More good news about the firmware and the A77 RAW image quality with Lightroom!
There are now plenty of A77 owners that are testing the new Lightroom 6.5 software to convert the A77 RAW images. The new update brings support for the Sony A77, Sony A65 and Sony NEX-5n.
You can see many RAW conversion samples of A77 images on dpreview forum here, here and here.
Our reader DK wrote: “For the uninitiated, I’ve grabbed some RAWs from DPR and run them through ACR 6.5, and here are the results:
ISO6400: http://accessdesires.com/test-shots/test-6400.jpg
ISO3200: http://accessdesires.com/test-shots/test-3200.jpg
In ISO6400 comparison, I have the A77 and its immediate competitors, the D7000, D300s, 7D and K-5. The A77 shot does have more noise but just slightly. It’d be a far stretch to tell the difference between them if they’re all printed in the same size. Hardly disastrous result as the uneducated tend to think. Do take note that the age old 12MP sensor in the D300s holds off very well against newer counterparts. And guess what, it’s the ACR that takes credit.
In ISO3200 comparison, I pit the A77 against the D7000 and the 7D. Again, the A77 shows more noise, but hardly lacks any detail. Age old 14MP CCD from the A390 is thrown in for some good fun. This is considered by many as “unusable” above ISO800, and see how well it holds against modern CMOSes. Again, ACR takes credit.
If you’ve been processing enough photos, you’d have noticed that there was a huge jump in noise handling performance from ACR5 to ACR6. RAWs considered unusable in the past can easily have new lives by running through the new ACR6. And you’ve processed enough photos from different cameras, you’d have known that they all share the same noise characteristic at high ISO. The noise, the detail one sensor can have depends more on how you process and which converter you use, than the sensor itself.”
A77 Firmware 1.03
The source over at mobile01 said that they are already testing firmware 1.03 for the A77. Let’s hope they are right and tomorrow Sony will release the new firmware!
P.S.: The source of the firmware news also made some videos and images of the F1 grand prix in Singapore: Mobile01 (Click on green links to open the images).
Other new Sony cameras and lenses links:
A77 at Amazon, Adorama, B&H, J&R, eBay.
A65 at Amazon, Adorama, B&H, J&R, eBay.
Sony NEX-7 Amazon, Adorama, B&H, J&R, eBay.
Sony NEX-5n Amazon, Adorama, B&H, J&R, eBay.
Zeiss 24mm f/1.8 Amazon, Adorama, B&H, J&R, eBay.
Sony 50mm f/1.8 Amazon, Adorama, B&H, J&R, eBay.
Sony 55-210mm Amazon, Adorama, B&H, J&R, eBay.
NEX-5n viewfinder Amazon, Adorama, B&H, J&R, eBay.
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danny
8 months ago |Anybody knows if it’s possible to get a larger buffer size with a new firmware update ?
JChristopher
8 months ago |Not possible. Buffer size is hardware related and not software.
sholky
8 months ago |But it is possible to get a larger buffer size physically, I remember a sports photographer who increased the buffer size on his Nikon D3.
Someone just has to figure out how to do it on A77.
Twaddler Belafonte
8 months ago |Nikon upgraded D3′s with a larger buffer; Sony is not going to upgrade the buffer.
REVENGE
8 months ago |It’s possible if the firmware currently doesn’t take full advantage of the buffer in hardware (ie Pentax K-5). I would’ve said no, but given Sony’s track record…
knurd
8 months ago |Yeah, but isn’t the new firmware for the NEW processor? The old FW was for the old pre-prod. bionz. Would that make a difference?
DING
8 months ago |Correct!
Depending on how much overhead is used for the firmware and other functions of the camera. If Sony optimizes their code, they might be able to squeeze in a frame or two extra, just like how they increased the memory for games on their ps3 by a few megabytes…. I doubt it though.
Sony made poor judgement by limiting the memory for this camera on purpose. Memory is so cheap now a days. I would gladly pay an extra $100 bucks for double the buffer.
I guess this is how they will get us to upgrade to their FF camera next year…
ageha
8 months ago |Sure it’s possible! Depends on how much memory is already allocated to the buffer and how much is reserved for other stuff. They could dedicate more to the buffer if it’s not needed elsewhere.
Dan
8 months ago |“The noise, the detail one sensor can have depends more on how you process and which converter you use, than the sensor itself.””
