UPDATED: First A99 ISO test leaked!
ISO 400
Xitek (Translation here) published the first image samples taken with the A99. These are 100% cropped images, JPG straight out, noise reduction full off. Start your pixel peeping!
ISO 1600
ISO 6400
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etothej
10 months ago |Looks Good, no?
jonh
10 months ago |iso6400 is crap
patty
10 months ago |One word:
D800!!!
Artic
10 months ago |D800/E ????
With Nikon’s quality control, 90% body’s got problem with focus and overexposure….
Not a single faulty Sony products here since 1993…
Go troll more, but: A99 dont show “uber” compare to A77 in specs and first ISO images to me…
I expected more…
Sony #1 Fan
10 months ago |Theres no cure for stupid!
Nikon is shipping 90% of its pro full frame d800 units with issues?? Why are people still buying them?
If you believe everything you read on the Internet then please buy this bridge from me.
I think the article was about Sony A99 & noise reduction in high iso pics.
Mama said, stupid is as stupid does.
Everlast66
10 months ago |First comment!
Woooooooohooo
dagump
10 months ago |nope
Tanglefoot
10 months ago |Epic fail! Dullard.
5dii
10 months ago |it is a99, isn’t RX1.
and RX1 is beta.
Ping
10 months ago |Yes, the discussion tread said that it is not RX1 but A99. I can read Chinese.
Pretty impressive ISO6400 performance with NR off and JPEG straight from the camera. With RAW + LR, ISO 6400 will be completely usable.
Patrick
10 months ago |Agreed. If these are jpegs then the camera will be around 5D3 quality when it comes to high ISO.
That could also potentially mean that video in high ISO will also be very good.
Chis
10 months ago |You must not have shot with a 5d3 if you think that it is on par. I am glad that I switched to Canon.
Denis
10 months ago |Troll harder. Canon is just on par with ancient D700, RX100 will be in another league (ISO6400 was taken with RX1).
Chis
10 months ago |Denis…I am not trolling. I shot Sony for years. I have owned the a330 a700 a77 and a850, and I would still be with Sony if it wasn’t for the STL’s. My a77 had poor IQ. If Sony would have committed to traditional DSLR’s along with the SLT’s I would of never switched. I still love the Ziess lenses and the old Minolta colors. Know what you are talking about before you say someone is trolling….
matgay
10 months ago |no u inverse genius, 1 jpg unkown setup, not = same as 5d3.
Artic
10 months ago |If you are not trolling then:
I had 7D with ef24-70 f/2.8 USM, all I was getting is soft images, not a singe sharp clear photo…
Exchanged body , then lens.. still the same….
Then sold them both on eBay and got me A55 to play around, then jumped on A77 with 24-70Z and….. that’s sold me!
I never had so bokeh/clear/sharp photo’s every!!!!
Maybe it’s just my experience with Canon, but had D300 Nikon and had battery issue with it (like other)…. no more..
Then when D800/E came out, I hold off for a few and found out that most of them had quality problems at $3000+ ??? price tag…
Just my 5 cents.
sabunyuma
10 months ago |The image quality on this thing is going to be ludicrous.
Geert
10 months ago |Sorry, forgot to say it’s a 300% crop :p
Dc
10 months ago |Eh… Where did u get 300%? The original site was pretty clear they are 100% crop, learn Chinese buddy
tsoe
10 months ago |Meh!
Bird
10 months ago |The forum stated that RX1 just a beta or developing camera, but stevehuff seems to have his hands on, please clarify the rumor, although it is just 12 hours away…every seconds ticking.
Patrick
10 months ago |Beta could just mean pre-production so it means its undergoing final tweaks before hitting the shelves. Similar to 5R, it may be a month or a bit more until final firmware will be ready.
Bird
10 months ago |Hope so, but the thing im concern is whether the people in that forum is creditable. they said the camera will only announce tomorrow and the actual production remain unknown, if so that will be so bad.
steph
10 months ago |OMG what kind of hole is this?
Cliff
10 months ago |It’s a fuzzy little screw hole
GeminiRx
10 months ago |Mmmmm fuzzy screw holes…
Ryan
10 months ago |LOL…..My wife has been on deployment for 5 months and i was thinking the same thing! LOL
BillW
10 months ago |It’s money-sinking hole for the RX1.
