Sony Japan announced that it will dleay the release of the new Sony A57 because of firmware issues that have to be fixed before the official shipment. There is no info about the new shipment date. Meantime you can check some new reviews about the A57:
ePhotozine (Click here) posted a full Sony A57 review: “The Sony A57 is an excellent camera, capable of taking great photos, with low noise and bright saturated colour, however it just seems that the camera it replaces (the A55) was just as good, if not better?”
Sony A57 preview and image samples at Techradar (Click here). Another hands-on in japanese at Ascii (Click here for the google translation).
59 Responses
Not again~!?
The A77 firmware was a catastrophe – lockups in the initial version, and extremely slow performance till the latest version. they should not repeat that mistake, so a delay for a better firmware is not a bad thing.
Amen.
delayed for that reason alone? Too bad!
I wouldn’t say that A55 is a better camera… but well, perhaps some people price tiny size over other features.
A57 has two significant improvements over A55:
– It uses the bigger FM-500H battery, that fits in the
other Sony DSLRs /grown up SLTs and offers more capacity
– Better viewfinder
Maybe it also has slightly better IQ (we have to wait for camparisons and DXO measurements).
In opposite to other brands, Sony keeps the same batteries in most of its DSLRs / SLTs, that is something I praise Sony for. I am using more than one Alpha and I would hate to carry several types of batteries and chargers with me. This is one of the things why I prefer Sony to Nikon.
Unfortunately, there is also a bummer in A57: It has lost the DR button. The direct access buttons have been another strength of the Sony cameras, but Sony seems to remove them step by step like already at the A77. That is really poor, because that reduces the handling of the cameras from very good to just average. This is not the way to go!
@M I agree about batteries.
One big drawback with the a57 compared to the a55, is the loss of GPS. I get location data with my iPhone shots and it’s incredibly useful when uploading to sites like Flickr, or for travel photography in general.
I hope someone from Sony reads this. So I need to wait another month, 2, 3 to get an a57 or and a37? so NO DSLT from Sony available for me. Sony’s SLT dept is a total joke. can someone remind me why I am waiting for a Sony DSLT please? Should I just buy a Nikon?
Nikon D3200 is coming soon. I am going to check it out.
nikon D3200..? me too. this year. sell my 7D, my nex 5…me too.
What do you mean by “no dslt available for me”? There’s A65 for roughly same price, there’s A55 for lower price, there’s A35 for much lower price… what’s the problem?
Wow the RUMOURED A37 isn’t available to buy?! Who would have thunk it?
But don’t worry you can walk into a store right now and buy the RUMOURED D3200… Because Nikon really are THAT much better 😛
A57
Lol
Go and buy a Nikon, you’ll be doing us a favour. 😉
Meh, I’ve given up on sony making a DSLR that can go toe-to-toe with equivalents from canon/nikon, etc. Too bad, sony is my preference, I love the saturated color rendition in their cameras. Can you imagine what the camera world would be like if alphas did video as good the panasonic GH2. That kind of clarity, sharpness, contrast pouring out of it with beautiful 24 mp stills, too? No one would buy a nikon or a canon. No one but fanboys anyway. We’re probably 5 years away from a sony camera anything like that. By then nikon and canon will have 5K video DSLRs, 4K will be old hat and sony still not making a capable 1080 one. That’s how far behind they are. They dragged their feet putting video in thier cameras and when they did, the ones they made were plainly inferior to the other guys. Too bad.
They really can’t win – they were justifiably slated for the a77 launch firmware but you just know people are going to complain about a57 delays.
Sony kicked out the Minolta development crew after takeover. They would have been better advised to kick out their managament. How can an electronic company think they can deliver highly specialized computers (which an Alpha/NEX is) without stable, working and robust professional software development?
I think there is nothing wrong with delivering FW updates to improve the system. But you need to have the organization and people who know how to do this in a professional, transparent and effizient way.
Nokia seems to have done the same with their Nokia900 handy desaster recently.
People seriously overprice Lumnia 900 issues. It’s not like Apple exploding batteries – and yet everyone speak of it as an ultimate evil and failure. lol
this is the problem with sony – they have no idea what they’re doing – sony is a badly managed company.
If you live in the US, check your local Best Buy. Many stores got them yesterday. I know because I bought one. You can check stock online.
Thanks Joe. Picked mine up today!
What area US are you in? North East?
It is a shame it is delayed. But then again from the reviews I read, the EVF and pricing might me consider to buy the A65 instead of the A57. (Hopefully more gets clear before my summer holiday, because I want to replace my A300 before leaving…)
same here! 😀
this sucks… :-/ i don’t get the point what’s so difficult to adopt the a65 firmware to work with the 16mp sensor?
A57 won’t have A65 firmware.
