Sony A1 II: A Game-Changer in Professional Photography with Advanced AI-Powered Autofocus

I tested this Sony mirrorless camera for 2 weeks -- and its autofocus results blew my mind

What does a camera need to be considered as one of the best mirrorless cameras for wildlife and sports? A body that can withstand dust and rain, an autofocus system that's so fast it can keep up with rapid soccer players and birds in flight, a detailed viewfinder and more. Well, the Sony A1 II is just that. Sony's flagship, which succeeds the five-year-old A1, is easily the most reliable camera I've had the pleasure of reviewing. I tested it for two weeks and when I was done, all I could think about was taking it out for another spin and photographing birds by the river. It boasts impressive specs for both stills and video, and it's ease of use and sculpted grip mean handling it is a delight. The A1 II has a steep price tag of $6,499 at Sony U.S. / £6,299 at Sony U.K. but for pros who don't want to compromise on quality, it's a must-have. The biggest selling point of the A1 II, for me, is its rapid autofocus system which takes the guesswork out of the equation so you can focus more on the camera's settings and tracking quick-moving subjects. It's so smart that it almost makes me feel stupid -- let me show you why. Birds of a feather To achieve high levels of subject detection, the Sony A1 II is equipped with an advanced AI processing unit. Real-time Recognition AF and Real-time Tracking work in conjunction to focus on a wide variety of subjects. But that's not all. The A1 II is the tech giant's first camera to be able to recognize human bodies, faces, eyes, animals, birds, insects and many vehicles -- and that's because of the new Auto subject-detection mode. Sony also says that eye detection is 30% better than on the first-gen model, and it shows. Say goodbye to guesswork and fiddling with settings; simply point at your desired subject and watch the camera work its magic. Throughout my testing, I didn't miss a single shot I wanted. I wanted to capture a seagull in flight? Done. A pigeon landing on the ground? No problem. A human smiling at the camera? Sure. Even with my two master's degrees and my Big Brain™, I didn't have to think. Nothing was too complicated for the A1 II, which is what made me fall so quickly in love with it. But of course, shooting birds in action (or sportspersons) requires tinkering with the shutter speed, ISO and aperture. Once I took care of those technicalities and found the subject I wanted to photograph, all I had to do was swap to the burst shooting mode. The A1 II uses Sony's BIONZ XR Processor for 30fps burst shooting (for up to 153 raw images and with pre-capture). Combine this with the rapid autofocus and Auto subject-detection and you've got a camera that can capture practically anything. The photo of the seagulls fighting is my favorite photo I've ever taken. You can see where the gull's beak latches onto the other's wing, and it's a split-second moment that could have easily been missed had I not been using the A1 II. Sharp, sharp glass What good is a camera without an awesome lens? I tested the Sony A1 II with the new Sony FE 28-70mm F2 GM lens, and this is top-notch glass, meant for the pros. For sports and wildlife photography, it's worth investing in a dedicated telephoto lens (like the FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II or of a longer focal length) but even so, the FE 28-70mm F2 GM holds its own. The photos of the robins you see above? I took them from a distance with the focal length set to 70mm, and then cropped into them in Adobe Photoshop, and the results are sharp. The A1 II's 50.1MP Exmor RS CMOS gives you lots of room for cropping without losing detail, as you can see the kinks in the robin's fur and the individual hairs on its head in all the shots. Meanwhile, the lens creates a lovely, creamy bokeh by blurring the background perfectly, and spotlighting the primary subject. I can see clearly now I also have to give credit to the Sony A1 II's large 0.64-inch viewfinder here. It has a 9.44-million-dot resolution so you get a lot of clarity and detail, and a maximum refresh rate of 240fps, which help you get the shot you want. There were no blackouts between shots either. It also displays a lot of useful information, such as a Grid Line to help you determine if your horizons are level -- and I found this extremely handy as it deleted a step out of the post-production process. Did I say it's very comfortable too? I wear prescription glasses and had no issues holding the camera up to my eye for several minutes on end. If you know me at all or have read my camera reviews, you'll know I'm a sucker for wildlife photography -- I'll do anything to try and get the perfect shot of a bird flying or a dog running. That's why I enjoyed using the A1 II so much. I didn't have to worry about missing a shot because I could completely trust the 30fps burst shooting mode and the autofocus. For pros looking to push their gear to the limit, I really can't think of a better camera. More from Tom's Guide

