Sony Alpha 99 II Review - Review 2022

Sony'south SLRs have taken a dorsum seat to its premium mirrorless cameras in recent years, merely came roaring back into the scene with its latest A-mountain model, the Blastoff 99 Two ($3,199.99, body only). Announced at Photokina, the 99 II sports the aforementioned superb 42MP image sensor nosotros've seen in other marquee Sony cameras, but has enough processing power to drive an advanced autofocus organization and fire off images at 12fps. Its capabilities are unmatched, merely the huge files have a long time to commit to a memory menu, and the A-mountain lens system hasn't received much attention from Sony in recent years. Our Editors' Choice for pro-form SLRs is the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV ($2,499.00 at Amazon) , which doesn't take as ambitious a spec list, just is backed by a lens and accessory arrangement that meets the needs of professional photographers.

Design and Controls

The Alpha 99 II's ($iii,198.00 at Amazon) body is bulky, measuring iv.1 by five.6 by 3.0 inches (HWD) and tipping the scales at i.9 pounds. Still, it'southward slightly smaller than its predecessor, the Blastoff 99 (4.5 past 5.9 past iii.1 inches), fifty-fifty though the older Alpha is lighter at one.eight pounds. The 99 2'southward torso is dense and sturdy, with a magnesium alloy chassis and all-encompassing protection from dust and moisture.

The handgrip includes an indentation that'due south molded to fit your correct middle finger. I found the 99 Two to exist quite comfortable to handhold, even for extended shooting sessions, simply the i control push button on the front end of the photographic camera that is used past your correct mitt, the reprogrammable depth of field preview button at the bottom right of the lens mount, is a trivial difficult to reach. My ring finger rests a chip as well high to hit information technology with ease, and my pinky is a scrap short and lacks the dexterity to press it in with authority.

The lens release button is on the left side of the mount. Below it yous'll find a control dial with a center push button. By default it'due south used to alter the autofocus mode when shooting photos and to adjust sound recording levels for video—a quick press of the button brings upwards a list of options, and turning the cycle scrolls through them. The dial can be gear up to perform diverse functions; a long press of the push allows you to change its function. You tin can also gear up whether or non the dial turns in set up increments, locking in with a click at each, or turns freely. The latter is preferable for video use as it doesn't introduce unwanted noise onto the soundtrack. There's likewise a C2 push button on the front, toward the top left; past default it sets Flash Exposure Lock (FEL), just can be reprogrammed if yous don't use an external flash.

The Mode dial sits on the pinnacle plate, to the left of the hot shoe. It features a locking pattern that requires yous to hold downwardly the center push in order to run it. This prevents inadvertent changes to settings, simply I adopt a locking mechanism that can be engaged or disengaged with a button press, rather than one that forces you to hold downward the button while turning the dial.

The hot shoe sits at the middle of the summit plate. Similar near pro bodies, in that location'due south no built-in flash; the Nikon D810 ($1,996.95 at Amazon) is the only photographic camera in this course that includes ane. The right side of the top plate houses a monochrome LCD that shows shooting information, a button to activate an orange backlight and so you lot can read it in dim conditions, and a Finder/Monitor button. Top shooting controls include buttons to adjust the Drive manner, White Residual, EV bounty, and ISO. The On/Off toggle switch surrounds the shutter release, and the front control wheel is at the elevation of the handgrip.

Rear buttons include Menu, Movie, AF/MF, Autoexposure Lock (AEL), Fn, Display, Play, and C1. There's too a rear control bike and a modest joystick that's used to navigate through menus and select the active focus point. In that location's an unnamed control button, labeled equally a square with arrows extending from each corner, that enables a digital zoom by default—like most buttons it tin be remapped. I ready information technology to magnify the view of the frame, a helpful help for manual focus. The ability to remap controls to your liking is one of the 99 Two'due south strengths.

