Sony has just recently announced firmware upgrades for the a1 II (Ver. 2.00), a1 (Ver. 3.00), and a9 III (Ver. 3.00) cameras. I took the upgraded Sony a1 II for a spin at the racetrack to test out whether all was good with the most recent update.
You can see our full Sony a1 II review here, but here’s the updated text.
Ease of Use Update
Your Sony Creator App may or may not detect that a firmware upgrade is available for your Sony a1 II, so you can download the file off the Sony website and do the update using a memory card. The update itself took about 3 minutes. Three main things that Sony brought to the a1 II camera as part of this firmware release are:
- Support for the Write Digital Signature function for still images and the C2PA format as part of Sony’s Camera Authenticity Solution
- Improvement in image quality when applying user LUTs
- Improvement in operational stability of the camera
That last point right there is super ambiguous. There’s no elaboration on what exactly is improved in the Sony a1 II here. Is it something that was reported by users of previous firmware versions and fixed in this release? Or is it something that Sony themselves observed and quietly corrected before it was noticed? Such statements honestly should be more elaborate and spelled out more clearly. It could be one or dozens of things that were corrected. But we also need to make sure nothing else went sour as a result of this firmware upgrade.
No settings were lost as a part of the upgrade, but it’s always safer to upgrade with a backup of your settings.
I tested firmware 2.0 on the Sony a1 II with the Sony FE 300mm f2.8 GM lens.
Here’s the update from our review:
Focusing Updated
Eye-AF or Eyelash AF?
Compared to a flagship like the Nikon Z9, Sony’s focusing feedback, visually on screen, is quite different in some ways. It doesn’t always track the eyes as well as I expected. I noticed that in the LCD, it seemed like the eyes were sharp. But when you viewed the images on a large screen monitor, you observed that the eyelashes and eyebrows were actually sharper than the eye itself. This is something I used to observe on earlier firmware versions of the Nikon Z6.
This scenario wasn’t always the case with the Sony a1 II; there were many instances where the eyes were tack-sharp. But I did expect the hit rate to be a lot more than I observed. Most such cases were when the face of the subject filled the frame; on wider shots the eyes were a lot more in focus. What hasn’t changed much is the impressive accuracy with which it focuses on people with darker skin tones. In this matter, there was a lot to be happy about.
Tracking Like A Pro
When tracking moving horses, the Sony a1 II did a fantastic job, often surpassing my expectations when the horses were racing toward me and then moving further away. However, when animal focus was enabled, I did not notice the Real-time Eye AF kicking in. Results were still acceptably sharp for fast-moving subjects, but the visual feedback in the camera would have calmed my nerves a lot more. Horses weren’t tracked well when they were at a fair distance away from the finish line, but when they came closer, where it really mattered to get that perfect shot, the Sony a1 II was able to latch onto the leading horse and nail focus as long I kept my lens trained on it. There are very few cameras available today that can track fast moving subjects with such a good hit rate, and the a1 II is definitely one of them
Conclusions Update Feb 2025
The Sony a1 II is still one of the best mirrorless cameras for professionals available today. While it’s not clear yet what exactly the “operational stability” improvements that have been introduced in the firmware 2.0 update are, it’s safe to say that nothing’s been broken. What could still be even more improved is the focus accuracy on the eyes, which sometimes tends to shift toward eyebrows and eyelashes. Still not a problem, however, for those who don’t pixel peep or shoot too many closeup headshots, I’d say. The colors were super accurate, especially on the purebred Arabian horses I photographed. I hope Sony continues to keep improving this model even after its successor is announced (whenever that is). It’s a camera that deserves to be used for years and years.