Sony A9 Review for Wedding Photographers

Nikon to Fuji to Sony A9

Until 2016 I had photographed weddings using nothing but Nikon cameras. First the D90, then D700, D3s, D4 and then the D4s (whilst dabbling with the D800, D810 and D750 in-between). I love/loved my Nikon’s and never regretted avoiding Canon at any stage. Then Fuji came on the scene with their XT1. I liked the idea of a quiet, mirrorless camera, that was small. Having borrowed one for a trip to Romania I discovered it wasn’t quite there for me in terms of performance. The the Fuji XT2 followed a while later. I bought it without trying – along with the 23mm 1.4 and 52mm 1.2. If it was an XT1 but better then I was sure it was for me. I don’t think I had a real intention at the time for it to become my main wedding camera of choice, but it did come along with me.

The Fuji Xt2 took a bit of getting used to, it was a new toy and I was yet to really understand it, but having photographed my own family for a while I really began to really enjoy using it. The flip screen meant I could get in all sorts of crazy positions, the EVF (electronic view finder) gave me real-time viewing of exposure so there was no guessing there. It meant I could ditch full manual exposure for the first time in my career and shoot aperture priority and auto-iso also. I took it to a few weddings and it was fun to use – but it wasn’t a Nikon D4s in terms of performance. It missed focus more than I realised whilst shooting, the EVF although good to see the live exposure, but wasn’t the best quality and I preferred an optical viewfinder. The quality of the files were ok, but Lightroom seems to hate Fuji raw files and I never found a clean method of giving them the David Stubbs Photography look I give to all my images. Focusing was ok, but not in low light and when you need to react fast to moments it just didn’t cut the mustard for me. I stress ‘for me’ as there are others who use it wonderfully. With moments missed, a higher rate of out of focus shots and files I struggled to work with, I sold the 58 1.2 and the XT2 with 23 1.4 were relegated to solely my family camera. This does appear to be a common occurrence among wedding photographers. The dream of using an Fuji XT2 was real, but in reality it just didn’t perform well enough for them and went back to their original systems.

The XT2 is a good camera, and I loved using it for family. In fact it made me shoot more of my own family and have more than a 1200 finished photos in a shared folder for my family to access, taken. I would never take my big SLRs out to the zoo. The XT2 was a step in the right direction, but a near miss. The power of a D4s/D5 in a XT2 body is what I craved… along came better.

Sony announces a new A9 body out the blue a few months ago. Full frame, mirrorless, usable electronic shutter with silent shooting and no blackout. 20 frames per second and an autofocus system to die for including face detection and Eye-AF. A Sony sensor (who make sensors for Nikon’s) with great ISO noise and colour rendition. Throw in the mix a flip screen, the best EVF on the market, two SD slots, a battery that lasts 2500-3000 frames, in-built stabilisation and all in a case not much bigger than the Fuji… this promised to be it.

It is. This is the best wedding photography camera on the market today.

At the time of writing I have the following Sony set-up:

Sony A9 body
Grip extension (not battery grip)
24 – 70mm f2.8 GM
28mm f2
85mm f1.8
3 batteries
Godox flash transmitter
Godox tt350 flash (small one)

Gear on the way:

2nd Sony A9 body
35mm 1.4
135mm 1.8

Update (22/08/17): I now have a second body and the 35mm 1.4, I have no plans to buy the 135mm)

The following is a more detailed breakdown of the camera and how I use it for my own wedding photography. The bits I enjoy and the bits I have found issues with.

EVF (Electronic View Finder)

The Sony A9 EVF is simply superb. So bright, clear and no delay. It is so good you forget you are looking at a small display in the eye-piece. What you see is what you get. Far better than the XT2 which looks like you are playing Mine Craft in comparison. Gone are the days of ‘guessing’ exposure with an SLR.

Although overall brilliant. I’ve found I need to over exposure the image I see in the EVF by a 1/3 of a stop to get the final image right. When I first started shooting, what I saw in the EVF was eventually a fraction dark in the final image. I reduced the brightness of the EVF by one nudge in the settings to help counter this, but made little difference. So I always shoot a fraction bright than what I can see.

