Last Updated on 09/19/2016 by Chris Gampat
At Photokina 2016, Sony has announced their new Sony a99 II; making it the company’s new flagship Alpha camera. It’s about time too, it’s been a number of years now. At the heart there is 42.4 BSI MP full frame sensor that can shoot at 12fps while using tracking AF, hybrid face detection af, 399 AF points, 5 axis stabilization, 4k movie without pixel binning. They’re targeting this camera at professionals and sports shooters and wildlife photographers.
The Sony a99 II has a hybrid phase detection AF system that uses a dedicated phase detection AF with 79 points and focal plane points (that’s what they’re calling them) with 399 AF points. They’re designed to work all the time–as in with continuous shooting down to -4EV. If you’re a Sony user, you can only imagine what they may do to the camera battery. However, we have to admit that this is an impressive system at least from how they describe it. In practice though, it’s also going to mean that you’re going to need more hard drive space.
At 12 fps, with autofocus tracking, the camera has a new ultra fast shutter unit that can do more than 300,000 cycles.
The sensor is of course, a 42.4MP Back illuminated sensor that can shoot at up to 102,400 ISO. The sensor also uses copper to make the readout even faster–which helps with performance and hopefully will help with battery life. When working in combination with the Exmor R technology and the Bionz X processor, Sony is claiming that you’ll have the best image quality out there–and if it’s anything like what they’ve put out in the past, they most likely will.
The sensor also has the 5 axis image stabilization system that will work with all A mount lenses–even those from Konica Minolta. You’ll get 4.5 stops of compensation according to Sony.
These are the three big features that Sony is pushing here. We’re going to get our hands on a unit soon for testing. Of course, it has an aluminum alloy body with dust and splash resistance too.
What they’re also pushing is the 4k full frame sensor video recording without pixel binning. The camera also has dual SD card spots, a front multi-controller dial, and a 3 axis tiltable LCD monitor. Additionally, they changed the menu.
It will cost you $3,199 for the body only.