Shooting With Sonys Killer A9 Almost Feels Like Cheating. If youve ever wondered how a photographer managed to capture the exact moment of an incredible end zone reception or the instant a bird takes flight, the answer, in part, is that the photographers camera also captured the garbage moments directly before and after that golden frame, with a very expensive camera rattling off photos at tommy gun speeds. For these professional sports and nature photographers there are two widely accepted options The tippy top cameras from Canon and Nikon, with their big bulky bodies, incredible power, and the most advanced image sensors. Well, Sony finally has an answer to the incumbents in its A9. Not only is this full frame, mirrorless camera smaller, lighter, and cheaper than the Nikon and Canon competition, it absolutely blows their doors off when it comes to speed. What is it The fastest mirrorless camera Sonys made yet. Like. So fast youll forget about Nikon and Canon. No Like. That price means this is a pro camera. For those not entirely up on the high end camera scene these days, heres a quick catch up. In an arena that has been dominated by Canon and Nikon since pretty much forever, Sonys star has been on the rise. Pda Formats Almost Home Review Film' title='Pda Formats Almost Home Review Film' />It had been making solid mirrorless cameras for a while, but when its A7 series came out a few years ago, thats when professionals really started to take notice. These were compact mirrorless cameras with sharp electronic viewfinders good enough to rival the optical eyepieces in DSLRs. They also had very sensitive full frame image sensors that could capture beautiful photos. When we say full frame, what we meanis a 3. A review of the Nikon D2x and D2xs digital cameras by Nikon expert Thom Hogan. Fortitude is the most northerly town in the world, and the most peaceful until a prominent member of the community is found eviscerated in his own home, and. Basically, the bigger the sensor, the more light it can gather. But while the A7 models and their successors could get professional results, they didnt quite have the power the most demanding photographers require. The A9 changes that. Its like the A7s track star big brotheran undeniably pro level shooter with a 4,5. The first thing to know is that the A9 is real small. At roughly 4 inches by 5 inches by 2. After a review found that the field trial is unlikely to impact either the environment or humans, the USDA issued a permit that allows for the release of up to 30,000. If youve ever wondered how a photographer managed to capture the exact moment of an incredible end zone reception or the instant a bird takes flight, the answer. A9 is only slightly bulkier than Sonys very svelte A7 series cameras. Canons high end sports shooter, the 1. D X Mark II is 6. Hell, even Canons mid range professional DSLR, the 5. D Mark IV is substantially bigger and heavier than the A9, and the same can be said of Nikons entries. Its amazing how much Sony has crammed into that little frame. Numb Thumbs Nintendo SNES Classic Mini review. Stop moaning about the cable length and enjoy a fab little piece of history 03 Oct. BibMe Free Bibliography Citation Maker MLA, APA, Chicago, Harvard. And of course, this thing is absurdly fast. Its capable of firing off full resolution 2. JPEGs at a blistering 2. It sounds like a Gatling gun, unless you turn the sound off, in which case it is literally silent thanks to the electronic shutter more on that in a second. Even when shooting in RAW JPEG mode, I was able to fire off an 8 second burst at 1. The A9 is equipped with a wide autofocus system that covers more than 9. It is lightning fast and extremely accurate, even when shooting at its blistering top speeds. I tested it with running dogs and with people on a zip line flying right at me. Even at a shallow depth of field f2. Nothing else on the market comes close to this kind of performance. Its bananas. But let me try to explain what its like to shoot with this camera. Not to get hyperbolic here, but it almost feels like you cant miss. An example I was walking by a creek with the camera dangling off my neck, powered off. I saw a golden retriever emerge from the water and start to shake itself off. It has already started shaking before Id hit the power button to turn the camera back on, and yet I was still able to fire off a burst of 1. Cinderella 3D Downloading more. My A7. S which is by no means slow wouldnt have even gotten a single shot off in that time. Using the A9 almost feels like cheating. I loved shooting long exposures with it, too. Unfortunately, there was always too much moon and too much haze for me to try a nice, clear shot of the Milky Way, but Im confident it would excel there. I did get a handful of shots while driving down Highway 5. Nevada the so called Loneliest Road In America that I was really happy with. The above shot was a single exposure taken with the electronic shutter around midnight. I was side lit by the moon and backlit by an oncoming truck relax, it was very far away. It was a 2. 0 second exposure at ISO 8. Obviously, I did plenty of tweaking in Lightroom, but I use this to show you just how much dynamic range is captured in the RAW photos. In terms of low light I find myself shocked to say its nearly as good as the Sony A7. S which has been my main camera for the last two years. The low light focused A7. S is a hair brighter, but noise levels are nearly identical, and the A9 has twice as many megapixels to play with 2. MP vs 1. 2MP. Sonys image sensor does a great job of sucking up any available light even when you turn up the sensitivity that would ordinarily turn light into garbage. At ISO 6,4. 00 there is almost no noise at all. Even ISO 2. 5,6. 00 is extremely usable, though youll probably want to use some noise reduction in Lightroom. ISO 5. 1,2. 00 could maybe do in a pinch, but at that point things are starting to get fairly chunky. ISO 1. 02,4. 