Sony A1 II Underwater Review
Posted by Nirupam Nigam on March 31st, 2025
Fortunately for us, Ikelite was able to break through the wall of A1 II backorders and design an underwater housing for the camera relatively quickly. Soon after, they expedited the housing to our staff at Bluewater & the Underwater Photography Guide and we became the first divers to take the A1 II for a spin! We debuted the camera during our Socorro underwater photoworkshop
US MSRP: $6499.99
Order your Sony A1 II Camera at Bluewater Photo
Support our content and purchase a Sony A1 II underwater housing at Bluewater Photo:
View All Sony A1 II Underwater Housings
Order an Ikelite Sony A1 II Housing
Sony A1 II Camera Specifications
- 50.1 megapixel full frame sensor
- BIONZ XR processor
- 120 autofocus calculations per second
- Improved AF tracking with AI autofocus processor first introduced in the Sony A7R V
- 30% better eye detection for animals and humans
- Up to 8.5 stops of in body image stabilization
- 1/400 flash sync speed with mechanical shutter (1/200 with electronic shutter) and 1/500 sync speed in aps-c mode
- 8k/30p and 4K/120p video recording
- Improved Log recording
- Autoframing video features
- Pre-capture
- 30fps burst shooting with electronic shutter
- 9.4 million dot EVF (electronic viewfinder)
- Dual card slots for CF Express type A or UHS-II SD cards
- 420 shot battery life with EVF and 520 shot battery life with LCD
- Dimensions:136.1 mm x 96.9 mm x 82.9mm
- Weight: 743 grams
Upgrades from the Original Sony A1
Improved Autofocus
Improved In-Body Image Stabilization
Improved In-Body Image Stabilization
A New Body
The Sony A1 II's body is almost identical to the Sony A9 III. So if you're a Sony shooter, the camera will seem very familiar to you. The ergonomics on this camera are arguably better than the original A1. That said, most of these improvements will be felt for above water photography rather than underwater photography. I found the new photo to video switch to work seamlessly in the Ikelite housing that I was using. It was easy to take both photos and videos during the same sequence of action by moving the switch quickly between the two.
What is a little annoying however, is the complexity of the drive and autofocus mode switch on the left side of the camera. While it works well above water, it makes it difficult to change the drive and autofocus mode underwater. So I often preset the camera before jumping in. Afterall, the autofocus is so accurate, I kept it on AF-C the whole trip and the drive mode on continuous low shooting so that my strobes could keep up.
When out of the housing, the Sony A1 II does feel much better in the hands than the original A1. So if you do intend to take it out of the housing, it will be easier to carry and shoot at your kid's baseball games or on a safari. The body is a strong magnesium alloy
A 1/400 Second Flash Sync Speed
While this feature was originally present on the original Sony A1, it's a feature that keeps both the A1 and A1 II unique. Having a high flash sync speed of 1/400 allows you to control ambient light in your photography better (especially when shooting into the sun), and it allows you to get sharper images and better black backgrounds for macro photography.
Shutter speed does not affect the exposure of your strobe light, only ambient light. So if you want to photograph a sun ball and still get color on your subject, you really need to raise your shutter as high as you can. Because most full frame mirrorless cameras have flash sync speeds from about 1/160 to 1/250, the extra 3/4 stop in exposure control is a gamechanger for your photography. In aps-c mode, the flash sync speed actually increases to 1/500!
During our shooting in Socorro, faster shutter speeds helped us freeze action for quick moving sharks, dolphins, and manta rays. But it's also important to note that there is one camera on the market even more capable than the Sony A1 II...the Sony A9 III. This camera has not flash sync speed because it has a global shutter - allowing you to use any shutter speed with strobes. Fortunately for Nauticam shooters, both cameras fit the Nauticam A1 II housing available at Bluewater Photo.
Battery Life
My largest complaint about the Sony A1 II remains the same as the original Sony A1....battery life! During a typical day of shooting, I would only get about two dives out of the camera before needing to change batteries. This happened even with shooting primarily photos instead of video. But it makes sense - the A1 II is doing 120 autofocus calculations per second. It requires a lot of processing power that can drain the battery.
Fortunately, it seems that there are two solutions to help mitigate this issue. The first is to let the camera sleep more often by reducing the length idling time before sleeping. The second is to consider using a data and power transfer cable that can plug into the M16 port of your housing. There are two types of these cables available at Bluewater Photo - one from Nauticam and one from Ikelite. During the trip, I used an Ikelite data transfer and charging cable and was able to charge the camera without taking it out of the housing between dives - on the deck! At the end of the day, I would download the photos and never take the camera out of the housing.
The Sony A1 II for Underwater Video
The Sony A1 II remains an underwater video powerhouse with few, but important upgrades compared to the Sony A1. As mentioned earlier, the Sony A1 II has improved in body image stabilization with up to 8.5 stops of correction. This makes stability during hand-held shooting much easier, allowing you to capture even macro video hand-held (with practice!). We found our footage to be much smoother with the A1 II. If you take a look at the clip of school hammerhead sharks in our sample clip, you can see how smooth the camera was, even when jerking around to film the sudden action.
But perhaps more importantly, the camera is still able to film in 8K/30p (oversampled from 8.6K) and 4K/120p. 8K video capture is great for macro video shooters that want to crop their footage in order to film supermacro subjects. In Socorro, we frequently filmed in 4K/120p to capture the fast-moving action underwater and slow the footage down for a more stable experience. That said, it would have been nice to see an upgrade to 8K/60p as this would be on par with the Nikon Z8 and the Canon R5 II.
