Intro

The Sony Alpha 1 II is their latest flagship camera, aimed at anyone who demands high resolution photos and video with fast bursts and sophisticated autofocus.

Announced in November 2024, it comes almost four years after the original Alpha 1, and shares many of its headline features including the same 50.1 Megapixel stacked full-frame sensor, 4k 120 and 8k 30 video, and 30fps bursts. It also shares much the same launch price of the original Alpha 1 at around $6500, making it the most expensive model in the Alpha series.

So far so similar, but by coupling the sensor with their latest BIONZ XR processor, Sony’s claiming reduced noise at mid to high ISOs, while other upgrades include long overdue pre-capture bursts, a composite RAW mode to reduce noise, and Sony’s AI processing unit for much improved subject recognition. Meanwhile by adopting the A9 III body, the A1 II gains a 4-axis screen, a handy speed boost capability which can be assigned to a new front custom button, faster wired ethernet, and improved IBIS good for up to 8.5 stops. My full review with results and demos is in the video below, but if you’d prefer to read the written highlights, keep scrolling!

Since the A1 sensor hasn’t been used since the original model, I’m not surprised to see it enjoying a second outing enhanced by the latest processor and autofocus, but the upgrades here represent more of a refresh and illustrate just how capable the A1 was back in early 2021. To be fair though, even mild upgrades make what’s still one of the most capable all-round cameras even better.

That said while the A1 II is no more expensive than its predecessor at launch, the price tag has become more of an ask in 2024. Some might argue it out-resolves its closest rivals in price, the A9 III and EOS R1, but those are both specialist sports cameras. 

For me, the Alpha 1 concept is more of an all-rounder  combining high speed with high resolution, and arguably a closer match in overall features is Canon’s EOS R5 II, which costs roughly two thirds the price. 

And remember that model has greatly improved its predecessor’s issues of skewing and overheating, while also now including a unique viewfinder that can literally focus wherever you’re looking. Nikon’s Z-9 is also a contender in this price bracket.

Plus with the original Alpha 1 still performing very well today, it’s worth looking for a discounted model or potentially saving even more on the used market – check out MPB for great deals on used gear, or to sell any camera gear you’re not using anymore

With the scene set, let’s take a look around the body first which again is based on the A9 III. Sony’s gradually been refining its body design over several generations and I’m very satisfied by the current look and feel, with a comfortable grip and well-positioned controls. 

Sony continues to resist making a body with a built-in grip, but you can fit the optional VG-C5 battery grip if you’d like more to hold onto, and this approach does allow the body alone to be more compact than, say, an EOS R1 or Nikon Z-9.

On the upper left side there’s the familiar two-tiered dial with focus modes at the bottom and drive modes on the top, both with locks which need to be pushed to turn. Note the asterisk icon on the drive dial which transfers drive mode control to the screen menus instead if preferred.

On the upper right side is a straightforward exposure mode dial, atop a simpler collar switching between stills, movies and the S&Q shooting modes – again both with push locks. I prefer having the collar control over the original A1 which had the movie and S&Q modes on the main dial.

There’s also two customisable thumb dials, the left one turning freely like the front finger dial and the other one lockable, but this time with a ballpoint style button. I’d have preferred Sony to lock all the dials using the same type of button as it feels a bit inconsistent to have two different styles. But on the plus side, I do prefer the right dial now being unlabelled rather than dedicated to exposure compensation as on the original.

While we’re looking at the top right surface, notice the C1 and C2 function buttons, now larger and more pronounced than before, as well as the angled shutter release.

From the front, note the new C5 function button by the lens mount, inherited from the A9 III. This is customisable, but by default activates the speed boost option that can temporarily accelerate the burst speed while pushed.

For example if 30fps proves excessive during a sustained burst, you could set the standard speed to be slower, say, 10fps, and only briefly increase to the faster speeds as you hold the C5 button down like a shift key. 

The menus let you choose from 5, 10, 15, 20 or 30fps for this boosted mode, and it can work really well during an extended burst, capturing more frames during those short but critical moments. It’ll extend your buffer, reduce storage and also save time when sorting through images later.

