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Many SAR readers contacted me to tell me that Amazon US is finally shipping the early pre orders from August and September. But also other stores are shipping like Simplyelectronics (1 A77 is still in Stock). You cannot preorder the camera now at Amazon but the little sisther the A65 is in Stock at Amazon (Click here). In Europe even people from Sweden or Italy contacted me that stores like Scandinavian Photo in Stockholm and Amazon.it are also having the A77 in Stock. Same status for Amazon.de and Amazon.co.uk.
Dear SAR readers, if you own the A77 feel free to share your first impressions and tests! I will publish them on SAR! And enjoy your camera 🙂
The A77 can be pre ordered at [shopcountry 8461].
61 Responses
finally… 3 years… wow…
I think you have seen my images…
http://www.wearehq.com/a77/a77800iso.JPG
That image quality is NOT because of being underexposed. I refuse to believe that or because I “need to be a better photographer”.
going to go and cry now until the A99 comes out.
Thanks.. lol
ISO 800? that’s effin too noisy! i waited for years to get the a700 replacement hoping for a better ISO performance and this is what it is?? come on sony! upgrade the firmware, v2 or something so dpreview can change their award from silver to GOLD! they are definitely right ‘on’ the a77 review. great body, features, amazing evf and lcd screen, but image quality could be better.
LOL better get nex 5n make the same shot to compare
What are you trying to prove with a shot like that? Try the shot again but this time, turn DRO off. And yes, the image looks underexposed….lol.
Seems you have full DRO on and it tried to lighten underexposed areas of your photo. Anyway, it’s worse than old A100 performance, so I don’t believe it’s true.
Having seen other photographs by the A77 using ISO 800 or even higher I refuse to believe the picture you posted is representative.
I think either…
…you used a terrible lens (though I can’t imagine any lens bringing you that kind of noise)
…you set the exposure & focal length manually (and underexposed) with the DRO option turned on
…or the picture wasn’t even taken with an A77
Please take the time to upload another (similar) photograph to prove your point.
Maybe a full-size one with EXIF? Thanks 🙂
You bought a $1400 camera to take pics of your kitchen at ISO800?
You prove my point 1000x over about Sony fanboys. They are happy and brag about the specs of a camera and how well it sells. But you never see them talk about how a Sony image graced a magazine cover, or wonderful images that are hung in a gallery.
All Sont shooters do is this.
Thank you for proving my point. And while you cry about your camera, some kid with a 6mp Nikon d40 is out taking amazing images an working on his skills.
I have used both the A100 & A700, and have never complained about their short comings, I learned how to work around them. My work has been published, in galleries, I get hired for shoots, etc.
Got to love all the fanboys who said “the fall of Nikon & Canon, blablabla”.
So proud of being a fanboy you forgot how to take a serious image.
You give Sony guys like me a bad name.
Get a point and shoot!!!
Something wrong with that camera. It looks like a cell phone picture. I’ve seen and downloaded plenty of high ISO samples and never seen one that bad.
Or you’ve jacked around with it in post production. Or you’ve got DRO on maximum, which boosts shadows at the expense of noise.
Photographer is the problem, not the camera 🙂 Turn OFF DRO and U’ll get much better result
Not to be rude, but, yes it IS because it’s underexposed. The best camera on the market is going to give you noise in a situation like that.
I really don’t care if you believe that or not. It doesn’t change the fact that it’s underexposed. Your inability to take a properly exposed picture doesn’t mean the a77 is a turd.
I’ve seen plenty of PROPERLY EXPOSED test shots on the web that clearly demonstrate that the a77 performs far better than what your photo shows.
Funny thing about facts…they’re stubborn little things.
Time to go sell your camera!
I could buy it for reasonable price 🙂
Sorry but that image is well underexposed. Look at the histogram, you have nothing at all of value in the top half of the luminance range (above 128). The dynamic range of the real scene is problematic, you’ve got a large dark area with 1 tiny spotlight in the ceiling. As the shadow area is huge in comparison, in order to correctly expose the rest of the room you’ll probably have to blow the highlights. In trying not to blow the highlights on the spotlight, you’ve made everything else in the image get crushed into the bottom half of the luminance curve where johnson-nyquist, quantization and salt’n’pepper noise will be most apparent. Go back, spotmeter from a midtone (i’d suggest the lit areas on the cupboard doors or halfway down the refrigerator door) and see the difference. You’ll be shooting probably a couple of stops higher…I know the A77s not perfect, mine exhibits more noise than I’d ideally like, but give it a sporting chance at least.
incidentally, as a static “indoor achitectural” scene, this would normally be photographed using a tripod mounted camera at ISO100 (for max dynamic range) with remote release and more balanced lighting.
