I just aquired an used Sony A1 first gen. It came directly with firmware 4.0 already installed. And so far, so good, everything is working as expected.
I was on the A7R III and never considered the A1 for being too expensive. But now that used prices are more reachable, and the latest firmware improvements have made me consider it instead of the A7V. I hope it will not end there and that Sony will continue to improve it, its hardware still has a lot of potential.
I went looking for reviews of the A1 with at least fw 3.0 or above, but it seems all the reviews are from 2021-2022. And nobody seems to have reviewed the camera with the later fw 3.0+.
Some important features were added lately, like focus stacking, xs/xl/c1-2-3 focus zones or vertical orientation. But I'm wondering if performance generally improved. Perusing the web, I found that some people reported a faster startup time, CF-a cards flushing faster, etc. But, anything more? And what do you expect on further fw updates?
My A1 was on 1.31 for a long time, I was terrified of bricking it hearing all the horror stories.
Last month finally jumped in the deep end and upgraded to 4.0 without any issues and now I can just update via the SD card in the future.
I did notice an improvement in AF right away and yeah the custom focus boxes are really neat so its a good update making the A1 still a great camera for 2026 and beyond.
Manu-K1 wrote:
But I'm wondering if performance generally improved.
Seriously - what were you expecting? There are still very few cameras on the market that can match the performance of the A1 in any meaningful way, despite its age.
Cliff L. wrote:
Seriously - what were you expecting?
Hardware cannot be improved upon, but software (firmware), certainly yes. Sony added some features along the way from v1.0 to v4.0. Most of the new features are officially listed, but I'd like to know those unlisted improvements that A1 long-time owners noticed.
An example of this from https://www.alphashooters.com/cameras/a1/memory-cards/ Note 2: All of the Nextorage CFexpress Type A cards tested were initially writing around 5 seconds slower than I would expect with the A1 on firmware version 1.32. When I upgraded to firmware 4.00 these times aligned with the other cards and my expectations. It also appeared to improve the buffer clearing time of the other cards by around 2 seconds.
One thing I'm wondering, though, is why Sony waited so much time to release these firmwares to the original A1, especially after the A1 II was released.
Manu-K1 wrote:
Hardware cannot be improved upon, but software (firmware), certainly yes. Sony added some features along the way from v1.0 to v4.0. Most of the new features are officially listed, but I'd like to know those unlisted improvements that A1 long-time owners noticed.
An example of this from https://www.alphashooters.com/cameras/a1/memory-cards/ Note 2: All of the Nextorage CFexpress Type A cards tested were initially writing around 5 seconds slower than I would expect with the A1 on firmware version 1.32. When I upgraded to firmware 4.00 these times aligned with the other cards and my expectations. It also appeared to improve the buffer clearing time of the other cards by around 2 seconds.
One thing I'm wondering, though, is why Sony waited so much time to release these firmwares to the original A1, especially after the A1 II was released....Show more →
I think it's mostly caused by the pressure from other brands, which started regular fw updates earlier than Sony.
I'm really happy with 4.0, though there is still one feature that I'd like to see:
* moving between detected people (eyeAF) using the joystick.
Manu-K1 wrote:
Hardware cannot be improved upon, but software (firmware), certainly yes. Sony added some features along the way from v1.0 to v4.0. Most of the new features are officially listed, but I'd like to know those unlisted improvements that A1 long-time owners noticed.
An example of this from https://www.alphashooters.com/cameras/a1/memory-cards/ Note 2: All of the Nextorage CFexpress Type A cards tested were initially writing around 5 seconds slower than I would expect with the A1 on firmware version 1.32. When I upgraded to firmware 4.00 these times aligned with the other cards and my expectations. It also appeared to improve the buffer clearing time of the other cards by around 2 seconds.
One thing I'm wondering, though, is why Sony waited so much time to release these firmwares to the original A1, especially after the A1 II was released....Show more →
Features are not the same as performance, which is what you asked about.
