Sony A9 III Review: The First Full-Frame Global Shutter Camera Changes What Fast Means

Every other camera in this review series reads its sensor line by line. Fast, but not instant. The Sony A9 III, announced in November 2023 at about $6,000, doesn’t. Its 24.6MP full-frame stacked sensor uses a global shutter, capturing every pixel at the same moment. It was the first full-frame stills camera to do that.

The practical result is simple. No rolling-shutter distortion, ever. Golf clubs stay straight. Propellers look like propellers. Fast pans don’t lean.

It also changes what’s possible with flash and with speed.

Video review: Gordon Laing

What the global shutter allows

Burst shooting at up to 120 frames per second in 14-bit raw, with full autofocus tracking. Pre-capture records up to a second before you press the button. The buffer holds close to 200 raw files.

Shutter speeds go up to 1/80,000 sec. And flash syncs at any shutter speed, all the way to the top. For sports photographers lighting an arena or a portrait shooter overpowering the sun with a small strobe, that’s a game-changer.

There’s no mechanical shutter at all. There’s no need for one.

The rest of the camera

Sony’s real-time tracking autofocus handles people, animals, birds and vehicles. The 9.44-million-dot viewfinder is superb. Stabilization is rated at 8 stops. The deep grip, which later moved to the A1 II, is the most comfortable Sony has made.

Video is strong: uncropped 4K at up to 120p, oversampled 4K up to 60p, S-Log3 and S-Cinetone, raw output over HDMI. Without rolling shutter, fast action looks cleaner than on any other Sony.

The tradeoffs

Image quality. The global shutter costs dynamic range and raises base ISO, which is 250 for stills and 2000 in S-Log3. In tricky light, files from the A7 IV or A1 II hold more shadow detail. For sports and news that rarely matters. For landscapes it does.

24.6MP is modest for a $6,000 camera.

And it’s very much a specialist’s tool. Most photographers will never need 120 fps.

Who should buy it

Sports and news photographers. Bird photographers chasing fast wingbeats. Anyone who shoots with flash at high shutter speeds or under flickering artificial light. Agencies that need clean, distortion-free action frames.

If you want high resolution and speed together, the A1 II is the better all-rounder. If you want the fastest, most distortion-free action camera ever made, the A9 III is still in a class of its own.