UPDATE: I have been requested by Sony to remove the video because the very first 20minutes of the video where “private”. Sony thought that I recorded the video but the tuth is that the recorded video has been put online by Sony itself via livestreaming(!) I think Sony didn’t know that livestreaming streams AND records everything so that it is automatically available also after the liveshow!!!
I told Sony that they have the video currently visible and available for everyone on their website! So it’s not SonyAlphaRumors showing the “naked” video 🙂 I will of course not link to it yet but I hope they will cut the “private” part and make it available again later because many Sony readers here really enjoyed the official Q&A session with Paul!
P.S: I am surprised Sony team doesn’t know how livestreaming works!
111 Responses
Please go there and ask for pancake lens 🙂
Hmm. He said no tethered function for a77. Needs that if they want pro studio take up IMO.
Also, he says that the a77/65 overcomes overheating by using electronic rather than a mechanical steady shot mechanism. Wonder if the new system is better/worse/same, and whether the electronic pixel shifting would result in imge cropping.
Well, the stabilization is suppose to be better. As far as I remember Sony declared maximum 4 EV compensation, now it’s 4.5EV. But… life will show the reality.
The 4.5EV is for photographic images where the sensor shift is still used for Stabilization. Video now uses electronic stabilization so don’t expect as good stabilization.
No tethered function? WTF…
The electronic stabilization is probably only for video mode? (Like Olympus?) Does anyone know more about that?
As far as I understood him – it’s only stabilization A77 has.
Ya, when you switch to video, SSS turns off and switches to electronic stabilization.
This should be no problem, the sensor has plenty of px to spare — 1080p is only 1920×1080 pixels — where as 24 megapixel is 6000 x 4000… so it can easily shift around the image.
Nope, this could work only if You crop the the image. result would be zoomed with less wide FOV
Hmm… you are right! i wonder how electronic stabilization works? it has to do a px shift… but that would change the crop/angle of light through the lens…
Electronic stabilization has all the space left by cropping the 3:2 sensor down to 16:9 for video. Lots of shifting possible, in very small increments.
There is no tether mode, but you can connect the camera to monitor (like in Nex-5/3) via HDMI and use a remote.
this might be a dumb question, but how different is tethered mode compared to connecting the camera to monitor?
thanks.
With tethered mode, you can control the camera from the computer (i.e mouse/keyboard). No need for remote.
whoa, that sounds awesome. i’ve yet to try that. thanks for the explanation! bummer that the a77 doesn’t have that i suppose.
A100, A200, etc… all had it even despite of being entry-level cameras. Though it’s not really useful beyond “cool thing you check once or twice”. But I guess lots of people shoot with it frequently – looking at the posts and general disappointment. Which is surprising, but well…
@Sky_walker, it’s extremely useful in a studio setting, where you can use it to check focus or general look directly, plus using the computer itself as storage.
@Sky_Walker: You’re mistaken, the A100, A200 did not have this feature. Only the A900, A850, A700 and Minolta 7D had it (and the latter only had remote storage, not remote control).
Tethered lets you adjust and trigger the shutter from a computer.
it also transfers and lets you view the photo 1:1 size on a computer monitor. It’s very useful in a studio.
if you were to use HDMI, that would be limited to 1920×1080 at the most… so you would be missing quite a bit vs 6000 x 4000 (24M)
feeding birds and camera on tripod then remotly on laptop make the pictures when birds come to eat works like a charm
i see. thanks so much for the info Robby 🙂
wonder if a firmware update could change that.
http://presscentre.sony.eu/imagelibrary/detail.aspx?MediaDetailsID=201405
The new adapter is online xD
Didn’t get the beginning. Did he say sth about high ISO noise / RAW / Noise Reduction off?
not much said about iso noise. but he said quite difficult to answer the qstn: a77 vs a900 in term of image quality. and he said better to read review if want to compare a77 with other competitors.
There is a mode in the menu that makes the evf not follow exposure so it doesn’t go black when using flashes, great! 🙂
Did he just say video autofocus is not compatible with A/S/M Mode? oh no!
I asked this question a few times but he hadn’t responded by the time I had to drop off. That would be so dissapointing if true.
He will not answer about the raw bit-depth. :/
I stand corrected. Thanks.
He just did. 12 bit depth.
he said 12 bit
12-bit! that’s not that good, right?