Interesting statement. What I was taught was it has to do with pixel density and the size of the photosites in each pixel which determines how much light is captured. The more light captured the better detail and reduced noise to “fill in the gaps”. Any post processing done is just manipulating that data and not recreating it. I guess I’m part of the “uneducated” group.
Terryfried
8 months ago |This is only true if the sensors are from same generation and make. Or an A100 would be better than an A700 which would be better than an A77. But the reverse is true. Some people on here won’t listen and keep insisting they want FF equivalent of APS-C at 9MP. Despite best high iso/low noise camera sensors being 16MP.
FK
8 months ago |If you look at the DXO mark results the A77 only scores slightly better then the Alpha 700 when it comes to high ISO which is due to the SLT technology working against the improvements the new sensor brings. Again when you look at the alpha 900′s results on ISO it scores a lot better then the A77 having the same resolution but a bigger sensor.
Again For most people it won’t matter but for those depending on Lowlight Abilities that want to Upgrade in this direction the only option still is Full frame (as sad as this is).
David
8 months ago |Exposure matters too. Underexposed areas have a lot more noise. You can shoot high ISO in daylight to get a fast shutter speed and you see almost no noise
Liza
8 months ago |Plus, these comparisons never take into account different pixel densities, so they are effectively comparing two different ISOs. They are, quite frankly, bullshit.
Give me a 1 megapixel camera from 1999 and I’ll show you “Better ISO” than an A77 using this method.
Its nonsense, yet it persists because the people doing it don’t know what ISO actually is, and so they don’t realize they’re comparing images recorded with different amounts of total light.
dk
8 months ago |@Dan:
Try this yourself: Take a high ISO RAW from any Sony camera before the A500/550, open it in ACR5 then again in ACR6, with all default setting, and see the difference.
A step further, try to play around with ACR5 setting as much you can, I dare you to get anything close to result of default setting from ACR6.
beware
8 months ago |Lightroom 6.5 or camera raw 6.5 ? guess it’s camera raw 6.5
Hannu108
8 months ago |Best high iso/low noise camera tested is known to be Nikon D3s. It has a 12.1 MP sensor.
Liza
8 months ago |Depends on how you do the test. If you do it correctly, higher megapixel cameras will always have better noise performance than lower megapixel cameras.
I bet in reality, the A77 has half the noise of the D3 (assuming the D3 is full frame.) Of course, being full frame the D3 has about %50 more surface area on which to gather light… yet the 24 megapixels of the A77 give it an advantage.
You know you’re talking to an idiot if they think, comparing two sensors of the same size, the one with the fewer pixels has better noise performance.
Reality: Take a ISO 32000 image from both, show thru the same lens and aperture, reduce both down to a 1920×1080 image and then pixel peep them…. you’ll find the higher megapixel camera has dramatically less noise.
The reason is that the higher megapixel camera will dither more pixels to get the 1920×1080 image from.
The ONLY way to compare noise levels is ACROSS THE FULL SENSOR.
Anything else is bullshit– unless you’d have us believe a 1 megapixel camera has less noise than a current generation.
mwl
8 months ago |“Reality: Take a ISO 32000 image from both, show thru the same lens and aperture, reduce both down to a 1920×1080 image and then pixel peep them…. you’ll find the higher megapixel camera has dramatically less noise.”
You mean like this?
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1037&message=39470648
Cliff
8 months ago |I wonder if the new firmware will allow the translucent mirror to be removed, recalibrate the sensor and implement contrast auto focus.
That would be sweet!
Cliff
Terryfried
8 months ago |That would loose my order. DSLSs dont use FD AF for fun. A77 has posibly best AF available.
Maximus
8 months ago |its not possible, because the mirror looks out of the body when it is raised
ageha
8 months ago |Sure mate, it’s simply the best! lol Have you tried one yourself? I guess you should.
Cyrus
8 months ago |Light Room 3.5
Daniel
8 months ago |Noise levels don’t favour the A77 at all when you look at crops like this. What should be considered as a major worry is that there is obvious loss of detail at ISO 3200 and 6400(just look at the top side of the batteries in comparison with the others). The noise will definately not be of such major concernt in normal prints, but blown up on a big TV for example would not look ok.
Many have said that you don’t often need sensitivities above 1600..that depends, i say i do..and it worries me that these files have been processed with latest ACR and still turned out like this.
