A99

[nicpng1994]

Hey guys!! I am a A55 user, and have been making a few considerations of whether to upgrade. I have considered a few of the sony range but I have come down to 2 choices, the A57 & A99. I chose the a57 over the A77 cause of better noise performance. As for a99, I am interested in going full frame as well. Looking at some sample pics, noise performance is good too. An opinions? Full free to give feedbacks. Thanks.

 

[Rashkae]

Hey guys!! I am a A55 user, and have been making a few considerations of whether to upgrade. I have considered a few of the sony range but I have come down to 2 choices, the A57 & A99. I chose the a57 over the A77 cause of better noise performance. As for a99, I am interested in going full frame as well. Looking at some sample pics, noise performance is good too. An opinions? Full free to give feedbacks. Thanks.

For opinions, you can read this entire thread.

For detailed comparisons, wait for official reviews.

 

[GENO]

Hey guys!! I am a A55 user, and have been making a few considerations of whether to upgrade. I have considered a few of the sony range but I have come down to 2 choices, the A57 & A99. I chose the a57 over the A77 cause of better noise performance. As for a99, I am interested in going full frame as well. Looking at some sample pics, noise performance is good too. An opinions? Full free to give feedbacks. Thanks.

Get @99. Go FF can never be wrong.

 

[nicpng1994]

Thanks for the feedbacks!

 

[TME]

Agreed. The tonality, light falloff and just overall "quality of the pixels" of the A900 is wonderful. If the A99 sensor takes that to another level I'll be happy.

If the A99 has all that with much better low light quality I would instantly trade my A900 for the A99... the A900's low light is really bad... too much noise and too much detail smeared... this year, I went to Scandinavia and Central Europe... most of the palaces do not allow flash indoors... I had to shoot on agorabasta's settings at ISO3200... the quality of the files were really not good enough... soft and smudged... haiz... but in full daylight, the colour is superb with DRO on... and I like the ergonomics...

I had a go with the A77 at the showroom at Wisma Atria... but I didn't like the camera.... it felt like an electronic gadget. Not a camera... too many things to look at on the screen... wonder if the A99 would be the same...

 

[Atarandas]

If the A99 has all that with much better low light quality I would instantly trade my A900 for the A99... the A900's low light is really bad... too much noise and too much detail smeared... this year, I went to Scandinavia and Central Europe... most of the palaces do not allow flash indoors... I had to shoot on agorabasta's settings at ISO3200... the quality of the files were really not good enough... soft and smudged... haiz... but in full daylight, the colour is superb with DRO on... and I like the ergonomics...

I had a go with the A77 at the showroom at Wisma Atria... but I didn't like the camera.... it felt like an electronic gadget. Not a camera... too many things to look at on the screen... wonder if the A99 would be the same...

Hmm I am afraid it will be the same. But you can Customise the settings you want to see in the evf. If it's too cluttered. You can remove the histogram etc. But the evf contrast in the a99 will be much better than the a77

 

[TME]

Yes, but it's the noise pattern that worries me. The A99 noise pattern is the type that is difficult to clean without destroying details.

Totally agree... the noise is not the tight compact kind that can be easily removed... the colour noise is quite bad as the patches are rather large at 100% magnification... I have much tighter noise patterns from Nikon and Canon... Canon in particular has really good low noise sensors...

And this kind of noise patterns are extremely unkind to poor exposures which are very common in very low light situations... where raising the shadows will completely smear out any details that are caught and noise removal will render the image to look smudgy... I have had great problems shooting low light on my A900... still waiting for a complete overhaul of the way noise is handled at Sony... IMO, Sony lags behind in two areas - noise handling and AF speed.

 

[TME]

Hmm I am afraid it will be the same. But you can Customise the settings you want to see in the evf. If it's too cluttered. You can remove the histogram etc. But the evf contrast in the a99 will be much better than the a77

Ah well... whatever is said of EVFs, they cannot match the A900's optical prism viewfinder... it's simply superb... and my old Tamron 24-135SP is also getting on in years... so I was looking forward to the A99 where I could have a change of body and main lens... but it seems that the A99 might not meet my needs... well, can only hope that I can get a touch this year before Dec... wonder if Son Singapore will have any on display...