It’s 12-bit. And it’s just fine. I have yet seen any sample 14-bit shots compelling enough to worry about the 12-bit.
thanks. 12-bit, 14-bit, 16-bit. i really can’t tell the difference, though i thought it would be useful to have the best it possibly can. oh well.
EXIF Data in A77 RAW say its 14bit !
hmmm, can you link a file which would say that? i downloaded randomly one arw from imaging resource and it says 12.
hey, how about the US? is there any live event? NYC? can’t wait to get my hands on the a77
He answered my question about high ISO! He said he cant comment on it, bitch.
He is not answering about why excessive 24 MP or anything about image quality. It is all about “the features”.
It seems odd they dropped compressed raw given that each raw file is going to be 27 megs!
I think they needed to inform people that a compresses raw is loss-less — just smaller in size, with no loss of detail — it’s NOT like jpeg, rather more like a Zip file.
they tryed but photographers are conservitive and dont use new tech even when its better. so no use no development.
They droped uncompressed RAW I guess, because a A77 RAW images takes about 23,7 MBytes almost similar size like A850/A900 CRAW, which is 30% less than RAW (uncompressed).
also, No tethered shooting for the a77?!?
This is a very important feature for use in the studio.
Seems odd to leave this off when the a700 had this feature.
I hope it can be added via firmware update!
A700 did not have tethered shooting.
a700 does have tethered shooting actually the a700 a850 and a900 all have it
As well as the 7D. Laving it off a 7 class camera is really odd, although it’s perhaps not as needed now as it once were.
Will I be able to shoot tethered with live view? I don’t care about being able to use the computer to control the features.
No tethered support? That is not good.
Cool thing. Even got 2 of my 3 questions answered.
Here are my Questions and his Answers, I am quite sure others are interested as well:
a) “The A33/A55 can not be used in studio environment with studio flashes, because the EVF is too dark. In M mode it should not try to resemble the available lightning. Is this changed in A77?”
Answer: Yes, there is a new option in the menu that will make the EVF/screen not resemble the available lightning and you *ARE* able to do studio shooting then.
b) “LA-EA2: Compatible to classic NEX 3/5 with phase AF and motor driven AF?”
Answer: There will be a firmware update around November for classic NEX 3/5 and then it will be 100% compatible.
There you go, two questions answered with really positive answers :). Now I need to get my A77 fast!!
+1
great questions! glad they were answered.
video crop 16:9. is that good or bad?
nether, its necesry. 1080p is 16:9 so vidio has to be croped to 16:9 as APS-C is 3:2.
hmm. the A77 is really giving mixed feelings. i think i should save up for A99 instead 😀
Is there a recording of this session, sat down top watch it and some visitors turned up..
Funny you don’t even know what that means but yet you are “disappointed”
No tethered support.. 🙁 this is disappointing..
I really hope that is an oversight, tethered support is one of the things I’ve really looked forward to. although not a dealbreaker, a real bummer.
+1
+1
that didn’t make me hapier… no tethered shooting on a77 🙁
maybe in future firmaware … maybe not …
truth is not many people need tethered shooting anymore. Most people do there shooting while model is there etc then load into PC for lightroom etc. why wast time on tetherd shooting whils somone else time is used. remember there is seperate monitor available if thats what you need as at lest 1 person on here explaned.
remember you also get live histogram in veiwfinder as and when you need it.
I would hope.
Tethered support directly into light room is what is required so you can view your captured image in a matter of seconds on a large and high resolution screen, do side by side comparisons, trigger the camera to shott from the PC, tweak the settings without touching/moving the camera..etc..etc. Yes it’s an important feature for studio work, this is the top of the line APS-C camera it should have tethered support as just about any other camera in this range does!
I came with 15 mins left, did he say anything about the nex 7 apart from not being available in London till November? My impressions were its not even completely finished yet?
I know Sony is a control freak, and this would never happen, but i would love to see them open up the firmware source code so others could create improved custom firmwares (i believe there are custom cannon firmwares)
since the a77 is top of the line APS-c, i don’t think they would have anything to lose… it’s not like enableing features that they deliberately disabled would hurt, because it’s top of the range.
just a wish…
Proprietary stuff 🙁 Nope.
Open source firmware in cameras doesn’t usually happen. Hacks does.
No compact flash cards for the future as well.
Yes. Unfortunately. Maybe a99 will have it, but it doesn’t look Sony place much importance on it anymore 🙁
.. explained the camerass ^^
Hehe.
