A9iii - suitability for task?

[MattPointZero]

I am doing all this with my A9 III. I got it for our portrait business for shooting out in the sun as we shoot beach portraits for a living and beach weddings everything out doors.

First off the DR limitations are over rated I am not seeing any problems at all on this.

Also you can shoot at lower iso then 250 I have shot at 125 with no problem at all.

I only use one Godox AD200 flash on our jobs and now with the A9 III I have had to turn the flash power down so much it's amazing.
I am using less flash power now then I ever have in over 25 years of doing this. Most of the time i am in the 1/64 flash output range now vs 1/2 to full at times before out in the sun.

Before the A9 III I would be at F8 to F11 when we start our session one hour before sunset as it is still very bright out on the beach. Now I am at a F4 to 5.6 or even F 2.8 based on the group size cutting my flash output that is needed by a lot so instant flash recycle times. On smaller groups like two people or one I can shoot at F 1.4 or 1.8 now with flash at super low flash settings. Even at the lowest setting I may have to now move the flash more far away as its still to bright when at F 1.4

It is taking me some time to get to this as I keep needing to lower the flash output and the changes are more smaller now. It's amazing what I can do now knocking down the sun and getting a much deeper color in the sky and water on the beach. I have 5 jobs in the next 6 days I will be doing this on as we move into our session.

Even as it gets darker out being able to use the higher shutter speeds is a joy to use I just need to keep change settings and lowering the flash even more. I shoot all manual flash off camera.

I am using a 85mm 1.4 lens now as I can for the first time now with the A9 III outdoors like this with flash. I shoot fast on jobs so a Flash HSS setting I could never use in the past as the recycle times could not keep up.

I just got in some new filters to put on my flash as the flash tends to get a more blur color I see more of now shooting at the higher shutter speeds. So I will be using a mild orange Gell starting today. I have done this many times in the past to give skin tones a better look. It changes a bit at different times of the year for this here..

Then the other side of it is shooting natural light and no ND filter needed wide open.

Here is two from yesterday at 85mm at F 1.4 no ND needed, When its super bright you can only go to F1.8 and it is limited to hitting the much higher shutter speed to F1.8 but when not to bad out as for brightness you can hit the F1.4 or a F1.2. Or you can shoot at F1.4 and be over exposed some and shooting raw pull it back done that works to or change the iso from the base 250 down to 125. I have yet to see any difference in the image quality from 250 to 125 doing this.

I do have another Godox on camera manual flash I am thinking now I could start using it in place of the AD200 as I need so much less flash power now and run it off camera on a stand. But I still need to bring the off camera stand so bringing the AD200 is not that much more to bring vs the smaller flash.

I will have a video out on the Samyang 85mm 1.4 VS the Viltrox 75mm 1.2 in a day or so from this shoot as I shot them both by side to compare cropped a6700 VS full frame A9 III for background bokeh look.

Here is two natural shot light at F1.4 no ND filter and one from a small beach wedding from a few days ago with flash at F2.5.

The info may say A9II as I change the camera name to A9II from 3 so I can edit the raw files in DXO Photolab. This works so I can edit them till they get full raw support out for it.

More great user experience, thank you, nice shots. Great to hear the DR issues are as overblown (no pun intended) as I am reading in other reports!

there is very limited DR in the posted images.

this is when you need class leading DR no fill flash. fill just ruines the look.

this is an example of how much fill should be used shooting with miday sun behind the subject. very little , and from memory its a godox 685 shooting through a 900mm umbrella. the images have to look natural. fill flash is to fill the shadows not create new ones.

another example of fill flash. the images are to look natural and just fill/add some highlight to the subject, not over power the scene.

That's quite prescriptive - your shots are balanced very nicely, but that's not the same as 'this is how this has to be done in every situation' as there is a lot more artistic choice and variation. For natural wedding and event shots where you want the flash to be invisible, I agree - but that's not the only stylistic option of course

 

[Jeff2013]

I am doing all this with my A9 III. I got it for our portrait business for shooting out in the sun as we shoot beach portraits for a living and beach weddings everything out doors.

First off the DR limitations are over rated I am not seeing any problems at all on this.

Also you can shoot at lower iso then 250 I have shot at 125 with no problem at all.

