The Biggest Differences Between the Sony a1 and the New Sony a1 II

Sony has a new flagship camera, the Alpha 1 Mark II. However, while the a1 II brings a lot of improvements, it is not a wholesale revolution compared to its predecessor, which was admittedly way ahead of its time when it launched in early 2021. So, what’s new with the a1 II? How is it better?

Sony a1 II Introduces a New and Improved Design and User Experience

Among the most significant differences between the a1 II and its predecessor is also the most noticeable: a new body. Between the a1’s launch in January 2021 and the a1 II’s arrival today, Sony returned to the drawing board on its camera design. The a7R V and a9 III are powerful examples of Sony’s new approach to ergonomics, and now the a1 II follows suit.

The a1 II has a new, deeper grip, a revised button layout — including a new custom button on the front that can handle Boost Mode (more on that later) — Sony’s latest and much better menu system, a new display, and better EVF. These are notable improvements in the overall usability of the a1 II, even if they don’t introduce new performance features or imaging upgrades.

As PetaPixel explained at length in its initial Sony a9 III hands-on and complete review, the a9 III’s shape and feel are fantastic and the a1 II is more of the same there. The original a1 feels good in the hand but holding and using the a1 II is a much better experience.

A big part of that is the upgraded four-axis tilting LCD. The 3.2-type touchscreen is not only slighter higher resolution (2.1 million dots versus 1.44 million dots) but the tilt mechanism is also way better. Borrowed from the a7R V and a9 III, users can tilt the a1 II’s panel in nearly every which way, which is helpful for photography and video applications. The original a1’s touchscreen could only tilt up and slightly down, which was behind the times in 2021 and downright archaic now.

As for the EVF, it is still a 9.44-million dot OLED but whereas the a1’s topped out at 60 frames per second, the a1 II’s gets up to 240 fps. However, this comes with a noticeable resolution loss. A new 120 fps option is also available and essentially flawless. It’s just a smoother, more stable EVF, plus it has an improved eyecup that is more comfortable during extended use.

AI Autofocus Arrives

Much like the a1 II’s handling and operability, which have been updated to keep pace with Sony’s more recent camera bodies, so has the camera’s autofocus system. It is still a 759-point hybrid autofocus system with 92% frame coverage but the autofocus system has been given a jolt of new energy by way of a dedicated artificial intelligence (AI) chip.

This extra processing power comes with expanded autofocus subject detection modes (hello, insects and vehicles) and a new automatic subject detection mode (goodbye, selecting human or animal manually). The a1 II also has improved human pose estimation and better performance. The additional autofocus area settings, including extra small and extra large custom areas, have also made their way to the a1 II from the a9 III.

The original a1 focused quickly, but the a1 II is noticeably better, especially in challenging situations. Specifically, Sony claims an approximate 30% improvement in eye detection for animals and humans and a 50% boost in bird eye detection. Anecdotally, the a1 II’s autofocus performance in high-paced, complex scenarios is noticeably better, although arguably still not quite as fast as the a9 III. Granted, that’s a high bar to clear. The main takeaway here is that the a1 II’s autofocus is better in terms of features, options, and performance, even if the skeleton is identical.

Performance Is a Mix of Familiar and Fresh

The Sony a1 II has the same excellent 50.1-megapixel Exmor RS stacked CMOS image sensor and Bionz XR image processor. The imaging pipeline is unchanged, even if there is some fancy new AI noise reduction (for JPEGs only) and some improved composite RAW features, which still require external Sony software.

So, the image quality is the same, but so is how fast the a1 II shoots. The a1’s 30 frames per second burst rate with an electronic shutter and lossy RAW files was rapid in 2021 and is still quick now, but the a1 II doesn’t bring any additional speed. The a1 was admittedly ahead of its time in this department and the fact it remains unchanged is further evidence of that. For those wanting lossless RAW files, the shooting speed dips down to a still-quick 20 frames per second. Photographers who want to use a mechanical shutter, perhaps to get that impressive 1/400 second flash sync speed, are still limited to 10 frames per second.