Update (22/08/17): Now many weddings in, I am still having same issue as above and need to keep imagining that the final image will be a 1/3 stop darker than what I see. I keep making this mistake though live shooting. When culling the images, I sometimes see I had the perfect exposure, then the next image is a touch darker as I thought I was shooting too bright. Maybe it’s just me, not heard anyone else complain of this.

Flip Screen

Nothing new this, but SLR’s have always lagged a little here. The D750 is a great camera, it has a flip screen, but the focusing ability was not as good as that of when using the optical view finder. With the Sony A9, because it’s mirrorless, focusing is just as good regardless of shooting using the EVF or the flip screen. Now, with a usable flip screen the camera has access. No longer is shooting with your eye to the camera the way to go, but use your arms. You can get the camera closer to subjects at weddings with your body a couple of feet back, so allowing you to be more unobtrusive. What are the chances the best location of your camera for the best shot is head height in the middle of a room? Using the flip screen to have the camera on the floor, or above your head, or in a plant has just become so much easier, all with great focusing capability.

Image above: In this first photo, to get the reflection as clear as possible it meant the camera had to get close to the water. Previously I would have laid down in the puddle but using the flip screen here i got the camera so low the grip extension was in the water itself. (85mm FE 1.8 @f4)

Image above: I used the screen to locate the camera in this position without talking or directing the bride whilst she was having her make-up applied. I didn’t have to stand close to her as my arms where extended. (24-70mm 2.8 @ 70mm 2.8)

Image above: When I saw this moment happening, using the flip screen I extended my arms so the camera could be much closer without having to intrude into personal space. (24-70mm 2.8 @ 70mm 2.8)

Image above: left is a photo walking along the beach taken from a typical eye-level position. Nothing wrong with this but the second photo is taken using the flip screen to gain height. Firstly it’s a variation on the first for the sake of having a different photos, but in this example it does tidy the background up giving a cleaner photo. (85mm FE 1.8 @ 1.8)

Image above: using the Sony A9’s flip screen in church to get an elevated position. The camera was held high above my head. This photo is also shot at ISO6400 for reference. (24-70mm 2.8 @ 24mm 2.8)

Update (22/08/17): I am finding the screen more useful the more I use the A9. I think I was resistant to using it as it was almost cheating, but now 70% of all shots are using the screen (with 5 batteries I have plenty of power). Using the screen means I am accessing more interesting places to shoot from more readily. I’m getting much closer when I want to – having the camera in their face at arms reach is less intrusive than when my busy is up to the camera. Only downside of using the screen is that you can’t see the display when in bright sunshine. Thankfully in the UK we don’t get much of that.

Auto-focus

Wow! I have a D4s (sports camera) and this is better. I have used a D5 and this is comparable, if not better. Firstly, so so fast. Almost instant with the 24-70. I have a typical back-button focus setup. That is using AF-C (continuous, or al-servo for you Canon freaks), focusing is disabled from the shutter button, and you focus using the AF-ON button on the back. Use your thumb to focus, and finger to fire, so they are independent from each other. Nothing new here for most people except it is so fast and so accurate your hit rate will be higher. What is new though is a second back button focus button. The AEL button is located an inch from the AF-ON button and using the menu settings, this has been designated to ‘Eye-AF’.

Eye-AF is eye tracking focusing. Simply press and hold this, the camera will pick-up and track the eye nearest to the centre of the screen. It’s like magic. Once that eye is locked, keep the button held down and their eye will always be in focus. I am yet to be in a situation where a person has moved fast enough to loose tracking. If the bride blinks, it matters not, if they are wearing glasses, it matters not, if they turn their head 90 degrees, it matters not, if a flurry of confetti impedes your view of the newlyweds, it matters not. If they turn all the way around, or go out of sight… this matters, tracking is then lost. As the Sony A9 has several hundred focus points spread around the display, edge to edge, it will track them to the very very edge. Photographing weddings is now too easy. Lock them with Eye-AF, compose photo, press shutter, keep pressing shutter every laugh, smile etc.

