sonyalpharumorsLog in

An anonymous source just sent me this: “I have learned that the production Alpha a77 has a revised set of new Bionz processors but the Firmware updates were for the older processors. Someone messed up and may have forgotten to have the firmware people test with the new processor. There will be a major update to the firmware as soon as full testing is completed. This is going to delay US and Canada Distribution. The current Firmware was never test on the newer processors that is in the production cameras. So there will be major corrections are needed in the firmware before its released again.”

If the “rumor” is correct than this is an embarassing news for Sony but also good news for us because it means that the firmware updgrade will hopefully fix all current issues. Reminder: The rumor hasn’t been confirmed by official sources so as usual take it with a grain of salt!

P.S.: Yesterday I told you that Sony UK stopped the A77 sales. Another reader wrote me: “popped into my local Jessops (Hedge End, UK)and asked when they expected to get A77. they checked on system and said that there were none at “head office” and they were expecting stock on 25th October.”

And those are the links to preorder the new cameras and lenses:
A77 at Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay.
A65 at Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay.
Sony NEX-7 Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay.
Sony NEX-5n Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay.
Zeiss 24mm f/1.8 Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay.
Sony 50mm f/1.8 Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay.
Sony 55-210mm Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay.
NEX-5n viewfinder Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay.

ThePictureDesk (Click here) posted image samples taken with the Zeiss 24mm lens: “The Sony NEX7 with the Sony Zeiss Sonnar E 1,8/24ZA seems to be a nice combo for a walk around camera. The lens is slightly larger than I would have expected but feels good in your hand.”

The Russian website Photoru (Click here) posted new NEX-7 studio photography image samples. And other image samples are available on Flickr (Click here). And Dpreview (Click here) update the Zeiss 24mm image samples collection.

Nikon V1 vs Olympus PEN E-P3 vs Sony NEX-7 at Techradar (Click here).

There is a small error at SonyStore Canada which says the NEX-7 can go up to 20.000 ISO!

The NEX-7 is still the most preordered of all new Sony cameras at Amazon (Click here to see the rankings).

The NEX-7 can be preordered at Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay (Click on store name to visit the search page).
And here are the Zeiss 24mm f/1.8 preorder links at Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay.
The cheaper 50mm f/1.8 lens can be preordered at Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay.

A korean video shows the complete blackout of the A77 (Source: blog.naver.com)

Since a couple of days there “rumors” about A77 issues are floating around the web. Many readers contacted me to confirm that there are quite some issues with the first batch of released A77 cameras. The very latest news i got says: “Sony UK have put a hold on all orders till they investigate a problem that seems to be occurring with the cameras failing to recognise any lens attached.”

As you know the very first cameras have been shipped to Asian countries and there is where you can find many issue reports like here at Dchome and here at Xitek and here at SLRclub. There are also issue reports on Dpreview, here and here. One of our readers had the A77 for three days and had the following issues: “I had 3 times a system hang. I found 1 or 2 death spot when the system hanged and full Black screen was shown. When I pressed the “Fn” key, two column of icon were shown on both L/R sides.  My a77 EVF also disappeared.”

Also other sources or readers contacted me to say they are having problems. In summary it sounds like on some cameras there could be those issues:
1) Top LCD info disappears in some occasions.
2) Crash of the whole camera (you have to remove the battery and reinsert it after to restart).
3) AF points do disappear when using third party lenses (and than it doesn’t work for Sony lenses neither!).
4) There are also a lot of other “minor” issues like that one you can see on youtube.

It definitely sounds like all those problems are SOFTWARE issues and that’s at leats a good news. It means that Sony could fix that via firmware upgrade. Anyway, I really think Sony messed it up. You cannot develop a camera for three years and than release it with such basic faults! This sounds even worse than the Sony NEX-5n “click” problem. Please Sony try to release an official statement as soon as possible if you don’t want to loose all your A77 orders!

Those are the A77 preorder links: Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay. But keep in mind that there are some issues. You might want to wait until Sony releases or at least announces the new firmware…

In this episode we dive into the new Sony Alpha A77 in a bit more detail and talk about image quality versus the A850, the 12fps, OLED viewfinder etc. In our tutorials section we talk about how cameras measure light at 18% reflectance and what that means to your exposure.

You want to have some fun? Get at Dpreview (Click here) to test the studio comparison tool which now includes the A77 images! And what do you think?

Photoreview (Click here) posted a new A77 review: “Subjective assessments of test image files show them to be extremely good. Colours appear natural and we found the sensor/processor  combination produced images containing a wide brightness range, regardless of whether the Dynamic Range Optimiser was on or off. Image noise only became visible at ISO 6400 and it was mainly  the granularity of luminance noise. Shots taken at higher ISO settings were printable at A4 size but softening and granularity became noticeable by ISO 12,800.”

Check the A77 in Stock status by clicking those direct search links: Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay.

There is a new full A77 review at Popphoto (Click here): “The A77 now reigns supreme over APS-C format DSLRs. Neither Canon’s EOS 7D nor Nikon’s D300s can match the A77′s AF speed or resolution. While the Canon 7D does beat the A77 in its noise performance and holds more resolution at the highest ISOs, the A77 ultimately beats it for the overall package, including the video-shooting experience and the versatility of the articulated LCD.”

The Chinese website Sheya (Click here) compared the A77 resolution with other top ASP-C models (via RiceHigh).

Sony A77 image samples at Lenstip (Click here).

The Sony A77 manual is available for download at Sony Store (Click here).

One more thing: Please send me your reports or links to posts where people talks about the current A77 issues. I am collecting everything to write an appropriate post. It sounds like Sony will have two cameras to fix, the Sony NEX-5n and now the Sony A77 too!

P.S.: Those are all the links to preorder the new Sony cameras and lenses:
A77 at Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay.
A65 at Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay.
Sony NEX-7 Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay.
Sony NEX-5n Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay.
Zeiss 24mm f/1.8 Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay.
Sony 50mm f/1.8 Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay.
Sony 55-210mm Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay.
NEX-5n viewfinder Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay.