Sony A9 III Sony A9 III User Manual Now Available

[Tim Mayo]

The Sony A9 III User Manual is now available to view online or download as a PDF.

Online: https://helpguide.sony.net/ilc/2380/v1/en/index.html
PDF: https://helpguide.sony.net/ilc/2380/v1/en/print.pdf

 

[AlphaWorld]

There is some interesting reading in there, and a couple of disappointments…

For example, to get the maximum number of RAW images into the buffer you still have to use lossy compressed format: https://helpguide.sony.net/ilc/2380/v1/en/contents/0407C_drivemode_continuous.html

 

[AlphaWorld]

One buffer full is 192 frames, which is 6G of information. How many times will you actually be doing that?

Well, I don’t want to use lossy compressed (I know, I know, call it a personal fetish), and if you use lossless compressed at 120 fps you only get 96 frames instead of 192 Such a disappointment! I guess I’d have to factor that into any decision to buy one?

Have to say that I have run the A1 at 20fps for several seconds at a time. Maybe the A9III at 30fps, with occasional excursions to 60 or 120, would suffice?

The Help Guide does make interesting reading. There are features in the camera clearly designed for someone uploading images selectively from the camera - you rate images (perhaps using the neat “play the images in a burst back and forth to find the ones you want” feature), then upload the ones with 2 stars - neat. I have never worked as a photojournalist, but I can imagine that sort thing being useful. For a while I was wondering about a feature called “shot marks” until I discovered it was for video clip.

You can crop images in camera - if you set a crop ratio you can increase or decrease the size, and move it around. Pretty sure I’ve never seen that in a Sony camera before. The cropped version is saved as a new image, leaving the original alone.

Also interesting is that you can name video clips with two part names, like the name of a movie and something else (scene? Act?) - that sort of thing. Surprised to see that on this camera - maybe it is inherited from the FX line?

 

[TheFloridaShooter]

The camera shop I buy from contact me and said release day is Feb 8th. I'm still confused after reading the manual and found nothing on YouTube about pre-capture. It seems like it's ideal for bird in-flight. Does anyone know where I can find a more detail explanation of this feature?

 

[AlphaWorld]

The camera shop I buy from contact me and said release day is Feb 8th. I'm still confused after reading the manual and found nothing on YouTube about pre-capture. It seems like it's ideal for bird in-flight. Does anyone know where I can find a more detail explanation of this feature?

https://helpguide.sony.net/ilc/2380/v1/en/contents/231h_pre_capture.html?search=pre-capture is the settings that turn it on.

You can pre-capture up to 1 second. Depending your continuous shooting speed, the number of pre-captured frames varies - you set it to half a second and have continuous shooting speed set at 60fps, you'll capture 30 frames.

Is that what you wanted to know?

BTW: the AF is extraordinarily good - I think the very fast sensor is making that happen. I managed to track butterflies in flight this afternoon (that was fun!).