The A99 thread!

Sony seriously need to hurry up and announce this a99

At least tell us some specs.

According to Sonyalpharumors, there are a99s being tested in the wild right now!

Here's the a99 I've seen...



I get this big, empty feeling when I see Nikon pop out with something like the D800 and we're still standing in the mud, scratching our head... wondering what SONY will pop up with.

Is it just me?

I absolutely agree, it seems to be an issue for those who don't own one and rather less for those who do.

The reflex mirror was a big issue when it was introduced; it still is but no one thinks of it as such anymore. Sensors now have better sensitivity and the light loss associated with the mirror is less of an issue than it might previously have been.

Not that I think SLT will be around as long as the relex mirror; SLT is a transitional technology doomed to be relatively short lived.

D-Schap wrote: Here's the a99 I've seen...

, great fun shot, thanks for the chuckle on that one!

D-Schap wrote: I get this big, empty feeling when I see Nikon pop out with something like the D800 and we're still standing in the mud, scratching our head... wondering what SONY will pop up with. Is it just me?

Patience is a virtue, and in the meantime my A850 and A700 perform just as good as the day before the D800 was announced

Andy, I'm sure you'll be happy with the D800e, it sounds like a great camera. I'll be surprised if you keep the A900 though, I doubt it will get much use once you have the Nikon.

Personally, I'll stick with Sony; I love my A77 and the thought of the same advantages in the FF A99 is enticing. I've been a bit surprised that the A77 has become my goto camera although my A900 still has the advantage in some areas.

I agree that the new Sony FF will be SLT, I'm absolutely convinced about that; too many pointers from Sony to countenance anything else and unlike many others, I think that's a good thing although I respect the opinion of SLT doubters. Even so, as I said earlier, SLT is already a transitional, doomed technology and the unfortunately named transluscent mirror will give way to full EVIL iterations. The interesting question is where Sony goes from there. My own view is that the A-mount will continue; even though the larger body will be unnecessary to contain the electronics, the larger size is still needed for a good grip with longer lenses and maybe Sony can find novel uses for the space.

Peekayoh wrote: Andy, I'm sure you'll be happy with the D800e, it sounds like a great camera. I'll be surprised if you keep the A900 though, I doubt it will get much use once you have the Nikon.

I ran a Nikon D700 / A900 dual set-up before finally transitioning to Sony. I spent 4 month essentially taking the both cameras with me on all shoots, and shot essentially the same images with both cameras. A900 was the clear winner so the D700 was eventually moved on.

So I plan to do something similar when the D800-e comes on - I simply do not trust reviews or reviewers - they take shots of test charts or silly still life shots at ISO6400 then declare 'winners' - most reviewers are writers not photographers, so I need to see these things for myself, so the A900 will be around for 2012 at least.

Photosopher wrote: rticknor wrote: ...the translucent mirror issues of the a77... What issue? What job does the a77 prevent me from shooting because of its mirror?

There is no issue on the a77 that prevents me from shooting. I own the a77 and love it for the most part -- and hope after the next firmware update, I will love it even more!

The translucent mirror does introduce a few issues though. More Chromatic aberration or color fringing. But the issue that bothers me is that the translucent mirror is slightly degrading the image by using my valuable light -- not by much -- but I'm not getting the maximum potential out of the sensor.

Just look at the DxOMark for a77 vs Nex-7 with exact same sensor
DxOMark - a77 vs Nex-7


But my point about the a99 was, that since they (Nikon v1) already have on-sensor phase detection auto-focus... and if that technology could be applied to the full frame a99, the translucent mirror, along with the minor issues that go along with it, would no longer needed.