SLT a55

[Neonsquare]

It certainly depends also on the type of card that is used. I currently use a Sony MemoryStick PRO-HG Duo HX with 8GB and a Panasonic SDHC 8GB Class 10 card. Buffer clearing time with the Sony card is 23 seconds and with the Panasonic it is 28 seconds.

I've not tested it on any sport or action settings but can believe you that there may still be some irks when using it that way. This camera is certainly not a replacement for the EOS 1D of a professional sports photographer but in its class it is leading in more than one way. It doesn't let me stop wondering: If this is what Sony makes for the 3 and 5 segments - what will a 7, 8 or 9 segment SLT do?

My current gripes with the A55 are:

1) Batterylife much to short
2) EVF-gain in M-Mode only when flash is recognized
3) Display-Joint feels sometimes a bit fragile (don't like the hard stop when it hits one end)
4) Only one card slot (did like the 2 slots of A550)
5) Combi-Cardslot feels fragile.
6) No AF-Spot key in "local" setting
7) No ISO in EVF
8) Bracketing with 0,7EV is not enough (should be 1 EV or more and also more than 3 shots)
9) AF/MF still a switch instead of button

and some pros:

1) Build quality much better than A550 (which used some really cheap plastic)
the current finish has actually the same look and feel like my Tamron 28-75
2) dial wheel is more pronounced and works better
3) Screen allows for more flexible settings
4) viewfinder with more room for the nose
5) EVF is big and bright and 100%
6) AF works like a charm
7) Image quality is really good
8) Multi-Frame-NR works very well
9) Auto-HDR works very well
10) I actually really like the new (simple) key layout combined with the EVF
11) 10FPS mode interesting for tools like PhotoAcute
12) "Always on MLU"
13) DOF preview that actually works
14) Video for both: amateurs and hobbyists (yes there is a difference ;-) )

[Dr. Harout]

I tried my F42 and HSS was not lighting. Pushed the button again and again with no luck, so I decided there's no HSS. After reading here, I checked with the manual (now, why didn't I do that in the first place ) et voila. So I tried the same F42 flash and this time the HSS lamp lit to my surprise.
So, I apologize for my mistake and the misunderstanding.
I'm still not writing on the EVF cause I still have to get adapted to it. It's different from the OVF. With OVF you don't see any difference when changing aperture and/or shutter settings. Here you notice every change but not as the final image. If under bright light (sunny days here, rain during the nights) you have a sort of weak reception of colors on an old TV. But in an evenly lit situation it's totally acceptable... Sorry, I was saying that am not writing on the EVF... yet.

[emarsh72]

Hello, I had some questions and a point of view about the evf in regards to it's usefullness. I am a novice at photography, so my reasoning about the evf is as follows. The evf's offer 100% field of view, much more info in the view, a digital level, and so on. Also the depth of field preview is much more useful on the evf from what I can gather, than on a 95% or so low level 'ovf'. I'm trying to assess what is the real world importance of whether or not you can see more accurate colors and so forth on an ovf, if, when using the 'evf' you have a live histogram and can more accurately frame your photo. Isn't the framing and exposure the most important part? After all the home computer screen is where colors can be more truly adjusted anyway. Do you see my way of thinking? Any responses are welcome, thank you.

[Neonsquare]

100% field of view is not a particular feature of an EVF - there are also 100% OVF like the one of the A900. Nowadays one can get 100% OVF on cameras in the price range of the Canon EOS 7D or the new Nikon D7000 but not really below. Having 100% field of view in the A55 viewfinder was a big plus for me - I do not want a viewfinder below 100% again.

DOF preview is indeed more useful on main sensor liveview cameras, as it shows the exact DOF and it can gain up the view so that it doesn't get too dark. I personally found DOF preview not very useful with the OVF of current DSLRs - especially the smaller penta mirror OVF types.

Regarding colors: I think this is difficult to answer - the color you see through an optical viewfinder will most of the time not be the same, that is recorded by the sensor. If you want correct colors, you will have to do a proper white balancing. You could do that by taking shots of of a grey card in your scene. If you do proper white balancing and shoot RAW - it is not really important if the colors of an EVF are not precise.

