Sony a9 II

With the second iteration of its high speed, full-frame mirrorless camera, Sony has concentrated on subtle, rather than dramatic improvements. The a9 II ($4,499.99, body only) is the equal of its predecessor, the a9, from an imaging perspective. Improvements are largely ergonomic, so there's little reason for a9 owners to upgrade. But that doesn't detract from just how good the a9 II is for capturing sports, wildlife, and other subjects that task autofocus to its limits. Its performance is class-leading, and it undercuts its competitors in price by a wide margin, making it our Editors' Choice.

Familiar, But Improved

The a9 II feels familiar and comfortable in the hand. Its body isn't that much different from the a9, launched in 2017. The grip is improved, and controls have been updated to match the feel of what you get with Sony's specialized high-resolution model, the a7R IV.

The body is pro-grade, with magnesium alloy construction, five-axis image stabilization, and weather protection. It's smaller than similar models from Canon and Nikon, which incorporate vertical shooting grips into the body, but an add-on grip is available if you prefer a beefier build. On its own, the a9 II measures 3.8 by 5.1 by 3.1 inches (HWD) and weighs 1.5 pounds.

The camera is sold as a body only, but there are a wealth of lenses available for the system. All of the standard options that pros wants are there, and Sony has a couple of exotic telephoto primes, the FE 400mm F2.8 GM and FE 600mm F4 GM, both with teleconverter compatibility. Canon and Nikon go a little bit further—each offers 500mm and 800mm prime lens options as well.

If you do prefer a bigger camera, the VG-C4EM battery grip is available for $349.99. It attaches to the bottom and supports two batteries and adds controls for more comfortable operation when holding the camera in portrait orientation. It's not the same grip from the a9, though, so you'll need to get a new one if you're upgrading. The VG-C4EM can also be used with the a7R IV, if you happen to own both cameras.

Subtle Changes to Controls

The a9 II puts its buttons and dials in roughly the same place as they are on the a9, but there are some minor changes here and there. You'll notice a pair when looking at the top plate—the rear control dial is now exposed entirely, instead of recessed into the body, and the EV dial now has a central locking post. Both of these changes were seen earlier in the a7R IV.

Other top controls include programmable C1 and C2 buttons, the forward command dial (integrated into the handgrip), the Mode dial, and the shutter release. The a9 II includes one feature not found on the otherwise identical a7R IV body, a dedicated dial for setting drive mode and focus options. It's at the left of the top plate and gives you quick access to change from single exposure to one of three continuous drive modes, and to switch between single, continuous, and manual focus without diving into menus.

Rear controls include a programmable C3 and Menu buttons, both at the top left corner. Record, AF-ON, and AE-L sit together in a row along the top, just to the right of the EVF eyecup. Below them you'll see the eight-way controller used to set the active autofocus area, the rear command dial, and the Fn, Play, and Delete/C4 buttons.

Many of the a9 II's physical controls are customizable, including all of the C buttons and each of the directional presses. They're supplemented with an on-screen overlay menu. It includes twelve slots for additional settings, and can be tuned separately for photo and video modes.

LCD and EVF

The a9 II doesn't make any changes from the a9 in terms of display or EVF. It sports the same 3-inch, tilting LCD. The display supports touch input, sharp (1,440k-dot) resolution, and adjustable brightness—when set to Daylight mode, it's very usable in bright sunlight.

Touch support works well, but it's not widely implemented. You can tap to set a focus point, even when framing shots with the EVF, but on-screen menus aren't navigable by touch. Sony has been slower to fully embrace it when compared with other brands, most of which include menus with full touch input support.

The a9's EVF was already class-leading, one of the first to sport the 3.68-million-dot resolution we now expect in a premium model. It's not just sharp, it's also quite large to the eye, with a 0.78x magnification rating.

It's the EVF that makes the a9 II fundamentally different from its closest competitors from Canon and Nikon. Both still use SLR designs for their top-end sports cameras—the latest are the Canon EOS-1D X Mark III and Nikon D6.

With an SLR you lose sight of your shot every time the mirror flaps open and the shutter opens and closes, delivering a stop-motion view of the action. The a9 II uses an electronic shutter for its 20fps mode, so it's able to rattle off shots without disrupting your view of the scene. It's a technological feat that translates into a practical ergonomic improvement—it's simply easier to keep your lens honed on fast-moving targets without any sort of blackout.