I know, it was generalised, but still… regarding the specs, a lot of the parts(except the “new” evf) is already used in an other camera if I’m right. 😉
I don’t get it. The a77 was released with an half backed firmware. Everyone complained and trolled about the FW and that Sony beter delayed it until it’s an totally working product.
This time Sony does delay the release, to release a complete product and everyone is still wining… I realy like this site for the rumors but almost hate it for the dumb comments on every rumor.
People have the right to say what they think. To me, if that’s OK with you, I don’t understand why announce a camera that you can’t deliver until 6 months later! Even Apple stopped doing that!
You clearly don’t understand how things work around here:
Rumour (Sony doing x) = Everyone bitches about Sony doing x
Example
Rumour: ‘Sony to release perfect camera with zero flaws, will never need another camera again, period’ = Commenters: ‘Groannn, when will Sony realise professionals like me NEED imperfection, will now have to buy a Nikon!’
Hmmm. Just had a look at online prices: A77 now available new for ~£900, initial release firmware issues now gone…
*Very* tempting!
it can get even better. I found one for 777 pounds here and one for 835 pounds. Body only, but: very, very, very tempting.
the price of the A57 is the same as the A65 (on Amazon at least), wheres the logic?
they are quite similar cameras actually, hence the similar price (only real difference is better high ISO in A57 for better EVF in A65). Besides: wait few weeks till market verifies prices and it won’t be the same anymore 🙂
How about GPS data and higher resolution too.
Launch prices are always higher. The A57 will drop in price.
Am I missing something? Everywhere I look- Sony, Amazon, etc…the a57 is $200 less than the a65…($699 vs $899 body)
I brought an a57 in Hong Kong a few days ago. It hasn’t blown up in my face yet.
I trust if there is a major issue (haven’t found any yet) with the camera then they will issue a recall or promptly send out a firmware update..
Why not Sony put the firmware open-source ? It works well form smartphone and PC OS. And on my old canon, chdk improve greatly camera usability and capability.
yes, I’d like it as well
it can be only a win-win for both sony and customers. the best example is the gh1/2
+1
The firmware would be “hacked” allowing features to be enabled that should only be available on higher costs bodies.
Yep, exactly. That’s why no big companies release firmware to mess with. All you can see in a tools like chdk is usually reassembled code which is both: illegal and requiring a lot of effort from high-grade specialists to do (guys mostly do this for fun after work hours, which is a great achievement all by itself).
Many issues, but a major one is product support / warranties. The vendor cannot possibly support a camera with custom firmware, but denying the customer support creates badwill. Therefore it’s the wrong path.
There is one strange thing with my a57 which you might find a bit odd for me to mention but it does happen. After using it for only a few minutes my left hand has a bad odor which comes from the camera. I can’t pinpoint the exact odor but it smells kind of plasticky/chemically. I have taken the lens off and smelt inside the camera but can’t locate the source of the odor…
Im just trying it now and the camera doesn’t even have to be switched on. Must be the plastic material or rubber grip on the lens barrel or something.
and before I’m ridiculed, yes I do have good hygiene and my hands have not been in bad places..
Maybe this is the “Firmware Issue” Sony mentioned ?
Cheap, poisend plastic material from China used in production 😉 ?
what about the models already out there? i have one just shipped from a famous website….
Yeah maybe. Considering most things are made in china then I guess we are all doomed.
Other than that I have been impressed with the photos it has produced.
Wish they could once get things right the first time.
“fixing the firmware” seems to be a familiar tag line in recent Sony stories. Note to Sony: “Quit screwing your customers with junk products!!!”
The a57s are in stock at Best Buy in my area.
I got my a57 in hand 2 days ago. And I have played with it for a couple of hours, but just cannot see what the problem is. Everything seems normal to me. Can anyone tell what the issue is? Thank you.
any news abt release date in india?
They seem to be in germany stores in 2 till 4 days?
http://www.cameratools.de/default.asp?pageid=34&artdetail=SOSLTA57V.CEE5&webgroupfilter=440
Forget it Sinjin ..
i asked the SONY STORE here in Berlin.. they told me…. MAYBE.. 22.5 but without any guarantee !
Not word by word
———–
Vergiss es Sinjin..
ich habe beim SONY Store hier in Berlin nachgefragt… sie sagten mir… VIELLEICHT… 22.5 … aber ohne jegliche Garantie.
Nicht Wortwörtlich.
Update.
A57 Kit now in some european stores!
But only the Kit 🙁
Just returned from media markt in the netherlands. I got a phonecall about the a57 which they expect on monday… Weird because in another place (same store) they told me next month is more likely. Well we willsee
I bought mine last Saturday at Best Buy. I upgraded the firmware to 1.02 today. Very simple process. Still getting used to the camera…will be using it exclusively while my a100 is being repaired. Nice camera. Takes good shots and I am really getting to like the LCD VF. Excellent camera for taking hand held low light pics (you can see some that I posted on Amazon…I reviewed the camera.)