Concrete controls are supplemented past an on-screen menu, and of form the total camera menu itself. Pressing Fn launches the overlay display that gives y'all access to up to 12 shooting settings. You tin can change what it shows to your liking, but by default it includes Artistic Mode, Drive, EV, Focus Mode, Flash, Flash EV, Focus Surface area, ISO, Retentiveness Bill of fare selection, Metering, and White Residual. The rear display isn't touch sensitive, so you lot'll use the joystick to navigate through selections.

The main menu itself is pretty all-encompassing, encompassing dozens of pages of options split up among five sections. Information technology's dense, and you lot tin can get lost in information technology if you're not careful, so information technology'due south best to become through and customize the camera to your liking when you're not in the midst of photography, and to assign any options yous'd want to change on the fly to the Fn menu or other button.

The rear LCD is mounted on an articulating hinge. It's not a typical vari-bending design, the type that swings out to the side of the trunk. Instead it pulls directly back and tilts upwards and down with one swivel, while a 2d at the bottom of the brandish allows it to twist to the left, right, or face up all the manner forrad. I like the blueprint a lot; if you have the desire to grab a quick selfie with the pro SLR yous can, simply more importantly y'all can position the screen then it'southward facing up and at an angle, almost touching the hot shoe, to make low-angle photography very comfortable.

The brandish itself is 3 inches in size and sports a ane,228k-dot resolution. In addition to standard RGB dots, it includes a serial of white luminance dots that amend visibility when working in brilliant sunlight. There's also an OLED electronic viewfinder. Information technology's large—the equivalent of a 0.78x-magnification optical finder—and quite sharp cheers to a 2,359k-dot resolution, which has go the de facto standard for an splendid EVF. It refreshes quickly, shows accurate colors, and previews what your bodily exposure will look like. Studio photographers who utilize off-camera lighting tin disable that feature via the menu.

Connectivity

Wi-Fi and NFC are included. You can transfer images to your Android or iOS device using the free Sony PlayMemories Mobile app, and likewise use the app equally a remote command. You'll get a smooth Live View feed on your phone's screen, and total transmission exposure controls depending on the shooting fashion to which the A99 2 is set up. You don't have the ability to tap a department of the display to fix the focus point, which is something y'all can do with many other remote apps, including the downloadable one for Sony mirrorless cameras.

The Alpha 99 Two also has a slew of physical connections. It's got the aforementioned hot shoe for a flash or wireless trigger, besides equally 3.5mm headphone and microphone, DC ability input, micro HDMI, and micro USB ports, a PC Sync slot for connecting studio strobes, and a connectedness for a wired remote.

There are two memory menu slots, both supporting SD, SDHC, and SDXC cards. It's a difference from most pro bodies, which tend to offer support for faster CF, CFast, or XQD media in addition to the more common SD format. Speeds are express to UHS-I, which means the 99 II can't accept advantage of newer UHS-Two cards that offer write speeds of upwards to 300MBps. The slots also work with the less common Sony Retention Stick format.

Battery life isn't on the same level as a similar camera with an optical viewfinder. CIPA states you tin expect 490 images using the rear LCD and merely 390 images using the EVF. Compare that with the Nikon D810, which is rated for i,200 shots per charge. In real-world utilize I netted 200 images while draining the battery down to 33 percent, a projected 300-shot charge, with all-encompassing employ of Live View and the self-timer during studio testing. When working in the field, relying more on burst shooting, I captured 300 shots and simply drained the bombardment to sixty percentage, which would net almost 750 shots for a full charge.

Performance and Autofocus

The Alpha 99 II is designed for speedy operation. Information technology starts, locks focus, and fires in 0.9-2nd, a big plus for capturing candid moments. If the camera is already powered on, the autofocus system locks on in as little as 0.01-2d in bright light and in 0.ii-second in very dim conditions.

Burst shooting is available at speeds of up to 12fps in the Hi+ way, and 8fps in the standard Hi speed setting. The latter is a better choice for tracking moving subjects, as it minimizes the blackout between shots and slightly extends the maximum shooting elapsing. Hi+ is there for those times when 8fps simply isn't enough to capture the exact moment y'all're after.

