[BigMackCam]

It's a marketing company, marketing works.

Its cameras do too, actually, and rather well for those who like mirrorless / EVF technology. They're far from perfect, but they have advantages and disadvantages just as DSLRs do, and just like all the other brands...

[mecrox]

Looks like an awesome piece of equipment, if you are into that kind of thing. 20 FPS at 24 MP, they just don't seem to be able to break that 24 MP barrier for a high frame rate.

If it can really do 60 AF/AE calculations per second and fire off 20 frames while doing it, that will be quite impressive. To bad about the EVF.

The price puts it in 1Dx /D4 country without the lenses.

AN impressive piece of technology, but, it's market is high end Canon and Nikon users, and they're going to have to offer an awful lot more than one body and a 100-400 lens to get those guys to switch. They are aiming at a very small part of a very small market.

I see it as the general ramp-up to the Tokyo Olympics 2020, the best worldwide showcase for Japanese imaging technology on Japan's home turf in decades. Oly and Pany kicked off a few months ago with fast high-end cams of their own, now Sony is off the blocks and later the big two will show off their latest wares. I'm sure they will all be incrementing the tech between now and then.They'll all want it to be their company that's in the front row with those long lenses delivering all the shots at the games. And I am sure that Canon will do anything to ensure they are that company. Anything else would be a humiliation for them, so Sony had better enjoy their moment in the sunshine. As you say, getting the heavily invested professionals to switch will be a very difficult task since it's really trying to make off with Canon and Nikon's crown jewels.

[biz-engineer]

I see it as the general ramp-up to the Tokyo Olympics 2020, the best worldwide showcase for Japanese imaging technology on Japan's home turf in decades. Oly and Pany kicked off a few months ago with fast high-end cams of their own, now Sony is off the blocks and later the big two will show off their latest wares. I'm sure they will all be incrementing the tech between now and then.They'll want it to be their company that's in the front row with those long lenses delivering all the shots at the games. And I am sure that Canon will do anything to ensure they are that company. Anything else would be a humiliation for them, so Sony had better enjoy their moment in the sunshine. As you say, getting the heavily invested professionals to switch will be a very difficult task since it's really trying to make off with Canon and Nikon's crown jewels.

Sony may not actually be targeting pro sport photographers. Having a model that makes big waves in the masses is a key to sell more cameras of the same brand with lower specifications. A lot of people are going to look at the A9, finally don't have the money and buy another Alpha model instead. Same for Fuji GFX, it wowed a lot of people who will never buy a GFX , but eventually will browse through other Fuji product and get one. There must be a mean to maintain share of mind and stay in the list of know camera brands to chose from. Obviously , the brands that will be absent from the list (in the mind of the consumer) will not be considered and die.

[Kunzite]

a toy.

Papoi?

Impressive, but is this a loss leader?

[Winder]

Everything. Its a Sony Alpha. It's a camera with a crappy viewfinder surrogate. There is no basis to assume Sony suddenly found out how to build cameras, which are not a pathetic joke.

They know how to build cameras. They have been making professional quality broadcast video cameras for year. From the BBC to National Geographic they have been catering to professionals in that industry. If this was the same body/build quality as the A7, it would be called the A7III or something. The A9 has been in the hands of at least a dozen working professionals for almost a year now as they go through beta testing. Like the A99II the A9 appears to have professional grade build quality.

[BigMackCam]

Having a model that makes big waves in the masses is a key to sell more cameras of the same brand with lower specifications. A lot of people are going to look at the A9, finally don't have the money and buy another Alpha model instead.

There's a lot of truth in this, I think. Although the A9 has some very nice specs, the fact is a large majority of photographers really don't need them and will be more than happy with an A7-series model at a fraction of the price. That aside, for those who've embraced the system, it's seems like it could be an impressive piece of kit.

[photoptimist]

They are just 3 years behind the curve for these types of viewfinderless cameras.
Samsung had that type of processing with 28 MPx / 15 FPS in 2014.

