The new Sony 16-50mm f/2.8 lens has been already reviewed by SLRgear (Click here). They did NOT test the lens on the new Sony A77! The lens is sharper at the wide end than on the tele end. It has a very good corner to corner sharpness. The only real “issue” is Chromatic Aberration. But overall “the combination works to produce excellent photographs.“. You can read the full review and see all the graphs here at SLRgear.
Meanwhile Thom Hogan (Click here) gave his first impressions about the A77: “This is a top end camera, and so obviously it should have a top end level of features, but one thing that struck me in reading all the Sony marketing material was that there was a lot of emphasis on the bells and whistles and not nearly as much on the quality side. When quality was mentioned, it was obviously hyperbole (“flawless image quality”).” and “A few people with preproduction cameras have sent me image samples to analyze, though, and what I see is a lot of noise reduction in the JPEGs, which pretty much rules out the word “flawless” in my book.”
If you don’t agree with Thom drop a comment on SAR. I am sure he is reading your them!
There are hot news coming via Quesabesde (Click here). Sony will announce three new NEX lenses in 2012. A high standard zoom lens, a wide angle zoom lens and a mid telephoto lens (See picture on top). And Sony confirmed that “Fullframe cameras are on our roadmap”. There are no details yet but we from SonyAlphaRumors already told you that we heard that more than one model will be announced in 2012.
Our Australian friends fromElectronicsnews.com.au (Click here) Mr Sean Ellwood (Sony’s product specialist for digital imaging). As usual I will give you only a few tidbits of info. For the rest read the full article!
1) Mr Ellwood confirmed that SLT is the future for Sony (bye bye optical viewfinder) because: “We decided that…rather than trying to do the same thing that Canon and Nikon have done and refined to a very great degree, it made more sense for us to do something different.” 2) Sony will also take the new fullframe strategy very seriously: “We recognise that there is more to offering a professional camera service than just putting a camera out there.”. Just an editor’s note: Unlike Electronicsnews I do believe (no, I am sure!) Sony has a great FF strategy and you will see a huge event like today in 2012!
Charles Michel form videoacademy made that 9 minute long A77 presentation. he speaks in German but there are English subtitles!
Now it’s time to focus on the real quality of the Sony A77 (preorders here). Let’s start with one of my preferred websites:
Luminous Landscape A77 test (Click here to read the full article): Feeling: “The A77 is a “pretty” camera; one of the nicest styled Sony cameras in a long time. It has a very organic shape and falls to hand very nicely as well.” Video: “There is much less visible rolling shutter with this camera than I’ve seen before. If this holds true with a full production camera then DSLR video makers are going to be all over this camera like a kid with a bowel of strawberry jello.” EVF: “Is it good? Yes, it’s very good – for an EVF. I would go so far as to say that it is much preferable to the dim and small reflex viewfinders found on most reduced frame DSLRs. This then begs the question – how does it compare to the viewfinder on a full frame DSLR like the Sony A900? Not so well.” Fullframe (A99): “I think that there is, and it even may well use the same (or similar) body as the A77. As mentioned earlier, the A77 is a full-sized camera, with the heft and gravitas that a Prosumer model deserves. It certainly appears as if a full frame sensor could be used with the same chassis (if not the same actual body) as the current one.”
Again, I invite you to read the full article as it is in my opinion one of the best previews written today!
Imaging Resource (Click here to read the full article):
IR has been the first to post a detailed image quality analysis. And starts with that considerations: “I won’t go too much into detail about my disappointment that the A700 went so long without an upgrade or successor; suffice it to say that I thought that camera was Sony’s best chance at making a dent in the Canon/Nikon hegemony, and instead of addressing its few flaws, Sony was spending too much time trying to appeal to the consumer market, a place where Nikon and Canon dominate even more pervasively.” EVF: “A sensor over the viewfinder detects my eye and makes the switch between the LCD and EVF, but usually doesn’t make the switch fast enough, leaving me first in the dark, then I see a screen that’s a little too dark at first, then my eye adjusts. It’s not a comfortable set of changes, going from very bright to very dark, then to somewhat bright, so most often I and my colleagues shied away from the EVF when out in daylight, preferring the LCD.” The new 16-50mm lens: “At the outer edges of the frame, the 16-50mm lens shows a little softening, which you can see in the last crop below, but it’s truly remarkable performance from a lens that effectively costs $600 when purchased as a kit, while the full-frame 24-70mm Carl Zeiss lens sells for around $1,750.” Image quality: IR made many comparisons mostly with fullframe cameras. It’s a bit unfair comparison as the larger fullframe pixels can deliver a much better per pixel sharpness. ANyway, the A77 does a good job at base and high ISO and is not far behind the top (and more expensive) fullframe cameras.
Also in that case I highly recommend you to read the full article (Images are at the bottom of the post).
This page gets continually updated! Keep checking for news (latest added news on top of each category). But please to not hit the reload button every minute because it will make crash the server. Feel free to send me links to more interesting news at sonyalpharumors@gmail.com!
12 fps af test of a77 on youtube.
Sony A77 Promo Video on youtube.
Sony Alpha SLT A77 Hands on Video on youtube (german).
First videos taken with the A77 on Engadget!
First VG-20 video preview on youtube.
Sony Alpha 77- First look review by swissvideoacademy on youtube.
Sony A77 presentation on youtube.
Highlights
Engadget says: “We love the 24.3 megapixel sensor, but the camera’s OLED viewfinder is the star of the show.”
UPDATE: Amazon removed all the links below. But video linked on top still do work :) UPDATE_2: There is a live tweet of the Sony presentation by JVS on Twitter (Click here).
Click on the image to view it fullsize! Thanks Jose for sending us this!!!
UPDATE: Only 40 minutes to the announcement (6am London time). There is a huge ammount of visitors online now, that’s why website loading time is slow. I retsarted the sevrer, reduced the number of posts t…one! And removed some widgets. If that doens’t help and the server crashes than you can follow the announcement on our SonyAlphaRumors Fanpage on Facebook (Click here)!
US today says the A77 body only costs $1399 and with 16-50mm lens it will cost $1999. The A65 will cost $899. The NEX-7 with kit lens costs $1350. NEX-5N with lens for $700. The VG-20 for $2199.
The A77 has a higher price than expected. I guess the strong YEN is making lower prices almost impossible. Anyway, could be that street price is a bit lower and closer to our rumored price!
Just woke up after two hours sleep. Those are two images from the Zeiss 24mm E-mount lens you sent to me. Click on the them to see the full size version!
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