In this episode we dive into the new Sony Alpha A77 in a bit more detail and talk about image quality versus the A850, the 12fps, OLED viewfinder etc. In our tutorials section we talk about how cameras measure light at 18% reflectance and what that means to your exposure.
You want to have some fun? Get at Dpreview (Click here) to test the studio comparison tool which now includes the A77 images! And what do you think?
Photoreview (Click here) posted a new A77 review: “Subjective assessments of test image files show them to be extremely good. Colours appear natural and we found the sensor/processor combination produced images containing a wide brightness range, regardless of whether the Dynamic Range Optimiser was on or off. Image noise only became visible at ISO 6400 and it was mainly the granularity of luminance noise. Shots taken at higher ISO settings were printable at A4 size but softening and granularity became noticeable by ISO 12,800.”
Check the A77 in Stock status by clicking those direct search links: [shopcountry 8461].
45 Responses
Below ISO 800 – good
Higher than ISO 1600 – rubbish
I was thinking about buying a NEX7 as an upgrade , but now I will stick to my NEX5.
Wah? Keep in mind the NEX-7 will only perform better than the A77 with respect to noise. Don’t judge one book by another’s cover!
You failed.
At iso 1600 A77 is the best, between 7D and D7000.
Here iso1600 comparison:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25337738@N06/6188365634/in/photostream
but after 3200, its not better.
(but there is always 24mp difference)
A77’s ISO 6400 RAWs are looking sort-of like Canikon’s ISO 12800! 😀 But seriously, who would go after 6400+ ISO on APS-C instead of just getting some faster glass?
With Multi-shot NR, how’s the picture looking? 😉
I’ve been asking that question for some time and I have yet to see a response.
I agree. I wish they would add the multishot NR picture in the comparison tool just for fun. I have the Sony HX100V and multishot NR on that small sensor camera yields low light pictures comparable to the best DSlr’s. You can get clear handheld shots of the moon, clearly showing the craters.
I think that on this size sensor with multi-shot NR mode, these Sony cameras will take virtually noise free images in a dark room. I wish someone would post samples. If it works as well on the A65, A77, NEX’s as it does on my HX100V, I think it will be many years before a full frame could match the low light performance.
If it’s anything like the NEX multi-shot NR… 😀
But keep in mind, you might still need higher shutter speeds in certain situations, so it’s not a solution for everyone.
Unfortunately, that flicker sample and a few other spots are strong spots for the a77. The majority of the areas don’t look as nice as the D7000 or 7D…especially in RAW. Definitely not impressed with the a77 now. Now throw in the NEX-5n in the mix – it blows all of them out of the water. Sorry, but the a77 is not up to par.
At Dpreview comparison if you look at the watch in bottom right corner (focus on the area around Thursday text) at ISO 100, then in A77 photo you can clearly see dust on the glass of that watch…
I think Dpreview should clean their setup from time to time 😛
Look at the lines under the eye of the man, it shows clearly which power is in the NEX-5N and how all the others loose, including the A77 … and we are talking here about ISO 1600, not 6400 or 12800! So where is the “resolution” of the A77, almost lost I think 😉
What do you have from cropping out of a 24 MP pic when you have no details to crop? Its the same like increasing a 12/14 MP pic to 24 MP and then crop it, thats the “feature” of the A77.
Maybe its possible at ISO 50 and ISO 100 but after it you loose a lot of information, every ISO step you go up! But look for yourself:
http://dpreview.com/reviews/studiocompare.asp#baseDir=%2Freviews_data&cameraDataSubdir=boxshot&indexFileName=boxshotindex.xml&presetsFileName=boxshotpresets.xml&showDescriptions=false&headerTitle=Studio%20scene&headerSubTitle=Standard%20studio%20scene%20comparison&masterCamera=sony_slta77&masterSample=dsc00021&slotsCount=4&slot0Camera=sony_slta77&slot0Sample=dsc00021&slot0DisableCameraSelection=true&slot0DisableSampleSelection=true&slot0LinkWithMaster=true&slot1Camera=sony_nex5n&slot1Sample=dsc00787&x=-0.30237946437954116&y=0.26684015627654134
Do not agree, do not forget to look at RAW, is there a decent RAW converter?
If you also consider the image from A77 is larger, … it is not so obvious to me that A77 is loosing …
What glass are they using?
To me, all those tests give an indication of the possible quality, but in the end, it is the photographer that will determine the wow – factor of the image. As a hobbyist, it is the pleasure you have from the camera. I think everyone agrees this is a beautiful piece of technique…
yes, but if you have a machine in your hand, which makes it easier to achive a good image quality, its easier to achive that wow-factor 😉
also look at the raw pics there, well its not a final converter … BUT, you can see a lot of more color noise which makes it much harder to get more detail out of it!
