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Sony DSLT-A77 and 16-50 f/2.8 SSM hands-on review
Topic Started: Aug 24 2011, 01:16 PM (14,243 Views)
Rashkae
Alpha Elite Member
Many thanks to Sony for this great opportunity to molest one of their latest and greatest cameras... The Sony SLT-A77. This is Sony's long-awaited A700 replacement, and it certainly has a lot of expectations on it's curved shoulders.

First off, I want to make it very very clear that this is NOT the final production firmware, and there may be slight tweaks/improvements with the final release. So with that out of the way, let's take a look at this beauty:

Construction:
SOLID! Much like the A700 and A850, A900, this is a serious chunk of tough camera. Magnesium alloy frame, weather sealing, it's all here!! It feels great in the hand, with a comfy grip and a finger recess that is deeper than that of the A900! Great for people with slightly bigger hands!!! Everything fits great, there's no creaks or unnecessary slack that I can find. Even the pop-up flash is perfectly flush. It's surprisingly light too - definitely heavier than the A580, but very light compared to the A900.

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Layout:
Everything but the kitchen sink is here... You have buttons for all sorts of options, from the display layout to Sony's Fn (function) button for quick setting changes, the 5-way navi, AEL, AF/MF, Teleconverter button, playback, Movie, Finder/LCD, Drive mode, White balance, exposure comp, ISO, top LCD illuminator, flash sync, Remote, Mic, HDMI, DOF preview (customizable to be smart preview)... Nice. The only thing that seems odd is that Sony went very n00b friendly and gave a dedicated "?" help button to explain settings, but did not provide a dedicated SSS on/off switch. :(

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Top LCD is actually useful:
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Rashkae
Alpha Elite Member
The screen:
There was a lot of hype about the new articulating screen and it's AWESOME! There is basically no layout/orientation that cannot be achieved excpet sticking the screen out sideways like on the Canons. But you can have it above the camera facing forward, under the camera (like the A33/55), even sideways for those "around the corner" shots! The hinges are solid and feel like they'll last ages.

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Sideways too!!
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The EVF:
There is the ever-lasting depate avout EVF vs. OVF... So what's the EVF like on the A77? It's a huge step up over the A33/35/55, that's for sure! It's a lot crisper, a lot sharper, and the OLED screen really gives fantastic contrast and color. It's HUGE too, giving a similarly-sized image as looking through the A900 OVF. The pixel pitch is a lot tighter, giving a much less pixellated image than the A33/A35/A55. But it's still an EVF, so there's still a bit of smearing when you try to do fast panning - this is a limitation of the refresh rate of the screen. Until we get faster-refreshing screens this will always add fuel to the fire.
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Rashkae
Alpha Elite Member
Software Features:
Sony tossed in the kitchen sink here too... Let's see now...

You of course have sweep panorama and 3D sweep panorama. You have configurable memory slots like on the A700/900/850, A great video record screen with wind noise reduction, video SSS on/off, 50i/50p mode (on this asian FW), multiple gridlines in the viewfinder (rule of 3rds, square grid, diag plus square grid), PEAKING MODE like on the NEX for precise manual focus. The smart teleconverter can also be switched to the oh-so-handy 100% focus magnifier option.


A77 video options in the menu:
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There is the ability to turn the "Setting Display" in the Live view display on and off - when off, it does NOT auto-adjust based on the settings, it acts like an OVF - for STUDIO shots!!

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The buttons like ISO, WB, etc can be reconfigured like crazy.

A77 button re-assigning:
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There are options for automatic lens corrections as well, for shading, CA, distortion!! You can turn the electronic Front Curtain shutter on and off - when on, you only get the shutter at the end of the exposure. It's a LOT quieter, great for macro, but it's a bit slower and apparently uses a bit more juice.



There's also an interesting "Face Registration" option, where the camera will automatically track focus and exposure based on faces that it remembers. Speaking of tracking, there is a "tracking mode" option - you select an object and the A77 will do everything it can to track that object. Great for sports, even street photography, birding... And the focus area can also be configured into 3 zones, which is very handy too! And yes, the focus is extremely fast, extremely accurate, even when tracking.


And you can cycle through the screen modes, giving you histogram, etc etc as well as the "classic" setting menu from the A700/850/900 cameras, and the available screens for cycling can be set and adjusted separately for the EVF and the rear screen!

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Rashkae
Alpha Elite Member
ISO: ISO goes as low as 50 ("Lo 50") with a base of 100, all the way up to 16000!!