I was sincerely expecting more from the raw files final output.
The camera that’s taken 4 years to bring to light is no serious photography tool, just a cool toy.
How on earth would anyone take advantage of 24MPX in action photography for example!?
Ok, it focuses fast, but that’s the single advantage it has for shooting sports or fast moving subjects…high ISO performance is mediocre, limitting prints, and in takes just over a second to fill the buffer…then what? Ridiculous!! You have to wait for the buffer to clear…
12 FPS is usable for…. marketing!! It’s overwelmed by the files size, the sensor doesn’t handle noise well…if you haven’t set the EVF on all the time it does so after half a second and if it is on all the time it consumes more battery life.
Quite a few contradictions…too many.
I wanted something that really works, waited as we all did….
I hope there’s a lesson to be learnt here regarding future FF models!!
Lonnie
8 months ago |Dan,
Upscale the images from the other offerings to the same size as the ones from the A77 and what do you think will happen? They will look the same…
Edgars
8 months ago |Daniel, how you think people still take pictures without “something that really works”?
Happy days for PixelPeepers…
Kevin
8 months ago |Right on.. They needed to down size the a77 to match the other cameras for a better comparison.
Vlad
8 months ago |Precisely.
Daniel
8 months ago |Did you read all the way down!? Did you miss the part about not being a problem in normal prints!? There are cases when you need the bigger prints also, but these dont’t usually imply high ISO….but action photography does and the A77 is something that should be very appealing to action photographers if you take into considerations 12 FPS, 24 MPX(possibility to crop), fast and accurate autofocus, the tough body, the high res EVF, weathersealing…
Just that you need high ISO with fast moving subjects, you need the buffer to withstand more than 1 second of punishment at max res, you need the EVF to be spot on…these are obvious flaws that mean something to some of us.
Trust me, i know what i am speaking of…this is my first comment since the A77 came out..I just waited to see what it’s made of…no pixelpeeping, no jumping to conclusions, no nothing, bottom line it isn’t what i’ve expected it to be, obviously, but it isn’t exactly what it has been promissed, rumoured, marketed even, also.
They’ve made it a cool toy instead of a serious tool and i hope they leave the FF models to serve as “”tools” at least…
There’s a lot to like about the A77 feature wise, to bad it is crippled by Sony’s desire to dominate by all means the MEGAPIXEL RACE…this kind of situation reminds me about how the captain of the Titanic ignored all wornings and just pushed on to get to NY in record time..ironically Sony pushed the limits to early.
Andrea, tell us please, contact the sources that have sent you rumors while testing the camera if you can, hasn’t anyone figured it out while testing, the small buffer and other problems?!?
The way i look at it it is impossible to belive that the A77 was tested by real photographers…how could have they missed the flaws, why weren’t the problems fixed before sales started!?!
scorche
8 months ago |agreed, I’ve adjusted the crop in this image (6400 ISO)
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/3523/27129416.jpg
passer-by
8 months ago |Not bad for a 24mp sensor…
Bill
8 months ago |The A77 still looks the worst among the five older cameras no matter how you adjust the comps methodology. I don’t care how the A77 lovers try to defend it, the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words definitely holds true in this case. It’s so disappointing after such long wait and so much hype.
I totally agree with every word Daniel said above, Sony ruined the A77 by focusing on the marketing specs rather than IQ which is what really matters in the end to most.
The worst part is I spent a lot collecting A lens in anticipation for the the A77/A65. Now I’m stuck with a new toy that’s worse than a 4-year old camera in the IQ dept. Shame on you, Sony.
Now, at least Sony can do is to stick the 5N sensor into a A77/A65 body, and call them A75/A67, and charge a bit less, just to make it right. Don’t bother with the techie BS, since the consensus shows that 5N IQ and noise level are better than some of the best FF out there, then give me just that, and please, save your breath trying to convince anyone that A77 is not as bad as it is somehow, don’t!!!
saiman
8 months ago |+1
emarsh
8 months ago |8fps is selectable, with continuous auto-focus and exposure. That’s about 2 seconds for an action shot sequence. Besides that, the buffer does clear quickly, and as space is available more shots can be taken. You don’t have to wait for all 18 shots to clear out before it will shoot again. As for the images shown on dpreview in the controlled environment, this does not show the full advantage of the 24mp resolution sensor. Outside in the natural world, the advantages will be obvious, the a77 will get detail in the image from shadows and highlights, that will not ever be there in the d7000 images. Also, you can shoot 12mp or 6mp images with the a77, if you want. The buffer should hold more shots then, if you don’t mind jpegs, and the lesser resolution.
