A close eye on the A77 image quality (via Luminous Landscape, Imaging Resource, Videoacademy).
Charles Michel form videoacademy made that 9 minute long A77 presentation. he speaks in German but there are English subtitles!
Now it’s time to focus on the real quality of the Sony A77 (preorders here). Let’s start with one of my preferred websites:
Luminous Landscape A77 test (Click here to read the full article):
Feeling: “The A77 is a “pretty” camera; one of the nicest styled Sony cameras in a long time. It has a very organic shape and falls to hand very nicely as well.”
Video: “There is much less visible rolling shutter with this camera than I’ve seen before. If this holds true with a full production camera then DSLR video makers are going to be all over this camera like a kid with a bowel of strawberry jello.”
EVF: “Is it good? Yes, it’s very good – for an EVF. I would go so far as to say that it is much preferable to the dim and small reflex viewfinders found on most reduced frame DSLRs. This then begs the question – how does it compare to the viewfinder on a full frame DSLR like the Sony A900? Not so well.”
Fullframe (A99): “I think that there is, and it even may well use the same (or similar) body as the A77. As mentioned earlier, the A77 is a full-sized camera, with the heft and gravitas that a Prosumer model deserves. It certainly appears as if a full frame sensor could be used with the same chassis (if not the same actual body) as the current one.”
Again, I invite you to read the full article as it is in my opinion one of the best previews written today!
Imaging Resource (Click here to read the full article):
IR has been the first to post a detailed image quality analysis. And starts with that considerations: “I won’t go too much into detail about my disappointment that the A700 went so long without an upgrade or successor; suffice it to say that I thought that camera was Sony’s best chance at making a dent in the Canon/Nikon hegemony, and instead of addressing its few flaws, Sony was spending too much time trying to appeal to the consumer market, a place where Nikon and Canon dominate even more pervasively.”
EVF: “A sensor over the viewfinder detects my eye and makes the switch between the LCD and EVF, but usually doesn’t make the switch fast enough, leaving me first in the dark, then I see a screen that’s a little too dark at first, then my eye adjusts. It’s not a comfortable set of changes, going from very bright to very dark, then to somewhat bright, so most often I and my colleagues shied away from the EVF when out in daylight, preferring the LCD.”
The new 16-50mm lens: “At the outer edges of the frame, the 16-50mm lens shows a little softening, which you can see in the last crop below, but it’s truly remarkable performance from a lens that effectively costs $600 when purchased as a kit, while the full-frame 24-70mm Carl Zeiss lens sells for around $1,750.”
Image quality: IR made many comparisons mostly with fullframe cameras. It’s a bit unfair comparison as the larger fullframe pixels can deliver a much better per pixel sharpness. ANyway, the A77 does a good job at base and high ISO and is not far behind the top (and more expensive) fullframe cameras.
Also in that case I highly recommend you to read the full article (Images are at the bottom of the post).
Preorder the new stuff!
Sony A77 with 16-50mm lens at Amazon (Click here).
Sony A77 body only at Amazon (Click here).
Sony A65 with 18-55mm lens at Amazon (Click here).
Sony A65 body only at Amazon (Click here).
Sony NEX-7 body only at Amazon (Click here).
Sony NEX-5N with 18-55mm lens at Amazon (Click here).
Sony NEX-5N at Amazon (Click here).
Sony 16-50mm A-mount at Amazon (Click here).
Zeiss 24mm f/1.8 E-mount at Amazon (Click here).
Sony 50mm f/1.8 E-mount at Amazon (Click here).
Sony 55-210mm E-mount at Amazon (Click here).

fongios
9 months ago |http://www.jp.sonystyle.com/Special/Camera/Ichigan-a/Slt-a77/index.html
if you look on the japanese website there are two models the a77 and the a77VQ what is the diffenrece???
Art
9 months ago |Body and kit?
Bernd
9 months ago |True. A77VQ is the kit, A77 is body only.
fongios
9 months ago |which makes the japanese kit price at 2700$!!!!
Geir
9 months ago |If the a77 kit cost 2700 usd here, I’ll still buy it in a heartbeat, but I bet it’s going to be closer to 3700 usd. It’s only the poor americans that get the cheap stuff, everywhere else people have to pay more.
