Sony announces flagship a9 full-frame mirrorless camera

Sony has announced the α9, the company's flagship full-frame mirrorless camera. The α9 turns everything up to eleven, featuring the absolute best of Sony in a form factory that is still smaller than a traditional full-frame DSLR.

The heart of the α9 and the one that makes all the magic happen is the 24.2 megapixel full-frame stacked CMOS sensor with integrated memory, the first of its kind. Having the memory built-into the sensor allows for 20x faster readout speed. This lets the camera perform some crazy things, such as high speed 20fps continuous shooting in RAW with AF/AE lock for up to 241 RAW/ 362 JPEG images. The α9 can also shoot without blackout, a common issue with DSLRs, due to its fast electronic shutter while maintaining 60fps live view with minimal display lag in continuous shooting. The electronic shutter also shoots up to 1/32000 seconds, which is much slower than what is capable with a mechanical shutter.

The α9 also has what Sony calls 4D Focus, which includes 693 point AF system that covers approximately 93% of the image area, fast focusing speed and reliable object tracking.

Other features include 14-bit uncompressed RAW, QVGA OLED 120fps viewfinder, 5-axis internal stabilization, dual SD card slots, Ethernet port for file transfers over LAN, and a joystick to control AF points.

The α9 is priced at $4,500 and will be available in May.

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