Sony Alpha DSLT A65 TVCF (30″ Korea) from Sony Alpha on Vimeo.
Ther eis a new very detailed A77 review writen by David Kilpatrick at Photoclubalpha (Click here). It’s a must read article because it gives you a lot of info with very personal touch. He is certainly impressed by the A77 but still didn’t fall in love with the idea to use an electornic viewfinder instead of an optical viewfinder.
A reader sent me this Iso noise tests with the A77 (firmware 1.03) + Sony 35/1.8 (at 2.0) in 3200 iso: Click on it to see the pics on Picasa: Extra fine jpeg 3200 iso, RAW 3200 iso (no postprocessing), RAW 3200 iso (50+50 lightroom noise reduction) and Extra fine jpeg 3200 iso (with “multi frame noise reduction” enabled). The reader says: “I would say that mfnr feature works extremely well, very low noise and a lot of preserved details (just compare phone keyboards on each of them), wish they implemented it to RAW also (now only available for jpeg).”
The french magazine “Chasseurs d’Images” N°338, writes about the A77: “le piqué est supérieur aux autres capteurs APS-C. C’est logique vu le gain en définition, mais cela méritait d’être vérifié!
La barre de piqué titille celle du Nikon D3X! Gain sur tirage 1600 iso A3 : l’addition des 24 Mpx et du faible niveau de bruit à 1600 iso donne des images très qualitatives. L’Alpha 77 (c’est vrai aussi pour le 65) vient chatouiller le Nikon D3X qui était jusqu’à maintenant le champion incontesté. Et il pulvérise tous les autres reflex dotés du capteur APS-C !!!”
One more thing: Meanwhile quite many US SAR readers sent me emails to say that Sonystore US is now shipping the first batch of A77 cameras!
All new Sony cameras and lenses links:
A77 at [shopcountry 8461]
A65 at [shopcountry 8459].
Sony NEX-7 [shopcountry 8454].
Sony NEX-5n [shopcountry 8452].
Zeiss 24mm f/1.8 [shopcountry 8450].
Sony 50mm f/1.8 [shopcountry 8448].
Sony 55-210mm [shopcountry 8444].
NEX-5n viewfinder [shopcountry 9110].
44 Responses
waited mine for so long…:(
Mine was delivered today, what people dont realise is that the a850 only has a 9 shot buffer in raw!the file sizes are 25 meg also weighs a flippin ton which is why im changing
Wow that was an excellent summary from David Kilpatrick.
Very honest about the good and bad. Image quality looks excellent, and seems like the continuous shooting buffer is the biggest downside.
Highly customizable menus, buttons etc sounds awesome though.. he explains that much better than any other review I’ve read.
I have an a77 and a pretty fast Toshiba 16GB UHS-1 SDHC card rated for 95MB/s read and 80MB/s write. After filling the buffer in 12 fps mode I’ve gotten much better buffer clearing times:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pBuLTSZTaU
That looks pretty good, I measured 8 sec buffer clearing time. Also speed drops to approximatly 1.5fps after 12fps burst, which is very usefull.
Can you do the same test with 8fps ?
Here is some results from another guy with the same card as me, who took some 8fps and 3fps vids:
http://www.youtube.com/user/SonyAlphaNexUser#p/a/u/1/Oe3O06q7FSI
Great video. Seems like at 8fps(RAW) buffer clearing time is still 8sec. After that it goes approximately at 2fps, which is surely fast enough to capture some moments.
Dave K is the Man.
Whatever “multi frame noise reduction” is, it looks pretty good. For my eyes it beats lightroom. Does ‘multi frame noise reduction come in the NEX-7?
Multi frame noise reduction is available in all NEX cams. But only in jpg mode and it only works for static scenes..so no moving subjects
You can use multi frame noise reduction even if parts of the scene is moving. However, it is the static parts in the result that benefits the most.
That looks pretty good, I measured 8sec buffer clearing time.
Can you do the same test with 8fps ?
Also known as Hand-held Twilight and Anti Motion Blur modes. Of course you can do it yourself in PP but the in-camera mode is pretty decent.
Small question to the A77 users on this moment..
How works the EVF in low light situations?
Human eye see a lot also in dark situations, but how good work the EVF on that point?
Small note the first A77 units are availbale in The Netherlands.
http://www.kamera-express.nl
Evf works better in lowlight then an ovf..its almost like nightvision.noisy though. I personally prefer the evf even though its not fully colour correct very often.
I concur. Noisy but sees more than OVF.
The answer to this question lies in the fact that the EVF sees what the sensor sees and not what an OVF would see. That is, if the settings are correct and the shot is properly exposed then the EVF is perfect. For me this is the biggest strength of the EVF – no more guesswork for exposure settings!!
Compared to the A33/55 The EVF on the A77 has much less noise in the dark….i think it looks stunning and clear in low light situations…
What are the arguments for getting an A77 over the Nex7? For me it seems that the Nex7 has most of the good features of the A77. The key issue is whether you can leave with a few stabilised lenses(in absence of an SSS).
Other differences do not seem to me too binding, in particular if someone’s main goal is travel/street photography. There is probably no precision (digital) zoom on the Nex7, but you can crop your images if needed on the PC. The AF micro adjustment you can get if you buy the new A-mount adapter. There is more customisation in the A77, but the Nex7 with the three wheels look perfectly userfriendly too. You will not get 1/8000 shutter speed, but that is probably not so often needed.
What do you think?
Probably depends on what lenses you already have, and typical use.
I have a full set of alpha mount lenses, so A77.
Also I don’t think I will have much joy with ultra wide lenses ( >>16mm ) on NEX, important for one of my typical uses (landscape), and covered by alpha mount, so again A77.
faster and better AF
You don’t get auto focus while taking a sequence of pictures. Also, as I understand it, you only get contrast AF during video recording instead of phase AF. That was the deal breaker for me and led me to order the a77 over the smaller nex-7
Btw the review from David Kilpatrick was excellent indeed!
A77 will be here tomorrow US ETD.
Are you sure? How did you know???
I got my Fedex tracking number this afternoon, but I had it shipped ground freight. I figured I had to wait 6 weeks what difference would ground freight make, now I wish I had paid for overnight. Probably be Monday, but hopefully Friday or Saturday.
Whoo hoo! Mine will be here tomorrow by 3pm! Can’t wait. Now I actually havea place for the 70-200G/f2.8 lens I bought three weeks ago…..
I envy both of you! I ordered from sony.fr and they said it will ship by the end of the month at best! :'(
Enjoy your cameras and take beautiful pictures with them! 🙂
still on the fence about keeping/canceling my pre-order
possibly a stupid question, but why has a77 black-outs between single-shots after the 12fps burst? I thought there is no moving-mirror – so there are no black-outs in comparision to DSLR any more… or is it just ’cause of the buffer is so busy, so it even can’t provide live-view continuously?
A french store recived the first wave of 77 ! I have my 77 with 1.03 firmware and it’s perfect !
Which one?
Hey
The Video is no longer shown. It’s marked as “Private Video” and i can’t start it 🙁
Greatz
What video?
The David Kilpatrick review is hands-down the best yet. Very thorough with the kinds of info and insights that pros appreciate. Also, his writing skills are excellent.
I just got my A77 monday here in Denmark. With 1.03 firmware. First impression is that it is a massive udgrade to the a700 and a55 … Especially in terms of image quality and the sturdyness of operation. Just feels solid and reliable.
Where did you order it? On the official site of Sony or from another retailer?
I bought it from kamerahuset.dk – picked it up in their store in Copenhagen
You know, I was sceptical about the a77 at first, but ALL of these reviews are so positive. The high ISO performance just isn’t an issue at all any more, and even the buffer doesn’t seem to be a huge drawback. It’s heavily outweighed by the fact that you GET 12fps in the first place.
Build quality, EVF, the buttons, ergonomics etc all seem fantastic.
I just want to ask one thing, any issue with third-party lens like Tokina/ Sigma/ Tamron? Can anyone clarify?
Thanks
For Sigma lenses take a look here, http://www.sigma-photo.co.jp/english/news/info_111014.htm
I’m not saying about the AF refinement, I just don’t want to get the, “No lens attached” when using 3rd-party lens(s) — message =)
Guys, More input pls!
Anybody with Tokina?
Thanks!
I use a Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 and a Tamron 70-200mm f2.8 on my A77 – no problems at all. And the focusing is A LOT faster than it was on my A55 …
Nice to hear focussing is faster. The A55 had already one of the fastest AF.