We now learned via first Sony A9 owners that in a very specific situation (shooting under direct sunlight) the A9 overheating indicator turns on after 20-40 minutes. What’s also very strange is that only a handful of people noticed this while most of the photographers seem to not have had any issue at all. Also to be noted: It doesn’t seem the camera ia actually shutting down neither. Here are a few new information:

1. On the video above you can watch an update on ThatCameraGuy A9 overheating report. I understand he is upset and I am glad he exposed the problem. A $4,500 camera should just work out of the box. Also a few more people reported the same annoying problem. So this is not just him having noted this!
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2. Jared Matthew Jarvis reported the same A9 overheating indicator issue on our A9 facebook group (there is a video too). But he also discovered more details: After he had the “indicator” warning when shooting under direct sunlight he remade the test indoor:
   

   “It’s warmer physically than it was ever when I had it outside yesterday when the heat indicator came on, yet there is no warning yet. Maybe the a9 just hates sunlight. I no longer want to call this an overheating “issue”. My camera has not yet at any point overheated and I’ve been putting it through its paces in scenarios far more stressful than most real world shooting. If anything I think Sony may have been a bit over zealous with their overheating warning considering the issues they’ve had with heat in the past

   He also noted this: “The warmest part on the camera is the base plate around the tripod mount.” So maybe keeping the A9 on a hot surface exposed previously by sunlight triggered the warning?

3. Many A9 owners also reported that they had no issues under similar conditions:
   – Andreas Bechthold wrote on the A9 group: “I had it in 92 degrees (Fahrenheit) yesterday with about 2000 shots. Worked nice, not Problem at all….”
   – Alin Popescu told me this: “I’ve shot in 33 degrees celsius for more than 2h. Then on streets of Bucharest, at an entire wedding, birds, etc.. Never saw that warning!”
   – Max Yuryev also commented on ThatCameraGuy video: “I shot a ton with it with not a single overheating icon“

If what Jared Matthew and others are reporting are true it seems like the “overheating indicator” is reaction wrong on direct sunlight and not on the real heat inside the camera. I invite A9 users to test the camera for a long time under direct sunlight (and please do record what happens). Let’s see if we can make some sense out fo this story. But to me this sounds more like a software problem or a problem related to a few “flawed” cameras.

In the meantime Sony will have for sure taken notice of that buzz on the web and I hope they will make some statement soon.