Marcurion
10 months ago |Hm saw the image in the middle and ISO 400 written above and thought: “O.K. but nothing special”… realized that it is actually ISO 1600 and: “WOA!!!”
emopunk
10 months ago |A99 is really gonna rock my world!!
paul1508
10 months ago |The ISO Performance of the RX1 should be even better, because it loses no light because of translucent mirror!!!
emopunk
10 months ago |I am sure now we’ll see the whining over the translucent mirror and about how many gazilions stops better it could be without it. Bring one of this cameras here pleaseeeeeeee!!
Greg
10 months ago |The problem is…most people don’t understand logarithms. They think 100 vs 400 isn’t a big deal, but 6400 vs 3200 is THOUSANDS of TIMES better.
A mirror cutting 6400 ISO performance to 4800 is earthshattering. for them.
emopunk
10 months ago |The question is also wheter they ever shoot with their cameras and then actually print what they’re shooting.
El Carnicero
10 months ago |Shoot? You mean, like shoot photos? Who has time for that when they’re all pixel-peeping and nerdraging on forums?
david thomas
10 months ago |These look excellent and should be a hot seller.
5dii
10 months ago |it is iso 3200：
http://forum.xitek.com/pics/201209/13959/1395906/1395906_1347380598.jpg
Patrick
10 months ago |this is gonna be awesome!
Andy
10 months ago |Pretty good performance but most people don’t shoot with noise reduction completely off.
Daemonius
10 months ago |I do, cause Im using RAW and my noise smoothing SW is much better than anything available from any camera. Not mentioning that ppl who shoot JPEG only are most likely not target audience for A99.
emopunk
10 months ago |+1
frank
10 months ago |Plenty of people shoot jpeg on full frame. It’s a common misconception that “pros” have time to sit around in front of lightroom when actually there are deadlines to be met.
Greg
10 months ago |Frank,
You haven’t realized yet? According to a lot of people on this forum, the A99 is ONLY for pros. If you shoot JPG, or want an on-board flash, or want any other sort of feature, you aren’t ALLOWED to shoot this camera. Read around…the attitude is so thick you could choke on it.
I wonder if these same morons were telling non-pro Maxxum shooters in the 90′s to go shoot Vectis???
It’s no shocker that these guys happily use autofocus, autometering, and a slough of other “conveniences” that their equally bombastic forebears claimed weren’t required for “pros”.
Oh well, the irony and hypocrisy is lost on them.
aaron
10 months ago |Pro use what works. Some very high level pros who are dead on with exposure and are happy with original capture use jpeg but they are the exception, 95%+ of pros shoot raw for risk management purposes.
I hate jpegs in camera. As a pro I want complete control over my image for dodging and burning, editing etc. so jpeg is not even in my repitore.
And no your right.. pros dont use pop up flash but rarely.. in a pinch.. your leaving the wedding hall etc your flashes are put away and you see a shot and hit your pop up. Fine I can see a utility for a pro. However it is again the exception of any pros standard workflow unless he is bottom of the rung pro and accepts the frustration of dealing with optically triggers strobes etc.
They are not morons they are people describing the uselessness of those features at a professional level and frankly I LOVE that they remove consumer elements like a pop up flash because it encourages consumers to cameras that whizzbang and are cheaper with lower IQ, protecting our market so I dont have some rich doushebag pulling out his 5000$ camera at a wedding shooting on p mode and trying to get in front of me to get a shot I was hired to do.
Let the cows have their built in flash – buy a77s.. And shoot jpeg.. Meanwhile get out of the way and let the photogs work
Greg
10 months ago |Aaron,
Did you read my other post? You just confirmed everything I said yesterday. Thanks for being honest…I knew it was just because you a) are protecting your market and b) think your shit doesn’t stink.
I guess Nikon cares about non-pros who want full frame and gives them the features we want. And don’t worry, most of us wouldn’t hire you anyways. I can do my own work, and no one complains about the quality.
Oh, and I guess you didn’t read my other post, because you still can’t spell. It’s “you’re” and “repertoire”. I suggest with your vocabulary, you stick with short words. You may know photography, but you can’t spell for shit.
Zaph
10 months ago |It’s a common misconception that shooting RAW means you have to sit around for long periods in front of Lightroom.
räven
10 months ago |I’m glad that Sony finally has good looking noise instead of the early blotchy noise a few cameras ago.
Daemonius
10 months ago |My thoughts exactly. Very good look from JPEG.
Robert Bell
10 months ago |Am i missing a point here? If the a99 has phase detection in the sensor why have a mirror at all and reap the iso performance gains?
