Sony Alpha 1 II vs Sony Alpha NEX-3
Better figure, where one is clearly better
| SonyAlpha 1 II | SonyAlpha NEX-3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Released | December 2024 | June 2010 |
| Image and sensor | ||
| Camera type | Mirrorless | Mirrorless |
| Sensor format | Full frame | APS-C |
| Sensor type | Stacked Exmor RS CMOS with integral memory | Exmor APS HD CMOS |
| Sensor dimensions | 35.9 × 24 mm | 23.4 × 15.6 mm |
| Effective resolution | 50.1 MP | 14.2 MP |
| Largest image | 8640 × 5760 | 4592 × 3056 |
| RAW recording | Yes | Yes |
| Standard ISO range | 100–32000 | 200–12800 |
| Sensor detail | Approximately 50.5 million total pixels; Pixel Shift Multi Shooting uses four or 16 exposures combined in compatible computer software. | Charge-protection coating and electromagnetic vibration of the optical low-pass filter for dust reduction |
| Image formats | JPEG, HEIF and Sony ARW 5.0 RAW. | JPEG, RAW and RAW+JPEG; Sony's Japanese launch table specifies ARW 2.2 |
| ISO detail | Standard ISO 100–32000 for stills and movies; stills expand to ISO 50–102400. | Standard ISO 200–12800; Auto ISO 200–1600 |
| Image processor | BIONZ XR and dedicated AI processing unit. | BIONZ |
| Lens and shooting | ||
| Lens mount | Sony E-mount | Sony E-mount |
| Stabilisation | Sensor shift | Optical lens stabilisation |
| Maximum continuous burst | 30 fps | 7 fps |
| Lens detail | – | Launch kits contain E 16mm F2.8 and/or E 18–55mm F3.5–5.6 OSS. The original LA-EA1 adapter supports A-mount lenses with manual focusing at launch; later firmware is separate. |
| Autofocus | Up to 759 phase-detection points for stills and movies; sensitivity EV −4 to 20 in AF-S with an F2 lens at ISO 100. Automatic or selected recognition of people, animals, birds, insects, cars, trains and aircraft. Sony's current feature page specifies Real-time Recognition AF+ from firmware version 4.00; launch reviews describe earlier firmware. | Contrast detection; 25-point multipoint, centre or flexible-spot areas; single or continuous autofocus, direct manual focus and manual focus |
| Shutter | – | Electronically controlled vertical-traverse focal-plane shutter; 30 seconds to 1/4000 second plus Bulb; flash sync 1/160 second |
| Burst detail | Up to 30 fps electronic Hi+ with AF/AE tracking under compatible-lens and maker conditions; uncompressed or lossless-compressed RAW up to 20 fps; mechanical Hi+ up to 10 fps. Pre-Capture retains up to one second before full shutter press, subject to camera temperature and shooting conditions. A custom button can temporarily change burst speed. | Approximately 7 fps in Speed Priority Continuous, with focus and exposure fixed at the first frame; approximately 2.3 fps normal continuous advance |
| Stabilisation detail | Five-axis sensor shift; centre 8.5 stops and periphery 7.0 stops under CIPA 2024 pitch/yaw/roll conditions with FE 50mm F1.2 GM and long-exposure noise reduction off. Active and Dynamic Active movie modes narrow the field of view and are unavailable in 8K or at frame rates of 120 fps or higher. | No sensor-shift stabilisation (PhotographyBlog); optical correction requires a compatible OSS lens. The 18–55mm kit lens has OSS, while the 16mm does not. |
| Flash | – | Supplied detachable flash; guide number 7 at ISO 100 in metres; approximately four-second recycle time |
| Exposure controls | – | Intelligent Auto, program, aperture priority, shutter priority and manual; Sweep Panorama, DRO, three-exposure Auto HDR and six-exposure Hand-held Twilight or Anti Motion Blur |
| Video | ||
| Highest video resolution | 7680 × 4320 at 30 fps | 1280 × 720 at 30 fps |
