Sony A77 and NEX-5n (p)reviews.
“forever-a while”- Shot with Sony A-65 from Johnnie Behiri on Vimeo.
That’s a short summary fo the leatest news I found about the new Sony cameras:
MIke Langner (Click here) posted a full A77 review: “I must admit I’m spoiled by the A900 OVF which is one of the best out there, but if I was still shooting with an APS-C camera the Sony Alpha A77 EVF will seem huge. A700 users have been waiting 4 years for a worthy replacement – and the Sony Alpha A77 is definitely worth it.”
Photoreview Australia (Click here) posted a new A77 first look. The Chinese website PCpop (Click here) tested the new 16-50mm lens (go on page 4 to see the image samples). And another Chinese website Sonysdf (Click here) tested the A77 camera with firmware 1.02. They also made an useful ISO comparison with the Nikon D7000.
CNET Australia (Click here) posted a full NEX-5n review: “The Sony NEX-5N offers great image quality, a large SLR-sized sensor and a stylish body with the added bonus of a touchscreen. If shooting video is a make-or-break deal for you, hold off buying the NEX-5N for now until Sony issues a fix for the clicking issue when filming.”
Also Philip Bloom (Click here) had the chance to test the NEX-5n: “So all in all. A lovely little camera with a rather annoying issue. I hope this can be fixed…not sure how though as this is a hardware issue not a firmware issue…will they all need to be sent back? One more thing, some people have reported the camera overheating and not being able to get to the 29 mins 59 seconds max per clip. I just did…at 25p with no issue. 50p…no issue. Also without the viewfinder the camera is only half as good for me…it does output a full HD hdmi signal but mounting a Zacuto EVF on this baby would be daft, especially as the OLED EVF is stunning!”
And those are the links to preorder the new cameras and lenses:
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.
Related Posts
Share
Recent comments
Comment from Sahaja: Apple is a US company so they'll give yo...
Comment from FK: you do notice that these weren't raws an...
Comment from Almazar80: Sony did a lot of good things for us old...
Comment from alphafan2011: yes, we have to wait for raw samples, bu...
calxn
9 months ago |Every post on SAR reminds me that we’re still only in September!
SonyA77
9 months ago |I know what you mean.
John Caballero
9 months ago |Love the A65 music video by Johnnie Behiri. That’s the camera I want, the A65!
KaiserX
9 months ago |“Got the new Sony A65! Yeah! What am I gonna shoot? I know…women peeing!” That’s how you know its European, when they grab a new camera and video a Euro-pee’n.
Jay
9 months ago |Andrea, correction that’s Mike Langner review not David Lee Tong.
cheers!
admin
9 months ago |Thanks Jay! Corrected! P.S.: Today I will post the fullframe POLL!
emopunk
9 months ago |When will you post FF lenses and camera news Andrea? Any idea?
monkeyfacemcbride
9 months ago |At last, a decent video (ok, editing is a bit iffy in places but overall its pretty good). Until now most if not all of whats been seen has been amateurs hosing the thing all over the place with no real purpose. Its good to see something thats had some thought put into it. Hopefully we’ll see plenty more as the A77/65 deliveries start. For the lucky people in ireland, apparently they start this thursday!!! – hope the sony Ireland sites are correct and look forward to hearing all of your experiences. Hopefully we can get you to put the camera down for long enough to tell us about it
.
www.MilosJanata.com
9 months ago |Nice comparison with D7000
Resolution benefit of A65 can be seen only while using low ISO and lens sweet spot.ISO benefit od D7000 is obvious.
Sky_walker
9 months ago |Yep. The gap at top 2 sensitivities is immerse. But I’m very happy that no we have photos showing clear advantage in details over an old sensor at low sensitivities. And this makes me very happy cause I almost only shoot at low ISOs ^^
dk
9 months ago |It should be noted that the D7000 shots are around 1/2 stop better exposed than the A77 ones. Underexposure at low light/high ISO kills details.
albin
9 months ago |The annoying lip sync had me stop watching the video.
