Sony A99 specs

Not sure I understand this wall of text here...
Do I need to remove my mount for another mount to use Nikkor glass? Or can I just use a bolt on adapter as I do w/ my EOS bodies? I don't want to remove the native adapter from the lens itself, as I'd like to use it back and forth from time to time.

Also is the K-mount similar to the A-mount? Very confused here.

I have leitax leica-r to eos adapters on all my leica lenses. On the leicas the leitax adapter screws onto the original mount with longer screws in the original holes. On some other mounts you have to remove the original mount and replace it with the leitax adapter (I did this with a pentax or nikon lens). I much prefer them to those Chinese adapters because they are rock solid. But yeah they are semi permanent so not super fast to remove. Because of flange distances they are the only option for some lens mounts.
 
Yeah that's an awful solution. For that, I mind as well do the same for FD lenses on EOS mounts.
So as I thought before really, A-mount is indeed horrible for much else beyond M42 lenses, some Leica glass and Sony's own.

I really wish this were E-mount. Seriously.
 
I would definitely not call it awful, unless you're using your lenses with different cameras every week or two. It only means you have to spend a few $$$ to get all your lenses adapted to your current camera. But replacement mount adapters are usually a much better solution: rock solid, with no play at all, and very much reduced chances of malfunction. But yes, if the VG900 is not crippled, its E mount will be a huge advantage.
 
Not sure I understand this wall of text here...
Do I need to remove my mount for another mount to use Nikkor glass? Or can I just use a bolt on adapter as I do w/ my EOS bodies? I don't want to remove the native adapter from the lens itself, as I'd like to use it back and forth from time to time.

Also is the K-mount similar to the A-mount? Very confused here.

A-mount is an updated Minolta mount. Sony bought Minolta.
 
So does this mean I can use the old Rokkor Minolta glass without a hitch?


Like Canon EF & FD, there are two Minolta mounts. SR & AF

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minolta_SR_mount
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minolta_AF

Sony alpha is the AF. Your older Rokkor Minolta lenses are probably SR.

Sony alpha is 44.50mm, Minolta SR 43.5mm. So in theory you can put an alpha on a SR, but not a SR on a alpha.

Formula is this: L=A+C
Lens flange back, Adapter width, Camera body flange back.

So a Nikon lens (46.5mm) = Adapter Nikon to EF (2.5mm) + Canon EF Body (44mm)

Chart: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flange_focal_distance
 
The concept of this camera is so cool. Best formfactor and handling you can have in a DSLR maybe even a camera. To bad the image is so freaking terrible. It's not only the bad DR and ugly highlights, it's also the colors. Looks like there are to much magenta or blue tones, I can't lay my finger on what I dislike in it.

I have the FS100 and compared to a 5D you will have to do much effort to make it look cinematic. Also you have to watch out with, especially skin, collors. When you underexpose it get's nasty collors. Luckly the codec hold up very good in grading, else I could not use this camera properly. Before you know it you get purple/magenta skintones. The A99 would not have the same codec and collor information I guess till so far. So to me unusable for desent professional purpose.

Since Canon series can produce far nicer collors in a crappy codec I guess it must be sony's sensor wich make it crappy. Canon looks warmer and natural while sony looks colder and scifi'isch.

I don't know what it is but without plenty space for grading Sony produce nasty colors. On FS700 and F3 I can't see this problems btw.
 
So does this mean I can use the old Rokkor Minolta glass without a hitch?

You can use Rokkors and some of the other slightly shorter than A-mount flange focal distance lenses like FD if you replace the rear flange on the lens. There are simple conversions, you just remove a few screws on the back of the lens, pop off the rear flange plate, put a new one on and replace the screws. I've seen Alpha to OM, Zeiss C/Y, Leica R, Pentax PK and M42 as well. The beauty is - if you add a cheap focus confirm chip you can get steadyshot with legacy glass. There aren't many options for IBIS and legacy glass.

To bad the image is so freaking terrible. It's not only the bad DR and ugly highlights, it's also the colors. Looks like there are to much magenta or blue tones, I can't lay my finger on what I dislike in it.

Have you shot anything with the A99 and production firmware or are you basing this on the pre-production videos posted and subjected to Vimeo and Youtube compression? I'm amazed at how people pass harsh judgement based on something posted to Youtube, which wrecks pretty much everything. I will say Sony has some of the worst sneak-peak videos I've ever seen, I really wish they'd throw some coin at Shane Hulbert and get him to show what the camera can do.
 
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[COLOR=#F8F8F8 said:
Have you shot anything with the A99 and production firmware or are you basing this on the pre-production videos posted and subjected to Vimeo and Youtube compression? I'm amazed at how people pass harsh judgement based on something posted to Youtube, which wrecks pretty much everything. I will say Sony has some of the worst sneak-peak videos I've ever seen, I really wish they'd throw some coin at Shane Hulbert and get him to show what the camera can do.[/COLOR]


No I based an opinion from the downloaded MTS files from the camera. It is totaly worthless, it comes bad from the camera and you can't fix it to much in post. It's just VG20 footage. And what If I did based my opinion on youtube and vimeo? It gives a good indication of how the endproduct of the line from most users is going to look like. I actually think 90% of the footage from the A99 is goin to be used for youtube, so it's a damn good indicator of the quallity.
The footage is from a preproduction model but the quallity is going to be the same, there only might be so tweaks in the software.
Sony has very bad sneak-peaks as in bad grading, bad story, bad concept, bad sound, bad actors, bad directing but in the bad FS100 en F3 sneak peak you could see the IQ where goin to be great.
 
There is something common I see in all the footage posted so far and that is poor highlight handling. I hope as more users know how to tweak this camera we can see better choices in image profiles perhaps?

That highlight thing may be related to something I've noticed on the NEX-5N: you can't trust the LCD for exposure, and if you do the right thing and trust the histogram instead, you have to adjust your color profile in the editor or you'll have nasty highlight clipping: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?293208-Exposing-with-the-NEX-5N-don-t-trust-the-LCD
 
No I based an opinion from the downloaded MTS files from the camera. It is totaly worthless, it comes bad from the camera and you can't fix it to much in post. It's just VG20 footage. And what If I did based my opinion on youtube and vimeo? It gives a good indication of how the endproduct of the line from most users is going to look like. I actually think 90% of the footage from the A99 is goin to be used for youtube, so it's a damn good indicator of the quallity.
The footage is from a preproduction model but the quallity is going to be the same, there only might be so tweaks in the software.
Sony has very bad sneak-peaks as in bad grading, bad story, bad concept, bad sound, bad actors, bad directing but in the bad FS100 en F3 sneak peak you could see the IQ where goin to be great.

I hope it didn't sound like an attack, because that wasn't my intention. The only downloadable MTS file I've seen is a really bad shot of a champagne bottle and glass from the video with the Aston Martin, are there more floating around? I'm still waiting for comprehensive tests.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I still think its a harsh assessment to call the A99 worthless VG20 footage when you can actually adjust picture sharpness, saturation and contrast in camera to get a more correction friendly picture profile. Even something as simple as the Nex5n or as complex as the FS100 required some testing to find the optimal settings to shoot video and it doesn't appear that anyone has had one long enough to thoroughly test.
 
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