My R APO-Macro made a very compelling argument today for the purchase of the a99. I tried to explain that I need to see some clean ISO 1600 RAWs before I make that decision, but then the 28 and 35 chimed in. Now I think they're trying to convince my dog to get one for me for Christmas. Fortunately, between the two of us, she's the more frugal, but she's also more easily annoyed, so she may give in just to get rid of them.
And yes, that is exactly how things work in my little world bubble, so take your giant stick pins of reality elsewhere. They aren't wanted here.
You are right, it has a nice tight grain structure as well. I'd say it's about 1.5 stops ahead of my Leica M9 in terms of noise with quite a bit better DR and colour at ISO1600 and above.
Very clean base ISO, monstrous DR.
thrice, I'd like to know if you still have the slideshow effect when shooting a burst of images. I tried the A77 at a shop and I was quite disappointed with that.
It is definitely a little jerky when shooting burst, less so than with a mirror slapping up and blacking the finder out but not perfectly smooth. The shutter has to close after all.
I might be limited by the speed of my SD card (class 6).
I have been informed the body in my possession is pre production.
Makten wrote:
How is the manual focusing abilities? Magnified view, peaking, et cetera?
Good, one thing I notice is peaking disappeared in magnified view when not magnifying on centre. Probably a quirk of <v1.0 firmware.
I only have the ZA24-70 and it is pretty damn easy to hit focus accurately wide open in low light. Peaking is pretty accurate but I still find it overzealous in medium and high when evaluating the whole frame, in magnified view high peaking is good.
Other than that, a lot like on the A77/NEX7 only with a better (IMO) EVF.
mirkoc wrote:
How is the shadow pushing, or lifting underexposed shots at higher iso settings?
Plenty of detail, but a bit of noise if you're pushing high ISO shots.
The images don't look smudgy at 1:1 like the old 5D-II files I was used to, more like the M9 files when pushing low ISO, grain is very small and easy to reduce in post. Noise doesn't really increase but if it is present it is quite visible.
Low ISO pushing is very good, noise at ISO100 is very very low, quite glossy files (for lack of a better term) with plenty of fine detail.
I'll get one. I just had a play with a Summicron-R 50/2 on my partner's a77 (at night here), to see how the peaking worked with an alt; I found it very easy to use indeed, as do a lot of NEX7 users. The a99 has all I need and more, and the reservation about the 24Mp resolution is outweighed by the DR gain and noise 'character', as much as the reduction in noise.
A scaled up a77 with a better EVF is quite a pleasant prospect and the light weight reduces the camera/lens net quite a bit (850g for the a900 vs 730g for the a99). My Contax 21mm wants to take a drag with it also, I figure high contrast lenses will do well with the greater d/range and detail.
'Glossy' suits my subject matter very much, thanks for your thoughts thrice, much appreciated. They may sell a few of these.
I'm actually a little surprised, since my NEX5N RAW files are quite smudgy by comparison. Might be the clever new AA filter or the lack of NR on RAW files, either way it's welcome by us non-JPEG shooters.
thrice wrote:
I'm actually a little surprised, since my NEX5N RAW files are quite smudgy by comparison. Might be the clever new AA filter or the lack of NR on RAW files, either way it's welcome by us non-JPEG shooters.
Any chance you can shoot a few side by side comparison shots with the 5n?
joychris wrote:
Any chance you can shoot a few side by side comparison shots with the 5n?
Noise levels are about a 1/2 stop in favour of the A99 at comparable ISOs at 100% pixel peeping.
Colour gradations slightly improved due to a 14-bit pipeline no doubt.
Everything else would be down to the lens.
Since this is a pre-production camera and firmware, probably can't post the shots. I just gave it a quick test side by side on a tripod. Word from the higher ups is that production cameras and firmware should be a bit better.