Looks OK but nothing hugely impressive, just standard quality.
This is due to the person behind the camera.
You can see tons of better SLR/T footages online, this one isnt up to scratch.
Thanks for posting though.
lock
9 months ago |Indeed, underexposed. Although it’s realtive since I find the D7000 picturee somewhat overexposed. This is very much visible in the shots with the ship. Could it be that this is a way to compensate for the 1/3 stop light loss with the a77 ?
Interestingly, the drop off in sharpness is best seen from F11 to F16 in both cameras. And there is more detail in the 24 Mp for sure.
kev
9 months ago |I’ve pretty much decided NOT to get the A77 now.
I can’t believe the A77 image samples at Sonysdf seem to lose detail even as low as ISO 800! Not good enough for my uses (sports photography/wildife).
Bye Sony. It’s a shame because everything else was spot on!
Kalpurush :)
9 months ago |Ha! Ha!! Ha!!!
FK
9 months ago |you do notice that these weren’t raws and that that even raws shown jet are probably quite far away of how much they can be tweaked to in let’s say a year.
Plus then again loosing detail as ISO 800 is noting to worry about, have you seen what professionals work with? The most professional photographers are certainly not the ones running after camera releases and new bodies.
Nobodi
9 months ago |If the test of the Chinese site sonysdf.com can be trusted, I think the following simple conclusion is supported:
(1)Up to ISO 400, A77 wins in detail and sharpness.
(2)At IPO 800, A77 and D7000 tie. A77′s edge gien by the 24M has all but wiped out by the excessive noise handling.
(3)At or above ISO 1600, A77 loses to D7000 even in detail and sharpness despite its larger number of pixels.
So, get what you need. If you are a primarily low ISO shooter,I don’t see why you would not be happy with the extra pixels of A77. But if you are primarily a high ISO shooter, you have plenty of reasons to hate Sony’s decision to go by the high MP route. If you shoot mixed ISOs? Well, be ready to suffer from the anguish and prepare to compromise either way, or go for the full frame.
dk
9 months ago |One more thing, those are jpg shots. I’ll reserve my judgement until I handle the final version RAWs myself. Those that dismiss the camera quickly probably only know how to shoot jpg.
Thomas
9 months ago |As Low-ISO shooter i def. wont get a A77. Nobody needs the 24MPix, maybe 1% of all photographers do.
As Low-ISO shooter i get a Sigma SD14/15 and get unbeated dynamic range and way better colors.
I think that ISO800 and 1600 are def. good enough! D7000 ist second-to none for APS-C cameras. Seems that 16MPix is the sweet spot for APS-C cameras, as 12MPix is for m43.
Dont look that much at high ISOs, its nonsense! Better look at the overall package, and the A77 is a freaking good camera! I dont care if ISO3200 looks a bit worser then on a D7000, its still good enough! And for low ISO, i really get a Sigma and be happy…
I hope that Sony will bring a cheap FF alpha with clean ISO100 and high dynamic range. I dont need amazing HighISO, but i do need DOF creativity
Gogo bring a FF alpha for under 2000$!
Vlad
9 months ago |As much as I like the Foveon rendition, where do you get that it has unbeaten DR? And what do you mean by better colours? Certainly not accuracy, not that it actually matters.
Thomas
9 months ago |Well, i dont know a camera that would beat a foveon sensor in terms of DR. No 5DMkII nor D7000 can beat the DR of the foveon sensor. Just google after comparisons, there are lots of. Especially in the highlights. So i dont mean pushing shadows
And i dont mean accurancy, Olympus colors are amazing as well, but they are not that accurate. Its just the feeling of the picture, some might call it 3D effect of the foveon.
As it comes to low ISO, i think that Sigma is the way to go.
