A57 Jpeg engine...

[bfitzgerald]

Few quick samples, NR set to low (lowest possible)

ISO 200

ISO 200.JPG

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ISO 2500

ISO 2500.JPG

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Raw left, jpeg right
Fairly easy to see what is going on with the NR processing. For very fine details at lower ISO Sony's jpeg processing still applies more NR than it should. At higher ISO levels it "melts" the textures of some items. I think the problem is Sony feel it's a bad idea to have any luminance noise at all, and the heavy handed NR wipes out details.

Bit of a shame you can't turn it down to much lower levels. I had hoped a firmware update would address this (this is firmware 1.04 latest one). Can't comment on other SLT models as I've not had proper use of them. Some say the A57 is a bit better jpeg wise than previous or other models. I think sticking to raw is the right way to go, though this is pixel peeping I admit that. At base ISO 100 you might be ok with the jpegs, things move downhill a fair bit ISO 400 and over.

[redsim74]

Have to agree, it's over the top even at ISO200.

[classiccameras]

Excellent pictures to high light the noise differences in both modes. It looks like RAW is the way to go. I'm not sure what Sony are up to. its almost as if they don't trust us with an 'off' switch. Yes, most reviews of the A57 said Jpegs were improved with a tad more noise adjustment than older models, especially the A-55. However, in some reviews the A37 was exhibiting even better Jpegs, and it was suspected that this was mainly for the entry level market where most will just stick the camera on auto, which will be in Jpeg mode.

My old Olympus E 510 has an 'off' setting for the noise filter and even with that off there is still some noise supression going on. Its interesting that two different reviews of the Oly 510 suggested turning off the filter as a bit more noise actually enhanced detail. This is not to say that this works for other cameras.
Pentax have a superb set of noise adjustments even dedicated for each ISO setting if you want.
For a short while Samsung and Pentax shared the same Sammy sensor and bodies, K10 and K20 and Pentax fans said this period was one of the better periods for Pentax, when they parted things went down hill a bit for Pentax, until the Sony sensor came along.
Barry, what exactly did you not like about the Nikon's and which models? My D5100 seems to focus OK but then I'm only taking single shots of landscapes, not fast sequential shots or moving targets.

[bfitzgerald]

After 3 service attempts and 5 bodies it was time to call it quits with Nikon, I had an unacceptable variation in focus, inconsistency that I've never seen anything like it before. AF fine tune, can't solve it...for the D90's you have no AF fine tune and later production ones were def hit with focus problems. D7k's just not good enough for AF consistency which is a real real shame as in most other ways very decent cameras. I'm convinced Nikon have serious (very) problems with QC and factory production, even new D7100's some of them are showing the same thing (see off topic post there!)

Yesterday I had my first encounter with Moiré on the A57, so I assume they must have a very light low pass filter.

Capture.JPG

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Not the end of the world easy to get rid of it (desaturation in this case worked fine for the purple)
On the jpeg engine what is required is a user choice, such as NR off.

Yes Pentax allow you to user set NR levels, I found the K-r and K-x good for jpegs, not sure the K-30 is as good from what I've seen jpeg wise.
I think the Sony NR issues started after the A100, folks complained it was noisy (partly down to underexposure as well in the metering at high ISO - again something that continues to this day) A700 they decided to do NR raw which was a huge mistake.

They corrected that, but never really got their head around jpeg NR anything other than trying to smash any luminance noise to bits.