Sorry 😉
I wonder if the NEX 5 will receive a firmware update where you upgrade to AVCHD 2.0 so progressive record??
don’t think they can change that with just firmware might be hardware related.
I still don’t understand about tethered shooting.
Recently there’s always at least one person posting in every post ‘Does a77 have tethered shooting?’
How often do people use this? Yes I know people use it in studio, but is it just a gimmick or do people actually care?
It’s one of those things that makes it hard to filter quality comments. Do people only post to make themselves sounds cool, or do people decide not to buy a camera because it doesn’t have tethered shooting?
I’ve been photographing for 8 years and I’ve never known about tethered shooting, maybe because I never deal with studios. I’m always on the move. And also it’s not used much in marketing.
so is the video option on a photocamera, it’s also just a gimmick but please drop the video crap and give me back my tetheredand the option to remote control my camera with mouse and keyboard to make timelaps
Just for timelapse?
You can buy a 20usd remote controller! Cheap, clean, portable and fully programmable!
@stresskiller
Eh, if you have seen SAR last year.. Noone talks about tethered shooting. People kept on complaining about video… Hence that’s why I said ‘recently’.
I’m sure if tethered shooting was made for importance years ago Sony’d take a look at it 🙂
i know that there where people whining about video but it supposed to be a photocamera.
@A55 it’s not just the timelapse it’s also the possability to control it from your pc /laptop i know it’s only a700 , a850 and a900 that had the options so far but if it ain’t comming back it will be bye bye sony for me in the future. it’s not used daily but it has it’s uses every now and then.
just glad i didn’t sell my a700 yet, need to look for other options i guess.
I know the reason i was not talking about tethered shooting a year ago was that since the a700 had this features, i just assumed that the a77 would have it…
Someone better ask if there’s another Q&A “Why did you remove tethered shooting?”
Yes Tethered support is important for some that work in controlled studio environments and need to load the images directly into lightroom for example, this is what is required so you can view your captured image in a matter of seconds on a large and high resolution screen, do side by side comparisons, trigger the camera to shott from the PC, tweak the settings without touching/moving the camera..etc..etc. Yes it’s an important feature for studio work, this is the top of the line APS-C camera it should have tethered support as just about any other camera in this range does!
Tethered shooting is really good to have. If it has it I’ll use it.
Well. It has two utilities; remote storage and remote control (including time lapse).
Remote storage CAN be duplicated by other means (Eye-Fi for example). That’s even smoother, as it’s wireless. But it’s also a more complicated setup, and it’s hard to get automatic preview of every shot image without doing some real hoop-jumping, you basically have to have an application watching the upload folder and always changing to the latest image.
Remote control is a gimmick for me and I have never used it, as there is no live preview on the computer with current tethered cameras. However, I can see the utility, especially for the above bird-feeding scenario. Still, this can ALSO be done with remote triggers and the like.
Basically, I can see no scenario where tethered shooting can’t be duplicated by other means, but that can be said about a great many features in cameras! It was a tool, which is now removed from the toolbox.
But I guess this was left out due to time constraints in the software development, it must be one of the least prioritized features. The camera is a giant leap for Sony-kind anyway.
Missed the stream although I’ve been reading up throughout the day. Noted 12 bit RAW for stills but one thing I’ve not seen confirmed yet is the bitdepth and chroma subsample for video. Anybody know?
1028P at 10 bit, 4:2:2 and I’ll bite.
So nothing about the nex?
I take the point that the difference between 12 and 14 bits is not apparent in any photographs out of the camera, but the issue is relevent if (like me) you do a lot of post processing in PS (and to a lesser extent if you use LR).
Really hoped they would use 14 bit ADCs in the A77.
It really depends. Only the newer Pentax K5/Nikon D7000 have been shown to actually show a slight improvement. Heck, the 5dii is 14 bit, and its shadows go banding-crazy if you work with them even a little.
Hmm,
I just watched the a77 video that’s in German…
Is it just me or does it look like there is ONLY ONE memory card slot?
at 4:42 in the video, it shows him inserting a card, but i can only see one card slot.
the amazon s77 page says “Slot for two media types”… but not that it can hold two cards simultaneously (like my a550)
am i seeing this correctly?? if so, what the hell? my a550 has two slots and it’s very useful! seems like it would have been obvious to have two slots, especially given the a77’s burst rate, to round robin data to two cards at the same time.
