The A77 thread (cont'd)

But despite buffer and SD drawbacks; I'm going to be sorely tempted to buy one in a few months time.

It seems to me that every weakness of the A900 is covered by the A77, and every weakness of the A77 covered by the A900 - they're going to make a superb complimentary pair for covering every shooting situation and I'm anticipating shooting weddings with both to hand

"There is an electronic first curtain shutter, which is a feature previously seen on some Canon models. What is does is eliminate the need for a physical first shutter curtain. This means that there is absolutely no mechanical motion within the camera until after the exposure, when the second mechanical shutter curtain closes. This along with the fact that the A77 has continuous Live View, and no moving mirror because of its Translucent Mirror technology, means that the A77 will likely be one of the most vibration free cameras ever made. This will make it ideal for macro, microscope, long telephoto and telescope work."

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/sony_august_2011_new_products.shtml

This is awesome!

tigertimb wrote: But despite buffer and SD drawbacks; I'm going to be sorely tempted to buy one in a few months time. It seems to me that every weakness of the A900 is covered by the A77, and every weakness of the A77 covered by the A900 - they're going to make a superb complimentary pair for covering every shooting situation and I'm anticipating shooting weddings with both to hand

I totally agree. I am looking forward to using them to compliment each other.

I didn't read much (is there really much to read into so far?), but:
a) I like almost everything I've read. Main interests being: live view for macro, improved AF, maintained good handling;
b) It seems pointless to discuss on IQ at this point. JPGs might improve a lot, and RAW is not even supported so far (I managed to open a file with Windows, RawTherapee and UFRaw, with obviously incorrect results);
c) No metering switch? Hopefully the new metering system will compensate;
d) No QuickNavy? Why?

Same price as the A700 but:

No Quick Nav: Users of all other cameras are so used to menu diving that this will make a change to Sony less stressful. (along with the Nikon on-off switch)

No "NR Off" -- I guess Sony enjoyed all the early comments they got when they released the A700. Or maybe the A700 NR designer was on a Sabbatical and came back for the A77 design, but Oh well there's always a future firmware v4.

But they did add the "?" button. That was something many missed on the A700 (and I guess the A900 also.) Now we finally will have an advanced level camera with "The '?' button gives access to a shooting guide or an explanation of the current menu option." Don't know how I've lived without it. Now I can laugh at my Canikon friends.

Hopefully, Mr Sony Manager will learn photography and outgrow his need for that.

tom

twm47099 wrote: Same price as the A700 but: No Quick Nav: Users of all other cameras are so used to menu diving that this will make a change to Sony less stressful. (along with the Nikon on-off switch) No "NR Off" -- I guess Sony enjoyed all the early comments they got when they released the A700. Or maybe the A700 NR designer was on a Sabbatical and came back for the A77 design, but Oh well there's always a future firmware v4. But they did add the "?" button. That was something many missed on the A700 (and I guess the A900 also.) Now we finally will have an advanced level camera with "The '?' button gives access to a shooting guide or an explanation of the current menu option." Don't know how I've lived without it. Now I can laugh at my Canikon friends. Hopefully, Mr Sony Manager will learn photography and outgrow his need for that. tom

FWIW, the bigger issue with the A700 wasn't just that it didn't have an NR OFF setting, it was that the JPEG NR setting also affected RAW files. My NEX-5 doesn't have an NR off setting, either, but it doesn't affect the raw files like the A700 initially did, so it doesn't make a difference to me.

twm47099 wrote: No "NR Off" -- I guess Sony enjoyed all the early comments they got when they released the A700. Or maybe the A700 NR designer was on a Sabbatical and came back for the A77 design, but Oh well there's always a future firmware v4.

Are you saying the NR will affect the RAW files, like initially with the A700? That would be very, very disappointing, but I would be very surprised if it is true. Did I miss some news?

Unrelated and on reflection I'm wishing they hadn't bothered with the 24MP - at 16MP it might have been a near-perfect camera for me (well, a near-perfect specification EVF camera with movie function I won't use!). Still have high hopes for it, though and it looks like it will be a lot of fun to use.