Thursday 25 August 2011



It's been about four years since Sony brought out my trusty Alpha 700, and almost criminal that they discontinued it over a year ago and left us with only rumours of a replacement floating about on the ether.

It was very well regarded when it was brought out as a rival to the Nikon D300 and Canon 40D, and although I never thought it was quite as good as the Nikon (I've never used the Canon) it matched up very well. If you look at the reviews below it shows the age of the camera when they talk about it's predecessor; the Konica Minolta 7D, which is a truly ancient camera now!

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2007_reviews/sony_alpha_700.html

I've loved the a700 since buying it over a year ago and it's been brilliant at weddings, product shoots and portrait sessions but I've been wanting something with a snappier auto-focus and larger file sizes. It's possible to print the a700's photos fairly big, but you can always go bigger :)

But it seems now that the wait is finally over and Sony have finally launched the a77 and pegged it as a worthy successor to the venerable a700. This has followed months of fairly un-subtle 'leaks' from Sony employees obviously intended to work us all up into a panic buying frenzy as soon as it's released. Although if the Jessop's price is accurate...


...it's not going to be an immediate problem for me at least. I hope something happens to that price because it seems to be more than was expected.

It looks fantastic on paper, although I'm keen to read some in-depth reviews once the final models are out and about. The few previews and reviews that exist out there at the moment seem to be based on 'near-final' pre-production models which may not give a full picture (geddit?) of the camera.

This preview contains some images from the a77 taken around New York and looking through them, I'm not that blown away. The high iso images show some pretty hefty noise reduction and the others are perfectly ok pictures but not exceptional in terms of clarity. I'm not fussed about iso because I rarely even use 1600 but the picture clarity and sharpness needs to be spot on.

I like the photography blog and there are a few images of the camera itself if you're keen to see it in the flesh as it were.

It seems that a few pre-production models ended up in Canada of all places, it's interesting that they compare it to the Sony Alpha 900 which is the (three years old) full-frame flagship, daddy model of the Sony DLSR line. It's a bit of an inconclusive comparison because they are quite different but it seems that the cheaper and better specced a77 may be the smarter purchase.

We'll leave the most interesting preview till last. If you scroll down the (fairly long) review, they've compared iso's and IQ to several different cameras including the Sony Alpha 850 (essentially the same camera as the a900) and (hugely unfairly) the medium format Pentax 645D which costs about $10,000. In fairness to Imaging Resource, they compare against the Pentax to demonstrate what their test shots should look like but the Sony Alpha 77 compares reasonably well.

Anyway, before I waffle on too much, I've copied the technical specs from the Sony UK website for anyone interested in buying me one as a present :)

NEW! Model:

SLT-A77VQ

A77 Translucent Mirror interchangeable lens camera

Built to meet the creative demands of serious photo enthusiasts

24.3 megapixel Exmor™ APS HD CMOS, Full HD AVCHD, 25/50p, 12fps, 7.5cm 3-way LCD, GPS. With 16-50mm lens.

  • Very high resolution 24.3 effective megapixels
  • Ultra-high speed continuous shooting up to 12fps
  • Responsive, high-performance 19-point AF system
View gallery
  • Pictures
  1. Overview
  2. Features
  3. Technical specifications
  4. Accessories

Technical specifications SLT-A77VQ

Please note our accessories are model specific and specifications may differ from country to country.

Collapse all

Lens Mount

Sony A-mount

YES

Lens Compatibility

All types of Sony A-mount lenses

YES

Minolta & Konica Minolta α/MAXXUM/DYNAX lenses

YES

Image Sensory

Image sensor type

CMOS Sensor

Image sensor colour filter

R, G, B, Primary color

Size (mm)

23.5 x 15.6mm (APS-C size)

Camera

Total sensor Pixels (megapixels)

Approx. 24.7

Effective Pixels (megapixels)

Approx. 24.3

Automatic White Balance

YES

White balance: preset selection

Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Flash

White balance: custom setting

YES

White balance: types of color temperature

2500 - 9900 k (G7 to M7,15-step) (A7 to B7,15-step)