David
8 months ago |Batteries look out of focus to me.. not a loss from noise
And what’s the resolution of a big TV? 1080p as a maximum.. pictures usually look crappy on TVs anyway. And it’s not like your audience will be sitting close to a TV
And yes it’s a serious photography tool.. you have the same noise performance as the last generation yes, but you have a stop more dynamic range (a huge improvement), plus better colour depth. So overall image quality is up significantly.
Plus the advanced movie mode, AF tracking, weather sealing.. they sound serious to me.
12fps is useful for short bursts of action. The buffer lasts 1 second which sounds short, but you should be timing your bursts anyway around periods of action. If you want to catch the tackle or the bat hitting the ball.. they all take far less than one second. The buffer clears fast too, so shoot a short burst, then another, then another. Only some sort of idiot and terrible photographer would indiscriminately just hold the shutter down with no sense of timing at all…
Sony even said they looked at how people actually used fast fps.. it’s short bursts, so they made a small buffer which clears fast so you can do another burst. It’s not a 12fps movie mode.
And with the good AF and picture previewing through the EVF, you should never miss a shot.
Daniel
8 months ago |Good point with “not being a 12 FPS movie mode”…still laughin’
Though…normally you should be able to always count for more even if you use less, you should relly on the buffer capabilities at max res regardless of the fact that some cases require less than one second continuous shooting…you never feel comfortable knowing that you might run out of gas, do you!?
David
8 months ago |lol, well you got the point I guess
Sure, the buffer isn’t ideal. Would I prefer 100 shots vs 17? Sure
But at the end of the day, the fact you get 12fps AT ALL is very remarkable. Especially in a consumer level, consumer priced camera! I can work around it having a small-ish buffer, as long as it clears it quickly, which it does!
What I’m saying is, it’s ridiculous to say it’s a deal-breaker, when the fact is that you can’t get 12fps in any camera near this price point. So the a77 still wins just by having the feature, even if more limited than you had hoped.
Liza
8 months ago |Any comparison not comparing across the full frame, or not accounting for pixel density, is comparing different ISOs, and is, scientifically speaking, absolute bullshit.
And anyone posting them without at least a caveat, should not be trusted, because they don’t understand the basics of digital photography.
a77
8 months ago |Check out this review of the a77 from DigitalRev, Kai actually dumps a bottle of water on it and although he dont like sony he somewhat says its a good camera
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al1BI82nV9A
frosti7
8 months ago |The crops show clearly, that the A77 is one stop noisier then both D7000 and 7D.
REVENGE
8 months ago |Yeah, it’s pretty evident from RAW noise samples as well, just an inherent trade-off with the SLT design, the sensor itself should perform well.
David
8 months ago |DxOMark disagrees with your analysis. Within the margin of error of a 7D.
Sorry if I value their analysis over yours.
scorche
8 months ago |re: test shots….
I find 100% crops of images to compare noise between cameras is always a bit of a tricky subject.
The problem is that hardly anyone compares them at equivalent size. Unless you’re seeing the exact same crop at the exact same resolution, you get results that are essentially useless in real world.
I’ve resized the crops to match the output of the a77. To me, while there is a difference between the s/n ratios, the resulting images are quite close.
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/3523/27129416.jpg
Vlad
8 months ago |Perfectly ok. But I guess someone will whine again about the “shockingly” bad performance of the A77 at high ISO.
scorche
8 months ago |haters gonna hate?
scorche
8 months ago |meh, I’m getting this camera anyway, and not to impress high ISO snobs.
I’m with luminous landscapes on this
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/sony_a65_first_impressions.shtml
the camera is good enough for print and monitor as long as you keep away from 100% crops
Daniel
8 months ago |True…it’s not the high ISO which should be something to worry..it is mre than decent, just wait for it to be properly fixed.
Daniel
8 months ago |Not shockingly, just there, more chroma noise and loss of detail, but i’m peeping, and that’s forbidden..:)) Of course it looks better when you mach the equivalent size…something that won’t trouble your printing anyway.