One universal slot probably, like on the NEX5.
One memory card slot on a camera pushing out 24+ meg raw files… seems like an odd decision.
also, amazon page says USB 2.0… damn, going to take forever to offload images. Was really hoping for USB 3.0
Buy a card reader. Downloading from the camera is decidedly amateurish.
I’d like to know if we can put international firmware on a UK A77 to get 60fps and 24fps instead of the PAL 50 and 25.
I think all Sony camera firmware updates are “universal” .. The software probably looks for whatever parameter which specifies the region and installs that “version”.
Right. Probably no way around it then…
Another word – ‘customized’ 🙂
As with all the Sony cameras there will be a single firmware release for all regions. It doesn’t matter where you get the firmware from (UK, US, Japan, etc.) they are all the same.
The region is encoded in the camera’s ROM, which the user cannot change, and the firmware changes its behaviour accordingly.
So you cannot get a European model to do 60 & 24 fps.
Well on a Canon 7D you can just change from NTSC to PAL and get use of both standards. Might be the same, unless ofcourse they don’t want you buying from across the pond 😉
It seems odd to me that you can’t switch between PAL and NTSC.
What if you travel. because of the different in electrical systems hertz (50/60), it’s my understanding that you want to shoot video using the same frequency (50/60 fps) as to avoid flickering in lights.
see video for example
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3iWvdJzx84
“Customised”” firmware will be available? To some clever people modify it?
As in, if you install the firmware, it will only apply to the regional version 🙁
if (region == UK) updatePAL
else updateNTSC
something like that :p
Simple solution. Order the camera online from the US.
I would do that, but I work for Sony so get 40% discount. Can’t really turn away from that, even at UK prices!
*sending job application to Sony* 😀
I think he’s answering as well as he can. Honestly saying when certain features aren’t available.
Good idea to do this too. Good to get answers direct from Sony.
And he’s right about the image quality. Wait for production models and RAW file support.
I need tethered shooting, too. If the top APS-C model doesn’t do that, I think it is very disappointing from sony!
I have a silly question but plz bare with me..everybody’s talking how 24.3mp is too much for A77 and ofcourse NEX7..first samples of A77 wasn’t promising either..the noise was bad..but wat if I chose to shoot in 16mp from the setting..would that going to give me less noise,better result as far as IQ..and eventually more pleasing image??..I know some people said don’t decide yet cause its a pre production..but there’s a huge percentage that 24.3 would be some of a pain in the ass as jpeq..unless we’re gonna shoot in RAW and edit it ourselves..so I hope shooting in less resolution gives us a better result!!
I have a silly question but plz bare with me.everybody’s talking how 24.3mp is too much for A77 and ofcourse NEX7.first samples of A77 wasn’t promising either.the noise was bad..but wat if I chose to shoot in 16mp from the setting.would that going to give me less noise,better result as far as IQ.and eventually more pleasing image?.I know some people said don’t decide yet cause its a pre production.but there’s a huge percentage that 24.3 would be some of a pain in the a** as jpeq.unless we’re gonna shoot in RAW and edit it ourselves.so I hope shooting in less resolution gives us a better result!!
I am very very disappointed that you cannot tether the camera to your PC as you could with the a700 and most other high end prosumer and commercial cameras. That was one feature that I was particularly interested in having in my upgrade from the a100.
Finally I tried Google-ing tethering in some forums.
Contrary to the recent hype about tethering in SAR, seems like it’s not as important as I thought. I don’t get too many recent hits. There’s like 1-2 posts per year.
Weird is weird 😀 Wonder who riled up the tethering stuff.
Funny so many people complain about no tetherering. I wouldn’t use a PC if I am taking photo, because I dont working in studio. Even if I do, I would hardly use it.
I have a studio and a large screen PC in the studio itself and would use tethering quite frequently if I had it. This capability is one of the things I was looking forward to implementing when the a700 successor was introduced. No such luck now and so I I am thinking about looking for a good price on a used a700.
+1 on tethered support ( -1 about getting an A700 instead)
Well, tethered shooting wasn’t available on the Konica Minolta 7D from the beginning either, but was added later with a firmware release and downloadable application. If you wait a bit it might just appear…
I think the “Private” bit made the whole thing seem more human… it was nice to see from a corporation. Just normal humans trying to do a decent job… more of this would be good..