Dunno what is going on with Dpreview’s images, but people on their forum are questioning them, too, and show better sampling of images:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1037&message=39450219
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1037&message=39453100&changemode=1
I agree with you, I found many out of focus. You can’t compare those with ones that are in focus.
They should concentrate on a central in-focus area and state which lens is being used so we can consider that when looking at the pictures.
What’s the point of comparing JPGs anyway?
In RAWs at 1600 the A77 is equal, maybe bit better than NEX5N, although chroma noise (which is very easy to remove) gets annoying here. Similarly at ISO 3200 (maybe NEX is a little bit better in some aspects, though A77 gets better in other), ISO6400 however is a point where NEX starts to win in some visible way.
Although in showing red color details the A77 seem to come out noticeably worse than NEX. Which is quite odd… I assume it has something to deal with mirror coating, though no solid evidence really – we’d need to compare A77 vs NEX7 to get some idea.
I’m just wondering how this will all look once ACR releases an update for converting the A77 RAW files?
Any major improvements expected there?
ETA: Sounds like they used a “non-public pre-release” of ACR with A77 support. So no improvement expected there.
Although they also had noise-reduction set to zero, so real-world results will be better (much better than in-camera jpeg noise reduction for SURE)
link:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/1109/11092610sonyslta77studio.asp
Glasses are different, that’s why such things happen… What lens do they use with E-mount?
I guess some prime though LA-EA adapter. That’s only option that makes sense really when you don’t have any superb primes for E-bayonet.
The old one, without AF? I don’t think so…
You do manual focusing for test shots anyway, so why not? AF doesn’t matter if you are doing tests of anything else than AF performance 😉
Choose ISO 1600 and look at the playing cards, for example… And compare colours with that of 7D )) Did U still think, that Canon’s sensor better with such colours. Ha-ha ))
Minolta and now Sony always had very appealing colors – that’s one of the reasons I’m here instead of canonrumors.com 😉
Me too… ))
A77 1600 and above look blotchy, compared to rivals.
For me the A77 wins in detail/sharpness untill ISO1600. The 5D and D7000 are a little soft to me. The 7D comes second.
If you compare noise : RAW, ISO1600, then the A77 comes last. But again, D7000 and 5D look soft, followed by 7D and A77.
Poor results with RAW files when comparing them with A580, D5100 and D7000. Even at ISO 400, I can notice more noise on the A77 RAW’s.I’d actually say ISO 400 on the A77 is similar in noise to ISO 1600 on the D7000. Hover over the green thing with the paperclips on and you’ll see what I mean. Very poor.
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/studiocompare.asp#baseDir=%2Freviews_data&cameraDataSubdir=boxshot&indexFileName=boxshotindex.xml&presetsFileName=boxshotpresets.xml&showDescriptions=false&headerTitle=Studio%20scene&headerSubTitle=Standard%20studio%20scene%20comparison&masterCamera=sony_slta77&masterSample=dsc00017&slotsCount=4&slot0Camera=sony_slta77&slot0Sample=dsc00017&slot0DisableCameraSelection=true&slot0DisableSampleSelection=true&slot0LinkWithMaster=true&slot1Camera=canon_eos7d&slot1Sample=canon7d_iso400&slot2Camera=nikon_d7000&slot2Sample=nikond7000_nrn_iso%201600&slot3Camera=canon_eos5dmkii&slot3Sample=img_0046&x=-0.02319681267049681&y=0.7245566897766385 – REALLY? :))
That link is to JPEG’s. I’m comparing A77 RAW @ ISO 400 to the RAW @ ISO 1600 on the D7000, A580 and D5100.
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/studiocompare.asp#baseDir=%2Freviews_data&cameraDataSubdir=boxshot&indexFileName=boxshotindex.xml&presetsFileName=boxshotpresets.xml&showDescriptions=false&headerTitle=Studio%20scene&headerSubTitle=Standard%20studio%20scene%20comparison&masterCamera=sony_slta77&masterSample=dsc00017.acr&slotsCount=4&slot0Camera=sony_slta77&slot0Sample=dsc00017.acr&slot0DisableCameraSelection=true&slot0DisableSampleSelection=true&slot0LinkWithMaster=true&slot1Camera=nikon_d5100&slot1Sample=dsc_0069.acr&slot2Camera=nikon_d7000&slot2Sample=dsc1_1888.acr&slot3Camera=sony_dslra580&slot3Sample=dsc00879.acr&x=-0.646191646191646&y=-1.4756693945291632
Sorry… By the way, read it http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1037&message=39453100
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1037&message=39450219 – ISO 1600-6400 samples using IDC
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1037&message=39453244&changemode=1
RAW’s downloaded from dpreview and processed through Capture One.
