The Sony a1 has gotten an important firmware update that made it even better for photographers who shoot macro, landscapes, and care more about editing the files in post-production. This is really great despite the camera having a new replacement in the form of the Sony a1 II — which we gave an Editor’s Choice award to. So we’ve updated our Sony a1 original review.
If you want to read the entire Sony a1 review, you can do so here. Want one? The Sony a1 can be purchased on Amazon.
Ease of Use Update January 2025
Here are the details of the latest Sony a1 firmware update. And below are our findings.
Focus bracketing for continuous shooting: This feature is best utilized and seen most dramatically with the camera set to at least 10 shots. To activate it, you simply turn the dial on the top left to the bracket function, press the FN button to dial in the settings, and then set it to at least 10 shots. By doing this it works like a charm. More importantly, it works both on a tripod and handheld.
Sony A1 shot by Chris Gampat
On top of this, the Sony a1 adds additional settings for exposure bracketing. You can add the EV and the number of images. That’s something that HDR photographers are bound to want to use – though not so much photojournalists and different styles of fine art photographers. This change is very typical of Sony in that it sets you up to do everything later on in software.
Sony also added the use of the focus magnifier when in bright monitoring mode to the Sony a1. To do this, I opted to use the LCD screen and involved using the touch capabilities. But I think that when you set the frame rate of the viewfinder or the screen to be “higher” that it still limits what’s possible. At least, that’s what the camera was telling me.
Sony also now allows the AEL and Delete button to be programmed during playback. When playing back images, the only thing that I’ve ever done was rate my photos using the protect button. I set it to rotate the image, which can surely help later on when you’re culling through photos.
The last big one is the improved operability when using the Creator’s App. And this is most welcome. For several years, Sony’s Playmemories app was the best and singlehandedly the reason why I used Sony so often. Then when it changed to Imaging Edge, it became pretty bugged. But now it seems like Sony has fix