Vlad
9 months ago |I’ve read enough and tried for myself with the SD14 and the DP1. Most really in-depth tests do not show better DR (now, I haven’t tried the SD1, but with its ridiculous price I won’t even consider it). So, I used the SD14 quite some time ago, but I definitely think that the D7000 or the K-5 easily beat it.
Agreed on the 3D effect and nice colours.
Maximus
9 months ago |If you criticise the edges you have to consider that the A77 was tested wihth the 16-50 2,8 while the D700 was equipped with the fullframe 24-70 2,8
eL_ImmIgrAntÄ
9 months ago |hmm…the video reminds me quite alot of vienna, AT. its a nice town and definitely a weekend-trip worth!
back to topic:
in the music-video i like the low-light shots that are very clear (can’t see any noise) and, except for the tram-scene, don’t use any artificial light. quite impressive i think.
Mike
9 months ago |Yes, would be a great commercial for vienna. Nice Song, by th way
reinz
9 months ago |look like i will waiting a99 full frame for low noise camera. please sony don’t put high megapixel again, we tired and upset about noise there
Terryfried
9 months ago |Actually the A77 wins hands down. It’s just jpeg NR that loses. ie above 1600 the A77 images go soft rather than noisy. It is the NR that is over doing things. So I suspect with raw processing the higher ISOs will improve a lot. As I would not dream of using Jpeg over iso1600 I am very pleased. The D7000 is the high ISO king (APS-c) so even close would be good enough as the A77 is superior in so many ways I will get a lot more good photos so if one or two of them are not quite as good quality printed at 6′ by 4′ who cares?
SonyA77
9 months ago |Stop pixel peeping. Your viewing audience don’t do it and couldn’t care less about high ISO “noise”. They will be looking at your downsized compressed images on crappy un-calibrated monitors anyway, so stop worrying about a tiny bit of jpeg noise on 100% crops. If you print images then noise can add to a photograph, not detract from it, for b/w I ADD noise!
I sat with one guy reviewing brochure photographs taken by a “professional” Canon FF user. When I asked what colour the sky was meant to be, he said blue. He hadn’t spotted that the “professional” had blown-out the sky on most of the shots and it was white as a sheet of paper. He gave up reviewing the photographs since he hadn’t the first clue what he was looking for.
The point I am making is, ask yourself who your audience is, if they aren’t photographers they will not have a clue about ISO noise, they can barely get their own Facebook images in focus, do you think they really care that the A77 might be a bit noisy compared to the D7000?
Terryfried
9 months ago |that was also sort of my point. ie 6′x4′ not 6″ x 4″. most people dont realise that with 24 MP pixel peeping is saying my 4 foot print is better than your 7 foot print.
anthony byron
9 months ago |sonyA77 i also add noise to my images at end of post work sometimes its just colour noise or soemtimes BW noise and it really enhances my prints. Where before i wouldnt want the slightest bit of noise in a image i now actually Welcome it.
Clyde
9 months ago |I am very impressed with the 16-50mm on a77. Especially wide angle f2.8 corner sharpness is incredible. This is the first Sony zoom which has me question keeping legacy Mino primes. They got it really right with this one.
SpecOps Photo
9 months ago |Isn’t Iso but one detail in the whole of a camera? Why can’t you just limit the MP to a lower resolution if it really is a problem for you. I agree no one really needs a 24mp camera but it is better to have and not need than to need and not have.
There is an obvious disadvantage at high ISO, but I wouldn’t want to shoot above 1600 on either of the cameras if I could help it. I’d like to see a test of the NR in camera. I have the A55 and there is a big difference between the 7 shot NR at high IsO and the single shot at high Iso…
Every camera gave a strong point and weak point Sony is no Different.
Clyde
9 months ago |Why do people keep claiming that no one needs 24mp+ camera? Speak for yourself. You know nothing of my shooting, my clients, my artwork, my print sizes, my needs…
Speak for yourself. I need one.
Clyde
9 months ago |Excellent video… a65 has what it takes for quality production.