Eye-AF isn’t perfect. If there is a sea of heads, then it’s a bit random who it decides to lock on – sometimes in the background too. Although it does lock when someone has glasses on, there are some people with glasses it just wont. I was with my nephew at the weekend and it just wouldn’t Eye-AF lock on him – at all. Sometimes it can jump between eyes too which is annoying. Not an issue if shooting 2.8 and their face is quite square on to you. But if shooting 1.8 and they are at an angle, the wrong eye would be in focus – bit of a pain. You do develop a 6th sense with Eye-AF. When you can and cannot use it. My advise would be, for a fast ‘you have 0.2 seconds to get the shot’ moment, then use standard focusing. If you are shooting the ceremony, bride in make-up chair and speeches, this is wonderful. Speeches particularly. I sit about a yard from the top table most of the speeches, using flip screen and camera just above my head in front of me, 28mm f2, Eye-AF lock on subject. It doesn’t matter if they sway, or lean back with laughter, just hold Eye-AF and press the shutter. 20 fps if you like – you can’t miss the shot.

‘My camera has 9 of those cross type sensors’ – I’ve heard this before. ‘Mine has 693 you idiot’ is now my reply. I never trusted anything but the centre point on my D4s. I trust all 693 on my Sony A9.

Low light focusing is very good. I would say it focused in low light equally as well as my D4s. The Nikon D5 is the king of low light focusing, and I would guess it was just behind it. But good enough for most dance floor situations.

The photos above were taken during a typical confetti run at a wedding. The best time to test the Sony A9’s Eye-AF capabilities. Just before they started I locked focus on the brides eyes and held the button down. They came through the confetti, I ran backwards ensuring I kept a reasonable composition and that Eye-AF stayed as it should. It did. Camera’s frame rate set on M so 10fps, I held the shutter down and let the camera do the work. 150 photos over 20 seconds (couple of mini shutter breaks mid-run). The camera missed focus on ONE photo only. Can you spot it? There should be a keeper or two in there.

Image above (straight out of camera) The camera isn’t perfect and does sometimes miss. It missed here with the back of the dog in focus. A shame as this could have been the best photo of the dog on this shoot. However, this was the hardest of conditions. A fast running dog, back-lit at low-light sunset, a dog with dark fur on his face, and I wasn’t using focus tracking here – maybe if I did it would have nailed it.

Image above (straight out of camera – yes, really!), the same dog charging at me, focus nailed, even in the heavily back-lit conditions)

Autofocus Update (22/08/18): It is still incredible overall. However there are times when it has hunted or missed in low light and back-lit conditions. Nothing particularly bad. It is on par in this regard as my D4s which was always reasonable. But as everything on the camera is so beyond my D4s, I would like to see this as an improvement in the next edition.

High ISO

Regardless of whatever it goes up to, what wedding photographers really need to know is how well it produces images at ISO’s 3200, 6400 and 12800. It does very well beating my D4s and destroying the D750. Below are some basic high ISO tests to show.

First photo is the scene I shot (at ISO 3200). The following four photos are cropped tight so you can see the noise at each ISO – 3200, 6400, 12800 and 25600 respectively.

ISO Update (22/08/17): For the first few wedding I restricted my auto-iso to 6400, but after editing so many great images with little noise at iso6400 I have now up-ed this to 12800. I have noticed the file deteriate a little at this level, but perfectly usable. I prefer to imcrease to this iso than to start dropping my shutter speed to 125th.

Dynamic range

DR is good for all modern cameras, and with an EVF there should never be a situation where you accidentally underexpose something by 2 or 3 stops. But if you did, or interested how much detail you can bring out of shadows, then have a look at the following shots.

A very contrast scene, a basic composition.

First photo is taken very dark/under-exposed- iso100, f4, 16000th/s

The second photo is the same raw file but with +5.0 of exposure (5 stops) applied to it in Lightroom.

This is no real surprise, and seams comparable to the D750. It’s still a miracle a camera can do this though.