I only use one Godox AD200 flash on our jobs and now with the A9 III I have had to turn the flash power down so much it's amazing.
I am using less flash power now then I ever have in over 25 years of doing this. Most of the time i am in the 1/64 flash output range now vs 1/2 to full at times before out in the sun.

Before the A9 III I would be at F8 to F11 when we start our session one hour before sunset as it is still very bright out on the beach. Now I am at a F4 to 5.6 or even F 2.8 based on the group size cutting my flash output that is needed by a lot so instant flash recycle times. On smaller groups like two people or one I can shoot at F 1.4 or 1.8 now with flash at super low flash settings. Even at the lowest setting I may have to now move the flash more far away as its still to bright when at F 1.4

It is taking me some time to get to this as I keep needing to lower the flash output and the changes are more smaller now. It's amazing what I can do now knocking down the sun and getting a much deeper color in the sky and water on the beach. I have 5 jobs in the next 6 days I will be doing this on as we move into our session.

Even as it gets darker out being able to use the higher shutter speeds is a joy to use I just need to keep change settings and lowering the flash even more. I shoot all manual flash off camera.

I am using a 85mm 1.4 lens now as I can for the first time now with the A9 III outdoors like this with flash. I shoot fast on jobs so a Flash HSS setting I could never use in the past as the recycle times could not keep up.

I just got in some new filters to put on my flash as the flash tends to get a more blur color I see more of now shooting at the higher shutter speeds. So I will be using a mild orange Gell starting today. I have done this many times in the past to give skin tones a better look. It changes a bit at different times of the year for this here..

Then the other side of it is shooting natural light and no ND filter needed wide open.

Here is two from yesterday at 85mm at F 1.4 no ND needed, When its super bright you can only go to F1.8 and it is limited to hitting the much higher shutter speed to F1.8 but when not to bad out as for brightness you can hit the F1.4 or a F1.2. Or you can shoot at F1.4 and be over exposed some and shooting raw pull it back done that works to or change the iso from the base 250 down to 125. I have yet to see any difference in the image quality from 250 to 125 doing this.

I do have another Godox on camera manual flash I am thinking now I could start using it in place of the AD200 as I need so much less flash power now and run it off camera on a stand. But I still need to bring the off camera stand so bringing the AD200 is not that much more to bring vs the smaller flash.

I will have a video out on the Samyang 85mm 1.4 VS the Viltrox 75mm 1.2 in a day or so from this shoot as I shot them both by side to compare cropped a6700 VS full frame A9 III for background bokeh look.

Here is two natural shot light at F1.4 no ND filter and one from a small beach wedding from a few days ago with flash at F2.5.

The info may say A9II as I change the camera name to A9II from 3 so I can edit the raw files in DXO Photolab. This works so I can edit them till they get full raw support out for it.

Darn you! I had originally dismissed this camera due to DR, and ISO 250. I regularly shoot outdoors with the A1/GM 50mm f1.2/AD 300 or 600, along with fumbling between 3 and 6 stop ND filters. Now, you have me longing for an A9III.

--
Jeff
Florida, USA

Jeff Titterington Photography

 

[A74Me]

I am doing all this with my A9 III. I got it for our portrait business for shooting out in the sun as we shoot beach portraits for a living and beach weddings everything out doors.

First off the DR limitations are over rated I am not seeing any problems at all on this.

Also you can shoot at lower iso then 250 I have shot at 125 with no problem at all.

I only use one Godox AD200 flash on our jobs and now with the A9 III I have had to turn the flash power down so much it's amazing.
I am using less flash power now then I ever have in over 25 years of doing this. Most of the time i am in the 1/64 flash output range now vs 1/2 to full at times before out in the sun.

Before the A9 III I would be at F8 to F11 when we start our session one hour before sunset as it is still very bright out on the beach. Now I am at a F4 to 5.6 or even F 2.8 based on the group size cutting my flash output that is needed by a lot so instant flash recycle times. On smaller groups like two people or one I can shoot at F 1.4 or 1.8 now with flash at super low flash settings. Even at the lowest setting I may have to now move the flash more far away as its still to bright when at F 1.4

It is taking me some time to get to this as I keep needing to lower the flash output and the changes are more smaller now. It's amazing what I can do now knocking down the sun and getting a much deeper color in the sky and water on the beach. I have 5 jobs in the next 6 days I will be doing this on as we move into our session.

