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Fun with the A99!

petetsai

Member
While meeting with Sony at PhotoPlus I was able to finagle an A99 for use overnight friday to shoot. I thought most people would be interested in its high-iso capability and theres always something to shoot in NYC. I had a selection of any lens to use, I decided the 24-70 zeiss would be ideal for the night.

All are using my normal workflow for street, LR adjusted (simple) from raws only.
Enjoy!

handheld 1/6th exposure at ISO2000.

NYC with the Sony A99 by PeteTsai, on Flickr

I really pushed things here, it was extremely dark out. ISO6400.

NYC with the Sony A99 by PeteTsai, on Flickr

Went of an underexposed shot on this one. ISO3200

NYC with the Sony A99 by PeteTsai, on Flickr

Gotta love Times Square on Halloween weekend! ISO3200

NYC with the Sony A99 by PeteTsai, on Flickr

ISO2000, I started backing off as I wasn't really sure if I'd have any useable images, but in all honesty, I would have no issue keeping things at 3200 or even 6400 for street work.

NYC with the Sony A99 by PeteTsai, on Flickr

Another at ISO2000

NYC with the Sony A99 by PeteTsai, on Flickr

A favorite shot of the trip, I had Psy singing Gangnam Style in mind when I shot this.

NYC with the Sony A99 by PeteTsai, on Flickr

Just one last one of a tourist snapping the bright lights big city!

NYC with the Sony A99 by PeteTsai, on Flickr
 

jonoslack

Active member
+1 Vivek

Well done Pete - lots of great shots - and the camera hasn't done too badly either!
How about the handling?
 

petetsai

Member
Thanks gang. Jonoslack, as to the handling overall the camera is great. The EVF and articulating LCD i found to be very valuable and usable. I shot some EVF and some hip style with the LCD flipped either out to a 90 or flipped up and around to where it won't go a full 90 but its up much higher near the hot shoe. I didn't shoot full manual as I was getting used to the different controls (mainly a nikon shooter) I was really amazed at the quality of the straight out jpegs when I loaded them onto my ipad 3. The Asian group crossing times square looked more like an 800 or 1600 shot although I did remember shooting that at 3200. The light weight of the body was great and helped offset the heavy 24-70 Zeiss glass (which is great and worth its weight!) I did turn on the image stabilization and I do feel it helped on some of the long exposures.

On the downside, the battery life is not super stellar, but I was shooting a lot more LCD live view then I would have normally because I could articulate the screen out. I should have grabbed more then one charged battery, but that is my fault. For a real job the camera can have 3 batteries total if the grip is used. I personally never found the EVF to be a hindrance at all, and once adjusting to the instantaneous image review in-viewfinder it was a great aid at ensuring "the shot" was in the can as we used to say. In playing with the raws I'm seriously impressed with the DR gains they have made, I feel its one stop better then my 5n easily, a camera that I've always been very impressed with, and that camera doesn't have a translucent mirror between the glass and the sensor! I wish I wasn't so exhausted by the end of the show day and start of the exploring and shooting nights as I would really have liked to have made some comparisons to my new d800e that I took on the trip but only made 12 frames... I figured more people would be interested in the A99. I think its exciting times with Sony and their imaging program, they really are making strides to be customer responsive, ie the nex-7 movie button delete!
 

kuau

Workshop Member
Pete,
Nice images. I get my A99 tomorrow, and I already ordered a second battery....

Steven
 

jonoslack

Active member
It all looks great
I'm very disappointed that the new Apple RAW update doesn't include the A99 as Aperture is my choice of developer.
 

Quentin_Bargate

Well-known member
The sample Dpreview shots I have seen taken with the A99 look..well, dreadful is too kind a word. Blurry, unsharp. Can anyone point me to full rezz samples that look better than mediocre? I see great shots here on this thread, but I am wondering about the technical performance of the hardware.
 
