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Sony A77

dhsimmonds

New member
The long awaited Sony A700 replacement is expected to be announced in August 2011, a little later than the original anticipated July date.

Expected to be called the A77, this is the provisional specification according to "Sony Rumors":

The Sony A77 will be Sony’s new top APS-C model and replace the now very old Sony A700 (Click here to see that camera). It has a newly developed 24 Megapixel sensor which we have been told will deliver a crazy ISO performance. Specs are not 100% finalized yet but it looks like the ISO range goes from 100 up to 102.400 ISO. The A77 uses a new double Bionz processor and a newly developed 3 million dot OLED EVF. It takes more than 10 frames per seconds and has 11 cross AF points. Of course it can record videos at FullHD. It has a new USB 3.0 connection (with transmission speeds of up to 5 Gbit/s). Both cameras (the A77 and A65) will use the new translucent technology (there will be no optical viewfinder Sony camera anymore!). That allows Sony to reduce the production costs and we expect the A77 body only price to be around $1.000 only! That’s much less than the competition:
 

edwardkaraa

New member
The A77 will be a good indicator as to what to expect from the A99. It seems that it's going to be an awesome camera, so there are reasons to be optimistic.
 

dhsimmonds

New member
You are right Edward. I have both the A700 and A900 the latter being twice the pixel count of the other. Imagine if this was continued into the A99! Especially with the low noise, high ISO capability double Bionz sensors. However I am not expecting a 48Mpx full frame A99, more like 32 to 36Mpx but still awesome!:ROTFL:
 

Jim DE

New member
;) Hope you have a lot of external hard drives to store your masters on. ;)

I am more than a little curious as to how good the A77 will be at high ISO. Many manufacturers have had issues packing far too many pixels on a sensor and effectively losing high iso performance. I'm not enough of a gearhead to understand the what's and the if's but I will wait for some owner user responses before I jump on this train.
 

edwardkaraa

New member
As for me, it's not the high iso performance that is worrying me, Sony has shown in its latest cameras that it has already mastered this art. I am more concerned about the low iso performance and the color separation that makes the A900 so special in the color department. The high iso gain in performance may very well be on the expense of low iso, as we have seen with both Canon and Nikon.
 

jsparks

Member
;) Hope you have a lot of external hard drives to store your masters on. ;)

I am more than a little curious as to how good the A77 will be at high ISO. Many manufacturers have had issues packing far too many pixels on a sensor and effectively losing high iso performance. I'm not enough of a gearhead to understand the what's and the if's but I will wait for some owner user responses before I jump on this train.
Well we haven't seen the A77 sensor yet, but the current 16Mpix APS Sony sensor is the highest resolution Sony APS sensor available and is generally considered to be the best high ISO APS sensor available (possible exception is the sensor in the Fuji X100 which is lower resolution).

I don't think it is clear that higher resolution sensors are necessarily worse at high ISO. I fully expect that whatever resolution is used in the sensor for the A99, it will be better at high ISO than the A900 (if it is not, I won't buy one as I am really happy with my A900 except at really high ISO, I really don't need or really want any more Mpix than I already have).
 

apsheng

Member
;) Hope you have a lot of external hard drives to store your masters on. ;)

I am more than a little curious as to how good the A77 will be at high ISO. Many manufacturers have had issues packing far too many pixels on a sensor and effectively losing high iso performance. I'm not enough of a gearhead to understand the what's and the if's but I will wait for some owner user responses before I jump on this train.
If anyone can do this Sony can. They have been the leader in sensor R/D and have invested heavily in the needed semiconductor fabs before anyone else.

Alan
 

douglasf13

New member
Eric Fossum, inventor of the CMOS, sees both megapixels and quality going up simultaneously, and it's kinda hard to argue with him. The so-called megapixel race is only improving image quality, so I wouldn't worry about it.

In the beginning, we saw pixel counts going up and up, and then we saw a misguided rally against it, and now we're back to understanding that more pixels in the future is a good thing:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1000&message=37409155
 

Jim DE

New member
My comments were basically directed towards the evolution of say the Canon G series the G-9 was popular then came the G10 which the loaded over 15 mp on the same sensor and everyone screamed bloody H about it till Canon dropped it back down to 10 mp for the G11. I have a G10 I use in a underwater housing and I always liked it for this limited usage but I was a minority.

I have seen nothing as of yet that states any negative comments about the new sensor used on the 77 but there is enough history to adding pixels to sensors to make me stand back and not be a beta tester for one of these this time.

I bought a Nex 5 when first introduced and could not be happier. I got a a33 when it first hit USA Sony Style and have no real complaints except some fringing issues on some long tele shots. The a77 has had a bunch of anticipation about it and it's introduction and I expect it to be a great product BUT I will take a "wait and see" approach this time because I have not determined if I want the a77 or the rumored Nex7 OR Both ;) But 24mp raws is not something I "have to have" for my usage and would cost me additional money for storage devices for sure. I very very rarely print over a 8x10.