Greg
10 months ago |Because on-sensor PDAF is reportedly not good enough in low light yet.
Somewhat ironic that once it is, they can get rid of the mirror, and improve low light performance, huh?
RandyPD
10 months ago |If that is straight JPEG, then Sony has done a good job. Detail is preserved while eliminating that awful watercolor effect.
Joe
10 months ago |wow, what does 12,800 and 25,600 look like then, I could see 12,800 being usable if that is a 100% crop
Tessa
10 months ago |Its 300% !!!
danny
10 months ago |I think ISO1600 and ISO6400 look good if noise reduction is turned off.
Patrick
10 months ago |Compared to Canon 5D3, these are standing up pretty well. The idea is not about having noise reduction completely off in jpeg mode.
Normally shooting jpegs with noise reduction brings two compromises: Sony’s choice of Jpeg compression and Sony’s choice of noise reduction algorithms. one or bohh of these could be less than desirable.
So the potential of these here is that the final RAW can be awesome!
Chad
10 months ago |I thought these looked great until I went back and read that noise reduction was turned off. That is really phenomenal.
Good work Sony, thank you.
FMJ
10 months ago |100% crop in 6400 still look that good with NR off? if so, i am willing to use it without NR on….
thats impressive!
Tessa
10 months ago |Read above:
Sorry, forgot to say it’s a 300% crop :p !!!
TomiZG
10 months ago |It seems to perform so much better than my a900. Shooting Raw, no NR, I think I will be extremely satisfied.
daenur
10 months ago |Would love to see not cropped images…
Rick
10 months ago |Can’t wait for real samples and tests…
klw10
10 months ago |+1
harv
10 months ago |Not surprised. Noise performance must be very much better than NEX 5N (which already is very good) for instance. Relatively lower resolution, newer sensor. Interested in dynamic range, I expect a big leap there as well.
C
10 months ago |Not bad. And I’m not trolling, but I think it looks the same as my D800 at 6400. Thought it really depends on the light level and type of light.
If these were taken at f11, 1/2000s at ISO6400, they’re not good. If they were 1/30, f2, then they’re great.
Spoon
10 months ago |Light level has almost no influence on visible noise for a given visual (histogram) exposure, as long as the shutterspeed and/or aperture make up for the difference. Only when you’re talking about very long exposures when read noise (thermal, dark current etc.) become a factor, you can start seeing differences.
You can test this yourself or look at the dozens of tests out there proving this. The reason why we tend to think slower shutterspeeds at larger apertures result in more noise, is because we usually use those settings in much lower light where cameras tend to underexpose and the scene itself tends to have much more information at the left side of the histogram in general. Here we’re looking at a given brightness, in which case the shutterspeed and aperture aren’t too relevant to judge noise.
C
10 months ago |You’re technically, but well lit studio shots at ISO6400 *ALWAYS* look better than nasty indoor restaurant shots at ISO6400 – even with the same histogram.
Shots like this tend to be quite well lit (at least this tiny cropped portion looks quite well lit) and overestimate ISO performance. And if this is from a well lit area of the photo or a dark area, it does make a difference. I guess that’s partly due to dynamic range too – shadows always suffer at high iso.
Spoon
10 months ago |The brightness as we see it is important. Not whether it was dark in the scene, or in the shade, shutterspeed etc. See my previous post. Thus we could judge noise performance IF we were sure of all other variables (not pushed? really 100% crop? etc.).
But I don’t think we can be absolutely sure about those other parameters anyway…
PhotoNut
10 months ago |This is not strictly true. The type of light (as in wavelength) one experiences at night and indoors has a lot to do with how well a camera can image at high ISO.
Try shooting people indoor at night under fluorescent lighting without flash and the same exposure during daylight (both using aperture priority, matrix metering). You will find that the night-time shot will be much more noisy and lack a lot of color resolution than the shot taken in full spectrum daylight even if both were well exposed by camera meter (another source of problems too).
That is why for the most part I disregard high ISO shots using daylight or strobes taken as “proof” of high-iso performance. The only people who would care in such cases are sports shooters who are shooting predominately in daylight and just want high shutter speeds. Indoors and nighttime photographers will need to see high ISO shots taken in nighttime or indoor conditions.
Spoon
10 months ago |If you read my post, you’d notice I was talking about the context of light levels in general as reflected in physical exposure settings, not the temperature. The temperature does affect the noise in the difference channels, but wasn’t subject of the post I replied to (shutterspeed and aperture).
