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A99 is here!

Aaron

New member
Looks interesting. The questions I have in mind are:

Whats the high iso performance?

How weather sealed is it really?...(its got lots of little holes on top plate for mic)

And the big deal maker or breaker- The EVF, is it really worth it to go this route?

Aaron.
 
Looks interesting. The questions I have in mind are:

Whats the high iso performance?
Early ISO tests look very good to me - on par with the Mark III and D800

How weather sealed is it really?...(its got lots of little holes on top plate for mic)
I would trust Sony's claims.

And the big deal maker or breaker- The EVF, is it really worth it to go this route?

Aaron.
Depends on your view of the technology and whether you see the potential benefits for your personal mode of shooting. I do concert, architectural and editorial and I see great benefits for all three types. Others may not...
 

kuau

Workshop Member
I pre-ordered one from 3 places :ROTFL:

I do love my D800E, and Zeiss lenses, and yet at the same time, because of my horrible vision, I either have to trust AF confirm light on my D800 which I don't so I have to use LV which is not the greatest when zoomed in,
I use the OVF for composition only then go right to LV.

I also still have my NEX 7 with its excellent EVF and tilting LCD, I can easily manual focus anything, and I don't even have focus peaking turned on.

So the A99 for me at least on paper should be a good fit. My only question I ask myself is can I live with "only" 24mp???

I have already ordered and received Leitax mounts so I can easily convert my Zeiss Nikon glass over to Sony mount with ease and I also purchased a used Contax 135mm F2.8 MM Zeiss T* lens and converted the mount already to Sony and have been trying it out with my nex 7, works great.

We will see....
 

dhsimmonds

New member
For me everything hinges on the quality of the EVF. The A900 is so good with it's optical VF that the A99 will need to be just superb. Having said that, the A77 's EVF is very good and has allowed me to get shots in very low light that the A900 just would not see. The light gain is so useful but it still has a bit of screen lag and if Sony have eliminated that on the A99 it could be a winner.
 

Paratom

Well-known member
In bright and contrasty light I found the EVF of the Nex7 not to be on par with a goodoptical viewfinder.
I am not into Sony DSLR but if I was I would prefer a camera with an OVF.
For people who do like EVF this sounds like a great camera and I am sure it will deliver great IQ.
 

dhsimmonds

New member
reported to be £2500 in the UK. It usually equates to about the same in US$ in the states...........we always get charged more on this side of the pond!!!
 

KenLee

Active member
What are the options for lenses ? Are there adapters which will let us shoot manual focus, with "legacy glass" as we can with NEX ?
 

kuau

Workshop Member
Excellent choices for manual focus lenses.
Easy mount conversion you can do yourself from leitax.com
I will be converting my Zeiss ZF1/ZF2 glass over to A mount.
Easy to do also you can get used Contax/Zeiss MM lenses which are excellent and convert those also.

For manual focus photographers who want FF 24MP, The A99 will be the way to go. I believe so much, that I ordered one and plan to replace me D800E.

Thank hopefully next year Sony will come out with a 36mp version of the camera and I will be all set.

Don't get me wrong I love my D800E, best DSLR out there right now, but for me who only shoots manual focus lenses, my vision is not so great and I need all the help I can get for accurate focus, and the A99 is the ticket for me. D800E using LV zoomed in is not a great experience, and I also have to use a 3x Hoodman loupe

Steven

What are the options for lenses ? Are there adapters which will let us shoot manual focus, with "legacy glass" as we can with NEX ?
 

KenLee

Active member
Thank you - that's very encouraging !

I really like the focus-peaking feature: I don't know if any other cameras have it, but for me it's a show-stopper if the camera doesn't have that. If Sony is the only one with that, I will stay with Sony.

Perhaps I am wrong, but I have read some tests where the same lenses, mounted on a full-frame camera, get around 33% higher resolution than on APS-C sensors. I guess it's hard to make a good sensor that is small.

I would love a 36MP version of the A99. Perhaps next year at this time, that will be the new subject of conversation. :)
 

ptomsu

Workshop Member
I must say I am really intrigued by the A99. Especially the EVF if it really holds up to the specs and rumors will be a super solution, of course also for MF glass.

I still want to wait a bit before I make a jump again and let first others experience issues and problems. I could see that for my style of shooting the 24MP if they are really good should be better than 36MP, which almost none of the existing Nikon glass and also not much of Zeiss glass can really hold up against - so then its better to stay with 24MP.

On the other hand as the A99 also has a broad selection of A-mount Zeiss lenses, where some of them are on my favorite list like the 24, the new 50, the 85 and the 135 this is maybe the better solution over all. And also the 70-400 seems to be fully supported on the A99 dual AF which should be a real advantage compared to Nikon and Canon and both of their lens solutions in that range are just older than ancient in design.

Finally also Sony will bring a 36MP FF DSLR in the next 12-18 months, which could then be the high res solution for landscape work etc.

Starts all adding together nicely ;)
 

Michiel Schierbeek

Well-known member
Excellent choices for manual focus lenses.
Easy mount conversion you can do yourself from leitax.com
I will be converting my Zeiss ZF1/ZF2 glass over to A mount.
Easy to do also you can get used Contax/Zeiss MM lenses which are excellent and convert those also.

Steven
When I look at the instructions on the Leitax site for conversions of C/Y Zeiss lenses, then I think it does not look all that easy. Besides I don't like to take all the original mounts of my Zeiss lenses, although it is reversable. And Leitax conversion costs € 68 for each lens without focus conformation ( about € 50,- extra) and shipping.

For the rest it is only M42 mounts to use on Sony Alpha with a straight adapter. So the choice is actually very limited. The Canon mount has far more possibilitys to use different mounts with regular adapters.

That is why I wait for FF mirrorless, I think.

Michiel
 

kuau

Workshop Member
I agree with Peter,
It seems that 24MP is probably the peak MP for todays hi quality lenses,
again not to say you can't get great results with todays lenses and the D800/D800E
I know I do, just takes perfect technique. Not saying the A99 will also require perfect technique, but getting there should be easier. I hope.....
And if the SLT mirror does prove to be a IQ reducer, I guess you can just pull it out, yeah loose AF, but for me AF I don't even use.
Should be interesting
Just have to wait and see.
 

kuau

Workshop Member
Michiel,
I thought the same thing, but still went ahead and ordered both the C/Y to Sony A mount and the Zeiss ZF1/ZF2 mounts.
To be honest I did the conversion on my Contax 135/2.8 MM lens, it really was not that hard to do, just follow the instructions, and if you get stuck, Paul at Leitax always responds to emails and was a great help.
The mounts are of very high quality and worth every penny IMHO.
Focus conformation is also available, you just need to order the chip that easily glues onto the Leitax mount, though again whats the need of focus conformation on a EVF/ Focus peaking and zoom in. This is the best conformation you can get.

Steven

When I look at the instructions on the Leitax site for conversions of C/Y Zeiss lenses, then I think it does not look all that easy. Besides I don't like to take all the original mounts of my Zeiss lenses, although it is reversable. And Leitax conversion costs € 68 for each lens without focus conformation ( about € 50,- extra) and shipping.

For the rest it is only M42 mounts to use on Sony Alpha with a straight adapter. So the choice is actually very limited. The Canon mount has far more possibilitys to use different mounts with regular adapters.

That is why I wait for FF mirrorless, I think.

Michiel
 

Michiel Schierbeek

Well-known member
Thanks Steven, I think about it. But I think I left big dslr bodys, although I really want to go FF now.
I Have about 13 C/Y Zeiss lenses. That will count up :( .

But I think it will be a lovely camera and may be....

Michiel
 
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