Meanwhile round the back, it’s pretty much business as usual with familiar controls including a movie record button by the viewfinder, AF-ON button, comfortable joystick, and tiltable rear thumb wheel.

Moving onto the viewfinder, the A1 II inherits the 9.44 million dot OLED panel of the A9 III, A7R V and Alpha 1 with its huge 0.9x magnification. This delivers a large, very detailed and quite immersive view. Sony also now supplies the A1 II with two viewfinder eye-cups: the standard model, and a deeper one which is better at reducing stray light and feels more comfortable in use, especially in bright conditions.

I should also mention the A1 II’s viewfinder is larger and more detailed than the Canon EOS R5 II which employs a 5.76 million dot panel with 0.76x magnification, although in The R5 II’s favour it also supports cunning and surprisingly effective eye-controlled autofocus. Also note that like the original A1 viewfinder, the A1 II’s EVF can’t maintain its most detailed view while autofocusing. So if you’ve opted for the High Quality mode at the standard 60fps refresh, then you may notice a temporary drop in detail as you’re focusing. If this bothers you, or if you’re shooting action, consider the 120fps mode which trades detail for a smoother refresh, where you won’t notice any impact while focusing. Oh and none of this affects the final image quality, only what you see through the viewfinder.

Moving onto the screen, the A1 II inherits the 3.2in, 2.1 million dot panel of the A9 III and A7R V, that’s larger and more detailed than the original A1 while also sporting more flexible four-axis articulation. This has a side-hinged mechanism that allows the screen to flip out and twist around to face you or back on itself for protection. But what makes it really clever is this mechanism is mounted on top of a simpler one that pulls out and vertically tilts for a quicker adjustment that remains in-line with the optical axis and tripod thread.

This dual approach, first seen on the Panasonic Lumix S1H, successfully solves the problem of which type of articulation a camera should employ, and while it’s inevitably thicker than more basic options, Sony’s managed to accommodate it here. It’s a nice upgrade over the original A1 which only had a vertically tilting screen.

Moving onto card slots, the A1 II keeps the pair of dual-format slots of its predecessor and other higher-end Alphas, with each slot able to accommodate either SD or faster CF Express Type-A cards. It’s possible to record different media to each card, auto switch or duplicate for backup.

Sadly despite being Sony’s new flagship body, the A1 II won’t exploit the extra speed of the latest 4th Generation CF Express Type-A cards, which means it’s no faster at flushing the buffer than its predecessor. This also means rival cameras which use the larger Type-B format can typically enjoy card speeds twice as fast, not to mention being generally cheaper per Gigabyte too. 

But the older 3rd Generation Type-A cards, such as Sony’s own TOUGH series to date, are still roughly twice as fast as the best SD cards. And crucially unlike some rivals, Sony doesn’t force you to buy CF Express to support their most demanding features. It’s possible to shoot 8k video or 50 Megapixel bursts at 30fps with a decent SD card, so the only benefit of CF Express is being able to flush the buffer faster.

To demonstrate the difference, you’re watching a 20fps burst of uncompressed RAW files being written to a Sony TOUGH SD card, rated at 299MB/s. Notice the speed of this process in the corner of the screen. Now let’s switch the cards to one of Sony’s 3rd Generation CF Express Type-A cards, rated at 700MB/s for writes and you can see how much faster the buffer is being cleared. So if you’re shooting large bursts of RAW images and want the camera to remain responsive to more, I’d recommend investing in CF Express. 

While I’ve used a Sony card here, you may want to consider a 4th Generation OWC card as at least you can enjoy their faster speed on 4th Gen card readers, and they’re competitively priced too. But if you’re only shooting JPEG, the buffer will clear quickly even with SD cards.

In terms of ports, the A1 II is equipped with 3.5mm microphone and headphone jacks, each behind separate flaps and the former clearing the screen mechanism. Behind a shared flap are USB-C and a full-size HDMI Type-A port. The USB C port supports 3.2 speeds and can be used for charging the battery, powering the camera, tethering or as a standard webcam up to 4k 30p. Meanwhile the HDMI port can output a variety of video formats including RAW to compatible recorders.

