Together, Metabones, Sony and Canon hit a grand slam. I put Metabones first because, without MB, Sony and Canon would never get together.
Most have heard by now that Sony’s new α9 (aka a9 or ILCE-9), which has incredible performance with Sony’s native G-Master lenses. The autofocus can latch onto and track a subject forever, while the camera shoots an unheard of 20-frames per second.
As a Canon bird and wildlife shooter, the AF is what first attracted me to the α9. I also like the smaller size than competing Canon DSLRs. The thought of an electronic viewfinder that previews the exposure value of the image while you’re aiming has enticed me for years. In-body image stabilization, which can be used in combination with in-lens stabilization just seems like icing on the cake.
That’s all great and good, BUT Sony only has a handful of lenses designed for the α9 mount and system. The longest is a very sweet 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6. OTOH, Canon has loads of super-telephoto lens, that sport and wildlife photographers cherish and willingly lug around, in order to get tight shots of ballplayers, birds, bees and bears. I couldn’t live without my 500mm f/4, which allows me to shoot at 500mm and 700mm and 1000mm, when I add my 1.4x and 2.0x teleconverters into the mix.
The α9 bug really bit hard and deep when I attended a puffin workshop led by wildlife photographer extraordinaire, Christopher Dodds. Chris is a long-time Canon shooter, in fact, he was a Northern Explorer of Light for Canon, which means that he puts on seminars and demonstrations for Canon, in exchange for most-favored treatment from them. Chris WAS SHOOTING AN α9, with that incredible 100-400mm Sony G-Master lens. What!
As Frank Barron used to say, “Holy Crap!” Chris was shooting puffin flying 50-mph by cliffs, bushes, back-drops of contrasty shoreline, etc., etc. and getting an insane keeper rate. I’m pleased with my shots, with my Canon 5D MkIV and 5DS-R, but I earned every friggin’ one of them. I battled the autofocus as the birds moved from in the water, on the shore, against and bush and then against a cliff, in rapid succession. Others tried Chris’ rig and were having immediate success. I didn’t even try, thinking that if I didn’t experience it, then I wouldn’t be tempted to buy. Wrong!
My last line of defense was that it probably wouldn’t work with my Canon EF lenses. I called one of my local Mike’s Camera stores to see if they had the α9 and an adapter that I could try with my 500mm lens. In fact, Shelly answered the phone and said that he had a personal Metabones adapter and the store sold some other brands. I took my lens to Mike’s for a tryout, with the α9.
First, we tried the α9 with my 500mm lens and a Sigma adapter, which Mike’s sells. Fail! It didn’t even begin to work. Next, we tried Shelly’s personal Version IV Metabones EF-to-E adapter and it seemed to work. He moved around in the store and I tracked him easily. I went and ran an errand for an hour or so, thinking about the potential purchase and Shelly’s offer to let me borrow his personal Metabones adapter. I bit and left the store with my own α9 and Shelly’s adapter.
That afternoon, I rushed out to Cherry Creek Reservoir to try out the rig. My very first series of shots was of a snowy egret doing a pirouette on some rocks, in shallow water. Every image was in sharp focus. Holy Crap! I moved to another place to shoot egrets, herons and gulls in calm water. My excitement totally died when a boat cruised by and I couldn’t get a single shot in focus. Then the AF started hunting in and out, never stopping at the in-focus position. I rebooted the system for 30-seconds and it worked for a minute or so and started hunting again. Fail number 2!
I did some research and found that the firmware had just been updated in June, 2017. A call to Shelly confirmed that his Metabones firmware was out-of-date. I made a quick run back to the store fixed that.
The next morning, I went shooting with a newbie friend at a sure-shot location where I knew that we’d see egrets and other birds. My friend was getting shots right and left, but I didn’t get a single keeper. The AF was too slow to acquire initial focus and it wouldn’t stay locked on. We moved to another location and I had similar problems. The AF system wasn’t as good as my Canon’s. In fact, it was quite a bit worse. Fail number 3.
Luckily, on the day that I brought the α9 home, I’d ordered a Metabones Version V adapter. I had to wait a couple of days. The first evening that I used it I got good, but not great results. My settings were, Autofocus-Continuous (AF-C), Wide Autofocus Area (switching to Single-Point for tight spots) and Face Detection Enabled. Lastly, and probably most importantly, I moved Autofocus Sensitivity from level 3 to level 5.
With the change in sensitivity, the AF system came alive. I could focus close, then move to a faraway target and it’d jump to the new target quickly. The thing that floored me was that I could set the AF to “Wide”, activating all 690+ AF points, acquire focus and the camera stayed locked on as the bird flew and moved around in the wonderful EVF. The subject could move out to the edge of the EVF and still be tack sharp. Holy Crap!
I did one series of 33-images, with an egret flying around a crowd of other egrets. Only one images wasn’t tack sharp. (I look at the eye at 100% and 200% to judge sharpness). Here’s a shot from the tail-end of that burst:
One Out Of 33 by
David Stephens, on Flickr
Here’s a shot from a series of 55-images, were only one was OOF:
One Out Of 55 by
David Stephens, on Flickr
The available AF patterns were:
• “Wide” which used all AF points
• “Flexible Spot” which is single-point that can be steered with joy stick
• “Center” which is fixed box in the center with 9-points
• Missing, due to the adapter, are Flexible Spot – Expanded and Zone.
I didn’t feel constrained.
BTW, the system will even track a flying bird behind cattails and keep the eye in focus behind the cattails. I’ve done that several times and there are examples over on my Flickr Photostream.
Yesterday, I shot for a couple of more hours, with the same setups. All stayed consistent. I have over 2,000-shots and about six-hours of shooting. Here’s my favorite shot from yesterday:
I Am Here! by
David Stephens, on Flickr
BTW, battery life was fine, but I do plan to buy the optional Sony grip, hoping that it’ll help me get more leverage when handholding the big lenses. The small body put more strain on the gripping hand (right), because it’s too small for my hand. This is not an issue with smaller lenses, like a 100-400mm
I just thought that I’d post my findings, since I’m not finding any reviews of the α9, from the perspective of a handheld, bird-in-flight shooter.