Sony A1 II review

Why you can trust Tom's Guide Our writers and editors spend hours analyzing and reviewing products, services, and apps to help find what's best for you. Find out more about how we test, analyze, and rate. The Sony A1 II is the brand's latest flagship professional hybrid mirrorless camera, succeeding the five-year-old first-gen model. Boasting pro-level specs for both stills and video, it's the ideal camera for professional sports and wildlife photographers -- as long as they can stomach the cost. Taking what the first-gen camera did best and improving on it, the A1 II comes with an incredibly fast and reliable autofocus system with a new Auto subject-detection mode, plus up to 8.5-stops of IBIS to ensure your shots are shake-free. Its 50.1MP sensor captures detailed, sharp stills in all lighting conditions, and you can record 4K or 8K video too. With a redesigned front grip, the A1 II is comfortable to handle and hold while shooting 30fps burst photos. Given its pro-level specs and features, the A1 II finds itself competing against other high-end models, like the Canon EOS R3 ($4,999), the Canon EOS R5 Mark II ($4,299), the Nikon Z9 ($5,499), and the Canon EOS R1 ($6,299). Although it's a high price point, the A1 II's pro-level specs, ease of use and premium build make the camera well-worth the premium. The Sony A1 II sports a better, more ergonomic design compared to its predecessor, all the while remaining lighter. The body weighs 1.45lbs, which is a little lighter than the A1 (25.99oz). It's slightly chunkier in size, though, measuring 5.3 x 3.8 x 3.2 inches and that's thanks to the new, deeper grip. The sculpted grip offers fantastic handling, making it easier to hold the camera with just one hand. On the bottom plate, you'll find the battery compartment which houses the NP-FZ100 battery, and a tripod thread. All the ports are located on the left edge. These include: USB-C, full-size HDMI, 3.5mm external mic and headphones, RJ45 ethernet, microUSB multi connector and PC flash sync socket. The A1 II has everything you'll need when you're out and about. The right-hand edge of the A1 II hosts the SD card compartment into which you can insert up to two SDXC UHS-II or CFExpress Type A cards. The latter lets you shoot for longer before filling buffers, and comes with faster write speeds. You'll find a 3.2-inch TFT touchscreen with a 2.09-million-dot display on the back. The 4-axis multi-angle screen combines tilting and side-hinged articulation mechanisms which is really handy as you can shoot from most awkward angles. The screen is highly responsive too, so you can quickly tap anywhere to track a specific subject. But perhaps my favorite design choice is the 9.44-million-dot (same resolution as the one on the Canon EOS R1) OLED viewfinder with a maximum 240Hz refresh rate. It's large (0.64 inches) with a 0.9x magnification, and incredibly detailed. In comparison, the Canon EOS R5 Mark II has a 5.76-million-dot EVF while the Nikon Z9's clocks in at just 3.69 million dots. The high resolution and large size are ideal for detailed focus checking. The 240Hz refresh rate ensures subjects you're tracking through the viewfinder remain free of motion blur, for more accurate framing. For a pro camera, you'd expect weather sealing and you get it. The A1 II is fully weather-sealed against rain and dust -- so the camera can go literally anywhere you want to. I tested the kit in heavy rain and the camera and lens were unscathed. There's a lot going on in terms of the Sony A1 II's controls, but they're fairly easy to get accustomed to. The control scheme is near-identical to the first-gen model's. The most significant change is the placement of the S&Q (slow and quick motion) button, which is now part of a three-way switch underneath the mode dial on the top plate. You need to press a button to swap between shooting stills, video and S&Q, and this ensures you don't change settings mid-shot. Most of the other controls are the standard ones you get on cameras of this calibre. There are five custom (C) buttons in total, placed in different positions for easy access, and you can assign the settings of your choosing to these. The dial on the right side of the top plate has three (1, 2, 3) custom modes too, to which you can assign sets of shutter speeds, ISO values, FPS and AF settings -- so you can quickly access them depending on the subject you're photographing. Other command dials are fully remappable too, and you can assign settings like AF area (wide, single, etc.) to them. On the left side, you'll find the physical AF mode dial which lets you switch quickly between automatic and manual focus modes. One of these is DMF (direct manual focus) which lets you lock focus using AF then tweak the focus manually. If you or your subject are moving, DMF allows you to quickly use the AF to roughly reset focus without having to redial the focus in by hand each time, then nail your focal point manually. On top of this is the new drive mode dial which lets you swap between settings like single shot, H+ (30fps), shutter delay and more. Next to the touchscreen are your usual navigation and playback buttons, record button, a joystick to change the AF area, and a delete button that doubles as the fourth custom button. The A1 II's menu may seem overwhelming at first, especially if this is your first time using a professional camera, but it's fairly straightforward. Here, you'll be able to adjust literally any setting you could think of, and assign commands to the custom buttons. Sony says the A1 II is equipped with an advanced AI processing unit to achieve high-level subject detection. Real-time Recognition AF and Real-time Tracking work together to deliver what is perhaps the smartest autofocus system I've ever seen. A new Auto subject-detection mode removes the need to switch between AF detection modes and potentially miss shots. Just like the first-gen model, the A1 II uses 759 phase-detection points to deliver precise results. In comparison, the Nikon Z9 uses just 493 points while the Canon EOS R5 Mark II and EOS R1 have 1,054 points. Sony also says that human eye recognition has improved by up to approximately 30%, so you should be able to capture fast-moving athletes with no issues. In the image above, the camera took split seconds to recognize the subject's face, and delivered an extremely sharp image. Throughout my testing, the A1 II's autofocus never let me down -- especially when photographing birds and animals. It quickly recognized subjects and had no issues shifting focus to others as scenes changed. You can see an example above. The first photo is a cropped-in version of the second. The A1 II had no problem detecting the robin's eye among the twigs and locking onto it. Check out how sharp the photo is too -- that's thanks to the high resolution 50.1MP Exmor RS CMOS sensor. You can see the tiniest details in the robin's fur. I mentioned the Sony A1 II's up-to 8.5-stop IBIS earlier, and it works well when shooting handheld at slow shutter speeds. The first photo above was shot at 2s and it's very sharp. The second was shot at a 5s shutter speed and is slightly blurry from camera shake. The FE 28-70mm F2 GM lens I was testing doesn't have optical image stabilization so the photos relied solely on the camera's IBIS, and the results are great. This will be an excellent camera for handheld low light shots. The Sony A1 II's image quality is absolutely stunning. I used it with the Sony FE 28-70mm F2 GM lens. Color reproduction is extremely faithful and the images turn out crisp and vibrant and full of character. You can see a few examples above. The first photo is a crop of the second and demonstrates the color accuracy. All four photos were shot in the standard color profile. Cropping into images reveals the sheer detail of the A1 II's 50.1MP sensor. There's plenty of resolution for extreme crops or large format printing. The first photo above is a crop of the second -- the detail is exquisite, and even in the cropped shots you can see the finest of details such as individual hairs and the kinks in the robin's fur. Similar to other Sony cameras, like the ZV-E10 II ($999), you have Creative Looks at your disposal -- 10 filters like sepia, vivid, black and white, etc. The first slide was shot in VV2 which enhances the vibrant colors, while the second in IN which reduces contrast and saturation to produce a washed out, retro look. But this is a fast camera, intended for action-packed sports and fast-moving wildlife photography. The A1 II uses Sony's BIONZ XR Processor for 30fps burst shooting (for up to 153 raw images and with pre-capture) and shutter speeds of up to 1/32,000s. The 30fps burst is blisteringly fast, although naturally smaller-sensored cameras like the 75fps Lumix G9II ($1,899) have an edge here. Both photos above were shot at 30fps burst, at 1/10,000s and ISO 3,200. The pigeons' wings are sharp and each individual feather is distinguishable. The two photos of birds above were taken with the 30fps burst shooting option while I adjusted the settings (shutter speed and ISO) in Manual mode. Both photos were shot at 1/20,000s, ISO 4,000 and f/4.5. 