Sony A99, prueba de vídeo from QUESABESDE on Vimeo.
Our Spanish friends over at Quesabesde (translation here) posted the full Sony A99 review. And while we know that at High ISO the A99 is certainly not the killer camera Quesabesde testing found that the A99 has the greatest dynamic range of all Full Frame cameras on market. And color reproduction and resolution are on a very high level. Really great news! I certainly prefer to have a gretaer dynamic range than having a little bit less noise at 12.800 ISO!
And also the german website D-pixx (translation here) likes the A99: “it is one step ahead (of Canon and Nikon) in terms of features and ease of use.”
Sony A99 preorder list:
A99 body Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Jessops, Wex UK, Wex Germany, eBay, Sonystore DE–UK–FR–IT–ES–NL–SE–FI–CH and more links at Alphacameradeals.
A99 with kit lens links Alphacameradeals.
Some more A99 bits: A99 pics by Simon on Flickr. Why A99 video is limited? (dpreview forum).
42 Responses
Cool
i took a BTS pic on a model shoot on the weekend. model in shade and assistant in direct hard sunlight and to my shock wasnt blown out and i brought pretty much all the details back so im not suprised by thier findings
That’s so good to hear Anthony! Show us some of your pics if you have time to share them…
yeah here is a pic from a shoot on weekend
http://500px.com/photo/17522045
and here is a link to the BTS pic with the other model
http://sphotos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/23876_10152219277545705_1068646892_n.jpg
being a BTS pic all i did to it in LR was set highlights to -80 i think and exported it
Thanks!!!!
Your picture here is just lovely. I would like much more of this where people share links to their work. Less words and more pictures. I want to learn more from other Sony shooters.
Yep, I am working on an idea for that 🙂
Impressive!!!!
Superb shot! I agree, people pay too much attention to high ISO and too little to dynamic range.
Stef.
yeah that would be a great idea as the pics mean more than the words 🙂
thanks for liking the pics
great video .. loved it
actually i got hungry from the look of those delicious circles
Well, for my personal use I don’t care a thing about noise at ISO800+. Dynamic range and detail resolution is by far more important. But I think that saying that A99 got best dynamic range of all FF DSLRs is a little bit of an overkill.
+1
I will definitely wait for DxO result to see about the dynamic range. Tonal and dynamic range at base ISO are the two most important parameters for me.
-1
I don’t give a damn about DXO. Those aren’t real world numbers, hell they don’t even properly describe the box you get to work in. At this level the sensors are so good the difference of those 12-40 points people get all hyped up about is negligible at best. I do care what I can put into print and I can tell you the A99v has what it takes to go to print with extraordinary success, including some of the best color output I’ve ever seen from any DSLR, period. And while the sensor is pretty damn good on the A99v don’t forget the slew of other features it has that Canon and Nikon are simply unable to do. Not one of the big three have THE killer camera right now, and I think that’s irrefutable. They have seemingly created three very different pieces of hardware just to make it more difficult for reviewers to find parity… but easier for the sales peeps to figure out what to sell to whom. There will be people who must have the A99v for various reasons, others who will need the 5DMkIII… and then others who will be more successful shooting the D800.
In the end, the print quality is excellent on all three. The D800 gets the edge with the right lenses for obvious reasons… but the A99v has several things that also set it apart.
+1
Very well said dyna!
Stef.
If you only look at the point ranking, then DxO is useless. DxO is meant to be read in detailed measurements. What is your definition of real-world measurements? If camera A gives a satisfactory print to you, that doesn’t mean it will for others since it is a qualitative and objective measurement. DxO with the normalized measurements (though can be arbitrary at time) is more subjective and quantitative. The D800 sensor is almost an ISO-less sensor with a huge dynamic range. Some might say the difference of a couple eVs would not be noticeable, but it sure is for me. For me, the 5D III is not appealing because of the shadow noise banding and lower dynamic range at low ISO. Yet there are people who wouldn’t care for that and still take good pictures.
This site is very funny. This unknown reviewer has said something about Sony and people take it without quetions. Threre have been comparisons here with other cameras and people here dismiss them because they dont like the results. And what is wrong with DxO mark? If we cannot scientifically measure camra parameters, then how true is the statemnt that a99 has the best DR of all FF camras?
If the D600 share the same sensor, I really doubt that he has less dynamic range than the Sony.
As usual with the translucent technology, Sony is probably one step behind cameras sharing the same sensor, even in dynamic. Juste compare a65, a77 and nex7 in dxomark…
I would also like to see a comparison with the D800…
I will wait for the Steak-sauce Alpha. The D800 is a very nice camera, but the F mount is just too limited for my need as an alternative lens shooter. Hopefully, the A1 would be even better next year.
I played with the a99 today in the new sony shop in Guangzhou… they prepared a huge table with all kinds of toys and moving things to test the camera’s on display on. After taking some shots, i feel safe to say that up to iso 3200 all details is retaine. im so impressed by the powerhouse inside the body, its true joy to play with… hope to take one home with me in the not too far distant… here its quite cheap also.. 2400 euro ‘only’ :), i bet HK must be even cheaper!
