Focused intelligence

When mirrorless cameras first appeared on the scene, their main attraction was their small size, and it was generally assumed they'd never compete with DSLRs for speed and autofocus capability. But with relentless advances in technology, they kept on narrowing the gap. Two years ago Sony released the Alpha 9, and suddenly we had a mirrorless model that not only competed with Canon and Nikon's pro-focused sports DSLRs, but even surpassed them in several crucial areas. Combining silent shooting at a blistering 20 frames per second with autofocus tracking across the entire image, this was the camera that convinced me that DSLRs' days were finally up.

Now, Sony has released a major firmware update, with the bold statement of ‘Alpha 9 reborn'. Where previous updates mainly fixed bugs, tweaked the