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Sony livestreams the launch of the Sony Alpha A1, and we were there

We report live from Sony's big reveal on YouTube, and you can watch it with us right here!

Sony's mystery announcement took place live at 10:00 EST / 15:00 EST, January 26, but you can still watch the video below.

Watch the live Sony Alpha A1 announcement

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The excitement is building. Sony has been teasing the camera with the tagline, "the one never seen", leading to lots of speculation as to what might be announced. Will it be a brand new Sony A1 (literally 'the (A)1 never seen') or a successor to the Sony A9 II? The most outlandish suggestion yet is a camera with a curved full-frame image sensor, or perhaps even a medium format camera. Not long now...

Read more

Sony considering f/1.2 lenses that are "relatively compact and affordable"

With just moments to go before Sony's live event starts, we hear that rumor site Nokishita just posted that it is indeed the Sony A1 (ILCE-1) we will see. 

"You long to create something you haven't yet seen.

Here's the buildup – Sony's history of innovation and the cameras it has made.

"The One. Unprecedented resolution and speed."

It's the Alpha A1! It looks a lot like the Sony A9 body...

50MP resolution and 30fps shooting! Exmor RS stacked image sensor and BIONZ XR. A full frame stacked back-illuminated sensor.

15 stops of dynamic range from shadows to highlights.

AF and AE adjustments 120 times per second, even during 30fps shooting at full resolution.

Blackout free shooting, like the A9, for seamless viewing in continuous shooting. Highest res OLED in its class with up to 240fps refresh rate.

Non vibrating electronic shutter for silent shooting. Readout 1.5x faster than A9 II, helping to address the distortion that electronic shutters can introduce.

A new shutter design allows 1/400sec flash sync speed for full frame shots, 1/500sec in APS-C crop mode.

Real-time Eye AF for birds for the first time.

AF tracking down to f/22 in continuous shooting. 

759 AF points covering 93% of the image area.

New movie functions: 8K video at 30fps with 8.6K oversampling. 4K 120p, with 5.8K oversampling in Super35 crop mode.

10-bit S-Log 3 for 15 stops of dynamic range. 

5.5 stops in-body stabilisation.

The Sony A1 offers up to 30 minutes recording in 8K 30p thanks to heat dissipation techniques from A7S III. 16-bit raw output via HDMI.

Dual CFexpress Type A/SD memory card storage, together with super speed USB and wired LAN connectivity and dual antennae for wireless communication.

Lossless compressed raw format added and support for 10-bit HEIF files.

The A1 can be used for tethered shooting with the new Sony Xperia Pro phone for wireless 5G FTP transfer and live streaming from the field.

OK, so that was a wild ride! Welcome to the amazing Sony Alpha A1, and we hope could keep up with our frantic typing. More images, more insights and more details see our full news story on the Sony A1.

See also:
Sony A1 vs Sony A9 II vs Sony A7R IV
Has Sony A1 blown the Canon EOS R5 out of the water?