30fps burst shooting. Thanks to the burst mode and the AF, I was able to capture the split-second moment where the seagull bit the other's wing, which may not have been possible using slower drives. The quick autofocus came in clutch here in these high speed scenarios, rapidly locking onto the birds' eyes and tracking them tenaciously. The A1 II's BIONZ XR processor performed well here, too, ensuring no blackouts and constant AF subject tracking throughout bursts. Using SDXC UHS-II V60 cards, there was some buffer-filled downtime after bursts as the camera wrote the images to the card -- obviously, though, the camera supports CFExpress cards to avoid this. As with others cameras I test at Tom's Guide, I put the Sony A1 II through an ISO test. The camera has a native ISO range of 50-102,400 for stills. The images above were shot at ISO6,400 and are the same photo -- the first image in the gallery is a JPEG export of the RAW file, while the second is the straight-out-of-camera (SOOC) JPEG. Noise starts to creep in here but it doesn't ruin the photo, and the A1 II's in-camera noise reduction works very well, as you can see in the second photo. It smooths out noise without massively affecting image sharpness. Crank the ISO up to 12,800, as I did in the photos above (first is RAW, second is SOOC JPEG), and you see a lot more noise -- especially on the model's face. But again, the noise reduction does its magic here in SOOC JPEGs and voila, you've got a usable image. Shooting at an ISO as high as 51,200 is where things get really noisy, as can be seen above. The RAW image is really grainy, however, the camera's noise suppression has still done a good job in the second photo -- albeit with a loss of fine detail, like in the hair. At the end of the day, this is an extreme test, and images taken at such a high ISO should suffice as a last resort. The Sony A1 II boasts great video specs too, making it a solid hybrid camera. You can shoot in 4K/120fps, and 8K/30fps with 10-bit 4:2:2 color depth, which means it's capable of capturing a wide color gamut with a total of 1.07 billion individual hues. The compilation above was recorded in 4K and the footage looks gorgeous. The autofocus works extremely well here too, quickly focusing on subjects as they enter the frame. You can also shoot in S-Log3 which captures a wide dynamic range of up to 14+ stops. However, while the A1 II is fantastic for stills, it's outdone by other similarly priced cameras in the video department. Video-focused cameras like the Lumix S5IIX ($2,199) and Nikon Z6 Mark III ($2,499) offer much more flexibility with compression types and recording formats, including internal RAW recording -- the A1 II shoots only in Sony's compressed XAVC/S video format, or MP4. In short the A1 II is good for hybrid shooters needing to produce video occasionally, but if you want one specifically for video work, there are better options out there. The Sony A1 II uses the same NP-FZ100 battery as the first-gen model, and it's the same battery pack present in the A7C II ($2,198), A9 II ($4,499) and some other Sony models. It has a 420-shot CIPA rating when using the viewfinder, and this jumps to 520 shots when using the LCD monitor. In comparison, the Canon EOS R5 Mark II has a 630-shot (LCD) and 340-shot (EVF) CIPA rating, while the Nikon Z9 has a 740-shot rating. Both the Canon and the Nikon outshine the Sony here. Throughout my testing, I shot a mix of single shots and in burst mode, and JPEGs and RAWs, and I drained the battery after nearly 950 shots -- but you'll always get more shots when shooting in burst versus CIPA tests. Battery life while shooting video will depend on the settings. I shot at 4K/25P indoors, and managed to drain the battery just before hitting the two-hour mark. There were occasional periods of overheating but very brief. Shooting in 8K heats the camera a lot more though, so just be mindful of that. You get a new BC-ZD1 dual charger in the A1 II's box to charge two batteries simultaneously while shooting on a third -- a rare inclusion these days. This will be especially handy if you're just moving to the Sony Alpha system, as you won't need to purchase a charging adapter separately. The Sony A1 II is a mindblowing mirrorless camera. Yes, it's not very different from its predecessor and it has a steep price tag, but for professional wildlife and sports photographers, it's well-worth it. Its intelligent autofocus system and Auto subject-detection technology quickly find and lock onto targets, taking the guesswork out of the equation. Combine that with 30fps burst shooting and supreme levels of customization via the menu and custom function buttons, and you've got a camera that will rarely miss a shot. The 50.1MP sensor delivers crisp and detailed photos, and the A1 II proves its worth in video work too as it can shoot in 4K and 8K. Naturally, Sony's fantastic in-body image stabilization means you don't need to worry about camera shake even at surprisingly slow shutter speeds. Compared to other cameras, like the Canon EOS R5 Mark II and the Canon EOS R1, the A1 II has a higher resolution and a refined Auto subject-detection mode too. I can't think of a better camera to recommend for professional sports and wildlife photographers who aren't restricted by their budget.