Most cameras end up following the same

formula, but this one, it completely

breaks the rules. And as a professional

who already owns a ton of other pro

cameras, that's not easy to do. So, what

makes the Sony A93 so different? Let me

show you.

[Music]

So, I've been stress testing this camera

for a little over a month, and with the

production work slowing down to a crawl,

I've been doing a lot more content

creator style jobs, which meant I needed

a solid hybrid camera, something fast,

versatile, and compelling enough to add

into my already substantial camera

collection. So, here's five reasons why

the A93 has quickly become one of my

favorites.

So, I've been in the market for a hybrid

camera that could serve my needs for

both stills and video, and more

importantly, one that could actually

keep up with me. I used to have an A74,

which was honestly a lovely camera, but

it ended up selling it because I just

didn't use it at the time. And I've had

the

GFX1002 for over a year and it's

absolutely my favorite stills camera,

but it just can't handle fast action

very well and is definitely not what

that camera was designed for in my

opinion. That led me to the A12. It's

Sony's flagship and I thought it'd be a

great B camera to the Bronos since it

has a similar if not the same sensor.

But then I thought to myself, the whole

reason for getting another Alpha body

was for speed. So I figured why not go

for speed?

This camera isn't just fast, it's

insanely fast. It shoots raw stills at

120 frames per second, and it's

obviously marketed towards the action

sports photographer market. And

honestly, most of the time I'm just

using the low setting at 30 frames per

second because you literally end up

going through four times more photos.

But having the ability to selectively go

into that overdrive mode allows for a

lot more creative opportunity. Okay.

Now, it would be absolutely ridiculous

of me to say that a big reason of why I

bought this camera was to take pictures

of my dogs. So, I'm absolutely not going

to say that. Okay, Bill. Another crazy

useful feature is pre-capture, which is

essentially picture catch recording, but

for stills. You can pre-capture up to 1

second prior of hitting the shutter

button. But most of the time, you want

to just minimize that as much as you

can, just so you're not just blowing

through a bunch of empty images. Now,

it's important to note that the insane

speed ends up sacrificing resolution and

some dynamic range, but remember, we

already got resolution and dynamic range

at home, the GFX. I've always been a big

proponent of using the right tool for

the job, and all these different cameras

are specialists in their own way. The

GFX fits a very specific purpose

whenever I choose to use that tool. And

the same holds true for the A93. But

with great power comes great

responsibility. What I mean is that as

fast as this camera is, it needs to be

able to keep up with the demands of that

style of workflow, which is why

ergonomics is number four on my

list. This camera design is peak Sony

and is probably the best feeling alpha

body out there. It's got a really deep

grip that feels so much better in the

hand. The joystick is much more tactile.

It has a great OLED EVF that's blackout

free and can go up to 200 hertz. And the

dials have this new clicky feedback,

which not only is super satisfying, but

it's nice having a more physical

response that kind of confirms my

selection. Another new accessory I've

fallen in love with is this newly

designed battery grip. So, it has the

exact same button layout and interface

when you're shooting vertical. It runs

batteries also in parallel, so they

discharge equally. And for most halfday

content creator jobs I'm on, I never

really have to swap batteries. Another

neat little perk is that you're able to

charge them via USBC and it also kind of

just acts as another dual charger. It

really does feel like a beefed up A74

the camera, which I really enjoyed. And

having this many custom buttons just

makes using the camera so much snappier

because I'm able to change all kinds of

settings without having to dig into the

menus. It also has this fouraxis screen

that everyone kind of raves about and

honestly it's not a huge deal for me if

I'm being honest. I'm glad to have it,

but I don't really end up using it any

differently than a regular flip out

screen. Having a camera that feels great

in the hands is one thing, but the real

question is whether or not that actually

translates to better video, which is why

I obsess over ergonomics with any tool

that I use. But when you pair that with

a camera with video specs as good as

this, you realize this camera isn't just

built to feel good, it's built to

[Music]

perform. When speed and ergonomics come

together, you get a hybrid camera that

doesn't just shoot great stills, it also

delivers some serious video performance,

which is why video quality is number

three on my list. As a hybrid mirrorless

camera, the A93 captures really amazing

4K, which was probably one of the

biggest selling points for me. I wanted

a great 4K codec without having to deal

with pixel binning or line skipping,

which is honestly what drew me to the

A93 because it over samples with full

pixel readout from the full 6K sensor.