Ffios
9 months ago |Here being where?
ageha
9 months ago |VQ comes with the DT 16-50mm F2.8 SSM.
emopunk
9 months ago |OMG! Amazing.. C’mon Sony just put those high ISO chatting to rest.. Give us a proper final firmware and noise control and we’re away.. BEST SELLER!!!
Peter Frans
9 months ago |I am not a pro but this a77 looks like AGAIN a winner for Sony in my humble opinion … It’s in my want list lol
Kenny
9 months ago |Does anyone know about the number of bit per pixel of A77 12 bit or 14 bit ?
I tried to search for it but it likes a Top secret !!!. No one mentions about it
z
9 months ago |It’s not easy to determine. I seriously don’t think it will be 14bit though. That would be Hasselblad killer.
Billy
9 months ago |lol.. yeah, maybe not.
Holy Bear
9 months ago |The high ISO performance of A77 is not that good….
RTI
9 months ago |“Iso will go to hundreds of thousands” … my a**, it’s already messy @1600, that’s a show stopper for me.
Also the joke about the frame buffer…
David
9 months ago |Looks incredible
And as I said in the other thread:
1) Pre-production firmware
2) It’s 24mp, so if you want to compare 100% crops to a d7000 or a580, you need to downsize the image. Or blow up the d7000 image to the same size.
3) These were in JPEG mode. Sony jpeg mode is always bad. Too much noise reduction which makes it smudgy.
4) RAW support doesn’t exist yet. Be patient and wait for raw images to download and edit yourself. Then you can judge the high ISO performance
The main culprit is the high-iso noise reduction which makes the image smudgy, loses details and washes over areas of colour.
Kalpurush :)
9 months ago |Alert! Alert!! I understand as “they” have nothing better to do!!!?
Ollder
9 months ago |There’s just a short ‘first impression’ comments behind Landscape links.(?)
David
9 months ago |Also the imaging resource samples.. taken with firmware version 0.58. Not even version 1.0
It is ridiculous to make any judgement from that.
They even say that it’s noise REDUCTION which is crippling the jpeg images. Turn that stuff OFF
At least luminous landscape had the decency to withold commenting until they have a production model
And finally – these pre-production models are meant to be assesed for ergonomics, build quality, the EVF, features etc. Not image quality. The jpeg engine, noise reduction etc all needs to be finalised.
Bart
9 months ago |I wonder, Luminous-Landscape mentions that used ISO value can be read on the EVF when in Auto ISO mode, while the picture of the A77 EVF at Imaging-Resource shows ‘ISO Auto’: no value.
What is true? I hope LL is right.
horst
9 months ago |Sony’s pre-production jpeg-engine does a really bad job at noise reduction. I just loaded the raws taken with the A77 and the NEX-5N at ISO 3200 from imaging resource into RawTherapee (this software reads almost everything, but the colors may be a bit off) and compared noise and detail. The A77 seems to retain more detail and has a better looking, fine-grained noise pattern.
Kalpurush :)
9 months ago |Much thanks for sharing the info and test result in RAW.
Some are crying for nothing or “they” are upto something?
Peter Frans
9 months ago |As with every new camera from any brand there always will be something. Perfection will never be achieved since there are way to many differences of opinion. Isn’t creating a piece of art wonderful people ?
brizmako
9 months ago |You can’t please all the people all the time
Looks good to me and I’m ready to buy. No intention of buying from Amazon, though.
I think the image comparison tests on IR were grossly unfair. I mean, really? Comparing it to the top level Canon and Nikon pro DSLRs AND a medium format Pentax?! Doomed to look bad by comparison. Let’s hope some future tests compare apples to apples rather than kiwifruit. Shrink the images if you have to, make the others larger. Be fair, FFS.
That’s my 2-cents on the matter well spent ;o)
Pacman
9 months ago |Is that the real sound on video?
preston
9 months ago |ok, just ignore the D3x comparison and look at the LESS expensive Canon 60D and Nikon D7000 comparisons. A77 honestly looks much worse than those as well, despite being 6mp more than the Canon and 8mp more than the Nikon. Yes, it was a preproduction sample, but why would Sony give out preproduction samples if they knew the image quality was going to be improved by the final version?
Duarte Bruno
9 months ago |Preliminary image analysis at IR doesn’t impress me one bit…
I’m giving it the benefit that is not final firmware and that it is JPEG but so far I think Sony should have stopped at 16MP.
