Image quality of A33

[Mark K]

I have used this camera for some five hours and I used 24-70/2.8 ssm, 50/1.4, 135/1.8 and 135/1.8 with a belief that the kit lens is not optically good.
A33's AF is amazingly fast. However, the image quality is somehow less so.
I used Photoshop LR 3.3RC to process the RAW.

[Javelin]

The first shot was a beercan shot not much you could do there the second thouh I wuld have shot wide open with that lens and used a lower ISO. ISO 1600 and ISO 800 are good in certain situations but I would not expect good colour I see nothing else wrong wiht these though.

(cute kids )

[Mark K]

Thanks Javelin. I should keep this in mind and not to stretch the ISO too much

[Dr. Harout]

These 2 shots are with the 24-70 obviously.
If the first shot can be mentioned as acceptable, the second one is very good.
How about using the 135mm wide open with a lower ISO setting?

[Mark K]

Thans Dr. the first one was taken using a beercan and the second was by 24-70. All others are very noisy and not very usable.
I compared the image samples of a55 on dpreview to those of D60 and I do find a55 has more chroma noise. I need more tests to confirm my observation.

[Greg Beetham]

I would expect the A33 and A55 too have more achromatism, diffraction, flare, loss of contrast etc. than a camera without the oblique broad bandpass thingy in the way. They would defy the laws of physics if they didn't. They may have an onboard processing ability too minimize the colour fringes and the softening etc. I'm still amazed that the image quality is as good as it is.
They don't quite have the contrast of the NEX from the comparison I saw but the image quality seems very good just the same, be a great cam for those who want high quality video 'first' and the ability too take very good stills 'second'. (as long as you don't want to take video over an extended period that is)
The A580 seems to be orientated the other way round; stills 'first' and video 'second'.
Greg

[Mark K]

Greg: you pointed out my worries. It looks that an A7xx is more desirable than ever

[alphaomega]

Mark K wrote

Greg: you pointed out my worries. It looks that an A7xx is more desirable than ever

Don't be so sure there will be an A7XX meaning OVF and movable mirror. It is likely to be A77 instead with SLT arrangement. Even for FF you cannot be sure. Look at Sonyalpharumors.com and their vote on OVF v. EVF and SLT http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/

Why two released dates? Because Sony still didn’t decide if the camera will be a classic DSLR or use the translcuent technology. They need feedback from photographers to understand if a translucent camera would be accepted from professionists.

So even for FF they are considering EVF and SLT to provide best in class video.
Here is an interesting evaluation of A900 with CZ v. CAN/NIK FF http://photo.net/wedding-photography-forum/00V98v
This chap is supposed to be close to Sony and he is very positive on A900/CZ v. the market leaders. He also says

Sony is a late bloomer, and strong rumors indicate mind boggling innovations are on the horizon … notably a 35 meg camera with a top shutter speed of 1/12,000th and a true flash sync speed of 1/1000th.

Does he know something and does that include SLT and top class video in a professional type FF model with 35Mp sensor and 10+ images per second to beat anything Canon and Nikon can come up with. Interesting times. I will watch from the sidelines and saviour my A700/A350/A550 and soon to be got A580.

[Greg Beetham]

If we get lucky maybe as Sony's market percentage goes up the increase will also spill over onto regular DSLR sales, IF Sony makes enough of them that is, if all people can find everywhere is SLT's then the writing is on the wall for Sony OVF DSLR's I think.
1/1000sec full flash sync, hmmm sounds like Sony is thinking of some leaf shutter lenses...maybe, or an electronic shutter of some type, I wonder what's in store for the FP shutter.
Greg

[bfitzgerald]

Here is an interesting evaluation of A900 with CZ v. CAN/NIK FF http://photo.net/wedding-photography-forum/00V98v
This chap is supposed to be close to Sony and he is very positive on A900/CZ v. the market leaders. He also says

Sony is a late bloomer, and strong rumors indicate mind boggling innovations are on the horizon … notably a 35 meg camera with a top shutter speed of 1/12,000th and a true flash sync speed of 1/1000th.

