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:
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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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?
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.
It ain’t over folks! There is one more Sony announcement which is going to happen this or the next week already! Sony China posted that teaser that clearly hints towards a new compact camera (Maybe RX model). In case you don’t remember what the first two cameras on the picture are…well this is the “[shoplink 59374 ebay]Sony DSC-F1[/shoplink]” camera. What was special on that camera is that the lens and flash could be rotated 180° for greater flexibility in shooting from many angles. This is the youtube video showing it:
We don’t have specs yet but based on the teaser we can assume:
This might be an entirely new RX model and not a successor of an existing camera (no RX1 or as it seems not RX10 and RX100 neither).
This might be a new High End compact camera (High End Selfie RX camera?)
But I really can’t figure out the full meaning of that teaser. You got an idea?
If you have some “rumor” to share just send me an anonymous messages here: at sonyalpharumors@gmail.com or use the contact form you see on the right top of this site.
Reminder (SR = Sonyrumor): SR1=probably fake rumor SR2=rumor from unknown sources SR3=50% chance it is correct SR4=rumor from known sources SR5=almost certainly correct!
Photonstophotos posted the final Sony A9 Dynamic Range test. It’s very good news to see that there is nearly no trade-off between the A9 electronic shutter and mechanical shutter. The A9 is probably the first camera that gives you such impressive results in electronic shutter mode.
And another good news is that the A9 has no banding with LED light as tested by Skimmel (Click here).
I am sure Sony is right now working on the issues we mentioned yesterday:
1) Banding issue on the red channel of the images when shooting on electronic shutter mode (it’s not visible in normal conditions, you have to work on extreme settings in postprocessing to see this) 2) Indicator warning should activate only when it’s really super necessary.
3) Fix the star eating bug
You have a new Sony Cashback action at Amazon Germany and Wex UK. There is also a weird Gold Box dela on the A7r at Amazon DE (weird because it starts on midnight). AndGold Box on the RX100m3 at Amazon France.
Sigma 12-24mm F4 ART Review on Sony A7RM2 | John Sison
wildlife photography without the A9 (https://cztg-studio.smugmug.com/browse)
My Sony a7Rii Overheated🔥…I Missed a Home Run (ThatCameraGuy).
Atomos Ninja Inferno Pro Video Monitor Captures 10-Bit HDR (ALC).
Spring Resolution: Back Up Your Data (Explora)
AFC demo of Sony A9 + Contax N24-85 + Fringer adapter MK3 (Fringer).
adapting old lenses to the a7II (Movetomirrorless).
Andrzey: “I shot a little video on how to do product/macro photography in a very inexpensive way using two cheap LED lights and color gels. I’m using the Sony A7 and the Sony 90mm f/2.8 macro to take the shoots. Hope it’ll be interesting for your readers :)
Here’s the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIcJIPcCSnI”
I take the Sony a9 out for a test run at a swim meet. The overheating indicator turned on within 20 minutes of use in 81 degree Fahrenheit temperature. Not exactly what I would call “Pro” like. There are a lot of positive things about this camera, but this is actually a big deal for what I do, considering Sony marketed this as an actual sports camera.
SAR note:
So far most of the early testers did not have the issue reported by ThatCameraGuy. The few who had this issue all did report about the “indicator warning” turning on while in ZERO cases the camera did actually shut down because of overheating. In the best scenario Sony’s “warning” system is simply turning on way too early (which is annoying anyway).
Star eating: Jim Kasson confirms that the A9 is a “star eater” too (just like the A7 cameras with the latest firmware version). He tested the electronic shutter only, so maybe in mechanical shutter mode this is not going to happen. This is 100% a problem that can be fixed via firmware issue.
While all this is disappointing news I also do know that it is perfectly normal to find issues on newly released cameras. And I bet Sony will take note of those of these issues and fix them (or at least mitigate them) soon
To sum up: Dear Sony please do this on the next A9 firmware update:
1) Fix the banding issue on the red channel of your images when shooting on electronic shutter mode 2) Mitigate overheating (or delay the indicator warning to activate when it’s really super necessary).
3) Fix the star eating bug
4) Add S-Log
But still my suggestion to Sony remains the same: For the next A7rIII and A7sIII please do make a larger body for the following reasons:
Eliminate any overheating issue (particularly important for the A7sIII model which is mainly used for video purpose)
Better ergonomic for people with big Hands like Donald Trump…sorry for the bad joke :)
Better handling with bigger lenses (you should not be forced to buy a battery grip to fix this)
At the end I believe the Camera Size gets less important on pro cameras. Pro’s don’t really care about that…