Electronic shutter (E-shutter)

E-shutters are nothing new. But one you can actually use is. I once changed from mechanic to e-shutter on my XT2 to try it out. Oh dear, everything was bent, distorted and unusable. A motionless camera with a motionless subject was the only way to use the XT2 in e-shutter mode. The Sony A9 is distortion free. In fact you can only use the e-shutter as I think the mechanical shutter is a bit pants. When you first get the camera and take a photo, you hear a sweet ‘click’ noise. WTF? Then you remember to turn the fake shutter sound off. This camera is 100% silent. If you are not sure what this means… this camera makes NO NOISE! It’s a bit weird at first. Although you see a small flicker in the EVF or screen, at first you don’t trust you have taken a photo and need to keep checking it has recorded. After doing this several thousand times and seeing an image every single time, you start to trust it.

As a wedding photographer using a Sony A9 with a silent shutter, there are so many benefits. I’m assuming wedding photographers are reading this so I’m not going to go over the obvious. Other than it really does make a big difference in parts of the day. On Saturday the bride’s dad saw her for the first time at the bottom of the stairs in her wedding dress. With no one else except me. A big embrace, a squeeze and some tears from dad and daughter. They know I am there, but to have them lost in a moment, and not to distract the moment with a silent shutter was invaluable. If I have had my D4s, which sounds like a cannon being fired, I would have come across their mind. This might have changed the situation – I will never know for sure. Same wedding, a church wedding, showing the vicar the camera was silent allowed me full access to the front of the church and allowed me to photograph the real signing of the register and not having to do a pointless fake one. I could shoot through the ceremony as much as I wanted. I didn’t have to pick just the key moments. I went to town on the guests behind the couple – nan, grandad, etc etc. I didn’t worry once about over doing it, people noticing me or pissing the vicar off.

A silent shutter, a truly wonderful thing for wedding photography, I will never go back!

Update (22/07/17): Because there is no noise, or feedback at all when you press the shutter down, it’s hard to know if you took a photo. Yes, there is a flicker in the screen but in the moment of a busy wedding you don’t always see this. You just assume the photo was taken, but you find yourself pressing the shutter down quite hard all the time. There needs to be some sort of feedback, even a slight vibration in the shutter button, just like the iPhone 7 home button maybe?

Banding issue

There have been reports of a banding issue. I’ve read that this is where lines (12 pixels high apparently) appear in some highlights in photos when under artificial lighting. Shooting this extensively on 5 occasions, around 25000 frames in and I am yet to see this exact issue. However, I have been in an artificial light situation where the camera has struggled. See photos below taken only a second apart. This is where the light appears to be ‘on’ in some photos, and ‘off’ in others. The bands you can see below are approx a 3rd of the height of the screen. This isn’t a new issue though and I have seen it happen on my SLR’s. It is usually caused by the cycle rate of some light bulbs. At the time I slowed my shutter speed down and shot twice as many of each scene to give me more of a chance of getting correct exposure. I didn’t change to my slr’s at the time to see if they would be better, but have witnessed this with them also in other situations. I’ll report back on banding again after a few more weddings.

Update 01/08/2017: I have photographed 6 weddings with this camera now and certainly seen the banding/flickering a few times. Under artificial lighting, you can see a flickering of the screen or EVF which is suggesting the camera is detecting some kind of non-continuous light source. This means I know I will be getting banding like in the photos below. To combat this I have been doign two things: Slow my shutter speed down a little, and to shoot more frames. I have heard changing to the mechanical shutter will stop it in most situations, but hate the mechanical shutter on this camera.

Frame rate

20 fps on the Sony A9 is overkill for wedding photography. 5 more and you will be shooting video. There is an easy access dial on top giving you the option of L, M and H. L is 5fps, M 10 fps, and H 20 fps. For most the day I used single shot though, as I did my old cameras. But times in the day I set it to M. Speeches – shooting through someone laughing. Every single frame in perfect focus with Eye-AF. Couples photos – shooting 10 fps through laughter and little moments between the couple. There is no shutter count on this camera, it is just a sensor turning on and off. It matters not to shoot more frames. It might take a few more seconds to download the files, it might take a few more seconds to select the best ones, but it some situations it might help you get just the right moment. An example of this was an engagement shoot last night at the beach. The couple were walking along the beach, I used my flip screen to get the camera so low to the water the body grip extension was in the water. I set it to 20fps as their dog was running back and forth. I must have taken 200-250 frames of this trying to get the couple, and the dog just right. Yes, I could have timed my pressing of a shutter perfectly, one shutter. But this isn’t 1984 and today I have a camera that makes my life easier, so I use it.

