Sony has announced their latest interchangeable lens camera, the Sony A9. The company is claiming it to be the most technologically advanced and innovative digital camera they have ever created.

The camera supports continuous shooting at 20 frames-per-second (up to 241 RAW images). Moreover, the electronic viewfinder will not be blacked-out, enabling the user to see what exactly is being captured. It boasts of a maximum shutter speed of 1/32,000 second. The sensor used is a full-frame 24.2 MP Exmor RS CMOS. It is paired with an upgraded BIONZ X processing engine.

The focusing system of the Sony A9 features 693 phase detection autofocus points, thus covering around 93% of the frame. The updated Fast Hybrid AF system is claimed to be around 25% faster that the one found in Sony A7R II.

The shutter used is electronic and is thus free from any vibration or noise. The battery used is a Z battery, with double the capacity of a W battery. There are two slots for extending the storage via SD cards, along with an Ethernet port. If required, same data can simultaneously be recorded to both cards.

Sony A9 features a Quad-VGA OLED screen with 3,686k dots approx., which is the highest resolution viewfinder ever in A series of cameras. The electronic viewfinder has coatings to reduce reflections and repel dirt. The frame rate of the viewfinder can be configured to either 60 or 120.

The camera is equipped with a five-axis image stabilization system. Focus can be set via the joystick fitted at the rear of the camera, or by touching the LCD.

Sony A9 can record 4K (3840x2160p) videos. The raw footage is collected at 6K resolution, which is then over-sampled to produce a high-quality 4K video. FHD recording is done at 120 fps, which can then be edited to create 4x or 5x slow motion videos.

Sony A9 will start shipping June onwards. It is priced at £4,500 ($5,765 approx.).

Sony A9 specifications

Image sensor: Exmor RS CMOS
Effective pixels: 24.2 million
Metering: Multi-segment, Center-weighted, Spot, Spot Standard/Large, Entire Screen Average and Highlight
Lens: Sony E-mount
Shutter: Electronic and mechanical
Shutter speed: 30-1/32,000 second
Continuous shooting: 20 fps
Memory: SD
Viewfinder: 0.51-inch Quad-VGA OLED (3,686,400 dots)
Screen: 2.95-inch TFT (1,440,000 dots)
File formats: RAW, JPEG, XAVC S, AVCHD, MP4
Power: Rechargeable battery
Dimensions (WidthxHeightxDepth): 126.9x95.6x63.0 mm
Weight: 673 g (with battery and memory card)
Price: £4,500 ($5,765 approx.)

Sony has launched their latest flagship camera, the a6500. It comes with an APS-C sensor. It succeeds the Sony a6300 mirrorless camera and features the same 4D Focus Fast Hybrid AF (autofocus) system with 425 phase-detection AF points.

The camera shoots images at up to 11 frames per second (fps) in the continuous mode, and up to 8 fps in live-view shooting mode. Additional shooting modes include silent shooting, Eye AF in Af-C mode, Expand Flexible Spot AF mode, and Af in focus magnifier modes. The camera is also capable of touchscreen AF for selecting and adjusting the focus point.

Sony a6500 features in-camera 5-axis optical image stabilization (OIS). What's best is that this new stabilization system fits within the body of the camera, all thanks to the revised internal design. There is also a 'peek' feature wherein a simple half-press on the shutter button reveals how the picture will look with the stabilization effect in the viewfinder or on the LCD screen.

The camera features an APS-C sized 24.2 MP Exmor CMOS sensor. The sensor works with a BIONZ X image processor and front-end LSI to maximize the processing power and ensure superior image/video quality even at a higher ISO setting. The camera achieves a sensitivity range of ISO 100-51,200.

Sony a6500 is now the latest Sony interchangeable lens camera to offer internal 4K movie recording. It can shoot 4K (3840x2160) video in Super 35mm format. It can also record Full HD videos at 120 fps at up to 100 Mbps. Still images from videos can be extracted and saved on the camera - 8 MP images from 4K videos and 2 MP images from FHD videos can be snapped.

The camera features a magnesium alloy body. The shutter button is highly durable. Other design features include a recessed grip, robust lens mount, soft eyepiece cup, larger release button, and ten custom buttons.

There are two new metering modes:

• Highlight - exposure metering is focused on the brightest area of the frame
• Entire Screen Average - average metering for the entire image.

Sony a6500 is WiFi, QR and NFC compatible. It will start shipping November onwards for about $1,400 (body-only).

