Sony alpha a99 ii

1 The A99 II takes full-frame A-mount lenses, not the E-mount lenses designed for the A7 series. It means Sony is producing two lens ranges, and in two different sensor sizes for each, which makes consumer buying decisions difficult and confusing. 2 It’s upgraded and uprated, but the A99 II is actually 8% smaller than its predecessor. Sony says this has been achieved without compromising its robustness or durability in any way. 3 Inside the body, Sony’s 5-axis sensor-based stabilisation system helps cut shake in both stills and movies — and it’s all the more welcome in a camera with this level of resolving power.

SLT / £3,000 / $3,200 (body only) / sony.com

THESE are exciting times for Sony fans – and confusing, too. Just when we all thought the A7 series was the future, the company drops a bombshell. The a99 II is a throwback to Sony’s early experiments in DSLR alternatives. It’s like a mirrorless camera… but with a mirror. In fact, it’s a fixed, translucent mirror, which passes light through to the sensor at the back, but also feeds a dedicated SLR-style phase detection autofocus sensor in the base of the pentaprism housing. It doesn’t actually have a pentaprism, though. Instead, it uses an electronic viewfinder fed by the main sensor.

The aim of the SLT (single lens translucent) design is to combine the autofocus speed of a SLR with the always-on electronic live view of a mirrorless. Sony has insisted more than once that the Alpha format is alive and kicking, despite the development of the A7 series, and here’s the proof. The a99 II has the second-highest resolution of any full-frame camera at 42.4 megapixels, and can shoot at this resolution at up to 12fps. So it’s within a whisker of Nikon D5 and Canon EOS-1D X II speeds, but with double the resolution.

There are some caveats. It doesn’t have the buffer capacity of these cameras, though it can still capture around 50 RAW+JPEG images. And AE/AF tracking in the 12fps H+ modes does need compatible lenses. It’s also possible to shoot in live view at 8fps (H mode).

So far it sounds as if this should all have been technically possible with the Sony A7R II as a platform, but the a99 II has a second major selling point: a brand new 79-point/399-point hybrid phase detection AF system that’s only possible with the Alpha SLT design.

The 79 points are provided by the dedicated phase detection sensor above the mirror and are arranged in a typical SLR distribution around the centre of the frame. The further 399 points are on-sensor phase detection points arranged in a rectangular area over a much larger area of the screen.

These two systems work together, depending on the autofocus mode you select. Fifteen of the 79 AF points on the dedicated AF sensor are cross-type, b