Connectivity and Power

The a9 II is Sony's most connected camera. It includes Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for cable-free image transfer to a smartphone or, via your smartphone, to an FTP server. There's also an RJ-45 Ethernet port with support for Gigabit transfer.

The Wi-Fi features work with the Sony Imaging Edge Mobile app, a free download for Android and iOS devices. Its basic functions include image transfer to your smartphone or tablet, and remote camera control.

A second companion app, Sony Transfer & Tagging, is used for FTP transfers. The a9 and a9 II support the same level of functionality for transfer—the app will automatically upload your shots to an FTP server as you shoot.

The a9 II offers one extra feature, not supported by its predecessor. It's able to add a recorded voice memo to any photo. Making notes can be useful if you need to caption photos later, or if you're sending them to a remote editor to get online. The app uses voice recognition to convert your notes to text and puts it in the IPTC metadata.

In addition to the Ethernet port, the camera has a PC Sync socket and a hot shoe for flash connection, 3.5mm microphone and headphone jacks, a micro HDMI output, and both USB-C and micro USB connectors.

Sony has (finally) dropped support for its esoteric Memory Stick format. The a9 II sports two SDXC memory card slots, both with support for the fastest UHS-II cards. This is an upgrade over the a9—it only offers UHS-II speeds in one of its two card slots.

As for power, the a9 II is driven by a NP-FZ100 battery. It's rated by CIPA for up to 690 shots (when using the LCD) or about 500 with the EVF. You'll get more if you utilize the 20fps burst shooting mode, of course.

Even though its battery is excellent for a mirrorless camera, big, gripped SLRs shoot for longer—the Nikon D6 and Canon EOS-1D X Mark III are both rated for a few thousand shots using the same methodology.

Tracking Autofocus and Blackout-Free Capture

The a9 II's autofocus is the best we've seen in any camera. It spreads coverage across almost the entire surface area of the sensor, missing just the very outer edges, and it's eerily fast and accurate.

Face and eye detection are included, for both people and pets, and the a9's subject tracking is absolutely superlative. It's only available in AF-C mode, but when engaged it locks onto a target and sticks with it.

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There are several zones to choose from for initial acquisition, including a wide area that lets the camera pick its target. I lean most heavily on the Expanded Flexible Spot option, one that gives me a small box to move around the frame to find a target. I typically leave it centered, lock my subject, and then concentrate on composition and capturing the moment.

You may work differently, of course, and the a9 II is flexible enough to allow you to do so. The eight-way rear focus control is comfortable to use and responsive, and you can opt for various sizes of flexible spot, as well as focus areas that cover up wider portions of the frame. The camera gives you the tools to work the way you want to.

With sports shut down at the time of testing, I didn't have opportunities to put the a9 II through its paces on the athletic field. It's the absolute equal of the a9 with Firmware 5.0 loaded, though, a camera that I've used often. Last year I tested its Firmware 5.0 at pro rugby and soccer matches, and the Real Time Tracking focus system rarely faltered.

Once the camera locks onto a subject it sticks with it, so you've got freedom to concentrate on composition and pressing the shutter at the decisive moment. And, for those who may not be quite perfect at timing, the 20fps burst rate makes it just a little bit easier to capture the perfect slice of action.

When you're using the electronic shutter, you don't lose view of your subject either. A solid outline flashes toward the edges of your frame, a visual clue that the camera is making an exposure. Audio cues are available if you'd like, but I turned them off to ensure the camera was entirely silent when making images—a big plus for photographing birds and other skittish wildlife.

The shooting buffer is ample; at top speed I was able to net 215 Raw+JPG, 230 Raw, or 415 JPGs before it fills and the camera pauses capture. I used the Compressed Raw option for buffer tests; there's no advantage to using larger, Uncompressed Raw images along with the electronic shutter—you end up with the same quality image, but with a bigger file size.

You can start making images again as the buffer clears to memory, but you can't switch to video capture. It's rare that you'll have the need to shoot a few hundred shots at 20fps, but if you do fill up the buffer you'll have to wait a bit as images write to memory. With a 300MBps Sony Tough UHS-II card, I clocked a 3.5 minute duration for Raw+JPG, 1 minute for Raw, and 3 minutes for JPG.

There is also a mechanical shutter, capable of burst rates of up to 10fps, with tracking, a significant upgrade over the a9's 5fps mechanical shutter. You'll experience the same type of finder blackout as with other mirrorless cameras when opting for it, but there are reasons to use it over the fully electronic one.

