Sony South Africa Officially Launches Alpha 9 II Mirrorless Camera

A little over a year ago, Sony launched the Alpha 9 series mirrorless cameras, which we had the privilege of reviewing.
Last week, Sony South Africa hosted an event in Johannesburg to announce the latest addition to the acclaimed line-up of α™ lineup, the Sony Alpha 9 II mirrorless camera. The α9 II features full-frame, interchangeable lenses, which have been designed specifically for working professionals in the fields of sports photography and photojournalism. The event also doubled as a hands-on experience alongside South Africa’s top hockey players to put the Sony cameras through its paces for some great action shots.

The Alpha 9 II maintains its ground-breaking performance speeds, which includes blackout-free continuous shooting at up to 20fps, along with Auto Focus and Auto Exposure tracking. The unit builds upon an already impressive base, with Sony having taken input directly from the professionals that use the cameras to fine-tune many of its design elements and feature enhancements. The implemented changes on the α9 II include more functionality, such as the enhanced connectivity options for file delivery and the likes, continuous shooting at 10fps with the mechanical shutter, upgraded AF performance, as well as a slightly tweaked design making it more durable and weatherproof, including a slightly larger grip to better suit different hand sizes.

Excellence Continued with Speed and Autofocus Performance

Alpha 9 II includes a 35mm full-frame stacked 24.2MP Exmor RS™ CMOS image sensor with integral memory

Continuous shooting completely silently at 20fps for up to 361 JPEG images or 239 compressed RAW images

Zero viewfinder blackout during continuous shooting

Improved shoot at up to 10fps using mechanical shutter – x2 the speed of the original

Optimised AF algorithms provide enhanced AF precision and performance

Camera designed to function while continuously calculating Auto Focus and Auto Exposure at up to 60x per sec

693 focal-plane phase-detection AF points covering 93% of image area, with 425 contrast AF points.

Fast Hybrid AF system with extremely fast and accurate performance, ensuring fast-moving subjects are always captured

Real-time Eye AF with right eye / left eye selection, Real-time Eye AF for animals

Better Connectivity for Professional Workflow

• The Alpha 9 II has a built-in 1000BASE-T Ethernet terminal, enabling high-speed and stable data transfers
• Secure file transfer over SSL or TLS encryption to improve PC remote shooting performance
• Wireless LAN functionality has been improved by adding both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands
• New Voice Memo functionality allowing spoken information attachment to images as voice memos, which can be replayed reviewed or transferred
• Auto-transfer images with attached voice memos via FTP
• FTP via Bluetooth®

Redesigned for Superior Quality

• BIONZ X™ image processing engine gains maximum benefit from the sensor’s fast readout speed
• Upgraded dust and moisture resistance design for any outdoor conditions
• Improved sealing provided at all body seams, including the battery compartment cover and media slot
• 5-axis optical in-body image stabilisation system
• Redesigned shutter mechanism to suppress the slightest movement, which can cause image blur
• USB Type-C™ connector supports fast USB 3.2 Gen 1 data transfer
• Dual media slots, both compatible with UHS-I and UHS-II SD cards

The Sony Alpha 9 II is now available at the leading camera and electronic stores across South Africa and carries a recommended retail price of R83,995.