Trade A900 for A77?

[David Kilpatrick]

I'm considering selling the A900. The A77 simply does what I need for travel, landscape, general photography more conveniently (not any better, but as well) than the A900. And the CZ 16-80mm is something I can not replicate on full frame.

I only have one problem - I need to keep the 900 for testing full frame lenses. So I guess it will stay, and just be little used. Odd dilemma.

David

[pakodominguez]

I spent 15 minutes talking with Brian Smith at the PPE, last Thursday. I asked him if he was ready to give up OVF for the superlative EVF on the A77. His answer was something like this: for portraits I prefer the A900 because the OVF AND the FF sensor. For EVERYTHING else (Action/Sport, travel, low light, etc) the A77 is his camera of choice.

[David Kilpatrick]

Pako, that is right on the nail. You just can't judge expressions or very subtle things on the EVF. What I am thinking of is an MF digital camera for portraits (not the old Hasselblad I have right now - that is far too slow to use). The huge finder, 3X size relative to A900, makes it so easy to see tiny details of the shot.

David

[pakodominguez]

Pako, that is right on the nail. You just can't judge expressions or very subtle things on the EVF. What I am thinking of is an MF digital camera for portraits (not the old Hasselblad I have right now - that is far too slow to use). The huge finder, 3X size relative to A900, makes it so easy to see tiny details of the shot.

David

Hi David,

I'm not going to buy any SLT yet, but I so "accept" EVF on the NEX7, that I plan to use more and more, leaving the A900 for special or high end gigs.

I did ask Mr Mark Weir about Sony and the future of OVF and he told me that he DOES NOT know. I do believe him: after speaking with people that works in the USA for the Japanese companies int he industry, I understood that Japanese management is very secretive about their strategy and they not consider western markets as priority. He told me that he can't say that we won't see any other Alpha with OVF in the future, and that will depends on the demand (Because Sony is always listening to the users, etc...) but he let me understand that Sony is more exited about EVF because A77 is already quite good, and because EVF leave them a huge margin of development and innovation, while OVF and mirror mechanism (not just for Sony, but for Canon and Nikon and everybody else) already reach the summit and it will be hard to do something really "better": no more challenge.

This is why I bought the A900 (and sold my 2 years old A850). I guess it will work nicely 4 or more years, and that allow me to watch the industry from a safe position, while I use the NEX7 and it's successor and wait...

Regards

[mikeriach]

Gents,

Thanks for the comments and info.
As you probably know my main subject is aircraft so perhaps the A77 is the better choice of the 2. I have a Sigma 70-200 and Sony 70-400 which get used a lot around the airfields but on occasions I need to zoom back a little bit further so full frame would have been an obvious option rather than looking at another lens.
Aberdeen airport is a good one for photography but can generally be covered with the 2 lenses above plus a Minolta 35-70 f4 for the closer "through the fence" pics.

Cheers,
Mike

[Dusty]

Pako, that is right on the nail. You just can't judge expressions or very subtle things on the EVF. What I am thinking of is an MF digital camera for portraits (not the old Hasselblad I have right now - that is far too slow to use). The huge finder, 3X size relative to A900, makes it so easy to see tiny details of the shot.

David

A big viewfinder is nice, but are you doing portrait work in studio? For that kind of use I normally have everything on a tripod and I'm looking with both eyes at the person or group and hit the remote when I get everybody smiling!

Dusty

[Magnar Fjortoft]

Sold my Zeiss 24-70 f:2.8 and my two A900 cameras, so now I am using the A77 with the A55 as a backup camera. I don't know if I am going back to FF again, since the aps-c cameras are serving my professional needs, and also photography for pleasure and pure fun. I really like the smaller and less bulky aps-c system.

[pakodominguez]

Pako, that is right on the nail. You just can't judge expressions or very subtle things on the EVF. What I am thinking of is an MF digital camera for portraits (not the old Hasselblad I have right now - that is far too slow to use). The huge finder, 3X size relative to A900, makes it so easy to see tiny details of the shot.

David

A big viewfinder is nice, but are you doing portrait work in studio? For that kind of use I normally have everything on a tripod and I'm looking with both eyes at the person or group and hit the remote when I get everybody smiling!

Dusty

Both eyes?

[agorabasta]

All the 'strategies' aside, the current SLTs and Nexes are not the best thing since sliced bread, for sure.

If the lower-mid 100-800ISO range is considered, i.e. where the real production quality is only possible, the best raw quality for the shadows/darks is with the a700 and a500, the best for the midtones/lights are the a900/850.

The SLT/Nex are just compromise/convenience thingies, mostly. Definitely not an improvement in basic image quality.

The only real improvements are in AF and metering, and now also in vibration suppression with electronic first curtain. Yet these real improvements may be decisive to getting a good shot, so no small thing for sure. And there's that video capability that I always forget even to try out...

[Dusty]

Both eyes?

Yes. Did you miss the "Greatest lens in the world" thread where I told about getting a new lens to repair the right eye? I STILL haven't updated my avatar, but hey, I look uglier every day, so why update?

Dusty

[pakodominguez]

Both eyes?

Yes. Did you miss the "Greatest lens in the world" thread where I told about getting a new lens to repair the right eye? I STILL haven't updated my avatar, but hey, I look uglier every day, so why update?

Dusty

Yes, I recall that thread. I think it was funny anyways...

[Mark K]

I brought my a850 out for two shootings, along with a77 and for 99.99% the time, I was shooting a77