In rare situations, certain types of LED lighting used in stadium displays can induce banding—for more detail, read Rishi Sanyal's detailed analysis at DPReview. Shutter speed and the type of lighting and its intensity are factors.

The electronic shutter doesn't play well with flashes either—you'll need to use the mechanical shutter when working with strobes; it supports sync at 1/250-second. Sony did a good thing by improving the speed of the mechanical shutter—the a9 II is just as adept for studio work as the a7R IV and a7 III.

24MP Full-Frame Sensor

The a9 II sports the same BSI CMOS image sensor as its predecessor. It boasts 24MP resolution, a 24-by-36mm full-frame design, and incorporates fast DRAM as part of its stacked design. It's the stacking that gives it a very fast readout speed, so the electronic shutter is useful for capturing fast-moving subjects.

You can capture images in JPG or Raw format. The JPG photos are processed in-camera, and show strong detail from the base ISO 100 sensitivity through ISO 6400. Fine lines show some blur at ISO 12800 and 25600, but are very usable.

It's at more extreme settings, ISO 51200 and higher, where JPG images suffer more noticeably. The top setting is ISO 204800, and while image quality slightly ekes out the Nikon D5 shot at the same ISO, the emphasis is on slightly. You can tune the a9's noise reduction if you work in JPG format and want more detail at higher settings, but it also comes with more grain.

If you work in Raw format, you'll move noise reduction to your processing software. Images loaded in our standard, Adobe Lightroom, show strong detail through ISO 25600, and while they show some grain when pushed that far, it's not overwhelming. Output at ISO 51200 is rougher, but still usable. Grain is heavy and noticeably harms detail at ISO 102400 and 204800.

You'll also enjoy more flexibility to edit exposure and colors in Raw format. Images are saved at 12-bit quality when using the electronic shutter and 14-bit quality using the mechanical one. You'll have ample room to open shadows, curb highlights, and adjust color, even with the 12-bit files.

4K Video Too

The a9 II is also an adept video camera. It supports 4K recording at up to 30fps and can go to 120fps at 1080p. Video is recorded internally with 4:2:0 8-bit quality and XAVC compression. You can output clean 4:2:2 8-bit footage to an Atomos Ninja or similar external recorder.

Slow-motion is available in-camera as well. The S&Q setting records silent footage at up to 120fps, with multiple slow playback options ranging from half to one-fifth speed.

There are a number of features for pro videographers. The sensor is stabilized for one, and the camera supports both XLR (via an add-on adapter) and digital microphones. Low-quality proxy files, recorded alongside higher-quality video, are available to put less stress on your computer when editing footage.

Sony has opted not to add its Picture Profiles to the a9 II, which is disappointing. The Profiles, available on models like the a7 III and a7R IV, include S-Log profiles with lowered contrast and color saturation.

S-Log video looks dull and flat out of camera, but gives more freedom for videographers to apply color correction. The a9 II has a Neutral profile that you can use instead, but it's not as malleable as a true flat profile. Canon goes much further with video in its latest flagship; the EOS-1D X Mark III supports Raw video at 5.5K resolution.

Unmatched Experience for Action Photography

As far as Mark II updates go, the a9 II is a rather modest one. It makes some welcome improvements to ergonomics, speeds up the mechanical shutter, and now supports voice memos. It maintains the other things we love about the a9, including superlative focus tracking, a 20fps capture rate, and full-frame image quality.

It's the experience behind the camera that sets it apart from competitors. The Canon EOS-1D X Mark III and the Nikon D6 are the biggest, baddest SLRs you can buy—but they bring the SLR baggage along with them. You'll get a stuttering view of action, interrupted by the flapping mirror and opening and closing shutter when using their viewfinders.

With the a9 II the view is uninterrupted, as long as you opt for the electronic shutter. Longtime SLR owners may experience an adjustment period, but the EVF is no longer an inferior option. The a9 II sports one of the best you'll find—crisp, big to the eye, and with a real preview of what your finished shot will look like.

It may require more to sway longtime Canon and Nikon pros away from their 1D and D6 bodies, but the a9 II takes them on with wider autofocus coverage, effective subject tracking, and in-body image stabilization, and it does so for $2,000 less. That's more than enough to earn it our Editors' Choice.