Even as it gets darker out being able to use the higher shutter speeds is a joy to use I just need to keep change settings and lowering the flash even more. I shoot all manual flash off camera.

I am using a 85mm 1.4 lens now as I can for the first time now with the A9 III outdoors like this with flash. I shoot fast on jobs so a Flash HSS setting I could never use in the past as the recycle times could not keep up.

I just got in some new filters to put on my flash as the flash tends to get a more blur color I see more of now shooting at the higher shutter speeds. So I will be using a mild orange Gell starting today. I have done this many times in the past to give skin tones a better look. It changes a bit at different times of the year for this here..

Then the other side of it is shooting natural light and no ND filter needed wide open.

Here is two from yesterday at 85mm at F 1.4 no ND needed, When its super bright you can only go to F1.8 and it is limited to hitting the much higher shutter speed to F1.8 but when not to bad out as for brightness you can hit the F1.4 or a F1.2. Or you can shoot at F1.4 and be over exposed some and shooting raw pull it back done that works to or change the iso from the base 250 down to 125. I have yet to see any difference in the image quality from 250 to 125 doing this.

I do have another Godox on camera manual flash I am thinking now I could start using it in place of the AD200 as I need so much less flash power now and run it off camera on a stand. But I still need to bring the off camera stand so bringing the AD200 is not that much more to bring vs the smaller flash.

I will have a video out on the Samyang 85mm 1.4 VS the Viltrox 75mm 1.2 in a day or so from this shoot as I shot them both by side to compare cropped a6700 VS full frame A9 III for background bokeh look.

Here is two natural shot light at F1.4 no ND filter and one from a small beach wedding from a few days ago with flash at F2.5.

The info may say A9II as I change the camera name to A9II from 3 so I can edit the raw files in DXO Photolab. This works so I can edit them till they get full raw support out for it.

More great user experience, thank you, nice shots. Great to hear the DR issues are as overblown (no pun intended) as I am reading in other reports!

there is very limited DR in the posted images.

this is when you need class leading DR no fill flash. fill just ruines the look.

this is an example of how much fill should be used shooting with miday sun behind the subject. very little , and from memory its a godox 685 shooting through a 900mm umbrella. the images have to look natural. fill flash is to fill the shadows not create new ones.

another example of fill flash. the images are to look natural and just fill/add some highlight to the subject, not over power the scene.

That's quite prescriptive - your shots are balanced very nicely, but that's not the same as 'this is how this has to be done in every situation' as there is a lot more artistic choice and variation. For natural wedding and event shots where you want the flash to be invisible, I agree - but that's not the only stylistic option of course

totally agree. i like hash lighting as well.

 

[goactive]

The first image to me I would call way blown out as you have nothing left in the background its all white no sky left that is not natural the sky never looks like that in real life. You dont need any flash to get that kind of shot.
When printed you will have just plan white photo paper with nothing on it no color no details.
Out side your eyes never see the background sky as pure white so that is not natural at all. That is a very over exposed background.
I dont shoot like that for portraits. Maybe at times at a wedding shooting natural light for some of the wedding shots for the service but not the portraits that we can control the exposure on using flash when needed. We dont always use flash we do shoot a lot natural light when the light is good for that.
But on the beach when I can pick blowing out the background or keeping the background exposure I will use flash and keep it so it looks like what you see standing there. That is what photography is all about getting the better exposure and that includes keeping the background exposure as good was you can. If you dont what do you tell your customer when they ask why is the background all blow out?
Like on the beach other photographers blow it out so bad you have no sky left and parts of the white beach are all gone pure white and even the water is blow one and washed out of colors.
On the same day and beach only feet away from us we shoot and you see the sky and beach and water with good colors in them. In some main beach areas you will see 10 to 20 other photographers all shooting the same area. Most are all shooting natural light only.
We also get paid more and book up faster. We have half of our full year all ready booked up. We are at 62 booked jobs right now - We average 120 jobs a year. My wife has been on the phone all day talking with new customers and we expect to book 3 more today as we ar just moving into the season now. We have been giving jobs away to another photographer all ready as many dates we are all ready book for.

Your other two photos look good but are not on the beach in the sun we deal with. It is much more easy to shoot not on the beach as you have a better background behind you and less harsh wind and sun to deal with and not the direct blasting sun we deal with on every job. No shade on the beach.