Baki Çirkin
10 months ago |I am a900 user.
I see big noise iso 400. A99Test Disappointment..disappointment..disappointment. Bad Bad Bad
Tagger
10 months ago |If that’s the new camera on the iPhone 5 Apple are screwed….
BigP
10 months ago |ISO 400 (first photo) is clean! Second photo is ISO 1600!
Varn
10 months ago |Nice job, Sony, it’s worth the long waiting. Just hurry up on Zeiss 50mm/f1.2 & 35mm/f1.4 to make our life complete.
eromance
10 months ago |yummmmmmyyyy
Denis
10 months ago |Andrea, ISO6400 shot is of RX1, not A99. Pretty impressed though. Noise character is really simple, the topaz denoise treat it with ease.
frank
10 months ago |Hopefully they will apply their knowledge to firmware for the A77 like they did for the A700.
fsjal
10 months ago |ISO 3200 on a99 looks like ISO 100 on a100
Maxwell
10 months ago |A100 at low ISO is very good and got good details.
Maybe even better then my A700 at same low ISO.
Maxwell
10 months ago |I wonder if the RX1 will have a weak anti-alias filter as
the NEX-5N has. Time will tell.
Steve
10 months ago |Good Luck Sony with the product launch!
As a photographer who has been a Minolta/Sony shooter for almost 50 years I can’t explain how happy I will be if the new a99 is a technical success, and equals or betters Canon and Nikon in the most important image and capturing areas. Since purchasing two a850’s in 2010 It has always been my plan, and budget to purchase the rumored second full-frame next year (2013) and if the a99 lives up and performs I will be counting the days and hours.
Good luck Sony a99!
poke
10 months ago |Can you really tell its iso performance from these shots?
feedmatekill
10 months ago |not really
but at least it’s a bone we can jump around
deraiwl
10 months ago |crap
bas076
10 months ago |1600 looks good. Some thing +- 5d3 level.
Anonymous
10 months ago |X-Trans was here, A99 Sensor is shitty.
brawl
10 months ago |+1000000 go fuji go and rock
Quan
10 months ago |Some updates from the original thread.
ISO3200
http://i1.xitek.com/forum/pics/201209/13959/1395906/1395906_1347380598.jpg
A99 vertical grip has two battery slots, and, the battery slot on camera body wil not be affected when the grip is attached, so you can use three batteries at the same time.
It’s possible that Sony doesn’t announce RX1 tomorrow. It’s still in beta.
passer-by
10 months ago |it’s gonna be heavy…
bas076
10 months ago |For evrerybody who think that D700 or 5Dm3 have no noise on 1600, 3200 or 6400:
http://club.foto.ru/forum/view_topic.php?topic_id=658606&mode=l&page=1
This is in Russion but there is no needs in translation. Everybody understand what is 1600 and +1EV or +3EV. Images are clickable.
George
10 months ago |imo coming from an a700 that is mighty impressive for a quick teaser shot. A larger percentage of my work only ever gets printed smalll (5×7 mostly) or resized for web display, 800px or 1024px on the long edge. I can imagine a 24mpx image that clean resized to those dimensions will look mighty clean, but what you can’t clean up is a lack of high iso dynamic range. That’s the #1 flaw I find with my high iso images right now, is once you start creeping up past 1600, the DR start looking shoddy; lots of really black shadows and blown out highlights.
Tiago Costa
10 months ago |Andrea, any news on the new A77 firmware?
Randy S.
10 months ago |My nex 7 has better noise at 6400. I don’t think this can be from A99.
Here are a raw and jpg (std quality that comes with raw+jpg) So you can read the meta data. From my NEX 7 with Zeiss 40mm F2 So here are 4 images. The RAW. The jpeg std the is captured with the RAW. And IDC JPG with noise reduction OFF. and a DXO from raw with noise reduction ON both JPGS from RAW are BIG about 30MB because they are Jpegs at 100% quality. to me based on all of these there is also noise because all the noise is monochromatic which is usually a sign of noise reduction.
http://ftp.littlemousevfx.com/trans/nexnoise/f11_zeiss_40mmf2.ARW
http://ftp.littlemousevfx.com/trans/nexnoise/f11_zeiss_40mmf2_std_quality.JPG
http://ftp.littlemousevfx.com/trans/nexnoise/f11_zeiss_40mmf2_from_IDC.JPG
http://ftp.littlemousevfx.com/trans/nexnoise/f11_zeiss_40mmf2_DxO.jpg
gat
10 months ago |x-pro1 iso6400 is better than this.
