Sony announces a9 II

Sony has announced the Sony a9 II: an incremental update to the a9 that adds 'enhanced connectivity and workflow for professional sports photographers and photojournalists.'

Keeping the same 35mm full-frame stacked 24.2 MP CMOS image sensor with integral memory as the original a9, the major update in the a9 II will be applauded by sports shooters and probably few others: improved connectivity and file delivery, including wireless voice / image transfer and automatic voice to text conversion with the ability to auto transfer images with attached voice memos via FTP.

There's also new functionality that allows for wirelessly sending files from the camera when it's turned off.

Other improvements are more subtle: a redesigned grip and buttons, dual UHS-II SD card slots and “improved” dust and moisture resistance.

The max number of shots with the mechanical shutter speed has increased, with continuous shooting at up to 10 fps with mechanical shutter, about 2x the speed of the A9. The new model can shoot continuously and silently at 20 fps for up to 361 JPEG imagesor 239 compressed RAW images, with no viewfinder blackout.

A faster BIONZ X image processing engine should improve sensor readout speeds, and in turn autofocus speed and precision, face detection, and EVF responsiveness.

The autofocus also gains some of the more notable recent Sony technologies,including Real-time Eye AF with right eye / left eye selection, Real-time Eye AF for animals,  Real-Time Eye AF for movie and Touch Pad focus point control while using the viewfinder. Otherwise, the a9 II's video feature set is virtually unchanged over its predecessor.

Pricing and Availability

The Alpha 9 II will be available in Australia in November 2019 with pricing TBC shortly, although in the US it is expected to retail for $4,500USD ($6,665AUD) body-only.

For more details check out Sony's website.