A histogram in the viewfinder is very useful. You have to be aware of the fact, that those histograms do not show the whole truth - in the RAW file there is actually more room than you can see in the histogram. AFAIK the histogram shown has already a gamma curve applied, while a RAW histogram actually would contain linear data and look like massively underexposed. In short: just because the live histogram shows tones quite on the right side - this doesn't have to mean that there already is a clipping in the highlights. Having said that: I found the EVF histogram to be a valuable tool to apply EV-corrections.

Additional info like different grids, focus magnification, or even controlling the whole camera while using the view finder are really cool features I would really miss when shooting some OVF camera again.

The drawbacks of the EVF are:
1) reduced dynamic range compared to OVF
2) delays through signal processing
3) shares main sensor with image capture

I've not yet a final conclusion on #1 - no problems for me so far tough. #2 is actually quite good with the SLTs - the delays are very small compared to e.g. the liveview of the Nikon D90.

[tom power 53]

It's not really a camera made for professional use though. Now maybe that will be a legitimate complaint of the A77?

Seems to me that this $750 A55 camera is so good that it become the victim of being compared to USD$1500 cameras. Is that not the case? Should it not be judged as to the price class that it is in - USD$750 cameras?

Just a thought. For the money this seems a very nice camera for many people - small - light - easy to use - great IQ. Not a "pro" camera though.

[Neonsquare]

As always this "pro" tag isn't really a good thing to apply to a camera. You do not recognize a "pro camera" by its price, size, weight or brandmark - you recognize it by the person holding it. A pro knows what he needs for his work and if this is e.g. a very light and small NEX, then he will use it - it just needs to be useful. What you perhaps mean by a typical "pro camera" is actually more a "pro only" camera which may actually be not really very useful to other people than pros. Many features of such cameras are secondary traits - not the IQ is the remaining difference but topics like robust built, service and connectivity to accessory.

So is the A55 doomed to be a bad "pro camera"? I don't think so, because it is actually flexible enough to be useful to a broad spectrum of users. A professional photographer may like the small size for the performance it gives. The image quality is certainly no obstacle for professional work. I think the A55 makes a very good APS-C body besides a workhorse FF-Body. If I would invest in a new camera of the size, weight and prize of an A700 (original prize) I would nowadays really want a full frame sensor. Currently, APS-C makes only sense in small bodys to me.

[Simmondsphotography]

Perhaps those of us not sure yet about the EVF and weighing up it's advantages and disadvantages (there are plenty of both!) should wait for the A580 which I understand uses basically the same sensor but with an OVF. Try both in the shop side by side, take your own card and record some comparison images and process them at home before making the final decision. Alternatively, do as I intend and wait for the "A77" and "A780" to get a more "meaty" comparison! Wait a bit longer and we may even get an "A99" and "A990" comparison!

But then I am usually cautious when it comes to new camera introductions.......what is it they say?.......pioneers are the ones who get hurt when the arrows fall, the settlers reap the rewards from their mistakes!

[bakubo]

I stopped by Best Buy today and had a chance to check out the A33. They didn't have the A55, but I think the EVF is the same. I was most interested in looking at the EVF and just generally see the size and weight. It is pretty small and light, as expected. As has been said by lots of people it seems like the EVF is probably the best out there at the moment. I also was not too surprised about that with what I saw using it inside the store. It was pretty good and in the right light you could almost forget it is an EVF. No matter where I pointed it there was a color cast though and the color cast changed depending on where I was pointing it. That is probably because it was set to auto WB so was constantly changing. Inside the store it was usually a green cast and when I pointed it at the big windows at the front of the store it was a blue cast. It seems that with an OVF your eye probably adjusts for the color temperature of the light, but with an EVF your eye does not adjust for the color temperature.

The sales guy who took it out of the glass case was hovering over me and sometimes asking me questions during much of the time, but I still could form some general impressions. I couldn't check it out outside or in really difficult lighting, but the closest I could do was point it towards the big, bright store front windows and see what happened. With the much darker store interior filling about half the frame it caused the EVF to completely blow out the view out the windows. If I zoomed in to the windows to mostly fill the frame then the outside view was fine, but a bit dark. Of course, this is what happens since the auto exposure system is controlling the EVF view. I understand the opinion that showing more of what the actual photo looks like (definitely not truly WYSIWYG though) is better than seeing the actual scene. Of course, neither view is perfect, but if I have to make a choice I would rather see the scene. In the case of the blown out store windows I wonder what I would have done if I was trying to take the photo and time it when a bird was flying right outside the window and get the 2 sales guys talking inside the store? I couldn't see the bird at all since the windows were all blown out. With an OVF I could have seen both and with careful exposure, especially using raw, I could have gotten the photo. There are more difficult situations too. I have seen with older EVFs that sometimes if there is a small, bright light in the scene sometimes you get a bright vertical bar in the EVF and can't see the scene well. I don't know if the A33 EVF still has that sort of problem.

