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The Sony a1 is Doing Something Completely Different

Chris Gampat
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01/26/2021
2 Mins read
Sony a1 product image

Last Updated on 01/26/2021 by Chris Gampat

The new Sony A1 seems like a serious camera for the pros who need it!

I was waiting for a day like this. For a long time, I never thought that companies could make a 50MP camera that can shoot at 30 fps. But the new Sony a1 is smashing that idea. Today the company announced the majorly innovative camera. In many ways, it’s a response to the Canon EOS R5 that blew us away last year. There’s a 50 Megapixel full frame sensor. It can shoot 8k video at 30p. It can shoot 50 megapixel images at 30 frames a second. More details are below.

This is a story that’s been updated.

Sony a1 Tech Specs 

These specs are abridged from the press release found at Sony Alpha Rumors.

  • A 50.1 Megapixel stacked CMOS Sensor with an upgraded BIONZ XR processor.
  • 30 fps shooting without blackout. The Sony a9 II can only do 20p.
  • 120 autofocus calculations per second. This is double the speed of the a9 II. 
  • ISO 102,000 at the high. ISO 50 at the low.
  • 199 MP composite image option
  • 21MP APS-C crop mode
  • Bright and large 0.64-type 9.44 million-dot (approx.) OLED Quad-XGA electronic viewfinder with a refresh rate of 240 fps.
  • Silent, vibration-free electronic shutter
  • Anti-flicker shooting with electronic and mechanical shutters
  • Electronic shutter flash sync up to 1/200 sec. Mechanical shutter flash sync to 1/400th
  • 8K 30p 10-bit 4:2:0 XAVC HS video recording with 8.6K oversampling for extraordinary detail
  • 4K 120p 10-bit 4:2:2 movie shooting capabilities
  • Wide dynamic range of 15 stops for stills
  • Real-time eye af with humans and birds.
  • Tracking with an f22 aperture
  • You can cancel real time tracking
  • 5-axis optical in-body image stabilization for a 5.5-step shutter speed advantage
  • Dual CF express cards, but also SDXC
  • Professional workflow support with the industry’s fastest built-in Wi-Fi, SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps, 1000BASE-T Ethernet, and more

Is the Sony a1 Enough for Photographers?

Of course, this is an incredibly exciting offer from Sony. It’s not offering the image stabilization that Canon does. But it’s offering more megapixels and a faster frame rate. Plus, there’s an electronic shutter with flash sync and a faster mechanical flash sync. This camera also has dual CF express card slots that double to work with SDXC.

We’re still very curious about a few things such as a full touchscreen menu, build quality, multiple exposure mode, and other things that Sony has really been lacking on for a while. We’ll wait for a review unit to give more of our thoughts though.

50mp camera card slots sony sony a1 sony a9 sony a9 ii
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.