A lot will be revealed after Sony makes it's official announcements for the A77 and I will be reading as much as I can to determine when or if to pull the trigger on one or both if the Nex7 is a reality. But for me and my needs more pixels alone is not a big selling point but increased resolution and image quality is. We will all see soon enough huh?
 

ptomsu

Workshop Member
You are right Edward. I have both the A700 and A900 the latter being twice the pixel count of the other. Imagine if this was continued into the A99! Especially with the low noise, high ISO capability double Bionz sensors. However I am not expecting a 48Mpx full frame A99, more like 32 to 36Mpx but still awesome!:ROTFL:
If this is becoming true, my way back into the Sony camp will be granted!
 

biglouis

Well-known member
I've always suspected that Sony will end up owning the digital camera world and the rumours and speculation about the new A77 if true will win them new customers. However, if the trend is for smaller, lighter, higher performing cameras, when will that result in smaller, lighter lenses?

The size/weight of the Sony-Zeiss lenses has always put me off owning their kit (mind you, the same is true for Nikon and Canon).

LouisB
 

jonoslack

Active member
As for me, it's not the high iso performance that is worrying me, Sony has shown in its latest cameras that it has already mastered this art. I am more concerned about the low iso performance and the color separation that makes the A900 so special in the color department. The high iso gain in performance may very well be on the expense of low iso, as we have seen with both Canon and Nikon.
Hi Edward - but not with 16mp Sony sensor in the Pentax (and the A55), with it's excellent colour, dynamic range and colour.

I doubt that the new sensor will be worse.
 

douglasf13

New member
Sony seems to still be using a more opaque CFA than its competitors, even though they use the same underlying silicon. On DxO Mark, the sensitivity metamerism index of the A580, while not quite up to the A900, is still higher compared to the D7000 and K5. Sony still seems to be continuing the practice of sacrificing a little bit of high ISO performance for better color (the NEX cameras have good color, too.) In daylight balanced light, Sony cameras tend test with a metamarism index in the 80s, whereas Nikon and Pentax cameras tend to be in the 70s. Granted, how much difference that can actually be seen is up in the air. :)
 

jfirneno

Member
Sony seems to still be using a more opaque CFA than its competitors, even though they use the same underlying silicon. On DxO Mark, the sensitivity metamerism index of the A580, while not quite up to the A900, is still higher compared to the D7000 and K5. Sony still seems to be continuing the practice of sacrificing a little bit of high ISO performance for better color (the NEX cameras have good color, too.) In daylight balanced light, Sony cameras tend test with a metamarism index in the 80s, whereas Nikon and Pentax cameras tend to be in the 70s. Granted, how much difference that can actually be seen is up in the air. :)
I don't mind sacrificing a little high ISO to get the best colors. But I do confess that I covet the Nikon high ISO/low light capability. I'd love to have a separate high ISO camera for indoor work and even though I'm very happy with the A850 for everything else, I'd be fine with an APS-C camera for this indoor role. So if the A77 can take squeaky clean ISO 6400 shots, it'll be in my Christmas stocking this December (or August!).
Regards
John
 

douglasf13

New member
Sony seems to have been pretty constant in their cfa design, so I'd be surprised if the next round of cameras are any different, but who knows??
 

fotografz

Well-known member
I'm in the camp of wait and see.

I sold my A55 because I hated the EVF ... it was a novelty at first, then became an irritation. That has to improve to sway me back to any EVF.

A higher ISO Sony would be nice, and that was what I initially got the A55 for, but it wasn't quite there in terms of ISO performance. A higher ISO Sony would be a welcome addition to my wedding bag ... but as of late the improvements in post programs like LR3 have increased the ability of my A900s to be used in lower available light with the faster ZA lenses. Learning to properly process them over time has also helped.

The A900 (and A850) is such a good camera it is a hard act to follow. Not sure goosing the meg count to 32/36 or something like that is going to make all that much difference ... at least not as much as some think it will. It seems the higher you go, the more the diminishing returns.

I'd be a happy camper if the A99 was 25 meg FF, but improved the ISO performance by a stop or maybe two ... this would help more in the ISO 400 to 1250 range where a majority of available light shots fall for me (and generally, a lot of others). The novelty of ISO 5,000+ is so rare a need for most folks, that it's not worth giving up anything we now have with the A900. My A900s have become the backbone of my gear closet ... even though I have a pile of exotic gear, these Sony's have delivered the majority of paying work time and again ... I trust them, and the file quality right out of the camera has made life much easier compared to most everything I'd owned and used.

Time will tell if that can be actually improved upon.

-Marc
 

hot

Active member
Sony will announce the A77, A65, NEX-7, (probably a NEX-5N and VG20 too) and the new
16-50mm f/2.8 SSM and 24mm f/1.7 Zeiss E-mount lens (+ 50mm and 55-210mm) on August 23.
 
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