So, we're retaining full detail, getting

better noise performance with reduced

aliasing. And if I'm being totally

honest, whenever I'm using the Brono,

90% of the time, I'm just using the UHD

full-frame crop codec because most

clients don't need or even want 8K. And

dealing with the extra storage ends up

being more of a headache in the long

run. So, as much as the A12 would have

complimented the Rono, I just don't want

to deal with the extra resolution and

would really rather prefer a cleaner 4K

image. Another thing I actually really

appreciate is that the native ISO for

Slog 3 in this camera is a whopping

2,000. Now, a lot of people might raise

their eyebrows or even see that high

base as a drawback, but it actually

brings me back to my FS7 days, which

native ISO was actually also 2,000. What

I would often do is rate the camera one

stop over at 1,000 EI to really push

down the noise floor, but I have no

issues sticking with 2,000 on the A9 and

would sometimes even go to 2500 or 3200

to squeeze out a little bit of extra

from the highlights. It's kind of

refreshing because, and tell me how many

times this has happened to you, where

I'm shooting with the FX3 and 640 EI is

often way too low, but then 12,800 is

just way too high. So, I have to end up

using NDS indoors anyway. Whereas the

A93 is kind of in that sweet spot for

indoor sensitivity. And if I need even

more, there's also the second base ISO

at 6400. So, while 2000 ISO might seem a

bit odd, Sony didn't just slap this onto

the A9 for no good reason. In fact, this

higher base is directly tied to what I

think is one of the biggest recent

breakthroughs in camera technology,

while also opening a huge can of worms.

But before I talk about that, I want to

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which I haven't mentioned yet. One of

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I'm actually redoing my AKS case, so

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One thing I love about them is that they

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CordBag. Before I talk about why I think

the sensor is such a big deal, we need

to first talk about modern sensor

technology. Rolling shutter seems to be

a pretty hot topic on YouTube right now.

And there seems to be a lot of people on

both sides of the coin. On one hand, you

have those that seem to base their

entire opinion of a camera solely based

off of its sensor readout performance.

Take the Brono for instance, which is

actually what I'm currently filming this

video with on right now. I was of the

opinion that the rolling shutter was

kind of a bummer given the $25,000 price

tag, but I didn't just write it off. I

still think it's an excellent all-around

tool and was by far my most used camera

on set last year. Then you have the camp

who say that rolling shutter isn't a big

deal. How often are you actually filming

like that? And to that, I'd say pretty

often actually. If you've been paying

attention, you'll notice a new kind of

cinematography filmmaking trend that is

playing heavily into the fast cuts, high

motion blur, and heavy sound design. And

I think a lot of that has to be

attributed to the rise of social media

and the importance of audience

retention. Don't get me wrong, I'm not

trying to bash any trends and I

personally think it's a really cool way

of storytelling, but there are times

when I'm filming athletes on a rower and

I'm literally just whip painting back

and forth or if I'm running alongside

someone and have elements whizzing past

the camera. No, it's not like I'm

shooting whip pans exclusively, but I

want to have that option and it's nice

having a tool that's specifically

prepared for that moment. At the same

time, Jason Morris hit it right on the

head, and that's if the average viewer,

who probably doesn't know anything about

rolling shutter at all, is distracted by

a rolling shutter, then you've probably

already lost them with your story. That

being said, I still really like the idea

of having a small hybrid mirrorless

camera that was completely devoid of any

motion artifacts. And another huge

benefit of a global shutter is that any

sort of banding from flickering is

completely eliminated. So no matter what

kind of environment I'm in, no matter

what fixtures are around, my shots won't

be ruined with a halfbaked exposure

since the entire sensor has an instant

readout. But as novel as this global

shutter is, it also comes with a huge

catch. But before I go into that, I want

to first explain how modern sensors

work. Ever since 2017, with the

introduction of the original A9, Sony

has been using a stacked SMOS sensor.