The sample Dpreview shots I have seen taken with the A99 look..well, dreadful is too kind a word. Blurry, unsharp. Can anyone point me to full rezz samples that look better than mediocre? I see great shots here on this thread, but I am wondering about the technical performance of the hardware.
Quentin,

Here is the link where you can look at the full res image. There was a smidge of grain added in post.

I see nothing to alarm with the A99 so far. It is worlds better at high ISO than the A900 and as good if not better at low ISO.

Can you be more specific about the "technical performance"? I'll answer whatever questions you may have.

I will say that this is a feature rich camera which means a good amount of time is needed initially to get the camera sorted to your preference. Coming off the A900 there are things that I miss, physical metering switches for Steady Shot and Metering Modes vs. software, etc. But plenty more new goodies that greatly expand what I can do with the camera. Manual focus performance with my C/Y lenses is stellar and I swear the peaking works better than on the NEX.

So far, no glaring bugs or niggles. Perhaps Sony could have allowed for even more customization but there is plenty there.


http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8476/8135500140_998e8d2086_o.jpg
 

Shashin

Well-known member
The sample Dpreview shots I have seen taken with the A99 look..well, dreadful is too kind a word. Blurry, unsharp. Can anyone point me to full rezz samples that look better than mediocre? I see great shots here on this thread, but I am wondering about the technical performance of the hardware.
They show the performance of the camera. They are uninteresting images, but Dpreview is just showing what the camera does in rather an honest way. Snappy looking pictures tend to emphasize the skill of the photographer and not the performance of the camera--it is not that difficult to make nice looking images.
 

Quentin_Bargate

Well-known member
Great bokeh...:thumbup:

I still have an A900 but rarely used. I don't want to sound like a broken record but the pixel level sharpness of the full Rez samples I have seen is well below that of the Sigma DP2m and while the noise levels are low and the shots look great at posted resolution I wonder about the acutance of the shots at 100%.

In theory the A99 would be a great way to use my current A mount lenses, but I am left wondering.....
 
Great bokeh...:thumbup:

I still have an A900 but rarely used. I don't want to sound like a broken record but the pixel level sharpness of the full Rez samples I have seen is well below that of the Sigma DP2m and while the noise levels are low and the shots look great at posted resolution I wonder about the acutance of the shots at 100%.

In theory the A99 would be a great way to use my current A mount lenses, but I am left wondering.....
Quentin,

If the hyper-real sharpness of the Merrill cameras is what you are looking for I'm not sure the A99 is it. Maybe a D800e would be closest in the DSLR world?

It certainly holds enough detail and sharpness for my critical eye but we all have different benchmarks for what we want to see out of a camera.

I think the A99 is outstanding so far when measured against all it can do and the overall IQ. I will miss the A900's build quality - the A99 is very good but the A900 just feels more solid to me - but the improvement in IQ and the peaking for my MF lenses is just too good.

I'm listing the A900 today.

Best,
Chad
 

Shashin

Well-known member
If you want to have higher "pixel-level" sharpness, then go to a lower resolution camera. A 12MP FF sensor without an AA filter will give a sharper appearance at 100% than a a99.
 
If you want to have higher "pixel-level" sharpness, then go to a lower resolution camera. A 12MP FF sensor without an AA filter will give a sharper appearance at 100% than a a99.
Agreed.

I'm selling the A900 to go with the X-Pro as a second serious body.

The A99 is the overall workhorse and the X-Pro will be the sharpness monster.
 

Quentin_Bargate

Well-known member
If you want to have higher "pixel-level" sharpness, then go to a lower resolution camera. A 12MP FF sensor without an AA filter will give a sharper appearance at 100% than a a99.
As will a higher resolution camera like my Hassy H4d-50 which similarly has no AA filter, but that's not the whole story here. I appreciate the high ISO performance of the A99 but I'm not yet convinced it does not come at the expense of pixel level sharpness.

Still, I can appreciate its versatility.
 
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