Shooter should learn some lighting techniques, but all in all, nice and cheap little production.
Alfonso Cuitiño
9 months ago |That video needs warmth
Paul C
9 months ago |Hey all,
Just seen a forum message on dpreview where a guy in the UK has received a message informing him that his A77 is being dispatched! Apparently from Sony Style Enfield.
And… The price has dropped a few hundred quid! Have a look on the Sony site and choose Enfield as your local store. Is this for real?? Happy days are finally here!!!
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1037&message=39396440
Renato M.
9 months ago |Does someone know if Sony’s warranty is worldwide like Apple’s? I mean, if I buy it in US I’ll have that 1-year warranty covered if I’m in another country?
Sahaja
8 months ago |Apple is a US company so they’ll give you a ww warranty for their products purchased in the US.
Of course in this day and age every major manufacturer should give ww warranties for their products no matter where you purchase them – so long as you got it from one of their official dealers,
John Caballero
9 months ago |Noise at 800, 1600, 3200 ISO? What the heck is that? People nowadays should get down on their knees and thank the gods of digital photography for what they have. A few years back the only choice for filmmakers was very expensive movie film with a very expensive developing process topping maybe at 500 ISO that when used with a ton of lighting would come out looking like crap. The same for stills. I say kudos to Sony for this new line of cameras. To the critics just don’t waste your time or others with nonsense. Just go and buy a Canon or a Nikon, that’s all.
Kalpurush :)
9 months ago |Couldn’t agree more. Kudos to Sony for the magnificent a77 – life is beautiful indeed
John Caballero
9 months ago |I meant to say that film without using lots of light would come out like crap. If there was not enough light and you pushed it, it was really, really, really noisy. The same with still shots. With the higher ISOs now we can capture shots that we were never able to a few years back. Noise? Well go back and try real film.
danny
9 months ago |I am a Sony fan myself and really happy that Sony made a professional mid-range dslr (SLT). But this comparison just doesn’t look good. At ISO800 the Nikon has clearly more details AND less noise, and higher ISO it just gets worse. I don’t use ISO1600 and above a lot, but the times I do I want good quality pictures. Another thing is the small buffer which is a shame for Sony, just 13RAW frames means 1sec in 12fps mode, I expect this for a compact, not a professional DSLR.
So i changed my mind now and definetly not purchase the A77.
Terryfried
9 months ago |So which BIG improvement you going for ? Remember you can still shoot 8fps if you wish. On canon 7D 8fps is max and it can manage 15 raw/buffer instead of 13. Massive difference (not) then there’s Nikon D7000 its largest raw files have just 10 raw/buffer at 6 fps not much slower but not much longer. A77 is actually par for course and very good considering 24MP. if you cannot time your shot to nearest full second you need to practice shooting whatever you do.
You can always use 50/60 fps for 29 min
alphafan2011
9 months ago |Well for me its definately clear, I hoped a lot that these were “only pre-production samples”, but the higher ISO performance of the A65/A77 are that bad, that there is no excuse, no bigger resolution can be a reason for that. I’m definately no pixel peeper and also I’m not only shooting by night, BUT for such cams (and especially for which specialness Sony claims) at least ISO 3200 has to be acceptable. But it isn’t, you get 1. a lot of noise and you loose 2. a lot of detail (thanks to Sony’s nice smearing NR)
look for yourself (a new review on a german site, ok, no special camera site, but the pictures do speak for itself):
A65
ISO 100 f2.8
http://www.chip.de/ii/435475617_646290bcf9.JPG
ISO 3200 f2.8
http://www.chip.de/ii/435475718_23e5acc76d.JPG
decato
9 months ago |The high ISO test is done with JPEG!
People who are serious about the camera will wait for RAW results and ‘real reviews’ to be published.
It’s amazing how many people are so expert in sensor technology, engineering and have so much to say about how Sony should have made the camera. There are million design decisions and compromises to build such a complex digital camera. If you are unhappy with the decisions made, go find another camera that suits your needs. Or even better, start your own digital camera business.