Some thought to consider…these examples show properly exposed pictures, what would be the case with underexposed dark areas at ISO 3200 and above!?
David
8 months ago |Worse, so don’t underexpose your images.
dk
8 months ago |@scorche:
That’s exactly what I was trying to say. I was thinking of resizing them to the same MP but it was late so oh well, assuming the readers can probably tell there isn’t much different between them. Read my full post here at: http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/good-news-new-a77-firmware-coming-soon-from-asia-coming-tomorrow/#li-comment-48787
Heck I wouldn’t even have bothered doing comparison (first time I did in fact) if I hadn’t been so pissed by the whine here.
beware
8 months ago |lmao just tried lightroom can’t believe that people are actually happy with it it’s so damn slow
guess most of the people don’t know http://bibblelabs.com/ it’s so much faster
David
8 months ago |Get a better computer?
mwl
8 months ago |David, you’re so smart. You know everything.
Cristian P
8 months ago |+ 1 (with SolidStateDrive )
Cliff
8 months ago |Well,..it seems that Sony figured that the “semi-pro” photographer would be far more impressed with the “24 MEGA Pixel!!!” card that is zip tied to the side of the camera than a “Great ISO rating” tag. Far too many people have no clue or don’t even care about noise.
Also,…”super fast auto focus” is music to a novices ears! Not saying that pro’s don’t like it too sometimes but many novices NEVER take the came out of auto.
And sadly, it’s TRUE. The first question out of my mom’s mouth when she sees a new camera in Best Buy is; “How many Mega-thingy’s” is it?
You gotta appeal to the masses and I guess and the A77 prolly will.
If it has 24 “mega-thingy’s”,..than,..WOW!,..that MUST be a great camera.
CT
romen
8 months ago |Are those the same batteries? They look like an AA compared with AAA
SRL
8 months ago |I have several big-corporate accounts that I photograph board events, management functions and other stuff. The reason I have this gig is my ability to produce quality images in less than optimal lighting conditions.
I carry two a850’s at most of these events and depending on the light I have a Zeiss 135/f1.8 on one and a 85/f1.4 on the other. If the light is better I use my 25-70/2.8 and a 70-200/f2.8 and never ever shoot with a flash.
I love the a850 because of the 24MP I can crop the heck out of an image if needed and the Zeiss 135/f1.8 gives me the reach of a 200mm lens when I can crop.
What I’m looking for or forward to is a camera with better ISO noise at 1600-3200 than my a850
My question: is the a77 better at ISO 1600-3200 than the a850?
Steve Jones
8 months ago |The answer is no – the larger sensor on the A850 combined with the lack of an SLT mirror makes it perhaps a stop better than the A77. In fact I doubt any APS-C camera with 24MP will ever match a current full frame with 24 MP as we are into diminishing returns.
Expect future sensor advances to be relatively minor (although the age of Sony’s FF sensor means that there’s some catchup to do).
Essentially you can’t beat sensor size – a good big one will always beat a good small one.
Liza
8 months ago |You can’t say no that fast. Need to actually compare the results. I think that every 2 years or so, the quality of sensors improves enough to give about a stop or more better performance at a given ISO.
So, the question really is, how old is the 850? If it has a %50 larger sensor, and its more than 2 years old, the A77 is probably better.
Best thing to do would be to rent an A77 (or borrow one from your local camera store?) for a few days and shoot with it along with the 850 and see how they compare.
dk
8 months ago |If you want scientific test, DXOLabs has already done that for you. If you process enough photos, you probably could tell even before the A77 was released.
Sorry but it’s definitely a big NO, no if no but.
Steve Jones
8 months ago |@Liza
The reason I say very unlikely is that sensor design is beginning to bump up against the limits of physics. There are three critical factors – one is the Quantum Efficiency (QE) which is effectively what percentage of photons are detected, another is the light-gathering via micro-lenses and the other is control of the various sorts of noise. Already the micro-lens and noise control is very good on the best sensors. Quantum efficiency is at about the 50% level (after passing through the filters).
Unfortunately noise is inherent in the nature of light as it’s quantised (something called photon shot noise). Even if we could get to 100% efficiency on the sensors, and never miss a photon or introduce any noise, it would seem that we can’t ever get much more than 1 to 1.5 stops.