Scene modes: Sony stays very n00b friendly here, giving us a lot of NEX-like features like a portrait mode, night scene, hand held twilight, etc. In the menu options you also have the familiar NEX-like filters, like selective color, miniature mode, selective color mode, etc. I'm not sure if adding in all this will really appeal to the hardcore "purists", but realistically, it's better to have it in there than not - just don't use them if you don't like them.

Sample pictures... I chose to compare to the A900, as these are the closest in terms of MP. I know it's not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison, but I have no other 24MP camera to compare it to. :D

The A900 used the CZ24-70, the A77 used the new 16-50 f/2.8 lens. In all cases I did my best to set to the same equivalent focal length and aperture. All shots taken in Aperture mode, F11, ISO at 200.


What can be seen is that we have some JPEG compression here (not much more to be extracted from RAW even on the A900, so it's not an "a77 thing", the A77 has very accurate metering!
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Detail wise (centre crop), once you look at the foliage, you can see the A77 resolving more detail than the A900.
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So what about a nighttime shot? Which camera shows more detail and dynamic range?

Here's a basic idea of the scene. Again, the A77 had *very* accurate metering. Both the A77 and A900 were set to centre-weighted metering for the tests, but when I tested the A77 with matrix metering, it was equally as accurate. The A900 would overexpose the center bright highlight and I had to use -1 EV.

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Rashkae
Alpha Elite Member
The A77 and A900 both have similarly stellar light falloff handling and DR.

NOTE: The "softness" on the A77 pictures is due to my pre-production 16-50 being a touch soft at 16mm. When I tested it at 24mm and compared with the CZ 24-70 the detail levels were identical. One other thing to note is that the A900 seems to handle the scene a bit smoother, with less pixellation and overall "neater" look. The benefit of larger sensor receptors still makes sense. :)


So what about high ISO? The scene is quite challenging and the A77 has a massively dense sensor, so let's see how the A77 stacks up vs. the A900 (high ISO NR set to "Low" in both, and no long exposure NR):

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What we can see is that the massively dense A77 sensor has a similar noise profile as the A900 up to ISO 800, where the A900 looks a bit cleaner than the A77, but after that, despite the noise creeping up in this pre-production A77 firmware, it actually retains more detail than the A900, and the A900 cannot even go as high in ISO.



VG-C77AM: Sony continues it's well-deserved reputation for seriously solid vertical grips, with a whole set of buttons and a 4-way joystick to make shooting in portrait orientation as easy as without a VG. Still some of the best VGs in the business.


Sony 16-50 f/2.8 DT SSM:
This is the new premium kit lens from Sony, and it's niiiiiice! It uses a metal and tough plastic construction much like the CZ 24-70. It's solid, with stunningly fast and smooth SSM focusing - all this in a DT lens!!! She's a chunky beast too. :) In the pre-production sample I had, it was a tad soft at 16mm and f/2.8, but very very sharp once stopped down or at other focal lengths, giving detail that can compare to the CZ24-70 (when the CZ 24-70 was on the A77). Again, this is not a final copy, so don't take my findings as indicative of the final lens. But overall, I'm really impressed with this lens. Sony will charge a premium for this beauty, but it looks well worth it.


This is a quick rundown of my initial impressions... There's lots to be happy about, and it's clear Sony is trying to make this model appeal to a wide audience, from amateurs looking for a high-end camera, to hardcore enthusiasts and even professionals looking for a solid toolkit.
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lenrek
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--9-6-1-8-9-5-5-6--
Fantastic! I guess, we would be seeing it at Alpha4??
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Lenrek's Blog, Facebook, Flickr

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Aimevous
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Irritating you with my awesome blinking avatar!

Good review Mike! Well done!
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My humble gear... wishes to shoot more!
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Galdor
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I'm just a Newbie Cameraman
Thanks for sharing, Mike. :)
My photography journey
Minolta.Konica Minolta.Sony
A Little Patience Harvests Advantages

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robinc2005
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Poisoned Alpha member
Great review, Mike!!!
Geavity (Slide)

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blackcadillac73
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newbie forever ...
SOLD! Mass Order please ...
Minolta V2 + Dynax 7D / Sony A35 ~ Minolta 24mm 2.8 + 28-135mm 4-4.5 + 50mm 1.4 + 70-210mm 4 / Sony 18-55mm 3.5-5.6 / Sony HVL-F36AM
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