The New Sony a1 II Has Better Dynamic Range Than the Original a1

Very shortly after publishing the dynamic range performance for Canon’s latest flagship camera, the EOS R1, the prolific Bill Claff at Photons to Photos added Sony’s new flagship, the a1 II, to his ever-expanding library.

Although the Sony a1 II shares its sensor and imaging pipeline with its predecessor, the new a1 II doesn’t perform the same as the original a1 in terms of dynamic range, neither in terms of the maximum photographic dynamic range (PDR) or the sensor’s behavior as ISO increases.

The a1 II peaks at 11.61 PDR, while the original a1 maxes out at 11.34, 0.27 steps lower. Both cameras, unsurprisingly, deliver their best dynamic range performance at their base ISO of 100.

The reasonable dynamic range improvement is quite interesting in and of itself, but there’s another surprise on offer. Like many cameras, the a1 and a1 II’s dynamic range steadily decrease as ISO increases, until a point where the camera swaps amplification behavior and dynamic range spikes a bit. It’s basically a free boost to dynamic range, although one that sensors can only take advantage of once at a determined ISO. It’s a neat party trick that image sensor and camera engineers get to use to recover dynamic range above base ISO, but it’s a one-and-done, so precisely when this bell gets rung is a crucial decision and one that depends a bit on the sensor itself and the practical use cases for the camera.

In the case of the a1, this spike occurred around ISO 500. With the a1 II, it’s at a slightly higher ISO, around 640. This means the a1 has a much better dynamic range than its successor at ISO 500, a shortfall the a1 II quickly corrects before recovering its dynamic range lead, which it holds throughout the rest of the ISO range. By the way, both the a1 and a1 II include baked-in noise reduction beyond ISO 12,800, which artificially inflates the dynamic range slightly at super-high ISOs.

Overall, the Sony a1 and a1 II are among the best dynamic range performers in the full-frame camera segment. Sony’s best performers, the a7R series cameras, top out at around 11.7 PDR, barely better than the new a1 II. While the a7R IV and V offer more resolution than the a1 and a1 II — 61 megapixels versus 50 — in terms of overall image quality, Sony’s super-fast a1 cameras are not far off the pace. The a1 II really can do it all.

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