The Sony a1 has really shocked us. Yes, it’s Sony’s flagship camera. But it was released a few years ago. What’s more, Sony tends to not give many of their cameras major updates. Instead, they’re rather you instead buy a new camera. Therefore, Sony makes their products as disposable as possible. But the Sony a1 received a major update that makes using it so much easier. So we had to update our sony a1 review.
In our minds, this is a pretty unusual update for Sony. Their cameras, while very good, aren’t seen as something to expect to be long-lasting. I mean, one camera was replaced within three months! However, we think that this is going to become a lot more common. Canon’s cameras don’t have the lifespan that they used to. And Canon has fully stated that this is what the future of their products will be. So too has Fujifilm. For photographers, the news coming from Fujifilm hit hardest.
So the fact that a major ease of use update was issued to the Sony a1 is fascinating. Of course, once it has been replaced, it won’t mean that the Sony a1 will be a bad camera at all. To be honest, I still use my Sony a7r III and never upgraded. The faster autofocus, reliability, and smaller size attracted me more than 60MPs that won’t focus all that quickly.
However, the Sony a1 is a camera that I really considered purchasing. While I much prefer the rangefinder aesthetic of the Sony a7c, the a1 actually feels more like a Minolta.
Here’s the updated section from our Sony a1 review. You can dive further into it to see how our findings have changed over time. Want to buy one? Check them out on Amazon.
Update to the Sony a1 Review
The Sony a1 received a very big upgrade to this ease of use and autofocus recently. Said update translates into a much easier to use camera. Now, the Sony a1 adds an autofocus mode called animal/bird. This mode lets a photographer set the AI scene detection to be able to detect both animals and birds. Previously, Sony completely separated animals and birds. This made it very annoying to work with when you were out in the field.
There’s bound to be someone trying to say that this isn’t such a necessary update. But that’s just wrong. When you’re going out into nature with the intention of photographing the animal kingdom, you’re looking for various things. Sure, you might really want a photo of a bald eagle. But that doesn’t mean that you’ll turn down a potentially great shot of an owl too. It also won’t mean that you’re going to turn down a stunning image of a beautiful stag with a giant antler rack.
Of course, there are then photographers that would tell you to use the autofocus points directly instead. And sure, you could give the camera some assistance. But what’s the purpose of doing that if the camera can quickly scan the scene and figure it out itself?
These aren’t the days of shooting with DSLRs anymore and we don’t need to always directly choose autofocus points all the time.
The update brings it in line with Canon, Nikon, and Panasonic. Those brands put animals and birds under the same umbrella in their autofocus settings.
To clarify this a bit more, the Sony a1 still keeps animals and birds as separate categories too. But you’ve got this additional animal/bird option.
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