Like many Sony cameras, there’s also an older Micro USB port which can provide an alternative power input, allowing you to keep the camera running while the USB C port may be tethering or working as a webcam. There’s also a PC Sync port for external lighting, and a wired network socket, but now upgraded to 2.5 Gigabit speeds as an alternative to USB for tethered shooting or file transfer.

For power, the A1 II continues to employ the trusty FZ100 pack with Sony initially quoting around 420 shots in the specs, but this will vary hugely depending on your usage. For example I shot closer to 1000 images in a mix of mechanical and electronic bursts, along with several video clips on a single charge.

If you want more power, the optional VG-C5 grip will accommodate two batteries, along with providing portrait controls including a duplicate C5 custom button. There’s also a new BC-ZD1 dual charger supplied with the A1 II and also sold separately which can charge two batteries simultaneously from a USB PD supply.

Moving onto imaging, the A1 II inherits the same 50.1 Megapixel stacked sensor as its predecessor, shooting at the same top speed of 30fps. While some may be disappointed Sony’s not designed a new sensor for the A1 II, nor even squeezed more speed out of this one, it’s important to remember this is only its second outing and the combination of resolution and speed remains one of the best around.

Couple it with one of Sony’s recent G Master lenses and you’ll enjoy tremendous detail with low noise, while also being able to capture fast action with minimal distortion. It’s this combination that still makes the A1 series so compelling and I have no complaints with the image quality or speed.

From the image quality menu you can choose JPEG or two types of HEIF for compressed images, either with the choice of four compression levels and uncropped resolutions of 50, 21 or 12 Megapxiels. You can also choose from four aspect ratios, although 4:3, 16:9 and 1:1 are cropped. RAW shooters have the choice of uncompressed and lossy compressed at the full resolution, or a lossless compressed option in the same Large, Medium or Small sizes as JPEGs. 

If you’re after more detail, the A1 II inherits the Pixel Shift mode of its predecessor which captures four or 16 RAW files, using IBIS to slightly nudge the sensor between each. These are then combined later to generate an image with potentially more detail and reduced colour moire.

Unfortunately for all the processing muscle under the hood, the A1 II is still unable to combine them in-camera, so you’ll need to import them into Sony’s software on your computer to perform the composite. This wasn’t ready for the A1 II at the time I made this initial report, so I’ll save it for my follow-up. 

New to the A1 II, inherited from the A9 III, is a second composite RAW mode, this time designed to reduce noise. You can capture four, eight, 16 or 32 images in a burst, again combining them in Sony’s software later. The A9 III exploited its 120fps bursts to capture them handheld in a split second, although with a top speed of 30fps, this becomes more of a tripod based operation on the A1 II. Again I’ll have examples in my follow-up.

As a quick aside, Canon’s dumped pixel shifting on the R5 II in favour of AI based upscaling or noise reduction options, both of which can be performed in-camera, and I have some examples in my initial review of that camera.

Returning to the A1 II, I can show you the noise levels for out-of-camera JPEGs across the sensitivity range, so let’s take a closer look at this still life scene at 50mm f8, starting at the extended low 50 ISO. Here there’s a tremendous amount of fine detail thanks to the sensor and G Master optics. As I increase the sensitivity, this detail is maintained to 400 ISO with only a mild drop at 800 ISO. 

From 1600 ISO onwards, there’s more of a visible decline, although it’s still respectable up to 6400 ISO. But at 12800 ISO fine details have taken a serious hit, while the top three sensitivities of 25600 to 102400 ISO are smeared and noisy. Interestingly while Sony claims improvements in mid to high ISOs on the A1 II, I noticed quality drops at similar points to my original A1 tests. I’ll really need to make a side-by-side comparison to confirm.

But let’s return to 100 ISO and remind ourselves of the quality that’s possible at the lower-end of the range. And again once the RAW files are fully supported, I’ll make an updated comparison, as well as trying out the new composite noise reduction mode, and of course testing the dynamic range.

Moving onto stabilisation, the A1 II features Sony’s latest sensor-shift IBIS, claiming up to 8.5 stops of compensation in the middle of the frame. You’re looking at shot taken with the A1 II and a 70mm lens at a fifth of a second, the slowest I could handhold a sharp result using IBIS alone. This was an unstabilised lens, so you’re looking at IBIS alone.

