Reminder: Don’t forget you can win!!! an A9 if you preorder at BHphoto or at Adorama,. Other preorder links: Amazon, BestBuy. FocusCamera. Calumet.de. Park UK. Wex UK. Jessops.

There are many new A9 tests. So let’s check them out:

Editorial journalist Nick Didlic did use six A9 camera to shoot the Kentucky derby. The full report can be read at Alphauniverse. What Nick liked most is:

Everybody else is shooting 10 to 12 frames per second and I’m shooting 20 frames a second…I’m seeing those horses’ hooves off the ground more than anybody else is!’

Here is a video from Nick Didlic at 20fps:

And Sam Palis posted this A9 test video:

And this is a video of the A9 focus following a buggy:

This is a hands-on by Jason Lanier:

Sony A9:
Sony A9 at BHphoto, Adorama, Amazon, BestBuy. FocusCamera. Calumet.de. Park UK. Wex UK. Jessops.
Sony A9 with Grip Extension Kit at BHphoto, Adorama and Amazon.
Note: US readers preordering the A9 at BHphoto or Adorama using our links (and our affiliated links only!) have a chance to win a Sony A9.

100-400mm GM:
Sony 100-400mm GM at BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama, BestBuy. Calumet.de. Park UK. Wex UK. Jessops.

Sony A9 accessories:
Sony A9 battery grip at Adorama, Bhphoto, Amazon. Wex UK. Jessops.
Sony A9 Glass screen protector at Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon.
NP-FZ100 battery for the A9 at Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon. Jessops.
GP-EX1 grip at Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon. Wex UK.
FDA-EP18 eye cup at Adorama, BHphoto.
MQZ1 multi battery charger at Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon. Wex UK.
BCQZ1 Z-series Battery Charger at Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon.

Please support SAR:
You know me, I work my ass off to get the best news and rumors on SAR :) And this is the right time to reward me by using these affiliated links for your purchase! I will get a small commission and you don’t have to pay a cent more for that. Thanks!

Win an AMEX card ($4,500) at BHphoto:
US readers preordering the A9 at BHphoto using our links (and our affiliated links only!) have a chance to win an AMEX card mathching the value of the Sony A9 ($4,500). The winner will be randomly selected by BHphoto by end of June after the preorders shipped out!
The conditions and legal notes of the sweepstake can be read here: sonyalpharumors.com/official-bh-sonyalpharumors-a9-launch-sweepstakes-rules/

Win an A9 at Adorama:
If you preoder the Sony A9 at Adorama through our affiliated links only (it doesn’t work on links of other sites!) they will refund one lucky customer their $4,498 price on the A9! This will be for pre-orders. Once the orders start shipping (some time the end of May) Adorama will filter all the orders that came from SAR, and randomly select one A9 order and refund the customer their money. This is for the camera only and not the new 100-400mm lens or accessories.
The conditions and legal notes of the sweepstake can be read here:  sonyalpharumors.com/official-adorama-sonyalpharumors-a9-launch-sweepstakes-rules/
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Join our new Sony A9 Facebook group!

“Bokeh” is Kai’s second name and of course he loves the new Sony 100mm STF lens! 100mm f/2.8 STF FE at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama. Amazon DE. Amazon UK. Amazon IT. Amazon FR. Amazon ES.

Dpreview posted the Sony FE 100mm F2.8 STF Gallery and 1st Impressions. And Harn Teh posted his 100mm STF test on our SonyAlphaCamera Facebook group:

Paul Bunyard says A9 focus fast on the huge Canon 500mm lens. Info and images here:  facebook.com/groups/sonyalphacamera/
Sony A9 at BHphoto, Adorama, Amazon

Dpreview analyzed the A9 RAW files (note: pre-production camera!). First the good news:

Noise appears to be well-controlled, and they’re very malleable, even at the high ISO values we found ourselves shooting at.a

And now the bad news:

These issues with color are exacerbated with auto white balance that struggled under artificial light (see the skaters at the top of the page). Sure, it’s not difficult to dial in a custom white balance for a sideline photographer shooting under the same light all evening, but it’s something to note nonetheless as auto white balance can be valuable for fast-moving photographers in fast-changing situations.