With such a high outburst rate and the file size you go from 42MP images, yous're faced with lengthy write times. When shooting in its uncompressed Raw format, the 99 Two stops shooting subsequently 24 Raw or Raw+JPG images and requires about a infinitesimal to write those images to a 280MBps SanDisk memory card—though because of the UHS-I limit, a 95MBps card will net the same results.

Meet How We Test Digital Cameras

Switching to compressed Raw extends the shooting duration to 55 shots, but also extends the time to write to the card to about 75 seconds. JPG photographers get the best results, only are withal limited to 63 images at a fourth dimension with a 37-second write fourth dimension. You can start shooting images once more every bit the buffer clears, only you won't be able to first a video clip until everything is committed to SD.

Sony'south decision to utilise UHS-I SD slots is beyond questionable. Pros are used to spending coin on faster retentiveness cards, so information technology'southward odd that there isn't at the very least a unmarried XQD or CFast ii.0 slot available like you go on other fast-shooting cameras like the Nikon D5 ( at Amazon) .

I've got gripes with the write times, but not with the autofocus system itself. If you desire to become technical, the Blastoff 99 II is non an SLR—information technology's what Sony calls an SLT. Instead of a moving mirror that directs lite to an optical viewfinder, it features a pellicle mirror with a semi-transparent finish; Sony refers to information technology as translucent, the T in SLT. Most of the light passes through to the image sensor, just a small-scale portion is redirected to a defended phase detect focus module.

The module covers well-nigh the aforementioned expanse as a torso similar the Nikon D810—it'due south non quite the width of a D5 or Catechism EOS-1D 10 Mark Ii ($4,999.00 at Amazon) . The Alpha 99 Two supplements its dedicated phase detect sensor—which excels at tracking subjects and predicting movement to keep up with moving targets at extreme capture rates—with on-sensor phase detection points, which embrace close to the entirety of the image sensor. What you're left with is a full-frame, high-resolution camera that focuses on almost any portion of the frame.

In field and lab testing I establish the autofocus system to perform quite well. You can use it in various means—there's a wide option that automatically determines the focus point, an option to limit the focus to a specific point or group of points, a subject tracking mode that identifies a target and tracks it equally information technology moves through the frame, and an Eye AF setting for portraits that locks in on human optics. I gear up the C2 push button to activate Eye AF, and the Center Lock On target tracking is activated by pressing in the rear joystick.

You can accommodate the tracking sensitivity—that is, how rapidly the camera attempts to change tracking targets—to best suit the situation, and you tin also set the 99 2 to release its shutter based on speed or focus confirmation. I used the latter for my testing, as getting an in-focus prototype is more important than getting a shot off a split-2d faster. With continuous focus enabled, the focus confirmation setting slows the capture rate to nigh nine.3fps—yet very fast—with few images that missed focus in our moving target focus test.

Image Quality

We've seen the Sony 42MP image sensor in other cameras, like the mirrorless Alpha 7R 2 ($1,798.00 at Amazon) and the fixed-lens compact RX1R II. It boasts a dorsum-illuminated pattern, which allows for larger photosites than a standard sensor, working to deliver amend high ISO performance than y'all'd wait from a high-resolution imager. And while the sensor doesn't match the 50MP resolution delivered by the Canon EOS 5DS R, information technology offers better recovery of highlight and shadow information when working in Raw format. To me, it offers the best combination of resolution, file quality, and high ISO performance on the market—bettering the Canon and the 36MP Sony-made sensor within the D810 and Pentax K-1.

The paradigm sensor is stabilized using a v-axis system, like to the Pentax K-1 and what yous go far Sony Blastoff 7 Ii series mirrorless models. Because of this, any lens you attach benefits from stabilization. There are some limitations to in-body stabilization, especially when shooting with telephoto lenses. It's one of the reasons that long-time in-body stalwarts like Olympus accept started to include stabilization in lenses and bodies, as the two systems working in concert can deliver better stabilization than either alone, particularly at telephoto focal lengths.