That noise is inherent in low light can be seen on low-light images from photomultipliers. Those are inherently grainy, simply because the arrival rate of photons is extremely low.
If some way could be found of counting photons without using filters (and hence throwing away 2/3rds of the light), that would give us another 1.5 stops, but even the Foveon can’t do that.
Don Cox
8 months ago |You could get more light to the sensor by replacing the bandpass (blue, green and red) filters by ones that pass all light from a certain wavelength to the end of the spectrum at 700nm.
For example:
1 White – pass 400-700nm
2 Yellow – pass 500-700nm
3 Orange – pass 570-700nm
4 Red – pass 530-700nm
The sensitivities of the layers in a Foveon sensor are of this type, I believe.
Suitable matrixing will give you the usual RGB output – or you could get a 4-primary RAW image to better match current inkjet printers.
Liza
8 months ago |These noise comparisons are absolute bullshit. They don’t account for the increased pixel density. When you take a full sensor image and reduce it to 800 pixels wide, you get more reduction in noise from a 24Megapixel sensor than from a 14 Megapixel sensor. When you do %100 crops like this you’re comparing different ISOs! You’re comparing a smaller portion of the denser pixel, and thus that smaller portion gets LESS LIGHT.
Give me a 1 megapixel old camera and I can use exactly this test to show how the NEX-5 at 14 Megapixels has much more noise… when in reality, and any real shooting, the NEX-5 is going to have much better performance, and lower noise at equivalent ISOs.
These comparisons that don’t account for the increased pixel density are not comparing the same ISOs. ISO is across the whole frame of the image.
Carlos Echenique
8 months ago |That’s not exactly true. If it were, medium format sensors would trounce 35mm full frame ones in low light conditions when the converse is true. Only Phase One’s Sensor+ models can begin to come close to 35mm high ISO performance and that is because Phase One uses pixel-binning which reduces the resolution of the sensor to 1/4 of its original value.
ageha
8 months ago |Well, but the technology of medium format sensors is way older than Sony’s latest sensors.
FiveForm
8 months ago |Just imported my first .ARW files from my NEX-5N after downloading Lightroom 3.5 upgrade with RAW 6.5 – Sweet! Great being able to shoot RAW now without any external converters. Did some quick side-by-sides with my Nikon D300 and I do believe that I’m getting sharper images from the $300 Sony 18-55mm. Also, better out of the camera color when setting both to tungsten. Getting quite happy with the little NEX and am planning on adding Trufinder when available, along with Nikon lens converter and possibly the combo of the Sony wide angle add-on lens on the 16mm 2.8. Yes, I’ll be looking at the NEX-7, but really feel I’d be just as happy with the NEX-5N considering that I can choose to add the eye-level finder, external microphone and so forth. Yes, the NEX-7 is a more pro package and has built-in flash and Trufinder. With the NEX-5N I can control my spending rather than have to lay out $1350.
Almazar80
8 months ago |I am wondering why Sony would put a newer Bionz processor in the production model. Aside from causing havoc with the formerly functional firmware, could it be that the buffer clearing process is improved somehow, or that more advanced algorithms can be implemented with the newer processor?
Bill
8 months ago |Probably not so much a new processor as a later edition of the mask. Undoubtedly a small run of processors were done to supply the development cameras a processor. After that point some additional work could have been done to improve the processor, mostly in terms of removing bugs in the hardware. So all the firmware development could have been done on processor version 1.02 and the final processors for production cameras would have been 1.03 (made up version numbers). Obviously Sony should have re-run functional tests with the new processors and fine tuned the firmware for them, if they did this it was not done very well.
Almazar80
8 months ago |Maybe so, but I’d be interested in having reviewers compare production A77 with the newer Bionz processor and updated firmware versus the cameras sporting the supposed 1.02 final firmware running on pre-production cameras. I don’t know what changed or if its just a bug fixed hardware or what. It is not like Sony will publish an errata so maybe the changes will manifest themselves on comparative testing.
