LCD:
3 inch and 921.000 dot resolution
It has Trueblack tecnology with level gauge, focus point maginification and a gridline.
EVF:
One of the main strenghts is that in the dark the EVF (electronic viewfinfer) displays better images than the OVF (optical viewfinder)
You can use the EVF in video mode (you can’t do that with an Optical viewfinder)
1.44 dots LCD (not OLED sory)
100% coverage / 0.95x magnification
Special features:
Auto HDR (3 frames combined), Multi-frame NoiseReduction in Low-Light situations (it takes 6 frames to combine them), Hand-Held Twilight, 3D sweep panorama. There is also a new automatic mode that can automatically select on of the special features above!
16 Responses
An automatic mode that automatically selects automatic features? Must be for someone more advanced than myself.
“One of the main strenghts is that in the dark the EVF (electronic viewfinfer) displays better images than the OVF (optical viewfinder)”
I thought it was always the opposite with EVFs vs OVFs?
Kevin: it’s probably like that intelligent auto mode on the NEX type cameras which will detect if the photo will benefit from HDR, handheld twilight or multi-shot noise reductions and automatically select for those.
I like those features on the NEX cameras but as usual, not much on the plate for RAW shooters. I expect all those auto features will provide very limited control over the final results, and will be JPG output only.
0.95x magnification with 1.5 (APSC) crop factor means 0.633 effective viewfinder size, which is not bad, as it is about the same as the Canon 7D and better than the Alpha 700. However, it’s still not as good as any FF camera on the market.
(http://www.neocamera.com/feature_viewfinder_sizes.php)
@ Benj: what you say is in line with the rumors we read in the previous hours. Top notch VF, probably inferior to A900 only. I’d say that it would be quite a result for the range of these cameras.. Guess what could then come out from 7XX and 9XX series.. Scary!!
Effective size is not the only metric of VF quality, but if we look at that parameter only, it’s not only inferior to the A900, but to *all* the FF cameras (including the A850).
Using the numbers in the URL above, Axx EVF rumoured effective size is slightly better than the A700, granted, but it’s simply on par with Canon 7D and Nikon D300s, which also enjoy the 100% coverage. So it’s not that earth-shattering compared to the competition.
It remains to be seen whether the EVF is any good in low-light situation, too.
The EVF size is revolutionary though in this segment of DSLR’s, i.e. small ones. The competition is not the 7D or A900, it’s the 500D, D5000, and here the EVF is much superior.
Sounds good, some feature, like auto panorama, multi-frame for low noise and automatics scène recognition are borrowed from compact. I think it’s the first crossover between a compact and a dslr.
The effective size of the Panasonic G1/GH1/G2 EVF is 0.70, so the Sony EVF is slightly less. But the refresh rate is also important. The olympus VF-2 has an effective size of only 0.58 but handles movement better than the Panasonic EVF. Most people who have compared the two prefer the Olympus EVF. It would be great if Sony combined the best of both but we’ll have to wait for a review to see.
I love the Auto-HDR and handh-held twilight modes on my DSC-TX7. I can’t wait to see the results they can produce on an Alpha with IS.
Speaking of view finder size, I wish more people were as upset about the current state of DSLR viewfinders as I am. You can’t buy a sub $1000 camera with a .7x or greater magnification; or a DSLR at any price with a .8x or greater size. However Nikon still sells a $300 film camera with roughly .84x. My 30 year old Pentax LX view finder makes the $7000 Canon 1Ds look like a tunnel. Even my Nikon F100 that I picked up on eBay for $180 has a better VF than virtually any DSLR I’ve used. The only DSLR’s that are close are the Sony A850/900 and Canon 1Ds.
1.44 dots EVF LCD? 1.44 thousand? Too low. 1.44 million? Too much to be true.
@Steve indeed, I just checked Panasonic G2 viewfinder info and it seems a tad better than Sony Axx: 100% coverage, 1.4x magnification, 4:3 sensor (hence 0.7 effective size).
For a nice visual comparison of VF sizes: http://i.imgur.com/Pk8xW.jpg In that diagram, the Axx VF should be similar to the D300 if the rumour is true.
@Eric I’m in full agreement. It’s quite a shame really. Look how the Olympus OM-1 film camera dwarfs the state-of-the-art Canon 1DsIII (1DsIV is even smaller).
@dk 1.44 million pixels EVF is what was rumored a few posts down.
@dk – He meant 1.44 Million ‘dots’ – and actually it’s reasonable – check out Kopin they make stamp size LCDs with SXGA resolution –
For 1.44 Million – it would be a step down, just SVGA – that is 800 x 600 x 3 dots – Kopin has been providing an ultra-compact (0.59″ diagonal) package for quite a few years now
Here is the link to their spec sheet – http://www.kopin.com/data/File/SVGA7_27_2006.pdf
Woohoo! It’s 1.1x magnification, not 0.95x… so that’s 0.74 effective size (same as Alpha 900, and better than *anything* else in the digital camera business, including all the pro Nikon and Canon cameras).