Sony a1 High ISO Sill Images Performance Sample Images

Here’s a collection of sample images of photos I’ve taken with the Sony a1 at high ISOs.

Sony a1 High ISO Sample Images
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The Sony a1 (or Alpha 1, or α1, or ILCE-1) is Sony’s latest flagship mirrorless camera. And it’s a heckuva camera in all sorts of ways.

One aspect I’m focusing on here is its high ISO performance with still images (video performance will be different). When shooting stills, the a1 has an ISO range from 50 to 102400.

So I thought I’d put together some sample images shot at various high-ISO settings. This isn’t an exhaustive scientific test, and it’s not meant to be. My purpose here is to provide some real-world examples.

But first, a few points to clarify what this is and isn’t. I’m focusing here on still images, not video. When shooting video, the available ISO range is more limited–ISO 100 to 32000–and the results will be different.

Sony Alpha a1 Mirrorless Camera
  • 50MP Full-Frame Exmor RS BSI CMOS Sensor
  • Up to 30 fps Shooting
  • ISO 50-102400
  • 8K 30p and 4K 120p Video in 10-Bit
  • 4.3K 16-Bit Raw Video Output, S-Cinetone

These are all shot in RAW, with the versions you see here on this page generated by Lightroom. But they’re deliberately only very lightly processed with a little exposure and contrast tweaking, but they’re a lot flatter than I would normally do.

I also haven’t employed any denoising processing with these, although that’s certainly an option, one that’s most likely to be used on the very high ISO images. The camera has its own in-built processing to reduce image noise, and it generally does a very good job. It can apply that to JPGs—that includes the preview thumbnails generated with RAW files and embedded within those RAW files. But if you’re shooting RAW—as I nearly always do—your post-processing RAW processor app will regenerate those previews itself, and you’ll lose the benefit of the in-camera processing.

Sony Alpha a1 Mirrorless Camera

I’ve tried to include some side-by-side shots of the same scene at different ISOs. For a closer look, there’s a link under each image to download the original RAW file, although a heads up that they run to around 105MB each.

Sample Images at High ISOs

Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 6400. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 12800. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 10000. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 3200. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 5000. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 12800. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 3200. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 4000. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 6400. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 3200. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 6400. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 4000. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 3200. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 6400. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 4000. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 25600. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 32000. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 64000. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 102400. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 12800. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 25600. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 6400. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 8000. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 10000. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 12800. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 16000. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 20000. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 25600. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 32000. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 40000. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 51200. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 64000. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 80000. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel
Sony a1 High ISO Still Image Performance
This photo was taken with a Sony a1 (Sony Alpha 1 / ILCE-1) full-frame mirrorless camera @ ISO 102400. Download original RAW file. Photo by David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel

More Sample Images from the Sony a1

I have also posted some other collections of sample images from the a1, including some general sample images, as well as the individual lenses I’ve used on this camera: Sony FE 20mm Æ’/1.8 G, Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS, Sony FE 90mm F2.8 Macro G OSS.

Price & Availability of the Sony a1 Mirrorless Full-Frame Camera

Sony has set the MSRP at $6,499.99. It’s available as body-only or bundled in various configurations with lenses.

It can be listed under a few different variations of the model name: α1, A1, a1, Alpha 1, and ILCE-1. They’re all referring to the same camera.

Buy New

Check the current price and availability at:

Sony Alpha a1 Mirrorless Camera
  • 50MP Full-Frame Exmor RS BSI CMOS Sensor
  • Up to 30 fps Shooting
  • ISO 50-102400
  • 8K 30p and 4K 120p Video in 10-Bit
  • 4.3K 16-Bit Raw Video Output, S-Cinetone

Buy Used

The Sony a1 is a relatively new camera, and it will take time for copies to make their way to the used market. But some good places worth checking for used Sony a1s include:

Images and product information from Amazon PA-API were last updated on 2023-05-30 at 17:23. Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon Site at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.

David Coleman / Photographer

David Coleman

I'm a professional freelance travel photographer based in Washington DC. Seven continents, up mountains, underwater, and a bunch of places in between. My images have appeared in numerous publications, and you can check out some of my travel photography here. More »

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