Sony Alpha 1 II Camera Debuts with Advanced AI, 8 5-Stop Stabilization, and Improved Video

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Mar 20, 2025 at 2:10 PM

Once you have done that, it will ask you to pair a new remote with the camera or select a list of remotes you have already paired with the a1 II. Talk about upping the quality of those work Zoom calls! You know you are good to go if you don’t see the “Dancing Ants” or Zebra lights flashing on any part of your frame. Because it is harder to recover blown-out highlights with video, Zebra can be a helpful tool. Your three options are Auto, Mechanical Shutter, or Electronic Shutter.

How the AI AF Subject Recognition System Works (New with the Sony a1 II)

Network StreamingNew to the a1 II is the ability to stream using the network/internet, although you must have your camera set up with Sony’s Creator App on your Android or Apple device. A lesser-known feature of the latest Sony mirrorless cameras is that they can easily be used as a webcam. Just so you know, this will only be viewable inside the camera in the Playback mode. This will keep the images you flagged as “Protected” and remove everything else from that burst.

It is important to note that in this mode, the a1 II is taking all of the images for your timelapse, but is not actually putting the timelapse movie together for you. Look for “Bracket Settings,” where you will find both the “Bracket Type” and the “Focus Bracket settings” menu items. This setting will apply to all bracketed features on the a1 II (exposure, white balance, and focus). In these situations, I will apply different shutter speeds and ISOs, select different AF areas, FPS, and use animal Eye AF settings for example.

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Nearly every button and menu on your a1 can and should be customized. Don’t like what a button does on the back of the camera, reassign it. Did you know you can customize nearly every button and dial on the camera, let alone the Fn and My Menus systems too? You will see a small tracking box appear, and it should follow your subject around the frame as it moves.

The three main ways you can customize your a1 II are through the custom buttons/dials, the Fn Menu, or the My Menu option. One of the best things you can do to get the most out of your Sony a1 II is to customize your camera fully. Lastly, if Touch Focus Tracking is turned on for your a1 II (See Touch Focus section), you can tap on your subject via the rear LCD screen to begin tracking your subject using the AF system. You CAN NOT use both stabilization and AF tracking at the same time. This highly requested feature is finally here, and it works very well with the a1 II. Auto Framing – Turning the feature On or Off.Framing Oper.

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Using the Camera as a Webcam (New to the Sony A1 II)

This can be done when post-processing if you are shooting in RAW, but doing it in camera means one less thing to worry about. One of the first settings I personally like to turn off is the “Long Exposure Noise Reduction”. We have many more settings to adjust, configure, and learn about! I highly recommend you connect your smartphone to the app as it will help you easily set up a few settings via your phone.

Luckily for you, the only setting you need to turn on is “SteadyShot.” However, like the MF switch on many Sony lenses, you can also find a SteadyShot switch. You will select the “Anti-dust Function” option there before turning on the “Shutter When Pwr OFF” setting. One of the best ways to protect the sensor of your mirrorless camera from getting dust, dirt, or rain on it when changing a lens in the field is by having the Sony a1 II’s shutter close when the camera is off. With “Remain Shoot Display,” a bar will appear on the left side of your frame that indicates your image buffer. A helpful tool with the Sony a1 II, especially now that it has Pre-Capture is the ability to see how many images you have left in your image buffer. Because the display is digital, a higher frame rate means you see more frames per second as the subject moves across your screen.

Tips & Tricks for Setting Up Your Sony a7R IV

With the S&Q mode, the video file that gets created is already set in slow motion, so there is no extra work to do. In the regular video mode, you can shoot a video with a high FPS (such as 60p or 120p) and then slow down that footage once you return to your computer using video editing software. S&Q stands for “Slow & Quick,” which accurately represents this video mode found in all Sony mirrorless cameras. Now that you have chosen the resolution for your video, it is time to pick the video frame rate. Otherwise, you will be taken to the photo version of these settings.

Not only are you able to choose Auto, Human, Animal/Bird, Animal, Bird, Insect, Car/Train, or Airplane…but you can fine-tune the AF settings of each of those subjects individually. You can use it to navigate the camera’s menu system and pinch and zoom in on an image you have taken to check for focus. Once you choose to take an image by fully pressing the shutter release button, the camera will also officially store all of the photos in the “Pre-Capture” image buffer. So, if you are shooting at 10fps and suddenly want to shoot at 30FPS for a specific scene, you can press and hold the button inside the camera’s grip to shift it to 30fps. With the Sony a1 II you can customize the different FPS shooting modes on the camera to suit your needs as a photographer.

