The high-iso noise was never kept as a secret and we all knew about it before buying so it's not really a surprise to anyone. Now the funny thing is that people who were advocating that photos are meant to be printed not scrutinized at 100% seem to have changed their mind
"People" ... thinly veiled reference to me I'm sure :ROTFL: Evidently no critical observations are allowed here.
Why is it that all this has to be "for or against?" :wtf: Or did Jack and Guy decide that this Sony forum is only for "mutual admiration"?
Objective criticism concerning performance of this relatively new camera is what leads to possible solutions isn't it?
Now some folks are experimenting with post techniques to lessen that effect which I am pretty certain came from reacting to observations concerning the noise issue. Without objective critical comments nothing gets done, or gets done slowly. It's the same process many Zeiss lovers went through with the Contax ND which was a LOT more plagued with issues ... many of which got solved, albeit too late (I say that because I see this camera as the natural successor to the ND which also featured AF Zeiss lenses).
When I said that IMO the true test is prints not 100% screen shots, I meant exactly that. IMO, we should evaluate it that way because it's the end intent that counts. At that time I hadn't printed all that much from this camera.
That was then. This is now.
I've now printed over 400 A900 files, some at 17X22, most at 8X10 ... but some of those are crops, with a few severe crops.
Noise shows up in prints also.
Most certainly not as bad as the 100% screen grabs show ... but it's there to contend with. And depending on the ambient conditions, it isn't just in high ISO files either. It manifests itself differently at different luminance levels. Just to mention one thing I've noticed, it can adversely affect the subtile OOF transitions of the bokeh that the Zeiss lenses deliver because of the more abrupt noise transitions.
To be clear, I am not looking for NO noise, and in some conditions the noise is perfectly acceptable even more film like than other cameras deliver. It's the other real world situations where blotchiness, uneven noise levels, less ability to lift shadow areas and so on ... is in need of attention.
Some of that can be addressed and is being addressed ... and some of it we'll learn to live with. That will help all of us define the boundaries of this camera to maximize its performance and avoid it's shortcomings.
However, implying there are no shortcomings is useless internet chatter of zero value to anyone IMHO.
I also don't think we make this camera better by trashing other really good ones ... it just makes it all look very defensive and lacks credibility.