A good photographer is someone who can bring out a good photo with whatever tool he/she has. Any camera you will pick up today is light years ahead from cameras of 3, 5, 10 years ago. (Almost surpassed film in every aspect). So people couldn’t take breathtaking photos back then? Not at all, maybe the opposite is true.
What we need in these comments, posts on forums is not complaints and negativity. Isn’t it a waste of time to pour your unjustified anger about how something doesn’t match your dream camera?
Why not focus on talking about what can be done with what is there?
alphafan2011
9 months ago |yes, we have to wait for raw samples, but that is no excuse for really bad jpeg I think!
of course you can always say, with a really good and really expensive lens, on a tripod, with raw and a lot of editing work afterwards you get nice pics with the A77. But in my opinion I dont want to be limited to that.
If you are in holidays you take a lot of pics and you dont want to edit everyone, so you also have to shoot in jpeg sometimes!
and in my opinion not everyone “knows” how to create a better sensor. Sony does produce really great sensors like the one in the NEX-5N, why not put this sensor into maybe only the A65 … then many people would have bought the A65, but now, you have in the A65 and A77 the same “world biggest APS-C resolution” sensor. On the one hand side Sony makes really great sensors, on the other hand Sony sometimes tries to hard to be “better”. Its the same problem of the Sony HX9 in the compact sector. 16 MP are too much for it, of course with a lot of light out there and ISO 100 the pics are great … but in all other situations you have very much noise reduction. And in my opinion in the compact sector its still acceptable, cause there its like marketing with “biggest resolution” and so on … but in this semi-pro range people know what happens with too high resolutions for a sensor!
Of course the Raw pics will look better, but next to the more detail you get, you also get a lot of more noise (much more than for example NEX-5N raw) because of the small pixel size. First examples of NEX-5N and A77 raws developed with Rawtherapee have shown this already!
Adam Welz
9 months ago |WARNING: I just got my NEX-5N (I’d pre-ordered it ages ago). Like virtually everyone else, I have the clicking problem while shooting video, so I called the Sony US support line to ask if the (presumed) repair will be free.
The guy on the line would only say that Sony is aware of the problem and will notify users when a solution is found. When I pressed him again to ask if the repair would be free, he would not say.
So be warned: Fixing Sony’s mistake might cost you!
I was really looking forward to some experimental camerawork with this body, but I’m sending it straight back without even putting the battery in it. If audio is at all important to you I advise you NOT to buy this camera.
Cheers
Adam
decato
9 months ago |If audio is really important to you, you would probably use the external microphone or an external audio unit.
The cases where the click occurs is exactly the cases that render the video nauseating. Slow pan and no shake is the way to go for a good video anyways.
Besides, I don’t think Sony is going to charge for the fix when there is one. They fixed a lot of Konica Minolta Dynax 5D’s shutter problems for free, which was very cool of them.
Almazar80
9 months ago |Sony did a lot of good things for us old Minolta users. And I’ve had good luck, for the most part, with Sony repairs in Laredo, TX. If it’s under warranty, they’ll fix it for free. And I have a feeling that it will involve the replacement of the positional sensor. The beating they’re getting in the press for the clicking noise will kill momentum for 5N sales. They need to come up with a fix quickly if they don’t this product to languish.
I have a 5N. I really like it. As I don’t really rely on the internal mike of the 5N that much, the great image quality is a trade off I am willing to live with for now. But, they do need to come out with a FIX soon.
Clifton
9 months ago |another test of the A77 with the SAME preproduction FW and the SAME results with high ISO! How many times are we going to see this?
The site ‘reviewing’ the camera now should know better and here on SAR we should know better than to take this any more serious than the other dozens of sites doing the same tests. Until the FW is finalised, reviews are utterly pointless!
AlphaSd
9 months ago |i didnt like the song