Sony Has the Problem Every Competitor Wants: Its Flagship Was Too Good to Follow

The Sony a1 II has arrived, and it is a fantastic flagship camera. However, while its predecessor was leaps and bounds ahead of the competition, the mirrorless flagship camera race is much closer in 2024 than it was in 2021, and it has left the a1 II in a somewhat awkward position — it feels like the middle child in a camera series that only actually has two models.

When Sony announced the a1 II at its Creative Space event earlier this week, the camera was met with a slight buzz in the room. When Sony unveiled its incredible new FE 28-70mm f/2 GM lens, the room erupted. It’s not often that a new lens sucks up all the air in a room, especially not when a flagship camera is also announced.

The First Sony a1 Set a Nearly Impossible to Beat Standard

Some of that could be due to the a1 II being teased ahead of time, while the lens wasn’t. But arguably, the bigger reason is that the a1 II is just not that exciting.

The original a1’s excellence is primarily to blame. The a9 III can also take some responsibility for the tepid response to the a1 II because it is the new measuring stick by which Sony camera announcements will be measured, fairly or not.

In the weeks leading up to the a1 II’s launch, while some here at PetaPixel were working with the camera under embargo, a somewhat familiar refrain was, “It’s great, but it’s just not that exciting.”

This is matched by the initial public response to the camera. The Sony a1 II is excellent, but it’s challenging to feel about it the same we did about its predecessor. It is every bit the follow-up act that was expected and doesn’t do anything surprising.

The Sony a9 III, on the other hand, arrived on the scene last year with a ton of hype. While it turns out that its new global shutter comes with some tradeoffs, the a9 III at least did something that the a1 II cannot: surprise people.

Sony’s Consistency Has Created an Enviable Challenge

Sony finds itself facing an excellent problem to have, though. The Sony a1 raised the bar so high that not only is it hard to clear with a sequel but even when something better, like the a1 II, hits the scene, it’s not exciting; it’s expected. Beyond that, Sony is in a position at this point, with such an impressive history of products and huge market share, that even a really good camera doesn’t move the needle by virtue of its excellence alone.

Of course the Sony a1 II is great and has the same features as Sony’s other high-end cameras. Why wouldn’t it be good, and why wouldn’t it have those impressive features? Sony has built a prison of high expectations by making amazing cameras time and again and demonstrating consistent, reliable patterns of improvements. The a1 II feels predictable, and no matter how good it is, that will dampen the response to it.

Over the nearly 10 years I’ve been in the industry, I’ve used and reviewed a lot of fantastic cameras, and I’ve been inspirited by almost all of them. However, Sony has achieved something no other company has: it has made greatness formulaic.

There Is a Shrinking Gap in the Flagship Space

Speaking of its competitors, that is another factor in the lukewarm a1 II reaction. When the a1 arrived on the scene, it was a transformative moment. No camera to that point had delivered that combination of resolution and speed. And to do so with class-leading autofocus performance and 8K/30p video recording? The a1 had it all.

The a1 II still has it all, but competing cameras have caught up and dented the a1’s armor. It’s not the fastest camera, not by a long stretch. It is the fastest high-resolution camera, yes, but the Nikon Z8 and Z9 are not far off the pace and they are considerably less expensive, especially the Z8. Other cameras now offer 8K recording with higher frame rates. You can make the case that the a1 II has better autofocus performance than its peers, but the gap there has closed significantly, too.

Sony was the first camera company to embrace full-frame mirrorless camera technology wholly and its head start has paid huge dividends. The E-mount lineup is the most robust of all the mirrorless mounts, and the cameras have consistently been first across the line in numerous critical areas. But what was once a massive lead in performance and technology has shrunk, especially in the last two years. Canon and Nikon are catching up in many ways and, arguably, pulling ahead in some.

As teams across nearly every sport can tell you, getting a lead is tough, but maintaining it is even more challenging. When Sony carved out its huge mirrorless market share and position of dominance, it also created hunger among its competition — companies that were used to swapping first and second positions with each other for decades. The Sony a1, in particular, gave everyone a high benchmark to chase. Well, they chased it.

The Sony a1 II doesn’t provide Sony with the big leap ahead its predecessor did and I don’t believe it’s for a lack of effort or ability. I think it’s because the Sony a1 was so damn good that it’s practically impossible to follow. There was no significant shortcoming to address, and the technology to make the same type of revolutionary leap forward again simply doesn’t exist yet.

When Being Among the Best Becomes Expected, a Lack of Excitement Is a Price Worth Paying

The vibe around the Sony a1 II launch among the press corps was a lot different from the reaction to the a9 III, and there’s no doubt Sony wishes people were as excited this November as they were last one.

However, the company should take stock of the fact that it made its best camera even better, even if it’s not the mic drop moment of the original a1 or a9 III. Sony raised the standards so frequently that making something groundbreaking is almost impossible. Almost.

Image credits: Sony