Photoclubalpha

The A77 had its first real outing last weekend at an airshow.
It performed well in all weathers from bright sun (only occasional glimpses), overcast skies and rain (note I heard several Canon users complain of dead cameras due to moisture ingestion).
The only camera issue was the buffer. Simply insufficient for longer bursts of RAW+JPG. The spec says upto 11 frames and up to 13 RAW only before the dreaded lockout.
I met a media shooter using the 70-200G and 300G and he said exactly the same, needs a bigger buffer.
Otherwise he was also very happy.
Flying displays encourage the use of the 8 fps as you try to capture that magic moment so just over a second of shooting before lock out (then the magic moment comes!!!). Perhaps a better compromise would be a 4fps frame rate for the low setting, 3 is a bit too low so getting same frames just over a longer period (I'll try low next time).

Summary - I like it a lot (except for the buffer)! It feels and performs great.

I have a lot of sorting and editing to do however on downloading my images I discovered a related problem.
STORAGE.
I had insufficient disk space on my pc. Dopey here forgot to add up the total of 2 x 32GB and 3 x 16GB cards which exceeded the available 70Gb space - DOH!
I intended downloading all the cards then quickly deleting all the rubbish followed by a closer examination for out of focus or blurred images.
A new strategy is now called for. Avoid initial Lightroom import and just download 1 card at a time to folder. Backup to USB drive. Delete all but possible keepers then import to Lightroom for closer inspection/editing.
Repeat for other cards.

Any way I'll be cross-eyed by the time I get through them all.
I'll try to post a few examples.

Mike

Well, locally I can get a new 2TB Seagate Barracuda drive for $110.

That goes a long way towards solving storage problems!

Dusty

Looking forward to seeing your pictures Mike and thanks for the feedback on the A77.

Dusty wrote:Well, locally I can get a new 2TB Seagate Barracuda drive for $110.

That goes a long way towards solving storage problems!

Dusty

Dusty, I was forward thinking enough to get extra SD cards but overlooked the next link in the chain. Additional USB storage will be bought as I have filled the 2 x 500GB ones I currently use.

Birma, next challenge I think should be some sea eagles! Not this year though.


The basic issue stemmed from the slower rate of consumption when using 10MP and 12MP bodies and the lower frame rates. Imagine a 1 second burst of RAW at max fps from each (all the bodies I have used in the past) and assuming RAW file is approx MP size.
A100 - 3 fps = 30MB
A700 - 5 fps = 60MB
A580 - 5 fps = 80MB
A77 - 8 fps = 192MB

When you look at it, the issue is apparent.
What is obvious is that I need to use more single shots as opposed to the mega-blast mode! I did selective single shots during some landings however when the stars of the show landed I had to shoot 8 aircraft in quick succession (2-3 of each), and I still hit the buffer but just scraped through.

I have worked my way through the chaff on 3 cards so far and should be able to start some processing mid week (wife permitting).

What is apparent is that the A580 and A77 can both deliver great images when coupled to good lenses. We had some poor weather and with the A77 in particular I used the 70-200 f2.8 as opposed to the 70-400G as I had better low light performance (using f4-f4.5) and the extra pixels allowed me to crop to compensate for shorter focal length. When the sun shone (rare moments) the images were superb from both cameras.

Cheers,
Mike

PS the stars of the show were the South Korean display team the Black Eagles. They were stunning.

Looking forward to seeing the pictures Mike - Black Eagles an acceptable alternative to Sea Eagles

Mike,

What speed SD cards are you using?

A mixture of Class 10 cards (Transcend, Sandisk Ultra and 7DayShop).
Maybe need to save for some faster ones.

Mike

Check the fine print on your cards. Many of them are rated for their READ speed and not their WRITE speed...

UHS-1 cards (ideally 95MB/s) will certainly make a difference to how fast the buffer flushes but I don't know that it will actually increase the no. of shots before it the camera slows down.
I shoot v. similar stuff & the small buffer is 1 of the main reasons that I haven't u;pgraded - I suspect that Sony may have a more "pro" APS-C model planned above the A77 with a larger buffer or maybe the new FF will do it.

Thanks for the comments, I'm aware of the limitations of the cards but to be fair that is probably only 5% of the time.
The rest of the time the slower cards are just fine.

Mike