The other end of extreme results is here: http://www.ephotozine.com/article/sony-alpha-a77-vs-a65-slt-hands-on-preview-17300#Verdict
How com they got that excellent images? Without any comparison even ISO 16000 seems somehow usable for small prints.
I really want this camera. can’t wait anymore for – and probably cannot afford – the A99 (but still very interested in).
Did i mention i took the camera back to Sony and it was proven to be faulty? Thanks
And to those who say i need to be a better photographer, Ive shot for Vogue, Nike, Puma, Reebok, Footlocker, Biba, Selfridges, the National Basketball Association (NBA) and a few more… I think my clients are happy with my ability.
Yes I do understand that it may be underexposed… but what I meant by that comment is that the result of that image quality cannot just be down to being underexposed… there was no DRO and it was shot in Manual with a 28-70mm f2.8G Minolta lens.
Yes I was taking photos of my kitchen as I love taking pictures of random things and it was my way of testing it out.
Regardless, the sony store took it back and said there was a problem with that camera and gave me a full refund.
Only problem is that I went to do a shoot for Nike that day and my results were so bad I lost out on a decent paycheck that day… which really annoyed me.
The video mode failed. The mic didnt work. It was just a total mess.
I have been told to hold out for another couple weeks until they get new ones… as all of the cameras they had in store… the mics didnt work and therefore a bad batch of cameras…
I still have faith..
You went to a paid photo shoot with an untested new camera?
No, i did have my A900 with me as backup… but i wasted a lot of time using the A77… but in regards to the video.. it was a fail! lol I messed up by not testing it… but the shoot was the next day and I had been waiting for SOOO long for the A77 that my excitement overwhelmed me! haha
Hi MF. After following your story I’m kinda pleased that you got some resolution. Let’s hope Sony come good.
Hey, I bet those negative and patronising comments about your abilities really helped you out though 😉 – just ignore the trolls, the Internet is full of them.
For the record, my A77 is going great guns. Love it!! Really hope your next version is as good 🙂
Cheers and keep the faith !
Dave, thanks for the vote of confidence! I dont get some people. They just slammed me for putting out something that might actually help people incase they get the same issues… I just dont get it. haha
Here is a video that I took on that day… check out the audio… or lack of it.. haha and the yellow lines on the screen, which I was originally told that it was because of the shutter speed, and then was told it was because of the lighting, but its apparent on all scenes that I have tested in.
http://vimeo.com/31246508
Im glad your A77 is going well… I defo want to reach for another one soon. I just dont want to rush in to it just yet, even if my A900 is reaching its final days. lol
take care
Maybe some made too quick conclusions? 😉
ugh, what about Adorama??
5000 iso
http://www.abload.de/img/078madl.jpg
Yes, you need to be a better photographer.
anyone in NYC going down at PDN PhotoPlus Expo? i’ll be there and provide you guys some insights. it’s starting today until saturday
Since soft v4 and acr 2010 processing engine A700 is very good camera, absolutely usable up to ISO 6400 if you use raw. Unless you don’t need 24Mp, you don’t need to replace A700 that is definitely more responsible and predictable camera.
My A77 that I preordered from Amazon moments after preorders went live shipped yesterday.. And I’m on vacation so I won’t get it until Monday 🙁 Bummer
.
We’ve shot almost 6,000 photos in the last month with our 2 A77s and our worst shots in low light and a misfired flash don’t have near that much noise! We have had no issues with either camera and have about 2,000 photo samples on our site up to ISO 1600 and I haven’t seen noise on any of them. Go to the SONY|MINOLTA tab at http://www.abetterdj.net
Is is possible you got a bad camera? Please post more pix
Do you/anyone have any experience with:
Quantaray 70-300mm LD MACRO
or
Minolta AF Maxxum 70-210 f/4 – Beercan
I have the A77 on order with the kit lens, but looking for something with some more reach without having to spend more than a couple hundred.
I have the 70-210mm f4. It’s long and heavy, also a bit slow at auto-focus and can hunt in low-light.
It’s only very sharp when stopped down, which defeats the object of having f4 of course. You get CA at the long end too, but that can be fixed in post processing.
It’s a nice lens and is often accused of being over-rated, but what other constant f4 can you get that cheap? If it was expensive then yes, it is over-rated, but at that price if you can put up with the weight, size and slow AF…
Also consider the Minolta 100-300mm f4.5-5.6 APO (not the cheaper non-APO). It doesn’t have the advantage of the constant f4, but it is just as sharp as the f4 when stopped down and you will have to stop them both down anyway! It is more compact and lighter than the f4.