And now on the right, the same shutter speed but with IBIS turned off, showing how much camera shake was present. Indeed at the time of testing, I needed a shutter speed of 1/80 to handhold a sharp result at 70mm without stabilisation. 

So in this example the A1 II was giving me four stops of compensation, coincidentally the same I measured for the original A1. Far short of the 8.5 stops claimed by Sony, but your mileage will almost certainly vary. I’ll show you some video examples in a moment.

Moving on, the A1 II offers the choice of a traditional mechanical or electronic shutter. In mechanical mode, the top shutter speed is 1/8000 with the camera making a quiet but positive snapping sound, while the electronic mode extends the top speed to 1/32000 and can operate in silence or with an artificial sound effect. The flash sync speed is 1/400 or 1/500 if shooting in the cropped APSC mode with the mechanical shutter, or 1/200 for the electronic.

In terms of bursts, the A1 II’s mechanical shutter can fire at up to 10fps. Switch to the electronic shutter and you can fire at up to 30fps. You can also reduce the electronic bursts to 5, 10, 15 or 20fps and assign different speeds to the drive mode dial.

In my tests I was able to achieve the top speeds with continuous AFC using Sony’s own lenses. I also confirmed the maximum burst speed for RAW files in Uncompressed and Lossless Compressed formats reduces to 20fps, so you can only enjoy the maximum 30fps speed for RAW in the Compressed mode. In these respects it’s the same as the original A1.

And like all Sony cameras, you’ll also only enjoy the fastest electronic burst speeds with continuous autofocus when using Sony’s own lenses, and preferably recent ones too. This may be a technical restriction perhaps related to the focusing or diaphragm speed, or maybe simple protectionism. 

I tried the A1 II with a Sigma 100-400 DG DN and found it could operate at the full 30fps in single AFS mode, but in continuous AFC, it fell to around 15fps. To be fair, I’m not sure how many A1 II owners would use third-party lenses, but it’s worth knowing if you want to exploit the full speed of the camera in continuous autofocus.

As mentioned earlier, you can also configure two different speeds for the electronic shutter on the A1 II, with the faster option only activating as you push the front C5 custom button as a temporary boost – a handy feature introduced on the A9 III.

Also inherited from the A9 III is a pre-capture mode, a long overdue feature from Sony, but at least highly customisable here. This exploits the electronic shutter to keep a rolling buffer of frames as you half-press the shutter release, only committing the most recent to your card when you fully push down. The idea being you keep the shutter half pressed as you wait for the critical moment, then push down when you actually see it, safe in the knowledge you’ll also have the previous split second in the bank.

Unlike many cameras which just offer a fixed buffer time, the A1 II offers 17 pre-capture settings from as little as 0.03 seconds to one second. The actual number of frames captured in that time depends on what burst speed you’ve selected, allowing you to balance the numbers.

Here’s Steven Seagull taking flight using the pre capture mode, with the buffer set to half a second and the burst speed to the fastest 30fps – this means the first 15 frames here were taken before I fully pushed down, allowing me to grab the exact moment of flight, as well as those before and after. It’s taken Sony a long time to implement pre capture, but at least we have it now.

But the practicality of an electronic shutter very much depends on how much skewing is visible on subjects as you or they move. The original A1 reduced the rolling shutter effect with its stacked sensor design, so let’s see how it looks on the A1 II.

Here’s a panning burst at 35mm using the mechanical shutter at 10fps, and as you’d expect the bottle is remaining vertical.

Now for the same panning speed but this time using the electronic shutter at 30fps, so with more frames per second the pan is going to appear slower. But the important part is to check the vertical lines, and while there is a small amount of skewing visible, I’d say it’s minimal here.

For direct comparison, here’s the mechanical shutter on the left and the electronic shutter on the right, where I’d again say the rolling shutter is looking pretty well behaved, especially considering the high resolution of the sensor. It’s pretty much as good as you’re going to get without the current cost and quality hit of a global sensor.

Ok, now onto focusing and before doing anything else, you’re looking at the A1 II fitted with the 35 1.4 GM lens, pulling focus quickly and without fuss with a single area. The A1 II also gets a broader choice of single AF areas from Extra Large to Extra Small, as well as highly customisable zones.

