A77/A65 Samples

[OneGuyKs]

http://www.ephotozine.com/article/sony- ... view-17300

Both have "firmware" V1.0

[Dr. Harout]

Sony, count me in as a customer!

[motor]

I agree Doc

It think it might have been worth the wait. I have a 580 and 700 and really like using the Focus Check Live View 7x and 14x zoom function especially for long exposures like waterfalls and after dark shots on the 580. Is the DMF direct manual focusing function on the A77 the same as Check live view on the 580? Other words can I magnify the image on the LCD so I can really fine tune the Manual focus for perfect crisp images. I know the nex is very similar. Will the A77 work the same way in DMF mode as in the check live view on the 580?

Motor

[Birma]

I agree that the dmf with magnified lv mf assist is a great feature. Looking at the specs on DPR the A77 has dmf and roughly x6 and x12 mf assist. I assume this will work in the evf as well. I think both 77s look very exciting propositions .

[dynax800si]

That is the best sample that I've seen from A77 so far


Full-Size - 50 ISO, 20mm. f/4.5

[dynax800si]

Many A77 full-sized jpeg samples HERE

[David Kilpatrick]

I spent some time shooting with the A77, A65, NEX-7 and NEX-5n yesterday. I am not allowed to show any samples at all as all are pre-production, and apparently no sample images should have been released anywhere in the world - it's just that some Sony offices got over enthusiastic. A couple of dozen UK photographers have been working with the 77, but no images are allowed out.

I have had a chance to examine the raw files using RawDeveloper, which is updated for pretty good handling of everything except the NEX-7 which it does not recognise. I agree that the samples from the early cameras are not suitable for release and the only reason ISO 50/100/200 images look OK is because almost any camera's low ISO images are fine.

On the basis of what I was able to try, I would have returned every single item including the lenses to the dealer within a day of purchase - one otherwise excellent 16-50mm was badly decentred (a second one was OK), same for the 55-210mm OSS, even ISO 100 JPEGs showed more noise than I'm used to on the 24 megapixel sensor.

Good side - the 18-55mm kit lenses (both E and SAM) are indeed capable of matching the 24 megapixel sensor resolution; my old-now CZ 16-80mm is more than so, and produced pictures significantly better than any of the sample new lenses. Also, the NEX-5n 16 megapixel sensor seems to me to hit a real sweet spot, but this camera was a final production model.

My advice now would simply be that you can't judge anything at all from the images which have been released on internet, whether semi-officially like dPreview (Sony USA was not supposed to do what they did, apparently, and let pre-production cameras out into the wild) or other attending events. It will be another month before the first finished-firmware examples of cameras appear, and many changes could be made. I spent some time with Paul Genge after the main event, and he's taking a list of modifications and adjustments suggested by users/press/Sony staff etc back to the team finalising the cameras.

I'm confident the final A77 image quality will be about as much better than the samples, as the final A700 image quality ws above the prototypes for that camera (which we also used, without being able to release any images - for good reasons).

David

[Mark K]

Here in Hong Kong, and perhaps most big cities in China, production A77 are shown in all Sony CS and showroom. We can place preorders now and I have decided to do so.. I hope I can get one before setting my feet and fins on Bali.

[MarcoC]

If you have a contact for Paul Genge perhaps you could ask why we never get auto ISO in M mode on Sony cameras? I find it very useful with Olympus gear when shooting telephoto - I am able to stop a telephoto lens down to its sharpest aperture while at the same time ensuring a fast shutter speed, and can then let the camera worry about changing ISO as lighting conditions change. Why Sony persist in not offering this option on any of their DSLRs I'm not sure. Nikon offer it too.

I spent some time shooting with the A77, A65, NEX-7 and NEX-5n yesterday. I am not allowed to show any samples at all as all are pre-production, and apparently no sample images should have been released anywhere in the world - it's just that some Sony offices got over enthusiastic. A couple of dozen UK photographers have been working with the 77, but no images are allowed out.

I have had a chance to examine the raw files using RawDeveloper, which is updated for pretty good handling of everything except the NEX-7 which it does not recognise. I agree that the samples from the early cameras are not suitable for release and the only reason ISO 50/100/200 images look OK is because almost any camera's low ISO images are fine.