White balance bracketing

3 frames, Selectable 2 steps

ISO Sensitivity Setting

ISO100 - 16000 equivalent

SteadyShot INSIDE

System: Sensor-shift mechanism

YES

SteadyShot INSIDE scale (in viewfinder)

NO

Camera-Shake warning (in viewfinder)

NO

SteadyShot INSIDE capability

Approx. 2.5 EV - 4.5 EV decrease in shutter speed (varies according to shooting conditions and lens used)

SteadyShot INSIDE compatibility

All Sony DSLR lenses and A-Mount bayonet lenses from Minolta and Konica Minolta

*SteadyShot INSIDE was previously known as Super SteadyShot

Anti-Dust

Charge protection coating

YES

Auto Focus System

TTL phase-detection system

YES

Contrast AF system

NO

Sensor

19 points (11 points cross type)

Sensitivity Range (at ISO 100 equivalent); EV

-1 to 18

Eye Start AF System (on off selectable)

YES

AF Area: Wide focus area

YES (auto with 19 areas)

AF Area: Spot

YES

AF Area: Local focus area selection

YES (19 local areas)

AF Area: Multi Point

NO

AF Area: Center Weighted

NO

AF Area: Flexible Spot

NO

AF Modes

Single-shot AF, Automatic AF, Continuous AF

Predictive Focus Control

YES

Focus Lock

YES

AF Illuminator

YES (with built-in LED)

AF Illuminator range (meters)

Approx. 1-7

Auto Exposure System

Light metering type

1200-zone evaluative metering

Light metering cell

Exmor™ CMOS Sensor

Light metering: Multi segment

YES

Light metering: Spot

YES

Light metering: Center weighted

YES

Exposure: Automatic

YES

Exposure: Program Auto

YES

Exposure: iAUTO

NO

Exposure: AUTO+

YES

Exposure: Shutter priority

YES

Exposure: Aperture priority

YES

Exposure: Manual

YES

Exposure: Scene selection

YES

Sweep Panorama

YES (2D, 3D)

Anti Motion Blur

NO

AE Lock

YES

Exposure compensation

YES (+/-5.0 EV, 1/3, 1/2 EV step selectable)

AE Bracketing

With 1/3EV, 1/2EV, 2/3EV, 2.0EV, 3.0EV increments, 3 /5frames (2.0EV, 3.0EV : only 3frames) selectable

Shutter

Type

Electronically-controlled, vertical-traverse, focal-plane type

Shutter Speed Range (seconds)

1/8000 - 30 and bulb

Flash Sync Speed; second

1/250

Flash Sync Speed (With Steady Shoot On); second

1/250

Flash

Built-in-Flash Guide Number (in meters at ISO 100)

12

Flash Metering System

ADI / Pre-flash TTL / Manual flash metering

Flash Compensation

+/-3.0 EV (switchable between 1/3 and 1/2 EV steps)

Built-in-Flash Recycling Time (approx. time in seconds)

3

Flash Mode

Autoflash, Fill-flash, Slow sync, Rear flash sync. High Speed sync.

Wireless flash mode

YES (with optional compatible accessory flash)

Red-Eye Reduction

YES

Flash Popup

Auto

Viewfinder

Type

Electronic

Focusing Screen

NO

Field of View (%)

100

Magnification (with 50mm lens at infinity)

1.09x

Eye Relief

Approx. 27mm from the Eyepiece lens

Diopter Adjustment

-4.0 to +3.0 diopter

Live View

Live View

YES

LCD screen

Screen Size

7.5cm / 3" Wide

Monitor Type

Xtra Fine TruBlack LCD

LCD Total Dot Number

921.600

Brightness adjustable

YES

Tilting screen

YES

Rotating screen

YES

Recording

Drive Mode

Single, Continuous, 10 seconds and 2 seconds Self-timer, Bracket (continues, single, white balance bracket, DRO bracket)

