Sony A77

[ptomsu]

The more I look into the features of the A77 and what Sony has on their plate for the future, the more interesting this concept gets for me

 

[iiiNelson]

According to the newest rumor the A77 will be released in Japan on 16 September 2011 and in USA and Europe somewhere between 10-27 October 2011.

 

[etrigan63]

Yes Jono, it'll put me off unless it is a substantial improvement over the A55 ... which it may well be. I'm more interested in the high ISO IQ as a suppliment to the A900 for wedding work.

-Marc

I echo Marc's sentiments. If the A77's IQ at high-iso exceeds my D700, I may well jump ship to be able to use the Zeiss AF glass.

 

[peterb]

Hi, Peter. There've already been sizing approximations done by various people, and it looks to be a little bigger than my NEX-5 with a leather half-case on it. So, while it is a little bigger than current NEX cameras, it isn't anywhere near M9 size. The Zeiss 24 in the rumored photos looks to be just a tad longer than the kit zoom.

Hi Douglas,

If it's anything SAR seems to hint that the NEX 7 may indeed be close in size to an M9, which wouldn't be bad in my opinion. In fact very much welcome.

P

http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/sr4-an-nex-7-hands-on-report-and-nex-5n-info/

 

[douglasf13]

Yeah, I think the person that SAR used as a reference must not have really handled an M9 before. Here is another comparison from another forum:

 

[fotografz]

+1

and market share cannot be earned by bringing out big number of new and in fact useless camera models, rather show a clear line of consumer and pro gear and evolve that over the years. This is I am totally missing.

Also they have that great cooperation with Zeiss, so why do we not yet see a lineup of Zeiss tele primes and zooms like 2.8/300, 2.8/400, 4/100-400 etc, etc ??? They are missing on a definite opportunity also in this area!

And further - I owned the Zeiss 2.8/16-35 and 2.8/24-70, but both lenses did by far not convince me. All my Nikon and Canon counterparts were simply better - WRT optical quality as well as mechanics and stability and haptics.

So I think Sony can produce great sensors, but delivering on cameras or even more systems they fail.

This was the main reason I went out of this system some 18 months ago and it will be hard to convince me to go back.

Agree and disagree.

Agree that for some including me, (but not everyone), a plethora of novelty cameras is a waste of time and energy. This isn't elitist, it's based on need and srandards which vary for each person. I have little interest in more toys and so called innovations that have little relationship to real world needs ... (even though I have very diversified needs, I found them to be mostly useless). I sometimes buy one of these things just to see what the hub-bub is all about (Like the A55), and find them more hub-bub than a serious tool ... something I need to stop wasting money on.

I'd have to subjectively disagree on the lens thing. I actually shot my Sony A900 side-by-side with a Nikon D3X for thousands of images. The Zeiss feel is my preference by a fair margin over the Nikon Nano coated counter-parts that, while technically well behaved, have less emotional or artistic guts in how they render. Different strokes for different folks.

I dumped the Nikon stuff once the Sony A900 and ZAs proved robust enough to withstand the rigors of relentless wedding and portrait work that I use these cameras for. In comparison, my Nikon 24-70 broke in half twice because of the pig-iron (or whatever it is) frame casting inside the lens. Having the KEY wedding lens go down twice in one year isn't funny ... at all. Bad luck? Maybe. However, twice with two different lenses, makes me more suspicious.

Zero issues with the A900s and all of the lenses almost three years running. I think that may be the longest I've ever stuck with the same 35mm DSLR camera body. I have no intention of replacing a well proven kit with an unknown to get more meg or some initial innovation of dubious real world use ... unless it adds other benefits not available with my S2 or other high IQ system ... like truly usable higher ISO without giving up file size and IQ for the majority of the shots that do not need anything over ISO 800 or 1,000 which the A900 does quite well already.

Currently my S2/A900/M9 team meets or exceeds 98% of my varying demands ... I don't need toys, I need substantive stuff that improves on this, not something that does the same thing in a different way.