Does he know something and does that include SLT and top class video in a professional type FF model with 35Mp sensor and 10+ images per second to beat anything Canon and Nikon can come up with. Interesting times. I will watch from the sidelines and saviour my A700/A350/A550 and soon to be got A580.

What does "close to Sony" mean?
I trust it's not another one of those "have some free FF bodies and a bag of lenses and say nice things about us" marketing spin type folks.
I think weddings can be very demanding and it's not very likely photographers will embrace EVF models for this type of work..

[bakubo]

What does "close to Sony" mean?

I think he means he is like the mysterious winedarksea and Danjojo_Resurrected1 who used to be everywhere telling us about how great Sony is and all the wonderful stuff right-around-the-corner and then both strangely and suddenly disappeared.

[Greg Beetham]

yeah, it's sort of boring not having the defender of the realm touch around lately.
Greg

[alphaomega]

I am sure you all read the article http://photo.net/wedding-photography-forum/00V98v before you commented. The chap simply think that Sony's A900 with CZ 16-35, 28-70, 85 and 135 mm are a great combination producing wonderful colours out of the camera needing less tweeking than CAN/NIK FF equivalents. He also thinks that SSS in the body is great as a lot of CAN/NIK lenses (including primes) do not have this feature. SSS enables him to get sharper shots in low light with all lenses. He does not typically use over ISO1000 so the low ISO performace of the A900 is just fine for him. You do not need to be given gear to hold these opinions. I think that David Kilpatrick would probably confirm these are realistic assessments of what this camera/lens combination can do. He thinks that expensive lenses and a reasonably priced body is fine as he will keep the lenses and replace bodies. Good thinking and plays in to A900/850 pricing. Time will show if Sony's next FF will be EVF or OVF. I guess that will depend on the prominence of video in their thinking. The ability to switch from still to video and back with the same body might be attractive to some wedding photographers working under pressure. I would not discount a FF EVF camera if the EVF is better than that in A55/77.

[Greg Beetham]

Yep I read it and noted the points for the Sony and the advantages it had and those made the system very attractive to that working professional, but Sony as usual only did half a job, (just like they only offer half of a Macro flash set), he can't buy from Sony a complete set of lenses equivalent to those he can obtain from Nikon or Canon that he wants/needs for his work with the A900.
Surprise surprise, a working professional that actually likes the i-shoe as a concept, and it always was superior to the old so called ISO shoe as far as quick accurate placing and removal of flash units goes; but there is no quick easy solution for on location radio controlled flash, the system is long overdue for additional functionality and finished off with a fully compatible in house radio trigger setup with compliant flash units.
Greg

[alphaomega]

Greg Beetham wrote

but there is no quick easy solution for on location radio controlled flash, the system is long overdue for additional functionality and finished off with a fully compatible in house radio trigger setup with compliant flash units.

Quite right, but he is still using the Sony A900 system as overall it is considered superior (by him) to CAN/NIK's offerings.

Barry Fitzgerald stated

I think weddings can be very demanding and it's not very likely photographers will embrace EVF models for this type of work..

Not into wedding photography at all but I can imagine if CZ continues to develop FF lenses for Sony including AF primes and a new FF model is developed sporting SLT and EVF including the 35Mp sensor, high frame rate and class leading video with AF, a lot of wedding photographers might be interested in offering both HD video and top class still photography from the same camera set-up operated by one person to save costs. (One card for still and one for video). Have a HD video DVD you can watch on your 50in plasma and a super album with all the key events depicted in top quality colour. Copy the HD video yourself and send it to family and friends. I feel certain that the concept could sell world-wide.
Presumably, with that kind of sensor, it will also be possible to select individual video frames and turn them into top class prints.