Shutter speed

One of the issues with the D750 is it’s shutter speed at only a max of 4000th/s. My D4s has 8000th/s which is great for f2 in almost any lighting situation. The Sony A9, with it’s e-shutter does 32000th/s. 4 times faster than the D4s and 8 times than the D750. This means you could shoot f1.4 in any light.

Image stabilisation

Sony are clever. Forget stabilised lenses. Why not make the sensor stabilised? Every lens on a Sony is stabilised by up to 5 stops because the body itself is stabilised. 85mm 1.4 – stabilised, 135mm 1.8 – stabilised, every single lens. It is as good as they say it is too. For fast moving subjects it matters not because if the camera is perfectly still they still move across the screen. But I’m a 24-70 2.8 fan. It means in the church with subjects not moving much I can shoot 25th/s 70mm if I want to. Which might mean in the darkest of churches using iso1600 instead of 6400 – a win for image quality.

Dual card slots

Essential for wedding photography. If a card corrupts through no fault of your own, you have back-up. What I don’t understand is why one of the slots are newer the faster SD type (SD XCII) and the other the old type? Knowing I was going to shoot way more than my typical 100gb data at a wedding. I got myself a super fast 256gb card for slot one for RAWs, and a 128 slower (and less expensive) card for jpegs for the second slot. It has never happened before but if the RAW card failed, I could edit the jpegs to just the same quality. In fact I’m on the brink of editing jpegs only for every wedding anyway. What I really want to see here is dual XQD slots – which are the fastest cards and created and made by Sony.

Ergonomics

Not much positive here to be honest. I am going to miss my D4s body. Although heavy it’s designed so well and fits wonderfully in the hand. The Sony A9 is just a metal black box with dials on, with just a hint of leather (fake) on the grip. It’s ok to hold, but not wonderful. I don’t have huge hands but felt I needed a bigger grip. I got the grip extension (not to be confused with battery grip), just so the camera sat better in my hand. It does. Quite expensive for a bit of plastic but worth it, especially when using heavy GM lenses. With the 28 f2 and 85 1.8 which are quite small, it is less important.

I have dropped it already! Whilst standing around for my sons sports day to start, I was holding the camera in the same way I hold all my camera walking around between shots. That is, just by 3 or 4 fingers hooked on the grip, with my arm extended down with the camera swinging by my leg. Never once have a dropped a camera doing this. The A9 fell though. Luckily onto long grass and had a relative soft landing with no issues, but had I been on concrete I would have been in trouble. The grip is simply not pronounced as the SLR’s i’m used to. I wont drop it again, I hold it with more caution now, but it’s another fail for the ergonomics of this camera.

I’m not getting on great with the dials. Every new camera takes some getting used to, but I’m not making much progress. I have to look a lot to locate them, and some are hard to turn compared to my old camera. Like my XT2, this has led me to shooting more in aperture priority using auto-iso too. I only have one dial to turn then – exposure compensation. But it gets worse. That dial is noisy to turn! Makes a short sharp click noise. It might have the feeling of a film camera from back in the day, but I want something that turns easily and silently. All this silent shooting, to then have a noisy dial you are adjusting constantly, although it might only be me who can hear it.

I suppose this bit goes here. There is certainly a delay to what you see in the EVF display when changing exposure settings. I bring my eye to the camera and see it is too dark by around a stop. I move the exposure compensation a stop brighter (3 loud clicks) and then take the photo. I sometimes take that photo before the new true exposure is displayed in the EVF – there is a lag. I wish this was a little faster. I can see a scene and know approximately how much brighter or darker I need to make it. Someone who is less confident doing this will have to wait a spit second for it to take effect, before confirming or re-adjusting.

Buttons are too small. I have Surgu-ed my focus buttons which have made them so much easier find and use. You can see my efforts with Sugru on the back buttons on the photo further below.