And they have to pay the price with a meagre 480 shots per new large battery, which has more than twice the capacity of the old thingies.

5.300 EUR is a lot for a toy.

At 480 shots/charge, a battery should last all of two 12-second bursts at full frame rate. (OK, I'm sure it will last longer than that but I'm also sure this camera will run extremely hot if pushed.)

[BigMackCam]

They know how to build cameras. They have been making professional quality broadcast video cameras for year. From the BBC to National Geographic they have been catering to professionals in that industry. If this was the same body/build quality as the A7, it would be called the A7III or something. The A9 has been in the hands of at least a dozen working professionals for almost a year now as they go through beta testing. Like the A99II the A9 appears to have professional grade build quality.

For what it's worth, I don't rate your chances of convincing him!

[photoptimist]

Everything. Its a Sony Alpha. It's a camera with a crappy viewfinder surrogate. There is no basis to assume Sony suddenly found out how to build cameras, which are not a pathetic joke.

Maybe. But with almost 4 million dots in the display and double-aspheric eyepiece optics, their EVF may well exceed the resolution of OVFs (which are limited by the granularity of ground glass & fresnel rings.)

Of course, it remains to be seen how their EVF handles lower light conditions.

[mecrox]

Sony may not actually be targeting pro sport photographers. Having a model that makes big waves in the masses is a key to sell more cameras of the same brand with lower specifications. A lot of people are going to look at the A9, finally don't have the money and buy another Alpha model instead. Same for Fuji GFX, it wowed a lot of people who will never buy a GFX , but eventually will browse through other Fuji product and get one. There must be a mean to maintain share of mind and stay in the list of know camera brands to chose from. Obviously , the brands that will be absent from the list (in the mind of the consumer) will not be considered and die.

Yes, I completely agree. All those dentists and lawyers at the top end and on, er, down.. However, I am sure that Sony are also targeting professionals. Why should they not? They already have a big in here via their video equipment. They aren't in this to mess about and for as long as they have a distinct technical advantage it would be mad not to press it home. I don't expect Sony will go overboard about it, bust the bank and so on, but they seem pretty determined to me. They've also beefed up their pro service offer, I think. They don't need every professional either. Just enough of them to blow a hole in the redoubt which can be worked on later. Whether this new camera can really deliver on all the hype is another matter. We'll see over the coming weeks. I'm not a Sony lover at all but one has to admire the way they are shaking things up.

[biz-engineer]

All those dentists and lawyers at the top end and on, er, down..

A dentist would have to perform a half dozen tooth extraction because he can afford the A9.
Next time , better not to go to a dentist who is looking at acquiring a Sony A9.

[surfar]

better not to go to a dentist

And put the $$$ towards an A9!

[normhead]

A dentist would have to perform a half dozen tooth extraction because he can afford the A9.
Next time , better not to go to a dentist who is looking at acquiring a Sony A9.

They do the tooth extractions cheap, and then hit you for thousands on the implant afterwards. Kind of like printers and ink.

[beholder3]

Maybe. But with almost 4 million dots in the display and double-aspheric eyepiece optics, their EVF may well exceed the resolution of OVFs (which are limited by the granularity of ground glass & fresnel rings.)

Of course, it remains to be seen how their EVF handles lower light conditions.

My reservation is more based around the exact same quality requirements that I apply to all the full format viewfinders at home, which traditionalists call "house windows".
While for the same price I can nearly get same size LCDs with resolution higher than what my eyes can resolve, there is a substantial difference between a real view and a artificial glowing flat computer screen. Anybody even discussing that is invited to buy a penthouse appartment and then swap it with a cellar appartment with screens.
LCDs are neither windows nor viewfinders.

[mattb123]

I'm not a big fan of their stuff but I have seen many very nice images created with it. If you can work within the constraints their approach imposes, they are very capable tools.
I know a couple of landscape/adventure photographers who use the system with great results. They aren't complaining.