Photoclubalpha

Well I think it was fair to say that this was half expected.
On the face of it, sounding quite interesting but yet not the A99 II.

A quick scan through the specs show a very powerful image capturing device 42MP, 5 axis stabilisation, phase detect AF with A Mount and third party lenses on the adaptors, but then I spotted the Achilles heel, 290 frames on a charge. That's a joke, my point and shoot does better than that. You need a second bag just to hold all the spare batteries. Maybe (I hope) it's better in the field than under test conditions.

I can't deny that Sony are really pushing out the boundaries but still not in my direction and missing a few basic tricks. Ho hum.

Mike

A very tempting package I think.

A good point about battery life, Mike. At least the batteries are small in the Nex lineup so it's easier to carry a bucket full

A99 mk II in September, so the rumours go ...

The price has gone up considerably. Sony may have become too greedy in that the street price is going to be above that of a Nikon D810. It has a new sensor and an extra 6 MP which will give an improvement with large prints and damn good lighting only.

The better focus and 5 axis will be a help for those who need it, but here I would think the rumoured A99/ 2 would suit them better. As I usually use a tripod and manual focus this not a huge selling point to me.

Having both the A7r and the RX 10 it doesn't make any sense for me to upgrade anytime soon. The cameras are undoubtedly going to be better and the software that bit more finely tuned to enable those at any particular skill level to do somewhat better technically.

Just my point of view, I'm not trying to play the Devil's Advocate.

Mike,

I know you shoot a lot of airshows, and maybe 290 shots isn't enough for that. But 290 shots, and then change a battery, is a lot better than 36 shots, rewind the film, and then take out and get the new roll on the spool, shoot 2 shots to get past the leader, etc.

When I do weddings, I have cameras and flash units ready to switch to in case the one I'm using needs a change of battery(ies) at an inopportune moment. Having a few extra batteries for switching is trivial, if the other benefits are what interests you.

Dusty

It seems Sony are putting all their money in the high end cameras and neglecting the affordable entry/enthusiast level market both in A mount and E mount. Its almost as if they don't want that lower end of the market, well its their loss as all it will do is force people to jump ship to other brands, poor insight.

When in Japan we spent a whole day at one airfield. With the A99, I had to change a battery around 1pm and when we left, the second was showing around 30%. I get roughly 500-600 frames per battery.
My friends both had Nikon kit. Neither had to change a battery all day and were still using the first one the whole of the following morning. On that trip we had charging facilities every night.

In July I will be at a show for a whole weekend where we camp in a field with no power.
For the A99, I'd need 4 batteries for the 2 days which I already have.
For a A7R II, I'd be looking at probably 8 at £65 each.
The Nikon boys would use 2 at £59 each. For them this is the original plus a spare.

I know I'm using a rather extreme example but for me that is reality several times a year. Now if they put all the internals in an A99 A-mount body with a higher capacity battery then suddenly I'm a lot more interested.

Mike

If the low light ability of the a7rII is decent (in my understanding: much better than the a99) then I will go for it. A7-II didn't meet that criteria.

As I see it, Sony clearly explained its commitment to A mount: you can use A mount lenses on E mount with an adapter (with or without translucent mirror). I presume they have SAM/SSM lenses in mind...

And if the result with a mirorless adapter is acceptable, than bye-bye A mount cameras...

So better switch to E mount along with an adapter. Batis and Loxia lenses will come in the future to join the line up...

I suspect that if there is an A99 New using many of the same parts as on the A7r II then many of the people looking for low light performance will prefer that instead. Unless you like the "rangefinder" form over SLR form that is.

Carrying around an A7 style camera with 25,35 and 85/90 lenses is OK to me as an alternative to the RX10. Yes I have the A mount 16-35 plus 80-200, 70-300 and 70-400 and 24-70 and 70-200 in E mount but they are not in day to day use.

Having carried around a brick of 135 sized film and AA batteries, then an extra 2-3 batteries and 1-2 SD cards is no big deal.

If Sony were to introduce an "EA-5" adapter allowing AF for screw drive lenses without a translucent mirror -which I hope they'll do,- there would be little need for a new A99 in my view... We shall see!

It's very unlikely they will try to make screw-drive lenses work with the on sensor PDAF. Only a few of them report their relative focus state accurately enough (D-series lenses) so even if the phase detection says 'we need to focus 1cm closer then fire' the lens can't actually do it. Some late D models might manage it, like the 24-105mm or the final Sony 50mm f/1.4 but some lenses have never even been updated, like the current 20mm f/2.8 - they still have pre-D, five contact mount, low accuracy for reporting the focus position. Same goes for adapted Canon pre-USM and pre-8 contact mounts (Canon also increased the bit depth of their focus reporting to the bodies, just like Minolta did, they just never gave it a name - be sure to buy Canon lenses with the bigger contact array, not the smaller basic 5 tabs).

I can't say in honestly I've bee having major AF issues with screw drive lenses even oldies. It is quite possible to AF with contrast AF with screw drive lenses the Nikon and Pentax models I used would work with that. If Sony don't support screw drive lenses with AF they'll be making a rather big mistake "if" they want to court A mount users. I don't mind MF but I didn't buy AF lenses to MF.

I don't share David's view on the accuracy of screw drive lenses being suspect, sorry. If is the AF system that is the most important the film 7 is to date the most accurate I have used (not necessarily the fastest though it's decent) it is capable of very small micro adjustments even to screw driven lenses.

Mike...my a7r can shoot barely up to 300 shots..usually 200 and I need to carry at least two extra batteries for a day trip. The size of the grip plus two more batteries essentially make camera size similar to that of D750 or 6D. With either d800 or 5D3, I have zero worry about power drain.

In the past I have used RF and Olympus OM whenever possible so I'm no fan of the super size everything and extra chips as well. But to each his own. The only reason I take a second battery on a days shooting is as a just in case of technical problems with the first one.

But then again I'm more likely to be shooting balloons rather than aircraft or for that matter racing cars.And for landscapes I may only take a dozen in a full day - OK many of them will be multiple shots so that they may be stacked. So small batteries are of no real concern to me.

Mark K wrote:Mike...my a7r can shoot barely up to 300 shots..usually 200 and I need to carry at least two extra batteries for a day trip. The size of the grip plus two more batteries essentially make camera size similar to that of D750 or 6D. With either d800 or 5D3, I have zero worry about power drain.

Mark,

Appreciate your feedback, that's kind of what I feared. Certainly not an option for me plus I found the body just too small and angular for my hand.

I'm currently looking at the alternative options with the assistance of a couple of friendly local Canikon users.

I'll keep my A99 and a couple of FF lenses (17-35, 28-105, 70-200) and run it into the ground but my travel kit and longer focal length stuff will probably be Nikon going forward. The A99 needs a service as the two wheel adjusters are a little stiff. I don't want to experiment with a WD40 spray just in case!!

Mike

Mike, try lubrisol switch cleaner, it worked on similar things with my old SLR's

Peter