sonyalpharumors

Jokers.

Very bright highlights get a ghost due to internal reflections of the translucent mirror.

nor will I buy one.
aiming at professional users Sony would have to allow mirror lock-up, mpeg2-hd recording (warped as mxf), manual video control and stuff.
I wanted it for set photography as it is supposed to be very quiet and records 10fps, but on a movie set there so many light sources just ready to produce a ghost image when you don’t need it. 16mp would be enough for a movie poster and the ability to capture some ready to edit pro video would be great.
maybe next time.

Now that’s the worst news lately.
Looking back, we had
1) Sony’s Photokina presentation was just marketing blabla, nothing new. (I don’t care, it’s good if the engineers are not busy preparing new mockups.)
2) Sony’s information policy sucks. You never know whether or when they will release what kind of camera. (I don’t care at all – every company tries to hide its jewelry as long as they can. I’ll be happy when they finally release something new.)
3) A77 might take another year. (I don’t care, have to save money right now.)
4) A77 will have an EVF. (I would prefer OVF, but for APS-C, EVF seems to have reasonable advantages. And I see the advantages of SLT.)

So far, so “good”. But this rumor really kills it. I’m not so much worried about the ghosting, but 1/3 light loss? Come one, that’s completely unacceptable for a semi-pro! No matter how good the sensor will be, we will still feel like idiots when Nikon releases a camera with the same sensor but with better high ISO performance. Sony always used to suck at high ISO. Now that they finally improved, they cripple their high ISO again? Nooooooooo! (Hope this remains a rumour. And there should be a petition against this: “Make the camera $50 more expensive and give us mirror flip-up!”)

What is this constant bickering about “ghosting”?

the SLT introduce a lot of improvements, with the cost of a few situations this effect might occur. And all people can think of is this?

If I replace my camera soon, it will be a SLT camera. No doubt about it. I find the pros far outweigh the cons.

I can’t help but see close parallels between the purists here and the arguments many of the film fraternity were making when DSLRs first started appearing and, before that, the attitude to AF.

In 10 years time, the EVF will be the norm on professional equipment. Optical viewfinders will be confined to a small niche. There are just too many fundamental advantages. Getting rid of the flip-up mirror, brighter viewfinder in dark conditions, providing more information in the viewfinder, video/still technology convergence. It’s the future. Get used to it. OVFs will just get better and better and any serious camera manufacturer not putting this near the top of their technological priorities is not going to remain a volume manufacturer of “serious” equipment.

As for the ghosting issue, then all the evidence appears to be that it only troubles those that go looking for it. There are a dozen far more important ways by which an image can be degraded and the SLT technology is going to be far better at enabling the getting of some of those difficult images more easily. Then there’s the reduced manufacturing costs, reduction in weight compared to a flip-up mirror, faster shutter speeds, it’s quieter, is more compact. The technology will also improve here too. I’m not saying that SLT will be the definitive technology though – it’s a work-around to allow phase detection AF to work. There are others looking at ways of putting phase detection capability into the sensor, and if that can be done without serious image degradation, it might well be that which wins out.

However, EVFs and the fully electronic professional camera will be the norm for all but a small niche. Just get used to the idea.

Im a working pro photograher and I love the a55 evf over any OVF and I love the small size. There is a growing trend where pro photographers even with larger hands useing smaller cameras. Most of you guys who complain about how bad the EVF are probebly the kind of people who take pics of just your kids or pets or street lamps all day long and call yourself experts. Stop complaining and learn to take better photos, cameras are just tools and who says you need to look pro to get pro images….

Also, you made a very good point about professionals using smaller bodies. This is a good idea for secondary body use, as carrying around 2 a900 bodies would be terrible on the shoulders =(

Well, as I’ve seen Larry’s comment and find myself a little bit intrigued, I would love to find out what kind of pro work he had in mind and a description of the camera’s and lenses he uses for his work, becouse I myself use the A 850 coupled with the Zeiss 24-70, 70-200 G, 135 f 1.8 Zeiss mainly and several other premium lenses like the Zeiss 85 and two sigmas for macro. I’d like to remember anyone that there is no better viewfinder in the A850 & A900 price and market segment, so I believe Sony should stay true to this in the future. Using fast lenses and the primes described tought me that the already brilliant bright OVF will get more light so it will get even better when composing in low light environments. The effect of more light gathering will show in the OVF making composing shots a delight. Sony’s implemented EVF is not bad at all, but no match for real pro requierments. I know Sony is going to launch a hybrid in the near future taking it one step further. Other than bringing a little “light” to this topic the A55 is just fun to use and aI believe that any camera should be used to get the most out of it and to express your own vision about photography.