Sony Alpha 9 III announced: The first full-frame camera with "Global Shutter System" tech

Sony has recently wowed the camera world with the introduction of the Alpha 9 III.

Sony Alpha 9 III

The fastest shutter speed on a full-frame camera yet?

According to Sony, this is the very first full-frame camera in the world featuring a Global Shutter System.

Basically, the Global Shutter System allows the new image sensor of the camera to expose and read all pixels simultaneously. It is unlike the usual rolling shutter sensor that records images sequentially from the top row of the pixels to the bottom.

This allows the Alpha 9 III to enable the camera to shoot at burst speeds of up to 120 frames per second (AF/AE) with no rolling shutter distortion or camera blackout.

In addition, Sony said that they combined the Global Shutter System tech with its "most advanced" AI autofocus (high-density focal plane phase-detection AF) with 120 times AF/AE focus calculation per second.

Sony claims that its AI processing unit uses Real-time Recognition AF and Real-time tracking to recognize a wide variety of subjects with high precision and improved human eye recognition performance. 

Moreover, Sony also said it can sync with Flash at all shooting speeds.

For less shaking videos, it has 8.0 stops of optical 5-x in-body image stabilization.

Sample image from Sony

The global shutter full-frame stacked CMOS sensor has 24.6MP and built-in memory. The chip it uses is the latest BIONZ XR image-processing engine to make the feats mentioned above possible.

Then max shutter speed is 1/80,000 or 1/16,000 during continuous shooting. There is also a one-second pre-capture that can snap 120 frames before the shutter is pressed as well as a custom button function that can temporarily boost shutter speed in continuous shutter press.

Overall, it can do crop-free 4K 120 fps videos and 120 fps 14-bit RAW shooting for 192 frames.

This is a camera designed to allow its users to avoid missing shots. It could be great in different shooting scenarios including sports, action, and wildlife photography.

2 SD slots

Design-wise, the camera has a 4-axis LCD touchscreen, a new mappable C5 button, an improved shutter key for a more responsive experience, and a lock function for the drive mode dial. The camera also has two card slots supporting CFexpress Type A cards as well as UHS-I and UHS-II SD cards.

US price with direct-to-PHP conversion (no taxes and duties yet):

Sony Alpha 9 III (a9 III) - USD 5,999.99 (around PHP 335K)

The device is now available for pre-order in several parts of the globe. There is also a VG-C5 vertical grip priced at USD 399.99 (around PHP 22.3K).

There is no word about its PH release yet, but Sony Philippines has started teasing the new camera on its official social media pages.

Source: Sony