The Physical AF Mode Dial

While Sony prides itself on its smaller and portable (but extremely powerful) mirrorless cameras, there are times when a vertical battery grip can make a big difference. While you can look to some more affordable 3rd party battery options, I don’t recommend them as you never know if they were built to the exact specifications that Sony lays out for its cameras. While customizing a camera is a very personal thing, I do understand just how time-consuming it can be.

S&Q Record Settings – Depending on the choices for the previous two settings, you will now have to choose the Bit Rate, quality, and color depth of the video, such as “50M. These settings are in the “Shooting” menu under “Image Quality/Rec.” and “Movie Settings. These settings are in the “Shooting” menu under “Image Quality/Rec. All of these settings can be found in the “Focus” menu under “Subject Recognition.”

  • Either way, it is nice that Sony has this feature built into their latest cameras.
  • Many wildlife photographers, especially my bird-focused photographers, can only live with a flexible gimbal head.
  • This powerful combination ensures that every shot, regardless of lighting conditions, captures the moment with vivid precision and life-like quality.
  • If you choose 60p here, it will be 2x slower (60/24) than a video at normal speed.

Closing The Shutter When The Camera Is Turned Off

It works best when the camera is mounted to a tripod, but the subject of the video moves throughout the initial composition. Auto FramingThis feature automatically crops and recomposes your video to track recognized subjects. It was designed to be used when the camera moves along with the subject, such as following along with an animal as it moves through your frame. It uses AI-based subject recognition and the Dynamic Active Steadyshot mode to keep the subject in frame. While video stabilization is not new to the a1 series of cameras, the “Dynamic active” mode is a welcome addition. When turned on, it allows you to have a color overlay on top of the video to get a real-time idea of what is in and out of focus.

Adjusting Image Quality Settings (for JPEG & RAW)

Like all digital mirrorless cameras, the Sony a1 II, if used extensively (or left on), will drain its battery reasonably quickly compared to the older DSLRs. You can see how I customize my camera and why I made those choices there. That is why I have written a second blog post, Customizing Your Sony a1 II, which solely focuses on how I have personally customized my Sony a1 IIs (I own two of them).

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  • To help preserve some of your battery life, you can turn on Airplane mode so that no wifi or Bluetooth features are used when you don’t want them to.
  • These settings are in the “Shooting” menu under “Image Quality/Rec.” and “Movie Settings.
  • To prevent this from happening, the camera will automatically increase the ISO of your image to counter and maintain the minimum shutter speed that was set.

With it turned on, when you are in the manual focusing mode, color pixels will appear where the camera believes you are close to being in focus. This setting will artificially pull up an image’s shadow exposure/details. One of the last settings that I want to turn off with the Sony a1 II is the D-Range Optimizer, otherwise known as own as DRO. If the shutter speed drops too low, it can cause your photos to look blurry and out of focus because of the photographer’s and subject’s natural movement. In this situation, you will want to set a minimum shutter speed so the camera doesn’t drop below a set speed. While you can jump into the Sony a1 II’s BULB mode by scrolling past a 30-second exposure in Manual mode, you cannot control how long the shutter stays open outside of pressing the shutter button again or using a remote.

One way to help protect your camera from theft (or, at the very least, help you track it down if it was stolen) is to embed your Sony a1 II’s serial number into every photo and video it creates. You can add the Photographer and Copyright holder to any images you create here. You are in the right place if you want to have your copyright information embedded into your images. One thing you want to make sure to change is the “Auto Switch Media Card” setting. Next up to turn off is the High ISO Noise Reduction setting for the same reasons mentioned above under the “Long Exposure Noise Reduction” setting. If you are new to post-processing, you might want to leave this setting on, but I recommend you turn it off for almost everyone else.

Choosing How Images & Video Are Recorded On Your Memory Cards

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The catch is that you need to use a tripod and  Sony’s software on your computer vegas casino download to combine the sets of images. As a landscape photographer, you might want to shoot exposure brackets to create HDR-like images. Additionally, you can ask the camera to take a series of images after a small delay. If you find yourself wanting to use the “Self-Timer” mode on the a1 II to give yourself time to get into the frame, this section is for you.

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