Sony a6500 specifications

Image sensor: CMOS
Effective pixels: 24.2 million
Metering: Entire Screen Average, Highlight and Spot
Lens: Sony E-mount
Shutter: Electronic
Shutter speed: 1/4,000-30 second
Continuous shooting: 11 fps
Memory: SD/SDHC/SDXC/microSD/microSDHC/microSDXC
Viewfinder: XGA OLED electronic (2,359,296 dots)
Screen: 2.95 inch TFT-LCD (921,600 dots)
File formats: RAW, JPEG, MP4, XAVC S, AVCHD
ISO sensitivity: 100-51,200
Power: Rechargeable battery
Dimensions (WidthxHeightxDepth): 120.0x66.9x53.3 mm
Weight: 453 g (with battery and SD card)
Price: $1,400

Sony has announced an addition to its Cyber-Shot RX series of cameras, in the form of RX10 III. The USP of this device is its ability to provide extended zoom.

The camera is equipped with a back-illuminated 20.1 MP Exmor RS CMOS sensor with DRAM chip and advanced signal processing, along with a BIONZ X image processor. This ensures features like 40x super slow-motion video capture at up to 960 fps, continuous shooting up to 14 fps, ultra-fast Anti-Distortion Shutter with a maximum speed of 1/32,000 second, and high resolution 4K (QFHD 3840x2160) video shooting. The camera has a sensitivity range of ISO 64-12,800.

In 4K video mode, the camera captures approximately 1.7x more information than is actually required for a 4K output. This is achieved by using the XAVC S codec, which records video at a rate of up to 100 Mbps during 4K recording, and up to 50 Mbps during full HD recording.

The RX10 III comes with an impressive autofocus system, with spatial object detection, allowing the camera to detect and predict the motion of the subject before the shutter button is pressed. This enables the camera to lock on to the subject in 0.09 seconds approx.

The camera features a 25x super-telephoto zoom lens, which has a focal range of 24-600 mm, and built-in Optical SteadyShot image stabilization (OIS). This ZEISS Vario-Sonnar T* lens features a maximum aperture of F2.4 – F4.0. The aperture unit has nine blades, designed to create a near perfect circle in the F2.4 – F11 range. This makes the lens capable of shooting images with bokeh effect, and produce high-quality content at a variety of focal lengths and camera settings, which would otherwise need three (or more) lenses for an interchangeable lens camera. The lens features one super ED glass element, five ED glass elements and two ED aspherical lenses, making them eight in all.

The RX10 III offers silent shooting at all settings and speeds. Other features include Picture Profile, S-Log2/S-Gamut, Gamma Display Assist, Time Code, input for external microphone and output for headphone monitoring.

The camera features a high-contrast XGA OLED Tru-Finder with approximately 2.35 million dots of resolution. The device is dust and moisture resistant, and is WiFi and NFC compatible.

The RX10 III features a number of upgrades in terms of aesthetics. This includes triple lens rings for focus, zoom and aperture for direct, precise control. The hand grip shape has been optimized for the new lens to enhance stability. There is a new focus hold button on the lens barrel.

The Sony Cyber-shot RX10 III extended zoom camera will be available May onwards for $1,500.

Sony Cyber-shot RX10 III specifications

Image sensor: CMOS
Effective pixels: 20.1 million
Metering: Multi-pattern, Center-weighted and Spot
Lens: ZEISS Vario-Sonnar T*
Lens focal length: 8.8-220 mm (equivalent to 24-600 mm in 35mm format)
Optical zoom: 25x
Shutter: Electronic
Shutter speed: 1/32,000-30 second
Continuous shooting: 5 fps
Memory: SD/SDHC/SDXC/microSD/microSDHC/microSDXC; no internal memory
Image size (pixels): 5472x3648, 5472x3080, 4864x3648, 3888x2592, 3648x3648, 3648x2736, 3648x2056, 2736x1824, 2720x1528, 2592x1944, 2544x2544 and 1920x1920
Movie size (pixels): 3840x2160, 1920x1080 and 1280x720
Viewfinder: XGA OLED electronic (2,359,296 dots)
Screen: 2.95 inch TFT-LCD (1,228,800 dots)
File formats: RAW, JPEG, MPEG-4
ISO sensitivity: 64-12,800
Power: Rechargeable battery
Dimensions (WidthxHeightxDepth): 132.5x94.0x127.4 mm
Weight: 1,095 g (with battery and SD card)
Price: $1,500