And this is notable from traditional

sensors because for the first time in a

full-frame format, they were able to

separate key components of the sensor

into separate layers that allow for

faster data processing and higher

efficiency. So I promise not to get too

esoteric. So to make things easier to

understand, think of a traditional CMOS

sensor as a oneman band who is handling

everything on a video production but all

at the same time. The first layer of the

sensor are the photo dodes that actually

capture the light or a DP who's lighting

and shooting the footage. But alongside

the photo dodes are also the transistors

and readout circuits that amplify and

transfer the data to the processing

circuits. This is like if you were

shooting and you also had to ingest

footage but also edit at the same time

because these things are all on the same

layer. And to add insult to injury, also

imagine that you're stuck with a

spinning drive that tops out at a 100

megabytes a

second. Now, think of a stack CMOS

sensor as an entire film crew where

every job is handled by a dedicated

department. Your photo diodes are the

camera department capturing light. Your

transistors and readout circuits are the

DIT and editors are processing footage

in another room, which then gives camera

department more room to work with and

gather more light. So you can imagine

how much more efficiently that setters

run, which is why stack sensors have a

much faster readout, improved autofocus,

cleaner image quality, better dynamic

range. But even with all the

improvements of a stack sensor design,

this global shutter is such a radical

change that it has to come with its

inherent trade-offs. See, a global

shutter works because there's

effectively two photo dodes for each

pixel. one collects and captures light,

but then is stored in a second photo

diode so that the sensor can read every

single pixel all at the same time. Since

we're effectively splitting the photo

diode in half, each pixel isn't able to

collect as much light before filling up,

meaning that it clips faster and in turn

has less dynamic range than other

sensors. And since each pixel has less

surface area to gather light, the sensor

needs more amplification to simply keep

up. Which is why the native ISO for

stills is 250 and 2,000 for SLOG 3. Both

of which are a stop and a third higher

than most other cameras. And for me, I

welcome the higher base, particularly

for video, so that I'm not always pegged

at 12,800. In practice, you lose about a

stop of dynamic range. And I definitely

notice a much sharper rolloff whenever

I'm shooting stills. And there's

definitely a little bit of a hit when it

comes to low light performance, but I

think the trade-off is well worth it for

me given the pure speed that this camera

provides. And speaking of pure speed, I

have one more thing to show

you. If there's one thing that makes

this camera feel next level, it's the

autofocus. It's simply S tier. It's

incredibly sticky. It's insanely fast,

and it's probably the best that I've

ever used. There's a dedicated AI

processing unit that's also found on the

Brono, and it's supposed to recognize

and estimate your subject's movements

for improved autofocus and tracking.

This mother don't miss. No, he's

good. That don't miss, man.

He's good. Not only is it incredibly

sticky, but it's just stupid fast. Since

the A9 can shoot 120 frames per second,

that means it's doing 120 autofocus

calculations a second. And it's stupid

fast when you're using the newer Sony

lenses with the linear XD motors. I

probably noticed the biggest improvement

whenever I'm tracking a subject. And

even when I pass foreground objects, the

focus just stays locked on. In the heat

of battle, he don't miss. The A9's

autofocus is so good that whenever I

have to use the FX3 for a particular

project, I find myself just always

yearning for that enhanced autofocus

performance. And in my opinion, it's

that different, especially when I have

objects constantly crossing through

frame or if my subject ends up being

partially obscured. Nowadays, there are

dozens of cameras flooding the market,

and it can honestly get a bit

overwhelming with how many there are to

choose from. But just remember, they're

all just tools, and quite frankly, there

aren't really any bad options in the

current lineup. Now, choosing the right

tool is one thing, but if you really

want to elevate the quality of your

work, then there's one more element that

matters even more, and that's good

lighting. No matter how good or

expensive that this camera is, if I'm in

an environment with subpar lighting, the

only thing I'll be able to get are

subpar images. I know this video got a

little in the weeds, but I do think it's

important to understand the technology,

which is exactly why I spent so much

effort in lighting this video right

here. So, if you've ever wondered how

big budget film sets light their scenes,

be sure to check it out.