Like this. I would love to be about to shoot in places like this all the time as it is 100% more easy. But we work on the beach the most this is our 25th year.

Next 2 are from yesterday on the beach with the A9 III. it was set for today but we had to move it as today is super windy today and should rain. Yesterday it was also windy but not as much as today and we had some cloud cover.
I am still getting use to editing the Sony files as they are different from my Nikon files the color and the flash setting with the A9 III are so different now.
I could have shot this natural light but I would have the bad blown out background and that is not what we offer to our customers.
Other photographers in my area do this calling themself natural light shooters. We have customers telling us all the time they hired us as they do not like the blown out look as that is not what the beach looks like- It never dose. No such thing as a pure white sky.
A natural light shooter can not shoot into the sunset and get good exposed images.
The brighter the sun background is the more flash you need to fill in to get a good exposure. But now with the A9 III I can do this more easy now with less flash power somewhat - as I still need to keep the F stop up to keep teh groups in focus good.

For excample at f2.8 the person in the second row or behind the front person will be out of focus at F 2.8 so we need to be at F3.5 to F4 then for large groups be at f4 to 5.6 or based on how far back I am that opens up more in focus space.

I used a Samyoung 85mm 1.4 yesterday but never shot at 1.4 due to the small DOF as we shot most groups and at F1.4 half the people would be out of focus. 1.4 is only good for shooting one person or two people in very tight to Get their faces in focus. Good for a high school senior shoot not family portraits. Even at 85mm back its a problem for focus DOF.

I will use the Tamron 28-75 2.8 lens on the A9 III on tomorrow's family session on the beach. Shooting on the beach every day is different and as you shoot it changes. You can start out in good weather bright and sunny and have to run off the beach as rain moved in fast by the end of the session. And it changes the exposure as every cloud moves by. You can go from F4 to F11 in seconds on the beach due to cloud movement with flash in the past but now with the A9 III I can stay at F4 and just change the shutter speed settings in camera. I would say on every session the outside background exposure changes every 30 to 60 seconds as the sun is setting and clouds are moving in and out.

I am doing all this with my A9 III. I got it for our portrait business for shooting out in the sun as we shoot beach portraits for a living and beach weddings everything out doors.

First off the DR limitations are over rated I am not seeing any problems at all on this.

Also you can shoot at lower iso then 250 I have shot at 125 with no problem at all.

I only use one Godox AD200 flash on our jobs and now with the A9 III I have had to turn the flash power down so much it's amazing.
I am using less flash power now then I ever have in over 25 years of doing this. Most of the time i am in the 1/64 flash output range now vs 1/2 to full at times before out in the sun.

Before the A9 III I would be at F8 to F11 when we start our session one hour before sunset as it is still very bright out on the beach. Now I am at a F4 to 5.6 or even F 2.8 based on the group size cutting my flash output that is needed by a lot so instant flash recycle times. On smaller groups like two people or one I can shoot at F 1.4 or 1.8 now with flash at super low flash settings. Even at the lowest setting I may have to now move the flash more far away as its still to bright when at F 1.4

It is taking me some time to get to this as I keep needing to lower the flash output and the changes are more smaller now. It's amazing what I can do now knocking down the sun and getting a much deeper color in the sky and water on the beach. I have 5 jobs in the next 6 days I will be doing this on as we move into our session.

Even as it gets darker out being able to use the higher shutter speeds is a joy to use I just need to keep change settings and lowering the flash even more. I shoot all manual flash off camera.

I am using a 85mm 1.4 lens now as I can for the first time now with the A9 III outdoors like this with flash. I shoot fast on jobs so a Flash HSS setting I could never use in the past as the recycle times could not keep up.

I just got in some new filters to put on my flash as the flash tends to get a more blur color I see more of now shooting at the higher shutter speeds. So I will be using a mild orange Gell starting today. I have done this many times in the past to give skin tones a better look. It changes a bit at different times of the year for this here..

Then the other side of it is shooting natural light and no ND filter needed wide open.

Here is two from yesterday at 85mm at F 1.4 no ND needed, When its super bright you can only go to F1.8 and it is limited to hitting the much higher shutter speed to F1.8 but when not to bad out as for brightness you can hit the F1.4 or a F1.2. Or you can shoot at F1.4 and be over exposed some and shooting raw pull it back done that works to or change the iso from the base 250 down to 125. I have yet to see any difference in the image quality from 250 to 125 doing this.

