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Sony a99 II – New Flagship DSLR with Internal 4K Video and 42MP Sensor

September 19^th, 2016

Sony a99 II - New Flagship DSLR with Internal 4K Video and 42MP Sensor

by Olaf von VossSeptember 19^th, 2016

The announcement of the Sony a99 II makes it the Japanese manufacturer’s new flagship DSLR camera. It features all the good stuff from the original a99 such as the translucent mirror technology (TMT), but raises the bar with new and improved autofocus capabilities, a newly designed 42MP sensor as well as internal 4K UHD video in XAVC-S format.

Our Facebook Live Stream from the Sony press conference at Photokina:

The Sony a99 II – features at a glance:

Internal 4K UHD recording to APS-C format with full pixel readout, no pixel binning
4K UHD recording in full frame mode without cropping
XAVC-S format with up to 100 Mbits for 4K resolutions
New ‘Slow and Quick’ mode: 1 fps to 120 fps (100fps in PAL countries)
Video features: picture profiles, TC, clean 4:2:2 HDMI out, S-Log2 & S-Log3 with monitor LUT, zebras
5-axis SteadyShot
3-axis tiltable LCD screen

The Sony a99 II at Photokina 2016

And since it’s a DSLR camera, here are the features for still photography:

42.4 megapixel full frame 35mm Exmor R CMOS sensor
Hybrid Phase Detection AF system
79-point dedicated phase detection AF sensor
399 focal plane phase detection AF points
up to 12fps continuously
Translucent Mirror Technology, meaning no moving mirror
5-axis SteadyShot (same as in the a7R II)

The Sony a99 II records 4K video in APS-C (S35) format. Oversampling collects approx. 1.8 times as much information as needed for 4K movie output, creating a very clean and detailed image with no pixel binning involved. There is also another mode in which the camera uses the full frame sensor for recording video without cropping.

4K UHD recording in APS-C mode

Also, the LCD screen on the back is tiltable in 3 axis, which is a nice feature especially in DSLR style cameras. On top of that, the camera has a dual card slot built-in, an XGA OLED viewfinder with 0.78x maginification, an assignable front multi-controller and improved menus in terms of both readability as well as usability.

Pricing and availability

The camera is scheduled for November 2016 and will be approximately € 3,600 for the EU market (around $3,199 for the US, C$3,999 for Canada) for the body only.