its video, continuous shooting and autofocus performance in future updates.
But everything we've tried so far has left us impressed. The Sony A1 is like the Leonardo da Vinci of digital cameras: it's absolutely brilliant in every way.
If there is a flaw, it may be in Sony's strategy rather than the camera. The Sony A1 is an amazing camera, but it comes with an equally amazing price tag for all the wrong reasons. It's so expensive that it only really makes sense if you need everything it does. If all you need is cutting edge 4K video, fast burst shooting, or high resolution capture, there are other Sony models that are much cheaper than this one.
Sony is following a trajectory we've seen in all of its sub-brands, from the RX100 to the RX10 to the APS-C A6000 series and now its full-frame hybrid cameras. The Sony A1 offers more and more performance to an increasingly specialized audience, at an increasingly high price. It's certainly an evolution of sorts, but not necessarily in the direction the average photographer or filmmaker needs.