An adventure in Full-Frame

[Birma]

I've just acquired a Sony A99. I'm not really qualified to provide a review and so instead I thought I'd share my 'adventure'.

I've been suffering from 'photographer's block' over the last few months. Taking pictures has been a bit of an effort. Perhaps it is the time of the year; fewer opportunities to be inspired by the great outdoors in the Winter months. Perhaps it is the weather; flat light, rain and mud. May be there have just been too many other things going on with family life and work. What ever the reasons I just haven't been inspired to get out there. Sometimes a new piece of kit can provide a bit of a shot in the arm; something to encourage you to get out there and take pictures. I had been thinking of a new body to upgrade my Nex 5 / A700 combo. The Nex 6 looked very interesting. Nice sensor, EVF to go with the great Sony live-view, and wireless plus apps. geekery to play around with. The A77 was another possibility, but I don't take that many action shots.

The last thing I was thinking of was going full-frame. I have been intrigued by what makes FF 'different' to smaller sensor sizes, and the opportunities that FF would provide, especially with wider lenses, but it has been too much of an investment as a hobbyist. Then, thanks to a family friend, I got the opportunity to get the A99. Pure hedonism in some respects, but I want to find out if I can take advantage of that 35mm sized sensor, and all of the other 'goodies' that this top of the range body provides. So, I've put the Nex 6 on hold, and jumped in to a different stream.

I'm very aware of the other brands' FF offerings that are out there at the moment, in particular the Nikon D600, and the Canon 6D. Both look great. But neither has Sony's LV system, and neither have the flippy-flappy rear screen, both of which I just don't want to live without. View finders are great, but for my style of picture (outdoors on a tripod) great LV and and articulated rear screen completely transform 'getting the shot'.

My glass collection is very focused (excuse the pun!) on APS-C and so I'd need to look for some new lenses whether I went FF on Sony, or via another brand. I do have some a-mount lenses that will work on FF, and so this does ease the transition. My first priority was to be able to get the fields of view I typically use on APS-C. I also want to be able to have the glass that supports that top-flight sensor. So, there needs to be a whole chapter in this adventure about lens plans . You can see the first couple of shots with the A99 here http://www.photoclubalpha.com/forum/vie ... 043#p78043

Next ... 'Body-work'.

[sury]

Congratulations, Andy. Look forward to your photos with that gem.

Sury

[KevinBarrett]

Lookin' good, Andy!

[Dr. Harout]

Birma, you don't know how much I really really am glad. I just lived again the minute I received mine in hands.
Enjoy it, my friend. Shoot, shoot and shoot.
Hip hip hurray.

[Birma]

Thank you Sury, KB and Doc!

That is wise advice Doc - I will do my best

[Birma]

Part II - Body Work
Right, on with the adventure

When I first picked up the camera I was very surprised by how light the body was. In the hand it feels very similar to the A700 in terms of weight and size (the A99 is about 40g heavier according to DPR). I was expecting a 'monster', but instead it is very handy. Obviously it feels very well put together, in the same way the A700 does. The buttons are all very well placed for my hand and fingers. I especially like the variation in size and shape (convex or concave ) in the various buttons which helps with operating the camera when your eye is to the view finder. I have not used the A900/A850 so in some ways I don't know what I'm missing, but the finder is very nice IMHO. Like many reviewers, I was not entirely convinced it was an EVF rather than an OVF at first . The dioptre adjustment needed a small twiddle to make the view comfortable for my eyes. I love the flippy-flappy rear screen, especially that I can reverse this for added protection, especially when the thing is swinging around your neck. This brings up my only disappointment so far, the provided neck strap. A bit cheap and nasty. I immediately ordered a nice quality job of Dynax vintage from DK at the main Photoclubalpha site here http://www.photoclubalpha.com/about/clu ... ags-cases/. Very nice material, and very comfortable around the neck, with a handy pocket attached.

Buying a new body always seems to involve a flurry of online orders for minor items, such as the strap. I got a screen protector (main and top plate) from Sony, and I also needed to get some new memory cards. I went for 32 gb cards, one SD and one MS-Duo, and the fastest I could get. DK's review on the main site was invaluable here - the sort of thing that other sites don't cover! I've also got a smaller Eye-fi card to try this with my iOS devices (more of this later). Oh, and I had to upgrade to Lightroom 4 as well.

Next, ... the Glass Debate.

[Dr. Harout]

Go Andy, go!

[mikeriach]

I'm very envious. Was thinking of looking for one whilst out here in Houston. Much cheaper than rip off UK.

Mike

[bfitzgerald]

UK price is around £2000 at the moment just over. Unless you can bag a grey market deal (not really looked much might be about)
Fast forward price down to under £1400 it might get some attention in the UK. The price is falling but very slowly it's a good £500-£600 over it's rivals.
I'm interested in how far these new FF bodies drop in price should be quite interesting.

First one to £1000 is going to clean up the market

[aster]

Congratulations, Andy.

Seen your wide-angle landscape shots which look very promising for your A99 adventure so far.

Keep us on track on how things work for you with your new FullFrame camera. : )


Yildiz

[Birma]

Thanks for your interest guys

Mike, hope you are going to get to some time to take some pictures while on your trip to the US?

[mikeriach]

Not really as we are on business but did get to NASA today. Enjoyed it.
Will drop a coupe of shots here when I get back.

[pakodominguez]

I've just acquired a Sony A99...

Mazel Tov!
There is a difference with APC sensor-sized cameras that you will notice specially when using wide angle lenses.

[Birma]

Thanks Pako .

[InTheSky]

The A99 is a constant discovery ... and now I don't think I will be able to return on other kind of technology with everything I found to much useful with it. The power of all the button and the option can cover any situation. My Sony NEX 7 is sleeping at home on the shelf since the arrival of the A99 ... because I restart bringing with me the Monster size camera .

One example today, my first corpo portrait contract with the A99. I had always the problem of perfect focus point on eye with people with glasses, and with the live view, now I just have to tap my thumb on the "Smart Telecon. Button" that I assigned to "Focus Magnifier" and BANG ! I can micro adjust in less than sec the small detail and I'm sure the shot will be perfect in focus. For this shot also, I was using that time fixed light system (instead of flash) and from the view finder I was able to see that I was clipping on the top head skin of my subject and micro adjust the exposure without going out of the viewfinder. The subject didn't notice anything.


I think the "Smart Telecon. Button" for Sony NEX user should become one of the best tips to assigned it to "Focus Magnifier".

Also, for old A900 user or A700 and Minolta 7D (or 7 and 600 etc), I found the assignation of the "Custom Button" (the one on the front top of the camera) to Metering Mode the best way to palliate the missing (I think this was a mistake of Sony to remove this designed button over the AEL) three way control button on previous model.


If you are doing a lot of Video / Photo switching and you picture are 100% RAW, and you want to use the powerful DRO LV 5 in Video but don't want to affect the exposure of your RAW picture, I decided to assigned the "Preview Button" to the DRO setting.

In next firmware, the "AF RANGE" button should give us the ability to assigned other function than just In-Camera Guide or the AF Range Control. To be true, if you don't have compatible lenses and really need to use the functionality, this button is useless on the body and should take better task and just delete in review mode.

Frank