When we reviewed the Sony A1 we were impressed by pretty much everything except the image stabilization. Something wasn’t right, and some of our video clips looked jumpier than we thought they ought to.
But then it was photographer and YouTuber Jamieson Dean and his video of the Sony A1 IBIS issue that clarified what was happening. Basically, the in-camera stabilisation system was too slow to ‘wake’ after the camera had been lowered or moved, so that the first few seconds of any video clip were not properly stabilized.
We checked back through our own raw clips and saw the same pattern. This was pretty disappointing in a camera that costs this much and would, you would hope, have been fully tested. We did reach out to Sony for a comment but got no reply.
Sony A1 firmware update 1.10
Officially, this latest Sony firmware update brings the following “benefits and improvements”:
• Improves overall AF performance and stability
• Improves operability when using the Remote Camera Tool app | Note: Make sure you have updated the Remote Camera Tool app to the most recent version
• Improves eye sensor detection performance with strong light sources, such as sunlight
• Improves operational stability when using the Imaging Edge Mobile apps
• Improves operational stability when using the SEL100400GM, SEL200600G, or SEL600F40GM lens
• Improves the overall stability of the camera
The real test of a company is how it handles these bugs. Sony’s Alpha team took the issues very seriously and even worked closely with us A1 users in order to get it right.
Jamieson Dean, A1 owner
There’s no specific mention of the IBIS issue beyond "overall stability", but Jamieson and others have confirmed that this firmware update appears to have fixed it. If so, that’s great news, though as far as we’re concerned it’s disappointing that Sony has not publicly acknowledged it.
Jamieson, however, is very happy. He told us: “I think what this demonstrates more than anything, is just how serious Sony is about its professional photography tools. Sure, it took a few people making a lot of noise to bring it to their attention, but Sony’s Alpha team took the issues very seriously and even worked closely with us A1 users in order to get it right.”
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• You can get the Sony A1 Firmware Version 1.10 update from the Sony support site.
