This Basketball Demo Shows the Sony a9’s Blazing Fast Autofocus

Sony is touting its new a9 camera as a sports camera with blazing fast autofocus and shooting speeds. If you weren’t impressed with the camera tracking a pole vaulter at 20fps, check out the demo in the video above: the camera accurately keeps its focus locked on a basketball being tossed back and forth near it.

The video is by the Mandarin-speaking camera review channel NTimage. At 5:13, the hosts test the a9 by having it track two basketball players tossing a ball near the camera.

Despite the relatively small ball moving pretty quickly across the frame at an angle, the a9 seems to do a great job of keeping it sharp in each shot.

Later in the video, at 8:08, we see another impressive autofocus demonstration: the Sony a9 face tracking a martial artist doing a routine:

We’re hearing from major camera retailers that the Sony a9 has been one of the most hyped and pre-ordered camera launches in recent years. From the impressive demos that have been appearing online, it’s not hard to see why.