The new alpha 77

Well, an investment was made and a new camera was purchased!! I went for the Sony Alpha 77 in the end after so many good reviews and reports.

http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/sony_a77_review/

It's only been with me for a short while but has been used already for a few practice shots at work and around town. I haven't shot a wedding with it yet, frustratingly it turned up in time for a wedding, but I didn't want to risk using a brand new and untested camera on the day.

It's brilliant to use though and will be out and about in time for the next wedding, above is a quick shot from Priory park in Chichester (in March, where's that sun come from?!). I'm fully used to the EVF (Electronic ViewFinder as opposed to an optical viewfinder) already, and although I wasn't sure at first I'm coming around to it. The image above was shot as a jpeg and I've changed the contrast in photoshop because it was a very hazy, warm day (again, March!!). I would agree with a lot of reviewers that the jpegs are a little over-sharpened out of the camera but I will be shooting in raw anyway for assignments so that won't be an issue.

I've already found it really easy to use, partly because I've come from the Alpha 700 (the successor to the Alpha 77) but mostly because it's very well thought out. It appears to work perfectly with my Sigma 24-70 EX DG and communicates wirelessly with my Metz flash very well. The 'focus peaking' feature is already becoming VERY handy for manual focus and I've surprised myself by enjoying the various creative styles it has, which I normally ignore on a camera :)

In short, watch this space for more photos from this camera!