However, there is one major tweak to continuous shooting performance: the a1 II introduces Pre-Capture and Speed Boost functionality. The a1 II can now buffer a second’s worth of shooting before the shutter is fully depressed, equal to up to 30 frames. This is great for unpredictable subjects like athletes and wildlife. The a1 has no similar feature, so that’s a significant upgrade for some situations.

As for Speed Boost, there’s a button on the front of the a1 II that, like with the a9 III, enables photographers to either increase or decrease the continuous shooting speed when the button is pressed. For example, suppose a photographer requires 15 frames per second most of the time but may occasionally need 30 frames per second. In that case, they can configure the C5 custom button on the front of the camera to act as a sort of NOS for their camera, increasing the speed to 30 fps only when needed. This is much faster and more useful than adjusting the drive mode in the menu, as it doesn’t require any actual settings changes.

Like the a1, the a1 II still sports a pair of CFexpress Type A card slots, which perform double duty as UHS-II SD slots. The CFexpress standard remains at 3.0, so there are no changes to buffer depth here — save for the addition of the pre-capture buffer.

Another meaningful improvement on offer, though, is the improved in-body image stabilization system. The original a1 topped at out 5.5 stops of correction, while the a1 II can reach 8.5 stops of stabilization in the center of the frame and seven stops around the periphery. It is not a huge jump, but for handheld shooters, every bit counts.

The a1 II’s Video Performance Is Very Similar to the Original a1 With Some Minor Improvements

On the video front, the a1 II brings little new. The camera now has LUT import and monitor LUT support, which is excellent, and AI-based Auto Framing, which is less attractive to professional users thanks to its crop factor. The a1 II also has focus mapping, automatic creation of still images from shot marks, more log shooting settings, a movie self-timer, and expanded focusing options.

More meaningful improvements include the addition of 1/48 and 1/96 second shutter speeds to easily achieve a 180-degree shutter angle and, of course, the a1 II’s video recording modes benefit from the camera’s improved autofocus performance.

That said, the base from which the a1 II works for video is already strong. The camera has 8K/30p (8.6K oversampled) and 4K/60p video in 4:2:2 10-bit with full-width recording. The camera also has faster 4K/120p recording, albeit with a minor 1.1 times crop factor.

The Sony a1 II Versus the Sony a1: Upgrades Range From Minor to Major, Depending on the User

The Sony a1 II is undeniably not the revolution in camera technology that its predecessor was when the a1 hit the scene in early 2021. While the original a1 landed with a bang and transformed the professional imaging landscape, the a1 II arrives with some nice, albeit expected, upgrades and improvements that will move the needle a little for many photographers but a lot for some.

The a1 II’s list of improvements may be limited, but that is less of a knock on the sequel and more of a celebration of the original. The a1 II had a remarkable foundation to work from, and it has, by and large, delivered the necessary improvements.

The improved handling and usability are excellent, making the a1 II Sony’s best-handling, most enjoyable camera to date. Further, autofocus was already superb and now is better. These are significant factors overall.

As for the imaging pipeline staying the same, that’s okay. While the a1 platform has not yet moved to a global shutter, that means the a1 can still deliver fantastic resolution and dynamic range, something the a9 III, as speedy as it is, cannot provide. The “same old sensor” is not exciting in and of itself, but in the a1 II’s case, that’s entirely fine.

Since the sensor and core processor are the same, so too is the camera’s 30 frames per second maximum shooting speed. Adding pre-capture shooting is great and makes it easier for photographers to capture the perfect shot. A faster shooting rate could have helped, too, but the point is that there are still performance improvements, even if they aren’t jaw-dropping.

Ultimately, that sums up the Sony a1 II — it’s a better camera, but its improvements won’t blow many away. The Sony a1 was, for nearly every photographer, Sony’s best overall camera. Now that crown goes to the a1 II, even if it merely shoves the a1 off the top, whereas the a1 arrived on the scene by building an entirely new, taller podium all for itself. The flagship camera space is much more crowded now than in 2021, and the a1 II doesn’t stake the claim as the obvious best choice that its predecessor did three years ago.

Image credits: Sony. Featured image created using an asset licensed via Depositphotos.