Photoclubalpha

Andy Johnson has kindly emailed to say his Alpha 77 has arrived, and he attended the Sony meeting held by Paul Genge at Wisley Gardens on Saturday. Paul arranged this meeting in his own time, when the similar meeting at Sony European HQ in Weybridge could not be held. All those who had paid for this were contacted and invited to the alternative meeting, but no publicity was issued as this was (in effect) an exclusive get-together with the new NEX and Alpha cameras. I've asked Andy to consider providing a write-up for Photoclubalpha.

I have just ordered my Alpha 77 body from Warehouseexpress for £1153 including £193 VAT (actual cost £960) and with a free Kata bag worth £99 included. As it happens, this Kata bag is one I will find very useful so it's not just a free offer without value. No doubt the price will be £100-150 less by November, but the body is due to arrive on Tuesday and from that point on I am able to publish example images.

Why did I not buy the waterproof, SSM 16-50mm f/2.8 lens? First of all, I was not impressed with the outer field sharpness at 16mm and f/2.8 on samples tried earlier in the month, both on my A55 and pre-production A77 and A65, especially for distant views. Secondly, I have a 16-80mm CZ and comparing shots taken side by side, I prefer the CZ, and very much prefer its focal length range; I checked the close focus magnification, and again, the 16-80mm is either better or a very close match but with a slightly greater working distance. The 16-50mm does have significantly smoother, quieter, faster and more positive focusing and I like the full aperture bokeh at 50mm - but that's not enough to persuade me to switch from the 16-80mm as my everyday lens.

Alpha 55 - since Shirley does not like it, and no-one else in the family finds the viewfinder usable either, I'll give it a dust and polish then sell the body, as soon as I am satisfied the A77 is a workable replacement.

David

Waiting for your opinion and samples.
They are always the most reliable.

Looking forward to some in-deph views when you have spent some proper time with the camera David. That particular bag looks very similar to the Kata 3in1 33 that I have - nice bag in rucksack mode - not sure about the 'sling' option.

David seeing as how you have ordered one, I hope these reported and so far unconfirmed A77 snafus http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readf ... d=39437407 are just confined to the South Korea and Taiwan area.
Greg

David.
Like the rest of your family I also hate the A55 viewfinder and find it very difficult to use, especially in contrasty lighting. Is the A77 really so much better? Would Shirley use it?!!

Christine

Hi Christine, welcome to the forums. I know that Richard would use it, he currently uses a Leica M9 and is testing the Ricoh GXR with Leica M module, and seems OK with the EVF on that. Ailsa (who normally uses an Alpha 350) borrowed the A55 for a day last year but did not like the finder, or the delays, or the locking up with our Sigma tele zoom. She lost a few good shots. Shirley is a left-eye viewer and her right eye has a double image with very close focus, she doesn't get it fixed as it's very useful for reading and close up work, but quite useless for a viewfinder. The A55 is not that good for left eye as the body is pretty short to the RH side (the NEX-7 might be good for her though with the EVF positioned at the extreme left hand end).

I can use both eyes and often swap from left to right. I tend to see more of the finder all the time anyway, and have few problems with eyepoint.

I will explain the main issues with the A77 (etc) EVF in my website review quite soon. It depends on your photographic style. Let's just say that the final photo always has SO much more in it than the viewfinder, you can be fooled easily into missing important things.

David

Let's just say that the final photo always has SO much more in it than the viewfinder, you can be fooled easily into missing important things.

With the a55 - yes, I can agree with that!!
Having said that, I used the a55 on a night shoot at the weekend and the evf was great, much easier than squinting at a dim image in the a700. I guess it's "horses for courses".

As for my photographic style, I mostly shoot nature and landscape for pleasure and general stock pix for cash (Alamy).

I'm really looking forward to your report on the a77.

Christine

David Kilpatrick wrote:I know that Richard would use it, he currently uses a Leica M9 and is testing the Ricoh GXR with Leica M module, and seems OK with the EVF on that.

Hi David, I have also got the GXR with M module and like it so much that I sold my M8.

Will be watching what the NEX-7 is like though.