The NEX-C3 per pixel sharpness is miles ahead of what I’ve seen from the A77…
(it’s a show stopper for me right now and makes me think that the NEX-5N might be a more rational choice despite of all the control that you loose from the NEX-7)
Amateur Sony Shooter
9 months ago |After hours of reading various early reports & samples, here is my second hand “negative impression”:
1) 12 FPS is another gimmick just like A55 which I never use (other than initial testing);
2) high ISO performance is about same as A55 or even worse, based on default jpeg sample;
3) the size of buffer is too low, even for regular hi-speed drive mode;
4) low ISO is not impressive compare to A900, OK this is not a fair comparison but 3 years of technological evolution, I was expecting little more;
The rest (better built, improved EVF, AF points, micro-adjustment, etc.) is well expected and no surprise. So here we are, after 4 years of waiting, we got a camera that’s not very good at low ISO, not good at high ISO, EVF still not as good as good OVF, low buffer size for sports, horrendous file size for our computers. Who is going to buy this thing? For $1400 body only!
I can almost imagine Nikon is laughing their head off now, and will once again kick A77′s butt when they employe their usual high ISO tricks in D400. I am very very disappointed by the early news and the fact that I have invested quite a bit in Alpha mount.
I hope I am wrong, but this is my rant I have to get it out
alex
9 months ago |All the iso test i have seen, are with full frame 3000$ + slr, and we are still with the 0.6 firmware. I think you can be desappointed, it doesn’t make coffee !
Kalpurush :)
9 months ago |I do NOT trust IR report at all. And they have used pre-production FW, NOT the production model one.
Clemens
9 months ago |so true! the claim on this website that “Iso will go to hundreds of thousands” is a joke. RAW will probably be ok/good, but no way the RAW files will be light years ahead of competition. Just a decent camera. Nothing more.
(edit) sorry, this post should be a reply to the post above
David
9 months ago |That was a rumor which was corrected a month ago.
The thing is, we all have these expectations from reading all the rumors. Try to see it for what it is.. an incredible spec list and a great addition to the alpha line up.
And the price is very reasonable, considering the specifications. Again, we set expectations too high when that rumor of $1000 started circulating.
David
9 months ago |That 100,000 ISO was a rumor which was corrected a month ago.
The thing is, we all have these expectations from reading all the rumors. Try to see it for what it is.. an incredible spec list and a great addition to the alpha line up.
And the price is very reasonable, considering the specifications. Again, we set expectations too high when that rumor of $1000 started circulating.
monkeyfacemcbride
9 months ago |I find the 10FPS of a A55 is quite useful actually, especially for BIF stuff. I’m sure the A77 will be better.
You cant judge the High ISO performance at all, noone has tested it with the actual production firmware and they’re all showing JPEGs with NR maxed out…of course they’re going to look like crap.
How often do you actually max out your cameras buffer in normal shooting and remeber this thing is dealing with 24MP frames….uncompressed they’re huge.
As before, dont judge the ISO yet, there are no raw processors available at this time and a brief glance at the history of the A700 will show you the mistaken judgements that can occur before ADOBE get their act together. In Lightroom 2.7 A700 utter rubbish at ISO400, In Lightroom 3.0 fine upto ISO1600.
I can assure you, no camera manufacturer is laughing. When the NEX was launched, you’d think the opposition would have laughed, no viewfinder, dlsr size lenses on a P&S sized body….ridiculous! but they didn’t…they watched very, very carefully…and then they started to worry.
David
9 months ago |Well said monkeyfacemcbride!!
This happens every single time with regards to raw support
Same with my a580. Lightroom imported raw files were awful at first. Then after updating lightroom and ACR they look fantastic.
David
9 months ago |lol, how can you say that low iso isn’t impressive?
Look at the imaging resource comparison of the landscape scene vs a900. They’re pretty much equivalent. To match full frame is VERY good.
Luminous landscape guy said he thought the dynamic range is excellent too.
Besides, you have to think that all samples images are un-processed, un-sharpened jpgs. Nobody who cares about photography shoots like that. Everyone will dodge and burn, boost the colours, contrast, sharpness a little. The reviews should show POTENTIAL, not a final product.
And of course the “reviews” out there right now, aren’t even showing the potential since they are using pre-production, ancient firmware without proper RAW support.
Maveric19
9 months ago |I’M IN LOVE!!!