On the basis of what I was able to try, I would have returned every single item including the lenses to the dealer within a day of purchase - one otherwise excellent 16-50mm was badly decentred (a second one was OK), same for the 55-210mm OSS, even ISO 100 JPEGs showed more noise than I'm used to on the 24 megapixel sensor.

Good side - the 18-55mm kit lenses (both E and SAM) are indeed capable of matching the 24 megapixel sensor resolution; my old-now CZ 16-80mm is more than so, and produced pictures significantly better than any of the sample new lenses. Also, the NEX-5n 16 megapixel sensor seems to me to hit a real sweet spot, but this camera was a final production model.

My advice now would simply be that you can't judge anything at all from the images which have been released on internet, whether semi-officially like dPreview (Sony USA was not supposed to do what they did, apparently, and let pre-production cameras out into the wild) or other attending events. It will be another month before the first finished-firmware examples of cameras appear, and many changes could be made. I spent some time with Paul Genge after the main event, and he's taking a list of modifications and adjustments suggested by users/press/Sony staff etc back to the team finalising the cameras.

I'm confident the final A77 image quality will be about as much better than the samples, as the final A700 image quality ws above the prototypes for that camera (which we also used, without being able to release any images - for good reasons).

David

[pakodominguez]

I spent some time shooting with the A77, A65, NEX-7 and NEX-5n yesterday. I am not allowed to show any samples at all as all are pre-production, and apparently no sample images should have been released anywhere in the world - it's just that some Sony offices got over enthusiastic. A couple of dozen UK photographers have been working with the 77, but no images are allowed out.

Hi David,
I saw the video with the A77 shutter sound (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rymceVm6 ... ture=share) and I was wandering if you had the chance of try the NEX7: how did you like it? the EVF is really that good? how about the AF? did you find the Tri-Navi is the kind of improvement we were waiting for?

I spent some time with Paul Genge after the main event, and he's taking a list of modifications and adjustments suggested by users/press/Sony staff etc back to the team finalising the cameras.

Now that Sony launch the tablet S, are they planning to develop an app that allow to control Alpha cameras? or edit EXIF (keywords, copyright, etc?)

Regards

[pakodominguez]

I spent some time shooting with the A77, A65, NEX-7 and NEX-5n yesterday.

One more question, how the SEL16f2.8 perform on the NEX7?

[Birma]

Oh dear! Shame about the E mount 55-210. Was it a final production model you tried David, or a test version? There is always the SAM version but the OSS would have been useful.

[agorabasta]

The most important conclusions that may be derived from the raw&JPEG samples floating around are that the a77 is free from SLT mirror ghosting and also from the excessive purple fringing/ghosting that plagued the a55.

The raw noise looks horrible in all converters except the UFRAW, but that one has no real support for the a77, and the channel cut-off levels are set incorrectly which may lead to noise masking.
But I would still wait for a real production-quality converter used on final production samples before making a final judgement.

The 16-50 lens does not impress at all. Even the slightly OOF areas show lateral CA different from the CA of the DOF area, so the apparent CA cannot be well corrected.

[David Kilpatrick]

NEX 7 shutter sound is louder than A77. No chance to try 16mm, did not take one and they didn't have 16mms, all 18-55, 18-200 and 55-210mm. Most samples were pre-production even if they had serial numbers, some were serial no 000000 which means very early hardware.

An hour with some lenes and bodies in one place does not help me much. I will not try to comment on the items in detail until I have tried them for much more time and variety of conditions. Sony has now decided that I can have some items to test, possibly outside the usual 1 week loan window, thanks to Paul Genge - he's kind of said that if I can be a bit less sharp and critical, Sony can be a bit more co-operative (I can't work with the usual queue-up, short-term loans system operated by photo importers, it does not fit my deadlines or my need to review gear properly).

David

[bakubo]

NEX 7 shutter sound is louder than A77.

I suppose that is just because of the NEX 7 smaller, thinner body?

Sony has now decided that I can have some items to test, possibly outside the usual 1 week loan window, thanks to Paul Genge - he's kind of said that if I can be a bit less sharp and critical, Sony can be a bit more co-operative (I can't work with the usual queue-up, short-term loans system operated by photo importers, it does not fit my deadlines or my need to review gear properly).

Sony must have some really, really thin skin if they can't take your usually well thought out and mildly worded criticisms. It is what I would expect from Sony though. Sad. I see more harshly worded criticism from other websites that seem to get review samples from Sony so this one is hard to understand.