Spoon
10 months ago |With or without NR? Wait… all the results, jpeg or RAW are smoothed so much that we can’t really tell…
Not to mention the 1/3 to 1/2 a stop overstating of ISO’s, where Sony tends to do the opposite with recent SLT’s.
andersstampe
10 months ago |To be honest, I don’t really see any improvement.
WTH
10 months ago |WHAT PEOPLE DON’T UNDERSTAND IS THAT THE A99 HAS TWO PHASE DETECTION SENSORS!!!!
ONE ON THE TOP OF THE SLT AND ONE IN THE SENSOR!!!!
THEREFORE IF YOU REMOVE THE SLT, YOU WILL STILL GET AUTO FOCUSING, JUST THAT THERE WILL BE LESS POINTS AND THAT IT WILL BE GENERALLY SLOWER!
SO ALL YOU WHINERS ABOUT LOSING LIGHT WITH THE SLT, JUST STICK YOUR FINGER IN THE CAMERA AND YANK OUT THE MIRROR!!!!
THEN YOU CAN GO ON SAR AND WHINGE ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE, LIKE HOW I AM USING CAPS LOCK IN MY POST TO PISS YOU ALL OFF!!!!
zstan
10 months ago |i believe it will still be faster using contrast detection on sensor AF
saiman
10 months ago |PDAF, yes… but without any cross-type AF sensor.
noisyguy
10 months ago |x-pro1 is not better then this, definatly. If those shots are legit and indeed 300% crops then alot of cameras got fucked in the ass right now by sony.
Really good and surpricing noise performance imo
noisyguy
10 months ago |The iso 6400 shot looks like a 100% crop from a 1600 a77 shot…
aaron
10 months ago |Lets hope to sony that they eventually put in a ability to flip up the pelicle mirror for studio work. Kind of the opposite of an slr. Or even just a switch on the side where we manually flip it up. One brilliant thing about that mirror is that it protect the sensor from dust.. You know how expensive that sensor is to replace?? probably a lot.
El Carnicero
10 months ago |You’ve never heard of a dust blower? Why the heck replace your sensor just because of a little dust??
also don’t see how it will make a difference in a Studio.
saiman
10 months ago |ISO1600 already lost some details compared to ISO400, and ISO3200 is even worse. ISO6400 is impressive, but it is not from A99.
It remains to be seen how well it performs compared to the canikons.
What I can say now is that A99 already lost its crown of “The High-ISO King” to RX1 (a non-alpha compact) even before its release. After its release, we can further test the validity of this marketing jargon that was first thrown in here on SAR.
El Carnicero
10 months ago |So… an unreleased camera, not properly tested in the same controlled environment as the competition, was ALREADY given the “high ISO King” crown? And yet already lost it too?
Do you live in a Once Upon A Time fairytale?
Also, there’s more than just noise. I’m more interested in dynamic range and detail retention, and those shots are looking good to me.
Alex
10 months ago |Si eso es una A99, es patetico, a 1600 ya está repleta de ruido, derrama gran cantidad de ruido. Decepcionante, espero que no sea asi.
kei1309
10 months ago |my goodness. very few intelligent people in here, but lots of whiners who are complaining about highly possibly, fake tests. this is a rumors site, not a good photography forum like DPR
we should wait for the announcements and actual tests before having a real discussion!
El Carnicero
10 months ago |I agree, though I doubt there are “very few” intelligent readers on here – most are quite intelligent. Just a few loudmouth crybabies making the most noise, and the occasional blanket statement troll such as yourself.
kei1309
10 months ago |whatever floats your boat, my good Sir. you sure don’t know how to tell trolling from giving advice.
El Carnicero
10 months ago |You need to practice your trolling more, kid.
Yawn
10 months ago |More or less the same as my 5DI, 5D2 etc; cannot speak for the Nikons. These are good results, totally enough for photographers – and surely never enough for measurbators.
Aero
10 months ago |Doesn’t look very good on ISO1600.
nico socha
10 months ago |Wow, great ISO quality
But i dont know why everybody discuss about Nikon, Canon and Sony sooo much. I think these brands are the best 3, they are so close in quality that we dont must discuss that so much. The photographer is much more important. Come on, if you use a 5D MarkIII a D800 or a A99 it doesnt matter, all if these cameras are great.