Update 1/8/17: The Sony system is small and a touch lighter to my previous system. This is good for my back through less weight in my camera bag, and good for my arms also. However, even with the grip extension on, I am finding I am getting pains in my right lefts from holding the camera. This never happened with my previous heavier set-up though. I cannot tell you why this is happening, but putting it down to not being used to the grip and support provided on the camera. I fear it is a deeper level of poor ergonomics though. Will update on this again.

Update 22/08/17: There are now several things annoying me with the controls of the A9. If you know how to solve any of these I would love to hear from you.

Firstly, the joy stick. I’m a centre point shooter, I only use the centre pint – focus and recompose. It is very rare I move the focus point (except eye-af). However, whenever I go to take a photo the focus point is rarely centered. It has moved. I assume by knocking the joystick. There is no way to lock this in place like most SLR’s I have used in the past, very frustrating.

Secondly, using the front or back dial as exposure compensation. As discussed above, the top dial is noises and clicks when you move it. So i set the front wheel as exposure compensation so it is silent. There is a clear floor though. If I move it 3 notches, I would expect my exposure to shift exactly 1 stop in the direction i choose and would expect this without thinking. But no, it doesn’t. If i do it too fast, it recognises one one move (1/3 stop) not three. The last thing you want to be doing in the heat of moment is to be checking everything has changed ok. This needs to be sorted.

Thirdly, as above, but the same issue with all controls. If you move it too fast it doesn’t recognise what you have done. set at f2, and 3 notches ot the left, you expect f2.8, do this too fast and you get f2.2. Again, this needs to be resolved.

Shooting flash

I don’t shoot much flash at weddings. I can go several wedding without using it at all, or when I do it’s on the dance floor where it is disguised. At my India wedding on Saturday with a long ceremony in 3200iso light, I did use a bit of flash (set on 64th power) on a stand to lift it a stop. To use flash you must take it out of e-shutter and into mechanical shutter. You now have a horrible camera. It sounds terrible, it feels terrible and you just want to throw it away. But with flash it’s the only possible way. Now what you see isn’t what you get as you can’t see the effect of the flash. It’s now back to getting exposure like before but that’s no biggy. On the dark dark dance floor, this is when you ideally need an optical view finder. There also seems to be a bit of a lag between pressing the shutter and it taking the photo. I didn’t enjoy using flash with it as the mechanical shutter feels horrible, it seems slow to react (lag) and viewing dark dance floors on a screen is difficult too.

Update 22/08/17): I am enjoying flash much more. Now I have two bodies I have one set to flash for dancing, and the other set for available light shooting. Before it was too much of a pain changing to manual, mechanical shutter, manual ISO, minimum shutter speed change etc, now easy with two bodies. i enjoy the 28 f2 on the dancefloor. Same distance from the subjects but closer action photos, also very light for tired arms and hands at the end of the night. One thing I love using is setting the camera on M frame rate with flash. Think it shoots about 3 frames a second and it shows you a little preview of the image taken between each photo. Great for fast shooting and seeing what you are getting. As I use the flash in my hand pointing at the subjects, I can now micro-adjust this to suit the photo best. I am yet to find a away to do this in single shot mode.

Other niggles

Minimum shutter speed when in auto-iso. You can only select whole stops of shutter speed – 125, 250, 500 etc. I used 320 on my Fuji but can’t select that on the Sony A9. I started my wedding with it set on 250th. I could have it just set on 500th, but then for photos indoors it increases to 3200 and 6400iso too quickly when I could have stayed a stop of ISO lower. Also a pain regarding this, it will drop the shutter right down to 250th before increasing ISO, which is what you expect, but not very good for real world shooting. If it’s a bit gloomy outside, i’d prefer to be iso200 500th than iso100 250th as you can get movement shooting 250th. The Fuji was good at this. it would increase the iso before the shutter dropped near the minimum. I now have minimum shutter set to custom button 4 for quick access this and change this throughout the day. I’d like to see a firmware update where this is just a little more clever. Maybe set a minimum shutter per iso setting?