That's what Sony does with its mirrorless system, which has received much of the company's attention over the past few years. It'southward to the point where i of the marks confronting the Blastoff 99 II is a lack of updated lenses that can take reward of its robust capabilities. The 16-35mm F2.viii that nosotros used along with the camera isn't nearly as practiced equally the F4 version of the lens bachelor for its mirrorless system. Other A-mount lenses, similar the 100mm Macro and 35mm F1.4, still utilize screw-drive focus motors, which are quite loud compared with internal focus motors used by modern lenses. There are third-political party alternatives bachelor from Sigma and Tamron that you tin can plow to when Sony's option is out of appointment or underperforming, however.

I utilise Imatest to evaluate the dissonance level in the camera's JPG output. Its imaging engine keeps racket nether i.v percent through ISO 6400, and shows about one.7 percent at ISO 12800. Image quality is strong through ISO 6400, with fine lines in our test scene clearly visible. Details are slightly smudged at ISO 12800, but y'all'll demand to take a close, magnified wait to notice.

Smudging is more pronounced at ISO 25600, blurring the finest lines in our test paradigm together. The tendency continues at ISO 51200, though I'd still consider the setting useable. At the top ISO 102400 photos are blurry to the point where I don't recommend shooting in JPG.

Shooting in Raw format not only provides elbowroom in adjusting exposure and color temperature, it too nets crisper images at high ISOs. The smudges that backbite from image quality at ISO 12800 are gone, and while there'due south some graininess, detail is stronger. Images are rougher at ISO 25600, but still quite good. Coarse grain overtakes item at ISO 51200, and images are very, very grainy at ISO 102400. If you can help it, endeavor not to push the photographic camera across ISO 25600 when shooting in Raw format.

Video

The Blastoff 99 2 is rife with video options. It records at 4K resolution with lx and 100Mbps options at 24 and 30fps. HD recording is available at 1080p, where y'all have access to frame rates equally boring as 1fps and as fast as 120fps. All of these options leverage the XAVC codec. You can also tape in AVCHD or MP4, merely quality won't exist equally high.

The 4K footage is stunning—every frame is 8MP in resolution and details popular. Because the A99 II uses the same autofocus system for stills and video you'll notice quick, smooth transitions in footage as your subject moves through the frame. 1080p video is also quite strong, but obviously lacks the resolution of its 4K analogue.

When shooting with a wider lens the in-body stabilization does a fine task keeping handheld footage steady. Information technology's a chip of a stretch with a telephoto lens, and test video at 400mm was quite shaky. The in-camera microphone is simply about as good as y'all tin expect information technology to exist. If you are working on a serious video project, take advantage of the three.5mm input and employ an external mic.

Conclusions

At that place was some question as to whether the Sony Alpha 99 Two would ever be released. Sony has seemingly put all of its efforts into developing its mirrorless organisation, letting SLRs fall by the wayside. Simply the Blastoff 99 Two shows that the company hasn't given upwardly on the A mount, fifty-fifty if some of the cadre system lenses are in need of modernization. It includes features unheard of in competing models, including an outstanding paradigm sensor, hybrid autofocus system, and a 12fps burst charge per unit.

But there are some drawbacks. The photographic camera is hampered by its use of SD memory, which limits the number of shots you can capture in a burst and makes for lengthy write times. In-body stabilization is a fine feature, only doesn't do every bit skilful a job as lens-based stabilization when working with long telephoto lenses. And equally good as the EVF is—and it's really quite superb—some photographers still prefer an optical finder.

If you've got an investment in the A mount, the Alpha 99 2 is an easy recommendation, simply we're sticking with the Catechism EOS 5D Mark Iv as our Editors' Option in this category. Stronger back up and solid functioning in its own right make it a better selection for most photographers.

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Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/cameras/14730/sony-alpha-99-ii-review

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