LIVE: Sony A1 II is being launched today – follow the announcement with us
The new flagship full-frame mirrorless camera gets its big reveal
Sony has officially confirmed that it will be launching new A1 Mark II mirrorless camera products today, November 19, with the announcement set for 9:00 EST / 14:00 BST (that's midnight AEST). The announcement will take place live on YouTube and Sony is inviting everyone to follow along, and you can bet we will be there.
The teaser for the announcement did nothing more than show us the name α 1 II lit up in lights with the time and date – with a word word clue to what is in store that is simply Unrivaled.
Sony FE 28-70 f/2 GM news story
Follow the announcement on the YouTube link above
That's not a lot to go on - but this is obviously an update to the Sony A1, which was launched back in January 2021. Back then, its 50MP full-frame sensor could shoot burst sequences at 30fps, shot 8K video, and had real-time Eye AF for photographing birds and more.
That was really impressive stuff back then... but since then we have seen lots of flagship pro mirrorless cameras get launched. There is the Sony A9 III for starters - and just this week the Canon EOS R1 went on sale... So what can the new Sony A1 II bring to the party? We have just a couple of hours to wait until we find out what unrivaled features it really has!
So now we can reveal our full news and reviews of the new Sony A1 II, and the new 28-70mm f/2 zoom…
The Sony A1 launched with a body-only retail price of $6,498 / £6,499 / AU$10,499 – and surprisingly the price of this has not fallen that much in the last three and a half years. In the US, Amazon has it discounted down to $5,498, while in the UK all the major retailers have it at £5,879.
We thought we'd see better discounts already - but there are better early Sony Black Friday deals to be found.…
Less than an hour to wait now, and there are already lots of comments in the chat box on Sony's YouTube page. As ever, I love reading these thoughts as a wait for a big online announcement. Here is a selection of comments and wishlists from fellow Sony fans:
FlashForum says Current A1 owner. Studio photographer. My wishlist: 60MP, MUCH better AI autofocus, Wireless tethering, WiFi7 for fast wireless image transfer, GPS, Higher res/brighter screen, 360 screen, A9II body
Muhammad Momin says We need Sony A7V….now
Dieter Schinke says I hope the A1ii will not cost more
Supreme ape asks New sensor?
Music is running - and counting down the last few seconds until the announcement. Hold onto your seats…
Neal Manowitz Sony President and COO is on stage… with some 10,000 people in the virtual audience
Masaaki Oshima, Head of Imaging, is on stage now, after the nice introduction... hopefully he will be the one breaking the news…
Sony A1 II builds on feedback from Sony A1 users - and uses Sony's latest imaging technology…
Roll VT, and our first glimpse of the new camera
50MP + 30fps + AI
So guess the sensor is the same, but new AI smarts to make this "unrivaled"?
Not just a new camera, also a new standard zoom a FE 28-70mm f/2 GM - so faster than your usual 24-70mm f/2, but with a bit less range.
918g body weight (32.4 oz)
Mike Bubolo on stage to give us the detail…
The A1 was the king of everything, he says - but that was three years ago. The Mark II takes what the A1 was good at, but making it modern
New dedicated AI processing unit.
Now has automatic subject recognition - so you don't have to tell the camera the type of thing your are shooting.
759-point autofocus points in full-frame, and when shooting in APS-C mode.
No blackout viewfinder - but making 120 AF and AE calculations per second.
Pre-capture captures the moment before the shutter release.
Don't need to take your eyes of the viewfinder to increase the frame rate - so can switch to 30fps when you actually need it, via the custom button
Fastest readout speed of any non-global-shutter sensor, he says
Noise Reduction shooting setting - combine four to 32 RAW files to eliminate noise
There's a high-res mode, that allows you to create a 199MP image using multiple images
4-axis LCD monitor - very similar to on the A9 III
Ships with two different eyepiece cups - one lets you give a bit more space between you in the camera, for a more immersive experience
Dedicated microphone for tag and transfer - and speech is converted to text, and appended to metadata of the image
2Gbps file transfer speed
Sony A1 II will go on sale in December.
Sony FE 28-70mm f/2 GM - allows you to leave your house without your primes
Sony's 77th E-mount lens, it 56th full-frame lens
Luckily we have had a chance to see both of the new products:
Sony A1 full news story