321
8 months ago |a better camera or more megapixels will NOT make you a better Photographer. stop wasting your money
Terryfried
8 months ago |No it won’t. Using an A77 my photos ,(composition etc) will be the same quality as I or any similar ability photographer would get with a cheap compact. However the available print quality (size of print etc) will be better. And as features such as fast AF mean I will get more Photo opportunities I will get twice as many good photos. For example shooting fast low flying Birds of pray recently I struggled to keep them in frame and though I got some great shots most where binned. With 12 fps burst that split sec shot(less than a 1sec burst) would have got me more perfectly framed shots. At sports events such as Ice hockey instead of just pre-focusing on goal I could quickly track action and get unexpected mid ice hits etc that I would miss altogether with lesser camera. Yes if all you take is 6″x4″ landscapes. Use any old camera. I want the A77 to allow me more chances for good shots the actual quality is little difference apart from 6′x4′ landscapes or studio shots.
$ony
8 months ago |When newer processor is ever introduced by Sony, it usually means worst things. Just look at the PS3.
Sony finds innovative ways of reducing power for both processing and per watt.
I hope to God that they didn’t do this for the A77.
Amitesh
8 months ago |Hi Guys… got the A77 delivered today and the first in Sydney..
A77 looks pretty awesome… have to get used to optical viewfinder… viewfinder is more like seeing in camcorder… well that’s what i feel… camera has a good weight with the 16-50mm lens…. the dials are bit leggy at times… hopefully fixed with the update… will post some shots soon..
Sergei
8 months ago |To all pixel peepers: when film was released people compared prints and discussed properties like color rendition, tones, sharpness and grain. Do yourself a favor, use the tool for something real and go make a print of it – if it is even worthy of such an honor. The more I shoot professionally the more I get to see that my everage clients can’t touch the potential my gear delivers. Burst Shooting is fun when you plan it and 12 frames is plenty. So, please, do yourself a favor go photograph something cool and tell me that A77 couldn’t catch up or was in your way. Camera takes – photographer makes
Happy
8 months ago |Guys! Just got mah A77 this morning…
Chucked on the 24-70mm CZ lens and took a few shots. As a A55 user for over a year now, this A77 is amazing.
Anyone upgrading from the A55 would be pleased with this.
acolyte
8 months ago |Throw us bits of impressions.
I’ve got enough from so-called experts and so-called reviewers
How about some SAR residents?
Leo
8 months ago |NEWS: According to Sony Hong Kong, the new firmware for both A65 and A77 will be released in mid October. The firmware will improve the reaction time in turning on or off the EVF and LCD, and control of front and rear wheels. Sony also mentioned to improve the functionality of both cameras (could be bug fix?).
Leo
8 months ago |a correction: should be Sony Taiwan
ShamB
8 months ago |Using LR with A77 RAW broke a couple of myths about high MP for me: (1) high MP files don’t reduce LR performance much.
(2) noise reduction is not linear with MP – you can apply MUCH more than double the NR with 24MP files for typical 300DPI prints than you can with 12MP.
One thing I notice with Lightroom (64Bit) with the A77 24MP files is that the processing lag is not double that of a 12Mb (A500) file. Its actually pretty close… LR must be making some view optimisations. Cool!
Im running on Windows 7, 8Gb, using an ancient Q6600 quad core CPU, (but overclocked by 50%, making it about as fast as a stock i5).
** This means that you probably dont need a new computer to work with A77 files.**
The other thing I noticed with the 24MP files vs 12MP files is that you can get away with much larger levels of noise reduction whilst keeping detail in final prints (or images reduced for web consumption). This is most likely because 24MP is waaaay overkill for most semi pro print use, so you have a lot of leeway.
** This means (Admittedly, by my own subjective measurement) that you can apply more than twice as much NR on a 24MP file than you can on a 12MP file **.
Based on my experience so far, I’d go so far to say that increasing MP is better than keeping MP but increasing sensor IQ, once you factor in post processing.
Looking good!
danny
8 months ago |I made some time to make a ISO 1600 comparison, using ACR , little noise reduction and sharpening, 100% crops and resized the A77 to give the same amount of pixels (755×503)
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/813/a777dd7000iso1600.jpg/
pl_____
8 months ago |dan,
nice job!
can you please to make the same comparing on iso6400 with agressive NR and after resize to 12mpx?
PaulW
8 months ago |I’ve downloaded the Lightroom 3.5 update and did a quick conversion of the 12800 RAW posted at DPReview….looks good to me (see link).
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1037&message=39484799
As stated by ShamB above, you can use far higher luminance noise settings with these 24MB files than I have been used to using, without seeming to compromise detail badly. Basically these files clean up very well and leave a pretty acceptable ‘grain’
What do you think?