Changing lenses isn’t the smoothest of operations. I generally shoot with one body and change between 2/3 lenses. With Nikon’s it’s fast and flawless and feel you can throw them in and out. With the Sony A9 is feels more fragile and precise. I need to take more time with it to ensure it goes in ok. There were several times over the weekend where I hadn’t turned it fully round before hitting a small ‘click’ and therefore the camera did not fire. I am sure I will get used to this.

After you change a lens in a hurry to get a particular shot, if you try using the camera immediately after using the change you encounter a small lag you must wait for. If you try taking a photo in this short period (half a second maybe) you don’t get the little green box in the centre when trying to focus as normal, but a large rectangle around the edges when firing the shutter. I’m not at this stage certain what this means as the photos seam in focus and usable. However, it’s almost like the camera is saying to wait a moment before using it. This happened regularly and shows how fast I like to change lenses and then get the shot off. I really don’t want to be waiting for this. Will update on this after this weekends wedding.

Update 1/8/17: I have experienced more issues of focusing not kicking in like explained above. If I am using the EVF and then take my eye away from the viewfinder, the little screen (EVF) then shuts off – I assume to save electricity. However, if you put your eye back to the viewfinder, the EVF jumps back to life – however their is a delay in the AF working. It is like the AF goes to sleep and needs to be woken up. This is where the short delay comes from. I find myself walking around without moving my eye away. Or using the screen more like my last wedding.

There are loads of other features this camera has, but I have never used. Some of these features are:

Touch screen for shooting and menus

Quick menus for easy access.

Joy stick for moving focus points

Video

Manual focusing and a new DMF mode

Quick lens review:

24-70 2.8 GM – superb and as good as the Nikon 24-70 2.8 VR I had before. Similar weight and size.

85mm FE f1.8 – superb again. I bought both the 1.4 and the 1.8. I tested side by side and put the 1.4 straight back in the box. The 1.8 version is just as good in every single way but just doesn’t go to 1.4. It’s much lighter and costs £1000 less.

28mm f2 – A nice little cheap lens to fill a hole for me now. Works great, is small and light. i think I will invest in the 35 1.4 just before winter but it’s big, expensive and weighs quite a bit.

Update (22/08/17): 35mm 1.4 – what a wonderful lens. I have owned the Sigma ART 1.4 and this is better. It isn’t as heavy as I thought it would be, but not light. So sharp and fast focusing, and that is what matters. use this more and more now. It is also my family lens. When I take my camera to the zoo with the kids I take an A9 with the 35mm 1.4 only.

Overview

What a camera. So so good. This is everything a wedding photographer has been dreaming of. I can’t go back and shoot with an SLR now. Silent shooting, the best focus system, eye-af, 32000th/s, in-camera stabilisation, fantastic EVF, 20fps if needed, smaller and a lighter than a D4s (similar to D750), two SD slots. It’s expensive, but I conclude that this is the best digital camera available today for wedding photographers.

5 years from now we’ll laugh how a camera made a click, at something as solemn as a wedding anyhow. The A9 is truly a groundbreaking camera, and to think as the years pass there will be even better technology available is just crazy. Thank you to Sony for creating such a wonderful camera for wedding photographers.

My custom settings:

Shutter button – capture only, no focusing

Auto-focus – Flexible Spot:S (small) – this is what I am using when I hit the AF-ON button.

AEL button – EYE-AF

Big wheel – ISO – to change ISO instantly without pressing a button (be careful not to knock it)

Custom Button 1 (C1) – Face Detection on/off (hardly use)

Custom Button 2 (C2) – change between EVF and flip screen (use all the time)

Custom Button 3 (C3) – change between e-shutter and mechanical shutter

Custom Button 4 (C4) – change minimum shutter speed for auto ISO (set on 500 as standard, 250 inside, 1000 for portraits unless dark.

Below are more photos taken with the Sony A9 over the weekend.

The verdict

This is outright the best camera on the market today for wedding photographers. Simply sensational!

Update (22/08/17): I stand by my verdict still. This is just a superb camera with some niggles that need to be sorted. Loving using it.

All content in this Sony A9 review for wedding photographers including text and images are copyright to David Stubbs Photography Ltd