But arguably the biggest electronic upgrade on the A1 II over the original model is employing Sony’s latest AI Processing Unit to support far more sophisticated subject recognition. Like other bodies with this component, the A1 II can now recognise insects, cars, planes, and trains as well as sporting improved detection for people, birds and animals. It’s a substantial enhancement over the original A1, and now for the first time on an Alpha body also includes an Auto mode which attempts to detect the actual type of subject, so let’s see it in action.

Ok, so on the left you’re looking at the A1 II with human selected as the subject type, while on the right is the new Auto mode which has to guess the subject type first. In both cases I’m using a 70-200 at 70 2.8. I’d say in terms of recognising me as a human target, it’s pretty much neck in neck, and there’s essentially nothing to choose between them in profile or at a distance. An impressive start.

So now let’s see how it handles birds, again in the dedicated bird mode on the left and again in the Auto mode on the right. Once again using the 70-200, but now at 200 2.8. And again I’d say there’s no real difference in reaction time or accuracy here, the Auto mode is simply recognising the main subject as a bird and locking onto it without fuss.

How about some birds in flight? Again similar performance between the dedicated bird and Auto modes, although I will mention anecdotally that the birds need to be larger on the frame than Canon’s latest AF system to be recognised as a subject with a box around it.

To see how it all comes together in practice, here’s a selection of bursts taken with the A1 II and the 70-200 2.8 G Master, mostly at 200 2.8. Again I tried switching between Auto and Bird modes and found them to be similar except in the most brief opportunities when the dedicated Bird mode responded a fraction faster.

Speaking of which, bonus points to both the Sony A1 II and Canon R5 II for being able to recognise and focus sharply on a bird in a split second as it swoops into the frame and past your head. 

On Brighton Pier the Seagulls can get pretty excited when there’s plenty of chips and donuts around at the weekend, but they don’t hang around for long in one place. They’re literally darting around at times at very close range, and I was impressed by how quickly both of these top-end bodies reacted.

Suffice it to say more leisurely or predictable subjects like cyclists or vehicles were a doddle in comparison. I’d say for general use and even mild action, the new Auto subject detection is as effective as the dedicated subject modes, and you can improve its accuracy by removing certain subject types like cars or planes if you know you won’t be aiming at them. 

But if you know you’re only concentrating on one type of subject in a session, the dedicated modes will prove more responsive, especially in very fast or spontaneous scenarios. Plus wildlife photographers also have their own mini Auto mode which only looks for birds and animals. I look forward to seeing these subject enhancements on all future Alpha bodies.

I’m hoping to try out the A1 II with some sports action for my follow-up, and in particular seeing how it compares to Canon’s latest Action priority mode on the R5 II and R1. This can recognise and predict the movement of not just the players but the ball in some sports, knowing when it’s been passed or is about to be dunked or spiked.

Now for the video capabilities, which are essentially the same as the original A1, at least in terms of resolution, frame rate and rolling shutter. Like other recent Sony bodies, there’s a wealth of formats and options available and I’ll show you some menus with the camera set to the PAL region.

You can film in 1080 or 4k from 24 to 120p with audio and autofocus, all uncropped apart from 4k 120 which has a 10% reduction. Meanwhile 8k is available from 24 to 30p in XAVC HS only. 

Oh and in case you wondered, XAVC HS 4k still starts at 50 or 60p, so if you want 4k at 24-30p, you’ll need to use XAVC S or XAVC S-I, although note the I version won’t go higher than 50 or 60.

Note all video modes are 16:9 shaped only without the option to capture wider DCi or taller Open Gate formats, and there’s no internal ProRes or RAW recording either, making Sony’s current Codecs look a bit limited versus some rivals. 

If you want even higher frames rates, turn to the S&Q mode which can capture 1080 up to 240p with AF, albeit with no sound.

And like other recent Sony’s the Log options are in their own menu, which makes more sense to me, although does leave a gap in the Picture Profile list which can be confusing for anyone moving from an older body. And when in Log, you’ll also be able to output RAW over HDMI to a compatible recorder.