-Marc

 

[Ocean]

... The Zeiss feel is my preference by a fair margin over the Nikon Nano coated counter-parts that, while technically well behaved, have less emotional or artistic guts in how they render. Different strokes for different folks.
...

-Marc

My experience mirrors what Marc have just said. While Nikon 24-70/2.8 is almost a 'perfect' lens, I much prefer the rendering style of Zeiss ZA zoom.

 

[etrigan63]

+1 on the rendering qualities of Zeiss glass. The ZF.2 lenses I have tested are stellar performers but the lack of auto-focus keeps them in my "artsy lens" category. If the A77 and the A99 come through as promised, I will move just gain access to the Zeiss glass.

 

[jonoslack]

A

Currently my S2/A900/M9 team meets or exceeds 98% of my varying demands ... I don't need toys, I need substantive stuff that improves on this, not something that does the same thing in a different way.

-Marc

Mine would as well (if I had an S2 )
Still, I agree with pretty much everything you say . . . despite serious GAS attacks my principle gear always seems to gravitate back to the A900 and the M9.

 

[hot]

source: www.sonyalpharumors.com



,

 

[etrigan63]

Yes I just posted these images to my blog as well.

 

[Bill_Green]

I will be very interested to see if the viewfinder is useable with polarized sunglasses.

 

[Jjcra]

Did they get rid of steady shot? Don't see it on these photos

 

[ecsh]

Probably a menu item only as in some of the other models.

 

[my_photography]

The wait is finally over. Sony has formally announced the A77. More info at http://dpreview.com/previews/sonyslta77/.

 

[jonoslack]

. . .. and I've formally ordered one. looks great to me.

 

[Bob]

. . .. and I've formally ordered one. looks great to me.

LOL,
I am looking for a button to push to do that too.
-bob

 

[jonoslack]

LOL,
I am looking for a button to push to do that too.
-bob

I had to push several buttons - on my talky thing, then have a chat with the nice man at Park cameras - he said that I'm first in line (which is always nice).
October for the A77, and when I've had some fun with that there'll be an Nex7 in November.

 

[Jorgen Udvang]

I'm trying to be skeptical here, but after looking at some samples from dpr, I'm officially impressed. They look good, and that lens can't be too shabby either. Surprisingly sharp in the corners, even at 16mm.

But... a buffer of only 13 RAW files when the camera shoots at 12fps... isn't that on the skinny side. Even an F6 can shoot for 4 seconds before it runs out of steam. And... according to Imaging Resource (thank you for the link, Jono) they have not solved the viewfinder delay problem. One still sees the last shot, not the actual action. In the marketing video for the A77, they make it look like one can follow action during a burst, but it's done head-on, and it wouldn't work well with a pan shot. The fast frame rate helps a lot of course, since one will get an impression of what is going on simply by watching the photos as they appear in the viewfinder, but 12fps the whole day a whole race weekend? That sounds like 10,000+ photos after one weekend.

Back to the drawing board (or to Nikon).

 

[jonoslack]

I'm trying to be skeptical here, but after looking at some samples from dpr, I'm officially impressed. They look good, and that lens can't be too shabby either. Surprisingly sharp in the corners, even at 16mm.

But... a buffer of only 13 RAW files when the camera shoots at 12fps... isn't that on the skinny side. Even an F6 can shoot for 4 seconds before it runs out of steam. And... according to Imaging Resource (thank you for the link, Jono) they have not solved the viewfinder delay problem. One still sees the last shot, not the actual action. In the marketing video for the A77, they make it look like one can follow action during a burst, but it's done head-on, and it wouldn't work well with a pan shot. The fast frame rate helps a lot of course, since one will get an impression of what is going on simply by watching the photos as they appear in the viewfinder, but 12fps the whole day a whole race weekend? That sounds like 10,000+ photos after one weekend.

Back to the drawing board (or to Nikon).

10,000 at that size (phew!). Still, they were working on 0.58 firmware, so it may be different when it appears. But I can see you're point. Doesn't bother me, as the 12fps is the least of my interest.