The New York launch of the Sony A9 III was met with the kind of whooping and hollering US audiences love, but also a few gasps and astonished mutterings from people not quite prepared for Sony’s technological tour de force.
But the news that the A9 III would not be available until SPRING 2024 was met largely with silence. Maybe people were still in shock from the specs, but that launch date needs to go under the spotlight too.
But first the camera.
Sony A9 III specifications and key features
Hold tight. There’s a lot to say.
First, the A9 III is the first full frame camera with a global shutter. This means that the entire image is captured simultaneously across the whole image area rather than in ‘strips’, which is how other cameras work.
As a result, the A9 III can capture distortion-free images at any shutter speed. It can also shoot at a frankly ridiculous 120fps with full AE and subject-recognition AF and in 14-bit RAW and with real-time viewing with no blackout. Thanks to the global shutter it can sync with flash at any speed, rendering all those old HSS workarounds obsolete.
It has a pre-capture mode that can pre-buffer up to 1sec of continuous image capture ahead of a full shutter press, so that you’ve got time to react to sudden movement and don’t miss a frame of what happened while your reflexes were catching up. Oh, and it has a top shutter speed of 1/80,000sec.
On the inside is a 24.6MP full frame sensor and a BIONZ XR processor with 8x the processing power of the previous A9 II. On the outside is a 9.44m-dot OLED EVF with a 120fps refresh rate and a 4-axis LCD display, plus improved controls and ergonomics.
The Sony A9 III is a beast of a camera and looks set to wipe the floor with the Sony A1, the company’s previous flagship, and just about every other pro sports/action camera too.
With all this power, the price of $5,999 is no surprise and probably to be expected. No, the surprise is that you won’t be able to get one until Spring 2024.
Why?
Questions around Sony’s marketing
The news that the A9 III would not be available until SPRING 2024 was met largely with silence at the launch in NY. Maybe people were still in shock from the specs, but that launch date needs to go under the spotlight too.
I’m writing this in early November 2023, and by ‘Spring 2024’ I’m guessing Sony means March 2024 at the earliest, but possibly April or even May, both of which are technically ‘Spring’. So a delay of a few weeks is normal enough to get new cameras out to retailers… but MONTHS?
I’m trying to anticipate Sony’s explanations here. So number one might be that Sony needs time to ramp up production to meet demand. What, for a camera as specialized and expensive as this? How many is Sony going to make, and how can it be so definite about the date? I’m not convinced by that.
Another possible excuse is that it’s not actually finished yet. Well, it’s finished enough to hand out samples to a conference hall full of journalists for hands-on shooting sessions, so that doesn’t really hold water either.
So maybe Sony has only enough Sony A9 III’s to hand out to selected journalists, influencers and sports professionals, and no more? Poor Sony!
But then every cloud has a silver lining, and for Sony it’s this.
For the next five months, or however long it is before the Sony A9 III is launched, the only content you’re going to read is by creators that Sony has chosen to receive samples. You might not be able to buy the camera, but you’re sure going to read about how great it is.
You’ll also be able to pre-order it, of course, all the time this is going on, and for many pros and sports/press agencies, that’s going to be a no-brainer. Sony will probably know exactly how many it needs to make because it’s sold them all ahead of time. It’s like the kickstarter dream.
The camera marketing machine is evolving as fast as the cameras themselves. We’ve had the launch, and now we’ve got a long, period of stage-managed coverage with selected outlets and creators and plenty of time to get those pre-orders rolling in.
I don’t like being cynical, but sometimes you have to ask these questions.