00 isnt the worst thing Ive ever seen, but youre better off avoiding it unless youve got a rare shot at Sasquatch or something. The A9 has mechanical and electric shutter options. You can manually select either, but Id recommend leaving it in auto. When shooting a single shot or a low speed burst 5 fps maximum it will default to mechanical shutter, which gives you a bit more depth in your RAW images 1. Youll also want to use the mechanical shutter if youre using an external flash the A9 doesnt have one built in. If youre shooting medium or high speed bursts, the camera switches over to electronic shutter, which is also better for fast moving objects. When using the electronic shutter you can also shoot completely silently, which is almost eerie, but awesome. The A9 does a solid job with video. It can shoot 4. K at speeds of up to 3. I will say, my least favorite thing about the cameras design is that Sony put the video startstop record button right next to the viewfinder. I mean, its practically touching it. If you use your left eye in the viewfinder as I was taught to do your nose will absolutely, 1. Its just about the worst imaginable place for that very important button to be. There are some other annoyances, too. The A9 has two SD card slots, which is great, except for some reason only one of those slots supports UHS II SD cards i. The other one is stuck at UHS I. Other grievances Sonys menu system is still extremely intimidating, to say the least. The menu is a whopping thirty six 3. Also, after shooting about 1. K 2. 4fps video spread out over 4. I noticed that I was getting an overheating warning on the screen. Thats not good. It still allowed me to snap photos, but Im not sure what would have happened if I kept pushing it. Other users have been complaining about this issue, and its definitely something Sony needs to address. Update Sony claims this issue has been fixed in a firmware update, though we have already returned our review unit, and were not able to test it for ourselves. So, all that being said, should you buy it Well, do you have the need The need for speed If so, then youre not going to find a faster camera out there. The A9 costs 4,5. While thats cheaper than the Canon 1. DX or the Nikon D5, unless you really, really need to be able to shoot fast moving objects, then youre probably better off with one of Sonys A7 series cameras get the mark II versions. These are also full frame, mirrorless cameras that take excellent pics, they just arent as fast. But if youre a budding sports photographer and you arent already heavily invested in glass from another manufacturer, the Sony A9 is incredible in so many ways. Americas First Free Roaming Genetically Engineered Insects Are Coming to New York. Diamondback moths may be a mere half inch in length, but their voracious appetite for Brussels sprouts, kale and cauliflower make them a major pain for farmers. This week, the U. S. Department of Agriculture approved a potential solution moths genetically engineered to contain a special gene that makes them gradually die off. A field trial slated to take place in a small area of upstate New York will become the first wild release of an insect modified using genetic engineering in the US. The moths have been engineered by the British biotech firm Oxitec, the same company that last year caused a stir with its plans to release genetically modified, Zika fighting mosquitoes in the Florida Keys. The diamond back moths take a similar approach to the mosquitoes, modifying male mosquitoes to limit the population over time by passing on a gene to offspring when it mates with wild females that causes female moths to die before they reach maturity. The technique is a riff on an approach used to manage agricultural pests since the 1. Using radiation, scientists made insects like the screwworm unable to produce viable offspring. By 1. 98. 2, screwworm was eradicated from the US using this alternative to pesticides. In Silent Spring Rachel Carson suggested this approach was the solution to the dangers of harmful pesticides agricultural producers required to protect their crops. The problem was that it did not work on every insectin many cases, it simply left irradiated insects too weak to compete for mates with their healthier kin. Diamondback moths are a sizable problem for farmers, and a problem thats growing as the moths develop resistance to traditional pesticides. They do about 5 billion in damage to cruciferous crops worldwide every year. In the upcoming trial, a team at Cornell University will oversee the release of the genetically engineered moths in a 1. Cornell in Geneva, New York. After a review found that the field trial is unlikely to impact either the environment or humans, the USDA issued a permit that allows for the release of up to 3. It is caterpillars that damage crops, so the plan to release adult males that produce unviable offspring should not cause any additional crop damage. And any surviving moths will likely be killed off by pesticides or upstate New Yorks frigid winter, according to the report submitted to the USDA. The plan to release modified mosquitoes in the Keys attracted much local ireafter initially getting the greenlight from the FDA, the project was ultimately stalled by a local vote and forced to find a new location for a trial. In upstate New York, too, the moths have stirred up a debate over GMOs for the past several years, though the plan has not been met with quite the same level of opposition. The approval process through the USDA rather than the FDA, too, was much swifter. In laboratory and greenhouse trials, the modified mosquito was reportedly effective in decreasing the overall population. But tests still need to determine how it will fare in open air. Oxitec has released its engineered mosquitoes Brazil, Grand Cayman, and Panama, and still plans to go ahead with a field trial in the Keys. In December, the company announced plans for field trials of a genetically modified Mediterranean fruit fly in Western Australia. It is also working on genetically engineering several other agricultural pests, including Drosophila suzukii and the Olive fly. MIT Technology Review.