The Sony a9 III is Fast, But That Comes at a Noticeable Cost to Image Quality

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The Sony a9 III is Fast, But That Comes at a Noticeable Cost to Image Quality

While PetaPixel is currently deep in its real-world test of the upcoming Sony a9 III (expect that review in the next couple of weeks), Richard Butler from DPReview just published a studio test that highlights a very real issue with the global shutter: noise.

In his initial testing, PetaPixel‘s Jeremy Gray noticed what many have been expecting as a tradeoff for using a global shutter sensor: dynamic range is on the a9 III is worse than other modern full-frame cameras. Sony had told media that the a9 III’s stacked CMOS design would be able to overcome the drawbacks of a global shutter — dynamic range and ISO performance — and up until this point, most have had to take the company at its word since the cameras media had access to weren’t final firmware.

Sony a9 III dynamic range and noise level
RAW image shot at ISO 12,800 and processed to taste.
Sony a9 III dynamic range and noise level
100% RAW image crop
Sony a9 III dynamic range and noise level
100% JPEG crop. The a9 III’s default noise reduction processing applied to JPEG images does significantly heavy lifting. For as noisy as the RAW image is at ISO 12,800, the JPEG file is actually quite impressive. It’s important to note that for the a9 III’s target audience, primarily action and sports photographers, JPEG images straight from the camera are still heavily utilized within professional workflows.

Well, it’s final now, and DPReview‘s studio test highlights that the problem is actually more severe than PetaPixel believed after looking at initial final firmware results where it already looked like quite the compromise.

“The most immediate difference in capability is that the a9 III has a base ISO of 250. This means that you can’t give it as much light as its peers with base ISOs of 100 or lower. This is not necessarily an issue for sports photography, where maintaining a high shutter speed is much more important than the need to optimize image quality by staying at a low ISO,” Butler writes.

Sony a9 III dynamic range and noise level
100% crop from unedited RAW image shot at ISO 51,200, the a9 III’s maximum native ISO
Sony a9 III dynamic range and noise level
100% crop from unedited JPEG image shot at ISO 51,200, the a9 III’s maximum native ISO

“At its launch, Sony told us the a9 III has dynamic range comparable with previous models, and our measurements show that it is comparable with cameras when operating at ISO 250. Notably most other cameras can operate at lower ISOs than this, and hence have a higher maximum dynamic range than the a9 III.”

The issue isn’t that the dynamic range at ISO 250 is bad, it’s that the base ISO — where dynamic range is, of course, at its peak — is higher.

RAW image shot at ISO 250 and processed to taste. This is a particularly challenging scene for any camera, but the a9 III’s dynamic range just doesn’t do a fantastic job maintaining shadow detail and preserving valuable data in the highlights, even at the camera’s base ISO of 250.
RAW image shot at ISO 250 and processed to taste.
100% RAW image crop

In internal discussions earlier this week, Gray mentioned that he felt the dynamic range he was getting out of the a9 III were similar to what he expects from an APS-C camera. Looking at DPReview‘s results, where there is a direct comparison to the Sony a6600, that tracks.

Sony a9 III dynamic range and noise level
RAW image shot at ISO 6,400 and processed to taste.
Sony a9 III dynamic range and noise level
100% RAW image crop
Sony a9 III dynamic range and noise level
RAW image shot at ISO 1,600 and processed to taste. While the a9 III leaves a bit to be desired in terms of dynamic range and high ISO performance, and certainly showcases a bit more noise than contemporary full-frame cameras, the a9 III’s autofocus system, even when shooting at industry-leading shooting speeds, is superb. While the focus of this article is on somewhat disappointing image quality, make no mistake, the a9 III is an extremely competent and impressive camera in many respects.
Sony a9 III dynamic range and noise level
100% RAW image crop

This tradeoff in exchange for the incredible speed and elimination of rolling shutter is still absolutely worth it for sports and action photographers, but DPReview‘s test shows that this camera, which was already going to be a very specialized tool, is even more niche than initially believed.

Image credits: Images and captions by Jeremy Gray.

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