With more improvements in EVF tech though we might get there. Still, the EVF is quite usable in many situations and I would not hesitate much to get an EVF camera as a second body.

[bfitzgerald]

Can't comment much as I have not tried the A33/55 as of yet (I will shortly though) Sounds pretty much like the G1 EVF as in big but not so great DR wise. There is another side effect to these and EVF will kill your night vision as well (as it's illuminated) maybe not a big deal to some but it might be to others. Honestly I've just no interest in them as a clear view of your subject is far more important. You'll likely have a hard time matching the eye for DR as it can constantly (and seamlessly) adjust to lighting conditions giving a massive overall DR that no electronic panel can even think about let alone do.

My view is simple..why place another barrier to your eye? As we have live view on the LCD now (useful for WB exposure etc) I don't see the need for an electronic VF and LCD panel. Less choice is never a good thing.

[OneGuyKs]

My view is simple..why place another barrier to your eye? As we have live view on the LCD now (useful for WB exposure etc) I don't see the need for an electronic VF and LCD panel. Less choice is never a good thing.

You aren't taking photos with the eyes. You are taking photos with a camera sensor. EVF gives a better hint to what the final photo would look like. You can fix the problems before they happen. If you want to see the the actual scene, don't look through the EVF! Look up. Or use two eyes. It's not as if you don't have eyes anymore.

In any case, EVF is the future. OVF is not.

[bakubo]

Good post by Mark Van Bergh about his experience with the A55 EVF:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read. ... e=36798575

[bfitzgerald]

I think he's right on that one. Now is a good time to switch if you like OVF's.
Really not a good message coming from Sony at all, they could have at least given some positive vibes to OVF users.
In response to OneGuyKs I disagree I think sometimes makers implement things that are not in some users best interests. Very risky move esp higher end bodies with an EVF...so how many Canon 7d/D7000 users are complaining about an OVF? Not very many

I also don't buy the AF argument either..if my decade old film 7 can track moving subjects I see no reason more recent bodies should struggle

[mike2008]

The first generation EVF in the A55 has drawbacks, but then, so does the OVF of the A550. Be wary of assuming that the quality of the EVF in a £500 camera from early 2010 will be the same as that in a £1000 camera in 2011. The future for sony is clearly EVF's. If this disturbs/upsets you, and you irrationally believe that all EVF's in the future will not improve on that in the A55 then IMHO it would be best to leave sony altogether.

I can see that the EVF technology has a huge potential, and can improve a great deal very rapidly, particularly with the resources sony have to throw at the problem. Successive steps in EVF tech will allow sony to offer cheaper, smaller, more feature-rich cameras than canikon, and this will give them a chance of grabbing a much larger chunk of the DSLR pie. The future is improved EVF's with sony, if you don't like that idea it's better to grab your coat.

[peterottaway]

We have a Canon 7D "in the family" so I can borrow it almost any time, I believe I have more experience with the camera than many here. I am not a great admirer of Canon D SLRs but my initial reaction was that the 7D had great promise. Unfortunately the AF / exposure was underdeveloped and inconsistent and the HMI not particularly well thought out and lacking in field testing with anyone else than other than Canon enthusiasts.

But my question is if the Sony A77 come out with similar specifications ( but hopefully a better implementation ) to the 7D but an EVF rather than an OVF for $1295 rather than $1795 - how many less cameras will Sony sell ?

[mike2008]

But my question is if the Sony A77 come out with similar specifications ( but hopefully a better implementation ) to the 7D but an EVF rather than an OVF for $1295 rather than $1795 - how many less cameras will Sony sell ?

FWIW, IMHO, a DSLT model A77 could outperform the 7D in a number of respects, for a lower price. The challenge for many would be the EVF, but even that should be an improvement on the OVF of the 7D at least in terms of size.

I think if they pull the stops out the A77 could be a really ground-breaking camera, which would attract a lot of upgraders and potentially shifters, since there will be nothing like it from canikon.