I do have another Godox on camera manual flash I am thinking now I could start using it in place of the AD200 as I need so much less flash power now and run it off camera on a stand. But I still need to bring the off camera stand so bringing the AD200 is not that much more to bring vs the smaller flash.

I will have a video out on the Samyang 85mm 1.4 VS the Viltrox 75mm 1.2 in a day or so from this shoot as I shot them both by side to compare cropped a6700 VS full frame A9 III for background bokeh look.

Here is two natural shot light at F1.4 no ND filter and one from a small beach wedding from a few days ago with flash at F2.5.

The info may say A9II as I change the camera name to A9II from 3 so I can edit the raw files in DXO Photolab. This works so I can edit them till they get full raw support out for it.

More great user experience, thank you, nice shots. Great to hear the DR issues are as overblown (no pun intended) as I am reading in other reports!

there is very limited DR in the posted images.

this is when you need class leading DR no fill flash. fill just ruines the look.

this is an example of how much fill should be used shooting with miday sun behind the subject. very little , and from memory its a godox 685 shooting through a 900mm umbrella. the images have to look natural. fill flash is to fill the shadows not create new ones.

another example of fill flash. the images are to look natural and just fill/add some highlight to the subject, not over power the scene.

--
Started shooting digital back with the first 2MP cameras. Over 20 cameras later still going. I shoot for a living - family and people portraits, weddings, Sports and a little of everything.

 

[A74Me]

the young lady guitar player image was shot for an advertizing cover so will be filled with writing and gig details, the shoot was extremely well organized for that r

why i love the a7iv over every other camera. shoot these all day basically straight from camera, couldnt image going back to the dinamic range of my past em12 cameras.

 

[goactive]

I guess I dont get what you are saying about dinamic range.
What about that photo shows great DR that you could not have shot with many other older cameras over the years.

I think this a very good DR here from a camera from 2008

the young lady guitar player image was shot for an advertizing cover so will be filled with writing and gig details, the shoot was extremely well organized for that r

why i love the a7iv over every other camera. shoot these all day basically straight from camera, couldnt image going back to the dinamic range of my past em12 cameras.

--
Started shooting digital back with the first 2MP cameras. Over 20 cameras later still going. I shoot for a living - family and people portraits, weddings, Sports and a little of everything.

 

[A74Me]

I will just leave it at, you and I have a different view on what high DR is.

look at the beautiful tone rendering even in the shadow falloff. cameras with poor DR have "blocky" colours and shadows.

 

[goactive]

Still dont get it as what cameras are you talking about with poor DR?. Nothing special about that photo as far as DR we could not do 20 Years ago.

Here are some very old studio shot images.

I think this was the Canon 20D I shot this with 20 years ago.

Small sized images from back then no DR problem.

I will just leave it at, you and I have a different view on what high DR is.

look at the beautiful tone rendering even in the shadow falloff. cameras with poor DR have "blocky" colours and shadows.

--
Started shooting digital back with the first 2MP cameras. Over 20 cameras later still going. I shoot for a living - family and people portraits, weddings, Sports and a little of everything.

 

[A74Me]

Still dont get it as what cameras are you talking about with poor DR?. Nothing special about that photo as far as DR we could not do 20 Years ago.

Here are some very old studio shot images.

I think this was the Canon 20D I shot this with 20 years ago.

Small sized images from back then no DR problem.

I will just leave it at, you and I have a different view on what high DR is.

look at the beautiful tone rendering even in the shadow falloff. cameras with poor DR have "blocky" colours and shadows.

your images have main + fill. my image is main light only.

 

[goactive]

So what has nothing to do with DR.

Still dont get it as what cameras are you talking about with poor DR?. Nothing special about that photo as far as DR we could not do 20 Years ago.

Here are some very old studio shot images.

I think this was the Canon 20D I shot this with 20 years ago.

Small sized images from back then no DR problem.

I will just leave it at, you and I have a different view on what high DR is.

look at the beautiful tone rendering even in the shadow falloff. cameras with poor DR have "blocky" colours and shadows.

your images have main + fill. my image is main light only.

--
Started shooting digital back with the first 2MP cameras. Over 20 cameras later still going. I shoot for a living - family and people portraits, weddings, Sports and a little of everything.