| Video detail | Sony's current feature page lists internal 7680 × 4320 30p XAVC HS with 8.6K oversampling and 10-bit 4:2:2 support. Lower-resolution 4K up to 120p has approximately 10% crop; Full HD 240 fps is lower resolution. S-Log3, S-Cinetone and imported LUTs supported; external HDMI RAW is separate from internal recording. | MP4 with MPEG-4 Visual compression; 1280 × 720 at 30p in Fine or Standard quality, or 640 × 480 at 30p. These are the NEX-3 figures in Sony's Japanese announcement; AVCHD Full HD belongs to the NEX-5. |
| Audio | – | Built-in stereo microphone; MPEG-4 AAC-LC audio; optional ECM-SST1 accessory microphone |
| Screen and viewfinder | ||
| Viewfinder | Electronic | None |
| Screen size | 3.2″ | 3″ |
| Screen dots | 2,095,104 | 921,600 |
| Touchscreen | Yes | No |
| Tilting screen | Yes | Yes |
| Display detail | Four-axis TFT LCD opens approximately 98° up, 40° down and 180° sideways, with 270° rotation when opened sideways. | TruBlack wide TFT; tilts approximately 80° up and 45° down; no touchscreen (PhotographyBlog) |
| Viewfinder detail | 0.64-inch Quad-XGA OLED with 9437184 dots and approximately 0.90× magnification with a 50 mm lens at infinity. Selectable 60/120/240 fps; standard magnification is unavailable at 240 fps. | No built-in viewfinder (PhotographyBlog); optional FDA-SV1 optical finder is designed for the E 16mm lens |
| Connections and design | ||
| Wi-Fi | Yes | – |
| Bluetooth | Yes | – |
| Battery life (maker's claim) | 520 photographs | 330 photographs |
| Body weight | 658 g | 239 g (better) |
| Release detail | Sony UK specifies availability in December 2024; no release day inferred. Exact technical figures use Sony Japan because the UK specification URLs were inaccessible during research. | Sony Japan specifies 10 June 2010 for NEX-3A, NEX-3K and NEX-3D kits. This is the original NEX-3, not the NEX-C3, F3 or 3N. |
| Recording media | Both slots accept CFexpress 2.0 Type A or UHS-I/UHS-II SD. | Memory Stick PRO Duo and PRO-HG Duo; SD, SDHC and SDXC |
| Ports | USB Type-C at 10 Gbps, Multi/Micro USB, full-size HDMI, 2.5GBASE-T Ethernet, sync terminal, 3.5 mm microphone and headphone sockets and digital-audio Multi Interface Shoe. | – |
| Wireless connections | Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac at 2.4/5 GHz and Bluetooth 5.0. | – |
| Battery life detail | NP-FZ100; Sony Japan CIPA approximately 520 photographs with LCD or 420 with viewfinder. PhotographyBlog's 530/400 figures are not used. USB Type-C Power Delivery charging and power supported. | NP-FW50; approximately 330 photographs under CIPA conditions |
| Charging | – | Supplied BC-VW1 external charger |
| Dimensions | Approximately 136.1 × 96.9 × 82.9 mm (width × height × maximum depth); grip-to-monitor depth 72.8 mm. | Approximately 117.2 × 62.6 × 33.4 mm (width × height × depth), excluding protrusions; Sony's separate 25.4 mm thinnest-section figure excludes the grip and mount |
| Weight detail | Approximately 658 g body only or 743 g with battery and memory card, excluding lens. PhotographyBlog's inconsistent 617 g figure is not used. | Approximately 239 g camera only; 297 g including battery and Memory Stick PRO Duo; lens excluded |
| Colours | – | Black, red or white; silver was a Sony Style exclusive in Japan |
| In the box | One NP-FZ100 battery, BC-ZD1 dual-battery charger, cable protector, shoulder strap, body cap, accessory shoe cap and FDA-EP19/FDA-EP21 eyepiece cups, according to Sony Japan. USB Power Delivery AC adaptor and USB cable are not included. | NP-FW50 battery, BC-VW1 charger, USB cable, detachable flash and case, shoulder strap, lens cap and software CD; lenses depend on kit |
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