Underwater Housings for the Sony A1 II
For some housing brands the Sony A1 II will fit in underwater housings for the Sony A9 III. This is a major benefit for those wanting the quickest underwater camera Sony has to offer capable of a global shutter (and unlimited flash sync speeds) to be used in conjunction with the A1 II. Other brands require a dedicated Sony A1 II underwater housing.
Currently there are two housings now available at Bluewater Photo - an Ikelite polycarbonate housing and a Nauticam anodized aluminum housing. For this review, we used the Ikelite housing in the field in Socorro, Mexico.
Ikelite Sony A1 II Housing
The Ikelite Sony A1 II Housing is a light weight and impressively affordable polycarbonate housing avialable currently at Bluewater Photo. Considering that it retails for $2095, it's one of the few underwater housings in the world that is less than a third of the price of the camera body!
With all that said, Ikelite has made some considerable upgrades to the housing including new knobs that allow for better grip, rounded edges on the back plate, a new hotshoe connector with more compact cabling, and compatibility with Ikelite's data transfer and charging cable. As we mentioned, before this cable is a must have with the Sony A1 II. Fortunately it's avialable as part of Bluewater's A1 II deluxe kit.
Nauticam Sony A1 II & A9 III Housing
The Nauticam Sony A1 II Housing is an anodized aluminum housing available now at Bluewater Photo that is compatible with both the A1 II and A9 III cameras. Its the perfect option if you'd like to utilize the two best Sony alpha camera bodies. It retails for $4920.
Underwater Lenses for the Sony A1 II
Best Wide-Angle Lenses
The Canon 8-15mm fisheye lens with the Sigma MC-11 adapter is the fisheye option for most wide angle shooters with the Sony a1 II. I found the autofocus to be effective, though not as fast as a Sony native lens. The metabones adapter can be used with the Canon 8-15mm fisheye lens as well. However, the autofocus is slower. The one benefit of the metabones over the Sigma MC-11 is that it can autofocus in video mode - albeit, I found the autofocus to be almost unusable when shooting video. There is an exciting new Sigma 15mm E Mount Fisheye Lens that is native to the Sony E mount, but we are currently waiting for port chart updates and our first underwater review of the lens.
For both photo and video, the Sony 16-35mm F4 Lens with an 8-inch dome or larger is an excellent choice. For our trip to Socorro, we spent most of the time using the new Sony 16-35mm f/4 PZ lens which allowed us to custom set buttons on the camera to zoom in and out. Optically the lens is sharp and fantastic as you can see in the photo below.
There are also some great wet wide-angle lenses available such as the Nauticam Wet Wide-Angle Lens or the Kraken KRL-01 Wet Wide-Angle Lens that can be used with the Sony 28mm Prime Lens. The Sony 28mm prime lens also works well with a Fisheye Conversion Lens to capture even wider shots of large reefscapes.
If you're looking for the most versatile wide-angle Sony set up for underwater shooting, the Sony FE 28-60mm F4-F5.6 Lens behind a flat port with zoom capability paired with the Nauticam WWL-1B Wide-Angle Wet Lens is the way to go. The downside is that it's currently only compatible with Nauticam and Marelux housings.
Best Wide-Angle Lenses
The Sony 28-70mm F3.5-F5.6, the Sony 24-70mm F4 and the Sony 35mm F2.8 portrait lens are three good mid-range options.
Best Macro Lenses
There are two native Sony lenses that we think are good macro options for the a9 III: the Sony 90mm and 50mm Macro. The 90mm has a faster autofocus motor, and the 50mm macro is quite slow to autofocus. Unless you need to photograph subjects larger than a golf ball, we typically recommend the Sony 90mm macro over the Sony 50mm macro. Recently, we reviewed the Sigma 105mm F/2.8 DN DG Art Macro Lens. It's an excellent and more affordable option to the Sony 90mm with better image quality. However, it is not a great choice for video due to focus breathing. We already mentioned the Sony FE 28-60mm F4-F5.6 Lens and how it makes a great wide-angle option when used with a wide-angle wet lens, but combine it with the Nauticam Compact Macro Converter CMC-2, and it becomes a very versatile and highly capable macro set up too.
Canon Lenses for the Sony A9 III
Canon lenses can be attached to the Sony a9 III with the Metabones, Sigma MC-11, or Photodiox adapters, but auto-focus is generally better with Sony lenses. Lenses like the Canon 8-15mm, 16-35mm, 17-40mm, and 100mm can work well.
Is the Sony A1 II Worth the Upgrade?
While the Sony A1 II isn't a major upgrade from the Sony A1, but some of the new features that are important to underwater photography and video are only possible with a hardware upgrade, not a firmware update - like the AI autofocus processor and in body image stabilization. That said, the image quality from the Sony A1 II will be the same as the Sony A1. Many of the video features are the same as well. Some minor features like auto framing, introduced in the Sony ZV-E1, and improved Log recording are exciting but not game-changing.
If you need absolutely the best camera on the market from Sony, the A1 II is it. But much like with the release of the Sony A1, the Canon R5 II and the Nikon Z8 offer flagship-level shooting capability for a more affordable price point. As we learned with the original Sony A1, sometimes cost isn't a deciding factor. Especially if you need the best.
Conclusions
After putting the camera through it's paces with the big pelagics of Socorro, Mexico, it's clear the A1 II is Sony's flagship. It shoots like one and it's as versatile as one. The autofocus features in the A1 II modernize the camera and are a huge step up from the original A1. Likewise, it's nice to see an update in-body image stabilization system that makes the camera on par with the Nikon Z8 and Canon R5 II. With a $6500 you are paying a premium for the top technology that Sony has to offer - and Sony is always at the forefront of the technological arms race.
So if you're looking for a camea that captures the best underwater photo and video possible....this is it.