Continuous-Advance Rate (approx. frames per second at maximum)

max. 12 fps

Number of Continuous Advance

Extra fine: 13 images/Fine: 17 images/Standard: 17 images/RAW & JPEG: 11 images/RAW: 13 images

Recording Media

Memory Stick PRO Duo™, Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo™, SD, SDHC, SDXC memory cards (UHS-I compliant)

Recording Format

JPEG (DCF Ver. 2.0, Exif Ver.2.3, MPF Baseline compliant), RAW (Sony ARW 2.3format), 3D MPO (MPF Extended compliant)

Image Size L - JPEG (pixels)

6000 x 4000 (24M)

Image Size M (pixels)

4240×2832 (12M)

Image Size S (pixels)

3008x2000 (6M)

Panorama size:Max. degrees of sweep angle(focal length16mm/18mm)

Wide: horizontal 12,416 x 1,856 (23M), vertical 5,536 x 2,160 (12M), Standard: horizontal 8,192 x 1,856 (15M), vertical 3,872 x 2,160 (8.4M)

3D Panorama size:Max. degrees of sweep angle(Focal length:16mm/18mm)

Wide: 7152 x 1080 (7.7M), Standard: 4912 x 1080 (5.3M), 16:9: 1920 x 1080 (2.1M)

Still Image quality

RAW, RAW+JPEG, Fine, Extra fine, Standard

Movie Recording Format

AVCHD / MP4

Video Compression

MPEG-4 AVC, H.264

Audio recording Format

Dolby Digital (AC-3) / MPEG-4 AAC-LC

Movie recording mode - AVCHD

1920 x 1080 (50p recording, 28 Mbps, 50i 24 Mbps, 50i Mbps, 25p 24 Mbps, 25p 17 Mbps)

Movie recording mode - MP4

1440 x 1080(Approx.25fps, Progressive), Approx.12Mbps(Average bit-rate) / VGA(640 x 480, Approx.25fps, Progressive), Approx.3Mbps(Average bit-rate

Noise Reduction (Long exp.NR)

On/Off, available at shutter speeds longer than 1 second

Noise Reduction (High ISO NR)

YES

Noise Reduction (Multi Frame NR)

YES

Color Space (sRGB)

YES

Color Space (Adobe RGB)

YES

Color mode/DEC/Creative styles

Standard, Vivid, Neutral, Clear, Deep, Light, Portrait , Landscape, Sunset, Night Scene, Autumn leaves, Black & White, Sepia

Dynamic Range Optimizer

Off, Auto

Playback/Edit

White/Black Out Alert

YES

Index Playback

YES

Enlarge (Maximum magnification)

L size: 13.6x, M size: 9.9x, S size: 6.8x

Image Rotation

YES

Auto Image Rotation

YES

General

InfoLITHIUM Battery Indicator

YES

Histogram Indicator

YES

Exif

Exif Ver.2.3

Exif Print

YES

PictBridge

NO

Menu Language

English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finish, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Greek, Turkish

Zone Matching

NO

Depth-of-Field Preview

YES

PRINT Image Matching III

YES

Remote Release Terminal

YES

IR Remote Control

NO

DPOF(Digital Print Order Format)

YES

Indicator of remaining memory space (CF)

YES

Beep Sound

On/Off selectable

File Number Memory

On/Off selectable

Folder Name Mode

Standard and Date

Operating Temperature (degrees C)

0 - 40

Jacks

Video Out

NO

HD/HDMI® Out

YES

USB 2.0 Hi-Speed

YES

USB Mode

Mass-storage, MTP

Power/Others

Battery System

NP-FM500H

Supplied Battery

NP-FM500H

Stamina (battery life in CIPA condition)

Approx. 470 shots(Viewfinder) / approx. 530 shots(LCD monitor) (CIPA standard)

Weight (g) (Body only)

Approx. 653

Dimensions

Width (mm)

142.6

Height (mm)

104.0

Depth (mm)

80.9