My New Sony Alpha a1. My honest answer to: If the R5 had Zebra technology for stills, would I switch back to Canon?

What’s Up?

I published yesterday’s blog post just after 7:00am and went to work setting up my brand new Sony Alpha a1. I thought that I had a chance to finish by 7:30am and get out to do some photography on what turned out to be a sunny morning. Though the options and set-up are very similar to the options and set-ups of the a9 ii and the a7r iv, the menus are totally different and I had a huge problem trying to assign ISO to the Control Wheel. I e-mailed several folks asking for guidance but nobody knew how to help me. (Thanks to Geoff Newhouse for trying!) Once Geoff told me that he was sure that it could be done, I went back at it with a vengeance and on about my fiftieth time, I finally figgered it out. All by my lonesome. If you got your a1 using my affiliate links from B&H or Bedfords, please shoot me your receipt via e-mail and I will send you my brief but very helpful set-up notes.

Donna Bourdon and I had a good wind for sunset, but the color faded well before the sun went down. I was set up with the 600 GM, the 2X TC, and the Alpha a1 in Tv mode with Auto ISO (as usual) and had only a few decent chances. I was incredibly impressed by the speed and sureness of the AF system; it absolutely slammed onto the birds in flight and locked on tenaciously. The AF system of the Alpha a1 is clearly better than the AF system of the a9 ii. Clearly. I will probably not have a chance to test the Bird Eye recognition at least until I get to Merritt Island. Unless I try it on Ospreys in flight tomorrow.

I am hoping to share an Alpha a1 Osprey image with you here tomorrow.

Today is Thursday 11 March 2021. The forecast for Lake Blue Cypress is for mostly sunny with light east/northeast winds, not too bad at all for Osprey flight. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, I hope that you have a great day.

This blog post took a bit more less than one hour to prepare and makes eighty in a row with a new one. Please remember to use my B&H affiliate links or to save money at Bedfords by using the BIRDSASART discount code at checkout.

A Recent Comment by Jeff Walters

If Canon had Live Zebras would you be back full on? Or is Sony too far ahead?

My Reply

Great question Jeff. The short is is almost surely no. You’ve hit on SONY’s huge advantage: the Zebra technology. The other day while struggling with the R5’s in-viewfinder histogram, I realized something important. With the R5 you are looking at the admittedly lousy histogram — it usually misses seeing small bright highlights; if you go by the histogram, you wind up with some serious over-exposures. But the problem is that you are looking at the histogram while trying to frame the image. What I realized is that with SONY you are looking at the subject while noting the Zebras and dialing the ISO so that you have faint Zebras. The difference is that looking away from the subject with the R5 is always difficult at best, and usually fatal.

I have, however, avoided your question: would I switch back if Canon mirrorless offered Zebras with stills? The short answer is almost surely no. First off, AF with the a9 ii and the 600 GM with the 2X TC is insane. The best Canon might do with the R5/RF 2X TC, 600 III Is hope to tie. Another consideration is that I was unceremoniously (an inexplicably) let go as a Canon Explorer of Light about eight years ago. Huge thanks to program founder Michael Newler (aka Captain Explorer), the late Dave Metz, and Steve Inglima, for their (and Canon’s) incredible generosity over an eighteen year period. I did, and ironically, continue to do a ton for Canon; in recent months alone I have sold something like 51 R5 bodies via BAA affiliate link. I opted to take the high road when I was let go, and do not regret that. But it would be hard to imagine going back. Just because.

Don’t get me wrong, Canon has a better lens line-up by far, and the RF 100-500 is an absolute gem of a lens. I am baffled when folks e-mail complaining about the 1-5. In addition, the R5 with an adapter does extremely well on the fast EF super-telephoto lenses. On the other hand I have tried to become a SONY Artisan and my efforts have been pretty much ignored despite the fact that the number of Artisans who photograph birds is zero. As I (and Byron Katie) say often, You gotta love it.

Speaking of SONY, I took my brand new Sony Alpha a1 out for a test drive last night at sunset and was mega-impressed. I did not however, have a chance to play with the new Bird Eye recognition technology. Donna and I are headed for Lake Blue Cypress to meet up with Clemens Van der Werf and his boat to photograph Osprey. I am bringing only my SONY 600 GM, the 1.4X TC, and the Alpha a1. I will be shooting two systems for at least a while as the R5/RF100-500 with RF Extenders 1.4X and 2X TC are utterly superb for close work with tame birds. Time will tell how the Bird Eye recognition stuff stacks up against the R5’s Face Detection plus racking with animal eye.

Why No Photo in This Blog Post?

Donna got to ILE at about 3:00pm. At 3:30 we began setting up her brand new R5. We worked off and on for about an hour. Donna did not have a UHS ii card for her new body so I took the brand new Delkin UHS-II 128GB Power SD Memory Card out of my a1 and gave it to her. Now needing a card for my new camera, I figured what the heck so I opened the packet with one of my two brand new Sony 160GB CFexpress Type A TOUGH Memory Card, the super-fast card designed to maximize performance with the a1. I was smart enough to set up the a1 to shoot Compressed RAW as I need to find out how to convert the a1 raw files. But I was not smart enough to realize that I did not have a card reader that I could use to get the images onto my MacBook Pro. Duh. I had lots of other Delkin UHS-II cards that I could have used …

I will use a much slower UH-S II card all day today. Steve Elkins of Bedfords is sending me a ProGrade Digital CFexpress Type A & UHS-II SDXC Dual-Slot USB 3.2 Gen 2 Card Reader ($79.99) via Fed-Ex; it should arrive today or tomorrow the latest. That saves you $40.00 as compared to the cost of the Sony MRW-G2 CFexpress Type A/SD Memory Card Reader ($119.99) which is very hard to get right now. Right now, it looks as if Bedfords has both card readers in stock.

All of the links to the SONY stuff above go to Bedfords, so if you need a CFexpress Type A card and one of the readers to pair with your new Sony Alpha a1, be sure to enter the BIRDSASART code at checkout to save 3% and enjoy free second-day air shipping.

Tomorrow morning we are doing Stick Marsh over near Vero on Clemens boat. We head over to Merritt Island on Saturday to get in an extra day of shooting before the IPT begins.

Sony 160GB CFexpress Type A TOUGH Memory Card

Notes: It is likely that Delkin will — at some point, be making the CFexpress Type A cards. When that happens, I will switch to the Delkin cards. (I did have a problem with the single SONY Tough UHS-II card that I purchased in a pinch a while back …)

CEA-G Series CFexpress Type A Memory Card

Extremely fast, reliable, and compact for professionals who require the highest performance in the most extreme conditions. The CEA-G80T and CEA-G160G memory cards protect recordings and boost workflow for photographers, videographers, and enthusiasts.
CEA-G Series CFexpress Type A Memory Card

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Speed up workflow with the CFexpress Type A card reader

Optimized for Sony CFexpress Type A memory cards, the optional MRW-G2 card reader allows you to transfer data via a SuperSpeed USB 10 Gbps (USB 3.2) interface and take full advantage of high-speed backups and more efficient workflows. It’s compact, easy to carry, and works with both Sony CFexpress Type A and SDXC UHS-II/UHS-I memory cards.

Sony’s TOUGH for the roughest places

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Sony’s TOUGH for the toughest places

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File Rescue: Recover lost files

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