The camera is beautiful. I can’t wait to have it in my hands and start using it. The price is a little more than I anticipated but it won’t break the bank to spend an extra $200 Dollars.
@Andreas thanks for all the wonderful rumors. Keep them coming.
Kalpurush :)
9 months ago |But you are getting the 16-50/2.8 lens $200 cheaper, no?
shaokeephotography on facebook
9 months ago |why did IR compare A77′s images to FF cameras? that’s not really a fair comparison. shouldn’t they put A77 up against other APS-C cameras? oh well, i guess we’ll just have to wait for the production model, then it’ll be a fairer comparison
Zstan
9 months ago |Because there are no worthy apsc cameras left which they can compare with? X)
monkeyfacemcbride
9 months ago |especially when to buy any of those FF cameras you’d be looking at spending upto 5 times as much money and compromising a whole bunch of other functionality!! Perhaps it was just an attempt to do a Megapixel like for like test, but as pointed out testing a long established camera against an unoptimized prototype in any respect is a bit daft. I suspect it was just a publicity stunt to get web hits more than anything.
pancanikonpus
9 months ago |so confuse… duno which is true, which is not true.
depth review please with latest orange77 fw
NEXfive
9 months ago |Charles Michel is NOT speaking German, he’s speaking Swiss German
Gorn
9 months ago |Nope, he’s speaking German, albeit with a Swiss accent (which is not the same as Swiss German!)
jarrett
9 months ago |So I have 2 questions:
1) Which is better for a video only shooter and why – the a65 or the nex 7 (assuming i am using manual focus lenses via adapters – no lens worries here)
2) When will these cameras be available?
Duarte Bruno
9 months ago |I’ve done some preliminary tests (with RAW files @ ISO3200) and I’m not very happy (or perhaps I am, I’m not really sure) to say that the Panasonic G3 outresolves the A77 by a whisker as far as detail and sharpness is concerned. :O
When it comes to noise it’s clearly no competition, I’d say the Sony is ahead by at least 1EV minimum which will bode even better for the NEX-7.
Due to the early nature of these images, I’m not even commenting on the JPEG engine as it’s a bloody massacre on both texture and detail. RAW is clearly the way to go!
David
9 months ago |Nice one Duarte!
Also bear in mind that your raw converter still isn’t fully supporting the a77 raw files.
So when adobe release the full support update, the amount of quality you can get will be far better!
When I got my a580, adobe didn’t support it either. The files opened, but looked very “meh.” Now it is supported, they look amazing!
Leopardman
9 months ago |The A77 will do for me. After using Minoltas & Sony SLRs/DSLRs over many decades we have a lot of lenses which will fit.
Photographing wildlife the high ISO, shutter speed and 12fps will be very handy as will the video capability.
Yes, lets have it ASAP in the UK.
f3dl
9 months ago |Regarding IQ and RAW ISO performance, I would be surprised if A77 performance is better than A580 actually. My guess is that A77 at ISO 100 will be like A580 at ISO 200 etc. But if there is ISO 50 in A77 then I will buy it because then S/N ratio at base ISO should be as good as S/N ratio at BASE ISO of A580. My guess is based on assumption that there was no major technological leap in CMOS manufacturing process between A580 and A77. 20*Log(16Mpx/24Mpx) = -3,5dB which equals S/N difference between ISO 100 and ISO 200 for A580. But it is only my guess…
Marek
9 months ago |Regarding IQ and RAW ISO performance, I would be surprised if A77 performance is better than A580 actually. My guess is that A77 at ISO 100 will be like A580 at ISO 200 etc. But if there is ISO 50 in A77 then I will buy it because then S/N ratio at base ISO should be as good as S/N ratio at BASE ISO of A580. My guess is based on assumption that there was no major technological leap in CMOS manufacturing process between A580 and A77. 20*Log(16Mpx/24Mpx) = -3,5dB = S/N difference between ISO 100 and ISO 200 for A580. But it is only my guess…
Roman
9 months ago |No, unfortunatelly there isn’t ISO 50.
Christian
9 months ago |Focus micro adjust means I can fix a lens with backfocus issue ?
I’m a little disappointed that it has only one sd slot. I’m surprised no one has mentioned it.
D7000 can write simultaneous on both cards, or split the raw one one card jpeg on other. Or movies on one pics on 2nd
I’m buyng myself one anyway…
David
9 months ago |Yes you can fix backfocus issues.
