Any love for the Sony A77/A65?
- Thread starter GarageBoy
- Start date
Boncrek
Well-known member
I've been following this camera on and off since it was announced. Dave Dugdale did a review and many of his points are spot on when it comes to the camera and its performance. I've been back and forth over this camera so many times my wishlist just gave up and ran away lol.
The main negatives are:
Significant crop in video mode
ISO 1600 is max ISO in video mode
No Audio Control
Phase AF doesn't work in Manual Movie mode only in Auto Exposure mode
A significant lack of high and medium level lenses (most are re branded Konica lenses)
Auto focus is noisy unless you use SSM lenses which so far are few and far between
Visible Artifacts on high detail scenes
Lens mount cannot adapt to any Nikon lenses
The main positives are:
Fastest AF seen to date
Great built-in EVF
Less Moire, Equal Aliasing to Canon equivalents
In-Body Electronic Image Stabilization (reason for the earlier crop)
Robust weather sealed body (only one lens matches it however)
Cheaper than Canon's 60D+17-55 equivalent
Full HD 1080p 60p for slow motion
You can tell I have skewed the pros and cons to what I would want in a camera but there you have it.
If you're looking for a replacement to say a 60D don't bother.
Maybe in the next iteration Sony will get it right and offer us a camera with both resolution and quality.
For me Canon has one thing up its sleeve that Sony has yet to top and that is lenses.
If you are a system person like me you buy into an entire system, not just bodies but lenses, accessories, support, community, the works.
Things like the bodies are temporary but its really the lenses that keep you.
Being able to adapt Nikon lenses is a big plus too, The alpha mount cant do that so no Zeiss ZFs lol
The main negatives are:
Significant crop in video mode
ISO 1600 is max ISO in video mode
No Audio Control
Phase AF doesn't work in Manual Movie mode only in Auto Exposure mode
A significant lack of high and medium level lenses (most are re branded Konica lenses)
Auto focus is noisy unless you use SSM lenses which so far are few and far between
Visible Artifacts on high detail scenes
Lens mount cannot adapt to any Nikon lenses
The main positives are:
Fastest AF seen to date
Great built-in EVF
Less Moire, Equal Aliasing to Canon equivalents
In-Body Electronic Image Stabilization (reason for the earlier crop)
Robust weather sealed body (only one lens matches it however)
Cheaper than Canon's 60D+17-55 equivalent
Full HD 1080p 60p for slow motion
You can tell I have skewed the pros and cons to what I would want in a camera but there you have it.
If you're looking for a replacement to say a 60D don't bother.
Maybe in the next iteration Sony will get it right and offer us a camera with both resolution and quality.
For me Canon has one thing up its sleeve that Sony has yet to top and that is lenses.
If you are a system person like me you buy into an entire system, not just bodies but lenses, accessories, support, community, the works.
Things like the bodies are temporary but its really the lenses that keep you.
Being able to adapt Nikon lenses is a big plus too, The alpha mount cant do that so no Zeiss ZFs lol
Boncrek
Well-known member
Well my understanding is a 14mm on the GH2 is equivalent to 28mm on a Full Frame.
The Sony A77 has a 1.86 crop in video mode so its 16mm looks like a 29.76mm on Full Frame.
interesting information...I do not know this before..so every DSLR has larger crop factor when in video mode?
so what is the crop factor of canon DSLR in video mode? larger than 1.6x?
Boncrek
Well-known member
The canon's crop is still 1.6 so a 17mm wide lens looks like a 27.2mm on Full Frame.
The standard zooms for these cam's crops are all pretty close together (28 to 29 to 27) so in the end its not that big a deal, for me anyway.
To be fair to the Sony A77, its crop function is only due to to its built in Image stabilizer, which is something the GH2/Canon can not do.
For me its worth the crop to have stabilization on every lens.
It also means Sony can offer cheaper lenses without stabilization built in (like that weather sealed silent SSM 16-50mm F2.8 for only $700!)
Last edited:
Boncrek
Well-known member
After careful deliberation of the pros and cons I can honestly say that I have left the A77 camp.
It is gone from my wishlist at the moment. That may change in the future but for now that is how it is.
My main reason for that is:
1) The noisy low resolution output compared to GH2 sharp clean one
2) Lack of SSM fast prime lenses
I wish I could pluck the GH2 sensor and put it in an A77 body.
The camera could have done well on Sony's part but it has fallen short of what we enthusiasts actually want, as is Sony's fashion of late.
It is gone from my wishlist at the moment. That may change in the future but for now that is how it is.
My main reason for that is:
1) The noisy low resolution output compared to GH2 sharp clean one
2) Lack of SSM fast prime lenses
I wish I could pluck the GH2 sensor and put it in an A77 body.
The camera could have done well on Sony's part but it has fallen short of what we enthusiasts actually want, as is Sony's fashion of late.