Minimal Processing:
All sharpening and noise reduction decreased to zero. Saturation at 10.
ISO 1600
http://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-MgpjH5F/0/O/i-MgpjH5F.jpg
ISO 3200
http://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-C66wBTr/0/O/i-C66wBTr.jpg
ISO 6400
http://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-prprVDC/0/O/i-prprVDC.jpg
It’s not just regular noise at ISO 1600, color noise is the issue here.
lucky enough chroma noise is very easy to remove without loosing much details. It’d be far worse of all this noise would be lumi.
We all agree that D7000/A580 have less noise, its the best APS-C sensor you can buy regarding noise. BUT, when comparing the images at dpreview with the D7000,it also has less detail/sharpness. I rather have more detail and a little more noise, whitch in pictures with detail you don’t even notice the noise. It’s only in flat surfaces where you can see it, and even then, when you view it at normal size, you won’t notice it. But you will notice the lack of detail and sharpness.
Here an example,(by the way the D7000 seems to have the same level of noise here). And take a look at the Nex-5N …
http://dpreview.com/reviews/studiocompare.asp#baseDir=%2Freviews_data&cameraDataSubdir=boxshot&indexFileName=boxshotindex.xml&presetsFileName=boxshotpresets.xml&showDescriptions=false&headerTitle=Studio%20scene&headerSubTitle=Standard%20studio%20scene%20comparison&masterCamera=sony_slta77&masterSample=dsc00019&slotsCount=4&slot0Camera=sony_slta77&slot0Sample=dsc00019&slot0DisableCameraSelection=true&slot0DisableSampleSelection=true&slot0LinkWithMaster=true&slot1Camera=canon_eos7d&slot1Sample=canon7d_nrstand_iso800&slot2Camera=nikon_d7000&slot2Sample=nikond7000_nrn_iso%20800&slot3Camera=sony_nex5n&slot3Sample=dsc00783&x=-0.1189598633808685&y=1.0640247070767936
This guy sound Pro. could him beat Thom Hogan >< lol…
Test the competition without mirror lockup. They should be compared to a77 in real shooting conditions, not optimal lab conditions.
Oh my… after seeing this comparison, I challenge anyone to show me a real world print or web image that demonstrates the a77 losing anything to the competition. Even at 100%, it works beautifully by comparison. Nicely done Sony!
a77 can stand up to the best of them, and in many areas, surpass them.
For me… This Noise debate is OVER.
Yawn again.. all this measurebating is stupid.. and dprewiew aren’t scientists. It will depend on camera settings, how well they focused it (manual or relying on AF), lens sharpness etc. You can’t really make huge assumptions about anything from this sort of test.
Better to try the camera yourself and see how it works for you with your settings and shooting style.
I set the A77 up against the D3s, 1D Mark 4 and the Oly E-5 to look at the some very different image capability. I looked at Raw and JPG from base ISO up to 3200 and I have to say the A77 looks pretty darn good. Yes there is noise, guess what, they all have noise. A quick look at multiple APS-C images GXR, X100, D7000 all showed more noise than the D3s and 1D Mark 4, go figure. Plus any good RAW converter can help clean up that noise. Overall, I’m impressed with sensor technology in general. Even the 3 year old Panny sensor was OK. Oly really squeezed everything out of it that they could. The other important thing to consider is the glass! If you hit the icon in the lower right corner it gives a popup with lens info. I’d say the D3s overall is the best image but the A77 is not too shabby, not at all.
Are we looking at the same thing bro?
Here’s a RAW comparison of A77, 1D MKIV, 3DS, and 5n
http://tinyurl.com/6jhxhwc
Comparing the 3Ds or 1D4 to A77 is pointless. Those 2 are the top of high-iso performing DSLR today.
Oh and here’s 12,800
http://tinyurl.com/5typgbg
It ain’t not too shabby here, but we all know that.
🙂
This just turns me to doubt Dpreview’s RAW process – as the A77’s RAW is SO bad that the correspondig jpeg could actually not be possible! Definitely, A77 is not a winner in high ISO’s but maybe not quite that bad, however.
And in Photoreview’s tests it did quite well even in high ISOs; I think that a good performer can get to look bad many ways (not intentionally, of course), but there is no way to make technically good pictures from poor raw material…
Well, let’s wait for the ACR update – this will tell how the camera performs in actual conditions cause most people use Lightroom or Photoshop anyway.
@Radec
We all know by now that a77, noise wise, is not that good after 1600 and you are comparing ISO at 6400!!!
You are comparing apples and orahges too!!
One is APS-C and the other two is FF!
And, do you know how much the D3s costs???
D3s is the best, doesn’t mean a77 has to be the worst.
Do the right thing mate.
Have a happy day 🙂