Thom's take on the A1

Serjojeee wrote:

Matsu wrote:

It has become something of a trend that new camera reveals feature many footnotes to the claimed specs.
The most interesting spec to me is not electronic at all, but Sony’s new mechanical shutter which is good for 10 FPS and 1/400s. If there are no further footnotes hidden that’s a meaningful development. 2/3rds to 1 full stop better ambient killing power than most shutters are rated for. Speedlight users take note - your flash are suddenly twice as big, if they can deliver their full power in less than 1/400th.

The problem is that you mostly need that 1/400 at full power of the flash. And mostly strobes T 0.1 at full power is in 1/250 region. And when I used radio sync with my Godox and Nikon custom 1/320 flash sync I see the shade of the shutter blade clearly, cropping 5-10% of the image. I hope strobes manufacturers will bring faster T 0.1 time bulbs but I doubt that. Maybe some new sync modes might help, helping to reduce trigger lag, basically sending the order to trigger the flash earlier that the shutter is opened at user specified time gap. But in general 1/400 is a big deal IMO. A whole stop more power than Nikon's 1/200. Enabling to shoot at noon at F5.6, or maybe even F4 (with ISO 64).

That’s extremely useful for anyone whose had to shoot mid day events or have no choice but to work against harsher sun.
It’s kinda interesting because that’s some mechanical engineering effort to improve the focal plane shutter in a time when pundits keep anticipating global electronic shutters. At this point Sony has some significant sensor design knowledge. Me thinks they know that perhaps global electronic shutters are a lot farther off than many would hope.

That 1/400 works only from the hot shoe. Not on remote flashes nor the x-sync port