Ok, let’s have a look at some footage in practice all filmed with the A1 II and 35 1.4 GM lens, starting with 1080 at 25p which is uncropped widthways. And now for 1080 at 50p where the view remains uncropped and from this subject the detail looks the same. Likewise for 1080 at 100p here, so again no crop and no loss of detail compared to the slower frame rates. 

Next for 1080 at 200p using the S&Q mode where you’ll notice a fairly substantial crop, which I measured at about 1.25x. But you still get AF and terms of quality, it’s looking similar to the other 1080 modes here. Note I’m using PAL frame rates in my tests here, but in terms of quality and crops, 25, 50, 100 and 200p are equivalent to 30, 60, 120 and 240p in NTSC regions.

Now let’s return to 1080 at 25p for comparison before switching to 4k 25p, again uncropped here and showing a visible boost in detail on my 4k timeline, although it’s not oversampled. And next at 4k 50p which remains uncropped and maintains the same detail, unlike some models which either crop and or reduce their quality in 4k above 30p. And next for 4k at 100p which incurs a crop, albeit milder than at 1080 200p. I measured it here at about 1.12x, but again the actual overall quality still looks pretty good.

And now back to 4k 25p for comparison before switching to 8k at 25p, which is going to look similar on my 4k timeline here, but with the benefit of being able to crop by two times and maintain 4k’s worth of detail. If your end goal is 4k, filming in 8k will give you a lot of reframing potential, but if you’d like to repurpose the same clip for wide and tall platforms, I think an Open Gate mode that records the full height of the sensor will involve less compromise. I really wish Sony would support this as it could be so good feeding the Auto Framing mode, which coincidentally is also now available on the A1 II.

In terms of video autofocus, you’re looking at the A1 II fitted with the 70-200 2.8 at 70mm f2.8, smoothly pulling focus with a single AF area. And now with the full area using Auto subject detection here, effortlessly tracking me around the frame. You’ll find the same wealth of subject options here as in the photo menus, and again the Auto subject detection works a treat in all but the most demanding environments.

Slow motion is also a treat on the A1 II with great quality 4k video available up to 120p with sound and autofocus and only a mild crop to the field of view. You’re watching 4k 100p here, slowed by four times on my 25p timeline, and notice how the camera manages to keep the fast moving birds sharply focused throughout most of the action. It’ll also work well for most moving subjects so long as they’re not too fast. It proved fine for my tests with domestic pets and amateur sports, and I hope to try it out with more demanding subjects in the future.

Ok, now hold onto your lunch as it’s time for a rolling shutter test, all filmed at 35mm and starting in 1080 25p where the stacked sensor is keeping skewing mostly at bay. Likewise in 1080 50p here, and also in 1080 at 100p. Next for 4k at 25p where there’s a similar result. If you really shake the camera, you’ll see a little skewing, but it’s not bad at all. Likewise at 4k 50p and again in 4k 100p. Switching to 8k here is revealing a little more skewing than before in this test, so use with a little more caution, but overall about as well behaved as you can expect for a non-global sensor.

Just before wrapping-up, a quick word on recording times and overheating. Like other Alpha cameras to date there’s no active cooling on the A1 II, nor any fan accessories, merely the Auto Power OFF Temp option which when set to High lets the camera run hotter to allow longer recording times. I made a number of tests using a 128 GB Sony SD card, with the camera’s screen flipped out and running under battery power alone, indoors at room temperature without AC. 

Set to XAVC S HD in 1080 25p, I managed just over 158 minutes – more than two and a half hours – in a single recording before the battery expired, without any overheating issues.

Set to XAVC S in 4k 25p, I managed a single recording lasting almost 119 minutes, so just about two hours before the battery expired, with the camera feeling warm, but not hot. So for general recordings, battery power will be the limiting factor, and if you want longer you could go for the dual battery grip or power the camera over USB.

Switching to 8k 25p proved more demanding, with my A1 II recording 61 minutes before it switched itself off due to heat with about 30% battery remaining. The body felt very warm in places, but not hot, and was happy to record again a few moments later, albeit not for as long.

Likewise for 4k at 100p, where the camera managed to record 85 minutes before it shut itself down due to overheating with battery charge remaining. Again I was able to record subsequent clips pretty much straightaway, albeit only for a few minutes at first. After cooling for longer though, I managed another hour of 4k 100.