While this is also in some measure a matter of personal taste I kinda have to agree that Sony still is a tiny bit behind the great color quality of Canon. Of course this isn’t something to worry about if you have time to work on files. But I do hope Sony will further improve the color performance via future firmware upgrade so that we have to spend less time on post processing.

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Sony A9:
Sony A9 at BHphoto, Adorama, Amazon, BestBuy. FocusCamera. Calumet.de. Park UK. Wex UK. Jessops.
Sony A9 with Grip Extension Kit at BHphoto, Adorama and Amazon.
Note: US readers preordering the A9 at BHphoto or Adorama using our links (and our affiliated links only!) have a chance to win a Sony A9.

100-400mm GM:
Sony 100-400mm GM at BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama, BestBuy. Calumet.de. Park UK. Wex UK. Jessops.

Sony A9 accessories:
Sony A9 battery grip at Adorama, Bhphoto, Amazon. Wex UK. Jessops.
Sony A9 Glass screen protector at Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon.
NP-FZ100 battery for the A9 at Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon. Jessops.
GP-EX1 grip at Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon. Wex UK.
FDA-EP18 eye cup at Adorama, BHphoto.
MQZ1 multi battery charger at Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon. Wex UK.
BCQZ1 Z-series Battery Charger at Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon

The video on top shows a quite funny autofocus and buffer test. During the A9 presentation (in Hong Kong?) a guy tries to fool the A9 AF tracking by moving a black card around the frame as fast as he can. But as hard as they try the A9 keeps the AF points right on the card. Really impressive!

We also got a bunch of new Sony a9 High ISO Examples by Spencer Pablo.

Sony A9:
Sony A9 at BHphoto, Adorama, Amazon, BestBuy. FocusCamera. Calumet.de. Park UK. Wex UK. Jessops.
Sony A9 with Grip Extension Kit at BHphoto, Adorama and Amazon.
Note: US readers preordering the A9 at BHphoto or Adorama using our links (and our affiliated links only!) have a chance to win a Sony A9.

100-400mm GM:
Sony 100-400mm GM at BHphoto, Amazon, Adorama, BestBuy. Calumet.de. Park UK. Wex UK. Jessops.

Sony A9 accessories:
Sony A9 battery grip at Adorama, Bhphoto, Amazon. Wex UK. Jessops.
Sony A9 Glass screen protector at Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon.
NP-FZ100 battery for the A9 at Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon. Jessops.
GP-EX1 grip at Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon. Wex UK.
FDA-EP18 eye cup at Adorama, BHphoto.
MQZ1 multi battery charger at Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon. Wex UK.
BCQZ1 Z-series Battery Charger at Adorama, BHphoto, Amazon.

Zeiss Artisan and famous Rock Star Photographer Greg Watermann did shoot this new video from Pitbull on the Sony a7S with Otus and Loxia lenses.

Listen Sony: I know Greg and many other pros can’t wait to get a new A7sIII with the A9 benefits (dual SD card, bigger battery). Could you please hurry and give us the A7sIII soon? :)

The reviewers of the Sony A9 found that the weakest point of the A9 is the buffer unload time of 2 minutes. But there is good news. There seems to be a bug on the A9 (that will be fixed). And if you unload all pics on the faster UHS-II card it will take 36 seconds “only”. In my opinion 36 seconds is still too much but the good news is that we can expect this time to be reduced with the use of future faster SD cards.

The current world’s fastest cards are the ones from the Sony SF-G series:

Sony SF-G Series 128GB card:
In USA at BHphoto, Adorama, Amazon. In EU: AmazonDE, AmazonUK, AmazonFR, AmazonIT, AmazonES.
Sony SF-G Series 64GB card:
In USA at BHphoto, Adorama, Amazon. In EU: AmazonDE, AmazonUK, AmazonFR, AmazonIT, AmazonES.
Sony SF-G Series 32GB card:
In USA at BHphoto, Adorama, Amazon.