I used Nikon for over 6 years. Since 7 months I use Sony. It is many things superior. Colours of the A99 are so much more dynamic and analogue like. Are the Nikon people fucking blind. Buy a new set of classes! There is also much more depth info. I use the Samsung PS64D8000 for viewing with the best hdmi cable Diamond of Audioquest. This Samsung was in 2011 the best screen in realistic colours in the world. Nikon is good, but Sony is superior in most of the things which really matters!
Yes, well, most of the people I know personally who shoot Sony are here mostly for this one reason: Excellent colours. Well, that’s one of the things that most of people don’t bother in this age… wherever I look it’s all about ISOs, sometimes also DR. None of the other factors making image quality are ever discussed… because they cannot be easily quantified in raw numbers and then show on DxO Mark or wherever else.
Well taking pictures at the same spot my friend with a D300 had to use a pola filter to get a nice blue sky. He was totally amazed as my Sony did it without. 🙂
A pic – but from my 850 – that has nice dynamic range: http://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/30061957#30061957
Or this sunlover. http://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/30144690#30144690
A more muted pallet for this graceful creature in the forest: http://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/29684334#29684334
I call BS on this claim. It is impossible for the SLT A99 to have the highest dynamic range of any FF camera when there are other FF cameras out there with the same A99 FF sensor but without the light robbing SLT mirror and resolution degrading phase detect AF pixels.
So of the top of my head I cannot believe that A99 has better dynamic range than the Sony RX1 or the Nikon D600. It is impossible.
For someone to make the claim that quesabesde made would require that they ran empirical tests like DxO does or that they have access to detailed internal SONY sensor parameters which they don’t.
If SONY gave me a free A99 to “test” as they do for these review sites that sprout up all over the web, I’m sure that I would have very positive things to say about the camera too.
Right now the leader in DR is the Nikon D800 with the Sony 36mpx sensor.
DxO doesn’t run “empirical” tests, they make maths.
Also I wouldn’t run with such a bold, based on nothing claims if I were You.
com’on, nut, you know it’s the electronics that are going to play into dynamic range specifically. That being said, I — just like you — have not made a comparison. The reviewers specifically said:
“Apart from that the A99 has a great level of detail, great color reproduction and low light performance you would expect from a full-frame sensor. We were also pleasantly surprised by the wide dynamic range of the camera that boasts subtly greater than ever seen before in this segment.”
So, people who get “test” cameras from many vendors were surprised by the DR and subjectively found it superior. Take that for what it is.
It sounds awesome.
Here’s a photo I took with the a99 & SAL1635Z at night, long shutter speed. The a99 preserves so much details in the highlights and shadows that it was simply so easy to recover them in ACR! I would definitely struggle to get this with my ex-camera, the a850.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kysham/8135351086/
wow1
I expect that the A99 results with SXOMark Sensor will be out soon, and I expect a great score, at least in the range of the D4 and the D3X. It may come up a tad short of the D600 (primarily a matter of high-iso noise), but I expect the difference to be somewhat less than half a stop, probably closer to one third, and as good or better for both dynamic range and color depth.
The DXO rating for the Canon 1DX (Canon’s premier camera) just came out. It’s better than the 5D3 in high-iso noise, for which it is roughly at the same level as the D600 and the D4–but not in color depth or dynamic range. Its total score was 82, far behind the Sony sensors. I expect that the A99 may be a little behind it in high-iso noise (though not by much), a stop ahead of it in color depth, and two stops ahead in dynamic range. trouncing it over-all in IQ.
The article actually says that the A99 has a SUBTLE advantage on DR over other cameras in its class.
“También nos ha sorprendido gratamente el amplio rango dinámico del que hace gala la cámara, sutilmente mayor que lo visto hasta ahora en este segmento.”
My bad translation (but better than Google’s):
Also what has nicely surprised us is that the DR on this camera, which is subtly greater than what we have seen until now in this segment.
The killer question is: IS IT BETTER THAN A D800?
Yeah, it is not.
Yeah, you do answer to yourself!
I caught you!
Why do you answer to your own question?
In all honesty, I have never seen that man, let alone post after myself.
ive used d800 and now have the a99 i find their output ( minus the higher res ) to be very identical but actually think better colour on a99. more important though is i find a99 easier to use and more user friendly therefor for me i find a99 beter than d800 any techy camera stuff aside
+1 for Anthony, I switched from a D800 to a A99 and kept all my zeiss lenses and converted the mount via leitax.
We already know this camera has a killer sensor. I cannot wait until I can afford to buy one of these or a d600 (hello 2014!).
The findings in this review for Sony A99’s dynamic range is corroborated by an earlier hands-on by fashion/glamour photog and 5Dm3 shooter Frank Doorhof:
http://www.frankdoorhof.com/site/2012/10/sony-alpha99-preview/
and
http://www.frankdoorhof.com/site/2012/10/modelshoot-with-the-sony-alpha-99/
The A99 is an amazing piece of kit!