And the camera will remember that lens and apply the correction every time you use it.
Christian
9 months ago |Great news… That little feature will save me $200. I was just about to send my 50mm f1.4 for adjustments.
Also I’m a little worry about short battery life. 500 shots seems short. I guess I got spoiled wih 1k shots with a550. Well, it is what it is.
My wife will be so exicited to see 2k less in the bank acct.
Duncanario
9 months ago |So let me summarise. We have been waiting with baited breath for months for this camera. Most people prefer OVFs but we are prepared to consider the EVF and transluscent mirror technology because it has some advantages, the main one being that we get Autofocus in Video (lets face it, that’s the fundamental reason for using it). As a consequence we lose more than half a stop because of the reflected light (which means it is important that the low light sensitivity of the sensor makes ups for that loss). Instead Sony choose a 24 megapixel sensor in APS-C format, worsening the low light performance even more. This low light performance is most crucial for those that use the camera for video since they can’t use flash.
It turns out, however, that the autofocus with video can ONLY be used with the camera on Program setting. Serious video use REQUIRES manual exposure control. My question is then – what is the bloody point of this camera, the EVF, the Transluscent Mirror with its associated loss of light when you can’t even use the autofocus in a real life setting.
The reality is that if you do use the program mode and autofocus in video the maximum aperture is limited to 3.5 (i’m supposing here as it was the case with the A55 and no one has said any different). So you pay £1000 for a Sony 135mm 1.8 lens and the camera won’t open it up past 3.5. So use the autofocus and you are screwed in low light and you limit the shalowness of the depth of field you can obtain
I had an a55, it was a pig to use in video mode bacause you couldn’t control the exposure. You need the manual exposure it is as simple as that.
My point is that the only advantage of the technology is the autofocus in video and it is useless if you have no control over exposure. So, we are paying £1300 for a point and shoot camera. The whole thing is pointless. If you are going to cripple the video so that serious users can’t use it in autofocus then you may as well have stuck with an optical viewfinder. Some will say that serious video users won’t use autofocus but it isn’t true. The speed of the PDAF can be a real advantage in situations where you have to react quickly. So again, what’s the point of the SLT when its one advantage is useless. The photographers lose out for the videographers supposed benefit and in the end its just baloney.
I would have changed systems for this but it is pointless.
David
9 months ago |Oh dear Duncanario, you’re wrong on so many points I don’t know where to begin
You can’t make conclusions about high ISO performance yet. The tests so far are pre-production models, in jpeg mode with high noise reduction. RAW files aren’t even supported properly by the software yet.
Where did you read video AF only in P mode? That’s exactly the opposite of every review I’ve read so far which says you have full manual controls and AF in every mode.
And you should have full control of aperture too. Not sure where you read the f3.5 maximum part? dpreview says FULL manual controls in P, A, S and M modes.
Plus you have the focus peaking function to aid manual focusing anyway. With the screen or EVF.
Instead of getting all emotional, why not just be patient and wait for PROPER in-depth reviews of the PRODUCTION MODEL to come in. The firmware in these pre-release models is subject to change.
knurd
9 months ago |After doing some pixel-peeping (adjusts glasses on my face), the a55 is on par with the a77 at 100 iso, IMO. After that, the retarded noise reduction kicks in for a55. But at 1600 iso and above, I have to side with a55. a77 just looks blotchy and inconsistent with it’s sharpness in certain areas. I would have liked to see the 16mp sensor in the a77 body and the option to turn off noise reduction. That would be perfect.
David
9 months ago |knurd, don’t worry.
Samples are from a pre-production model.
May reviewers are saying that they won’t comment on image quality yet because the samples they were given to preview are pre-production. i.e. they are using basic firmware and are NOT the same model you can buy from a store in October.
Sony seems to like their aggressive noise reduction. You’ll be able to turn it off. And once you can shoot in RAW and the adobe ACR and lightroom support comes out, the high ISO will be good. Don’t worry.
Duncanario
9 months ago |Dear, Dear David,
I don’t swallow the “pre-production so its OK” argument. I don’t believe, when they know the all important initial reviews depend on it, that Sony hand out substandard systems to reviewers. You don’t beat the laws of physics so easily. A crammed sensor plus the light loss from the mirror mean low light performance will be compromised unless the sensor is so much better. Initial results seem to indicate not.
