Sony's Alpha 9 III is the world's first full-frame consumer camera with a global shutter...

[Shawn Knight]

Forward-looking: The new Alpha 9 III is a full-frame digital camera packing a stacked 24.6 megapixel CMOS sensor and Sony's BIONZ XR image processor. It boasts a maximum shutter speed of 1/80,000 second (or 1/16,000 second when shooting continuously) and affords creature comforts like a four-axis, multi-angle LCD, a high-resolution electronic viewfinder, and a speed boost button, but the starring attraction is without a doubt the global shutter.

Sony has introduced the world's first camera with a global shutter image sensor, and it has photography enthusiasts buzzing.

Unlike a traditional rolling shutter that records images by capturing one row of pixels at a time (from top to bottom), a global shutter exposes and reads all of the pixels on the image sensor simultaneously. While modern electronic rolling shutters are fast, it is still a process that takes time. Time is lag, and lag introduces distortion.

As a result of this lag, fast-moving subjects can end up with an undesired bend or curve to them. By capturing everything all at once, such distortion is eliminated.

Sony's global shutter should also eliminate banding when working under artificial light. This is not an issue when using a mechanical shutter, but those are also noisy and can be distracting in certain environments like wedding ceremonies. An electronic global shutter with no banding issues gives the best of both worlds.

Sony's new shutter additionally enables a very fast burst shooting rate of up to 120 frames per second, and can flash sync at all shooting speeds.

Global shutters have not yet graced consumer cameras simply because they require an enormous amount of data processing, and digicam processors haven't been up to the task. The chip in Sony's latest is multiple times faster than previous iterations and can keep up with the demands of the shutter.

The Sony Alpha 9 III is priced at $5,999 and is expected to ship in late February 2024. Most major camera retailers including Adorama and B&H Photo are already accepting pre-orders.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/100782-sony-alpha-9-iii-world-first-full-frame.html

 

[Uncle Al]

That is one hell of a great feature but the price point will probably scare off a lot of potential buyers ....

 

[stewi0001]

That is one hell of a great feature but the price point will probably scare off a lot of potential buyers ....

The common folk, yes. Professional photographers are used to the stuff being expensive, especially the lens.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

That is one hell of a great feature but the price point will probably scare off a lot of potential buyers ....

This is a camera for Pros (a9 models always have been).

But this will trickle down to the a7R models and then the a7 models with each being more affordable.

 

[Mr Majestyk]

This is a camera for Pros (a9 models always have been).

But this will trickle down to the a7R models and then the a7 models with each being more affordable.

While this is true, that market has shrunk enormously as news papers etc have basically sacked most of these guys. If you are freelance and have to dig deep into your own pockets it's hard to justify. Sony is foolish to target a very small niche market IMO. No wildlife shooter, especially birder will have nay interest in this camera due to the low resolution. Camera would have had far more appeal as a 33-36MP camera and a regular but somewhat faster stacked sensor than is in the Sony A1 would have meant a $5K price point to. For most people that aren't heavy flash users in bright light, the difference between stacked and global sensor is minimal. This would have meant a much larger target audience willing to buy the camera too.

 

[Manu Arg]

That's awesome, I hope that we can bring this to more "affordable" models in the next years

 

[LetTheWookieWin]

Neat technology, but I’m standing pat with my 11-year old Canon 5d mkIII until it doesn’t work anymore. Mirrorless lenses are ridiculously expensive, and I can take far more photos on a single battery than most mirrorless bodies because I don’t have an EVF. Plus, Canon EF glass works on Canon and Sony mirrorless bodies with an adapter, so I don’t have to replace my glass immediately if I want to switch systems.

If I needed 4K video, I might feel differently, but for my use case I just need high quality still photos and the ability to use interchangeable lenses for different focal lengths.

 

[Mr Majestyk]

That's awesome, I hope that we can bring this to more "affordable" models in the next years

No global sensors will cost a bomb for a many many years. Even stacked sensors are in affordable cameras yet, and they are far simpler.