Thanks for the perspective.
Went to JapanPhoto-store in Norway and bought one A77 two days ago. I have taken abt 400 exposures. Nice camera, good picktures. Extremely good at high ISO when using HDR and ISO-stacking exposures.
B U T there must be something wrong, it is VERY slow in all funcktions – spesially HDR-exposure – camera locks up and prosesses for more than 1 minute – nothing works during this. Either my camera has malfunction or SONY has to write new software, this is not acceptable!
Check that you have firmware 1.03 on it.
have been testing 2 different unit of a77. One is at a shop which i spent nearly an hour playing around with the camera high iso. Another one is at the MotoGP Race where a sony reps brings the a77 for testing.
1. The Shop Unit
High ISO is no issue even at 2000(low poor surrounding light). Camera is very responsive.Thumbs UP.
2.The Moto GP Unit
Terrible ISO at ISO800 at perfect sunny daylight. Very2 slow response…. Thumbs Down
Both are using firmware 1.03
is it possible that there’s two different version of a77 around??One is good and another one is the troubled one??
looking at the terrible iso800 posted by MF..i think is is posible
Could be a quality control issue.
Reminds me of the way focusing is done for the dslrs. Man hours are too expensive, so machine puts them in, and firmware is used to offset the difference. I wouldn’t be surprised if the cameras got no more than a minute of a QA.
That would suck if there ARE two versions, maybe some of the reviewers got the bad copy
CORRECTION.
The A77 MOTO GP Unit
At iso 800 the noise is not good..but the picture posted by MF at iso800 is terrible..its the camera problem i think. Better return it..
Ill be getting my a77 next month anyway
Quite honestly I think user-fault is much more believable than two different versions of the camera sensor. Jpeg and not raw?
My local store in Seattle already had it last night when I stopped by, as well as the A65.
I bought mine yesterday at the shutterbug and it is an awesome camera, everyone should get one; the lenses it comes with is super dialed and tomorrow I’m putting it to the test at a bmx Halloween Jam!!!
I had the sony a33 and I did a firmware update. Quess what
pictures looked almost like his. I thought the camera went bad.
WASN’T a problem with the camera, I had done the update with out
resetting the camera to default settings first. it screwed up what was set to other than default settings. Wonder if that camera had firmware updated without following the procedures as listed?
Interest comment. Something to bear in mind!
Eugene, the update was done IN STORE. Maybe they didnt follow the correct procedures?? you might be right. I did lose confidence in Sony for a few days after that. Hopefully on the next batch I can see improvements!
thanks for your comment
Just opened the box for my a77 from Amazon.com USA that I received a little while ago here in northern California. I love it already. Has version 1.03 firmware.
When did you place your Amazon pre-order? I placed mine on August 28’th, and i still have not heard a peep from Amazon… no shipment, no word…
waiting…
I pre ordered on August 23rd. I think that was the first day it was possible to pre order.
I preordered mine from Amazon US on 8/24. It has been shipped via UPS and is scheduled to be delivered on Monday 8/31. Best of luck with your order.
bye bye A77 = bye bye noise
but I like noise in post…I don’t like the fact that I can’t remove it
@gabrielefx – the A77 has the same noise rating as the Canon 7D (with less available light). Are you also going onto the Canon forums to slag that camera off?
Change the record for goodness sake…..
bye bye gabrielefx…
I picked up my A77 from Jessops UK in store yesterday and did a very low light night shoot with it, there is very low noise even at ISO 1600 (even on video). I used the 16-50mm f2.8 kit lens and I know what I am doing with a camera (which definitely helps).
I will upload some photos and videos later for people to see for themselves.
The camera is a beast.
Still waiting for Sony to send mine! :-/
Just hope that the box isn’t damp…
A friend of mine went to a Sony store in Belgium to ask about the A77. The salesman said that the A77 wouldn’t be available anymore this year.
Please elaborate! Is Sony going to honor the orders they already received or are they going to simply put us on hold indefinitely???
There are loads in the UK. My local shop has boxes of them. 😀
Not here in France! :'(
I bought the A77/16-50 from a danish store last saturday.
It was the only 16-50 kit they had, and I had a hard time negotiating the price just a little lower than the 12500DKK(~1680€)they wanted. By now I think the 16/50 kit is sold out almost everywhere here in Denmark.
Anyone know if the Sony store in SoCal / LA area has this on display yet?
Or do you know any store in LA area like Frys or Bestbuy that have it on display for me to play around?
I don’t want to commit $1k + without actually feeling the camera.
I already sold my D5100 when I heard about A65 and A77.
I got my A77 body two days ago in Moscow 🙂