The AF only in P mode is clearly stated in several reviews. Here’s the luminous landscape one;
“The camera is also capable of shooting video in Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority and fully manual mode. But, in these modes one is limited to manual focusing. This will not be found to be too great a hardship, because serious video makers prefer manual focusing, and also because the A77 has Sony’s recently introduced Peaking mode, which makes manual focusing a breeze with just about any lens.”
and here’s a link to the Eoshd one:
http://www.eoshd.com/content/3715/official-sony-a77-announced-sony-nex-7-has-full-manual-control-in-video-mode
The 3.5 aperture limit was a feature of the Sony A55 which I had and sold because only being able to use Program mode was a liability. It clearly stated that if AF was engaged the widest aperture would be set no wider than 3.5 or the widest aperture of the lens (if the maximum aperture of the lens was slower than 3.5). My point is that no one has mentioned that this is not a limitation of the A77 as well (it uses basically the same focussing system). Clearly in manual modes you have control but the camera controls the Aperture in Video mode when auto-focussing is engaged. It seems logical to assume, unless told otherwise, that this camera has the same limitations as Sony’s other SLT cameras when it comes to auto focus in Video.
It’s true you have peaking but you also have that in Sony’s CDAF cameras and they don’t have the >0.5 stop light loss.
I wasn’t being emotional or nihilistic. My question was simply what’s the point of the SLT format if it isn’t to have auto focus in Video. If the auto focus only works in Program mode – and you lose the benefit of really large apertures – then really what is the point. The camera is being pitched a a revolutionary semi-professional camera but the revolutionary part limits you to program mode. You would be better with the NEX system for video with CDAF that works all the time and no light loss.
As for not knowing where to begin, how about doing some research before you slag someone off for being wrong when they’re not. That would be a good place to start.
Holy Bear
9 months ago |Pre-production ones….reminds me of what people said about NEX’s 16mm lens when they first came out.
Let’s face it , there won’t be much improvement , the 24MP sensor is a failure.
ZeissShooter
9 months ago |OK so what are the rumors about the full frame alpha99?
I heard:
Rumored specs for a new Sony Alpha A99 camera.
36.9 Megapixel 3MOS Exmor sensor
(No Bayer filter)
ISO 100-102400 extendable to 204800 and 409600
12 frames per second
No infrared or anti-alias filters
Digital infrared filtering with three modes NO IR,WITH IR,ONLY IR
In camera moire remove
89 cross-type points AF
Metering direct from sensor
60/1-1/24000sec, time, bulb shutter (focal plane)
Flash synchronization up to 1/500sec and high-speed sync up to 1/24000sec
Built-In GPS and Wi-Fi plus Thunderbolt
Two CompactFlash card slots
Price around €3000
Joey C
9 months ago |Does anyone know if the 5N gets 60 frames per second as individual frames or 30 frames doubled up in video mode?
William
9 months ago |Im no pro, but who shoots at Iso’s above 800? 1600 in it self is the max i will ever go. I doubt images taken at 3200 and above are particularly usable on any camera. To each his own i guess. Waiting to see more about the video quality and whatnot
Wing Wong
9 months ago |Pre-ordered the A77+lens kit, and pre-ordered the vertical grip. Woot! (US)
Maveric19
9 months ago |Who from?
Frank Withers
9 months ago |Zeiss shooter, you have to be completely daft to believe those specs lol
Take that crap elsewhere
Robby Ticknor
9 months ago |Hmm,
Is it just me or does it look like there is ONLY ONE memory card slot?
at 4:42 in the video, it shows him inserting a card, but i can only see one card slot.
the amazon s77 page says “Slot for two media types”… but not that it can hold two simultaneously
am i seeing this correctly?? if so, what the hell? my a550 has two slots and it’s very useful! seems like it would have been obvious to have to slots, especially given the burst rate, to round robin data to two cards at the same time.
Maveric19
9 months ago |I too only saw 1 card slot. If there were 2 slot it was not even mentioned by the tester. Maybe Andreas can ask his sources.
loverhd
9 months ago |Based on the IR test shots comparison, I would say that A77 high ISO are way behind (2-3 stops at least) the NEX-5N. It mean that A77 sensor is eventually the major failure. And it better even not to launch A77 in it’s way as it is at all. Unless equip it with the 16 mp sensor from NEX-5N.