 

[naheuy]

Hi all, im back!

All I can say is... Wait for it to come out in the market and try it. Then pass your judgement

 

[TME]

Isn't it the same with all PDAF systems? I don't see any evolution since the A33/55, they already had the same layout so maybe this isn't really unexpected. Sony loves this PDAF sensor layout and I'm sure they do it for a reason. It probably proved to be the most efficient in most shooting situations.

Phase Detection AF systems all bunch in the centre of the frame... even with Nikon's 51 point AF and Canon's gazillion AF system... the good thing about having so many AF points is that it helps to make decision making easier for the camera on AF or the human being on MF cos you will likely have a point that will hit the area where you want the focus to be... but those extra points don't help with a wider coverage... so you still have to focus and recompose...

You can refer to the link below, look at the Coverage Area explanation...

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Photography-Tips/Canon-EOS-DSLR-Autofocus-Explained.aspx

 

[Atarandas]

Ah well... whatever is said of EVFs, they cannot match the A900's optical prism viewfinder... it's simply superb... and my old Tamron 24-135SP is also getting on in years... so I was looking forward to the A99 where I could have a change of body and main lens... but it seems that the A99 might not meet my needs... well, can only hope that I can get a touch this year before Dec... wonder if Son Singapore will have any on display...

Ya. The pentaprism on the a900/850 is superb. It Should. Hopefully Sony Singapore will organize something for the local folks to launch the a99 and rx1. Last time they had a launch fot a900 at Mercedes show room with free buffet as well lol

 

[ageha]

Phase Detection AF systems all bunch in the centre of the frame... even with Nikon's 51 point AF and Canon's gazillion AF system... the good thing about having so many AF points is that it helps to make decision making easier for the camera on AF or the human being on MF cos you will likely have a point that will hit the area where you want the focus to be... but those extra points don't help with a wider coverage... so you still have to focus and recompose...

Yup, I wish they would cover the frame like the Nikon 1 does. I know, I know it's just a 1" sensor but...

Ya. The pentaprism on the a900/850 is superb. It Should. Hopefully Sony Singapore will organize something for the local folks to launch the a99 and rx1. Last time they had a launch fot a900 at Mercedes show room with free buffet as well lol

Instead of that they should put the money into the development of a new AF sensor. ;-)

 

[TWmilkteaTW]

Hmm not sure if Steve huff is a right guy to read reviews/comments from. (becos im still new to photography and dont read much or keen with reviews)

But according to him. He said the sensor used on Rx1 and A99 is the same and it may be better than the D800 (better dynamic range, noise performance and its a new 24MP sensor) The best sensor in the market available today.

No. My point is not to start any brand war or etc. But if what he said is right. Then shouldnt the A99 perform much better than the A900? And we should see vast improvement in the ISO performances?

 

[TME]

Yup, I wish they would cover the frame like the Nikon 1 does. I know, I know it's just a 1" sensor but...



Instead of that they should put the money into the development of a new AF sensor. ;-)

I'm not sure about the Nikon 1 series, but if it uses Contrast Detection, that will explain why it covers the whole frame... contrast detection does not have the geometric constraints that Phase Detection systems have...

Yes, I fully agree that Sony needs to move its AF research up a notch or two... currently the AF accuracy on the central AF point on the A900 is very very good... it practically locks onto anything and is also almost accurate 100% of the time... but it's not very fast even then... for example if I need a snapshot, the time taken from half-press to focus lock is sometimes a tad too slow... but it may be because I am using an old lens with a screw drive rather than a SSM or SAM system...

 

[ageha]

I'm not sure about the Nikon 1 series, but if it uses Contrast Detection, that will explain why it covers the whole frame... contrast detection does not have the geometric constraints that Phase Detection systems have...

Yes, I fully agree that Sony needs to move its AF research up a notch or two... currently the AF accuracy on the central AF point on the A900 is very very good... it practically locks onto anything and is also almost accurate 100% of the time... but it's not very fast even then... for example if I need a snapshot, the time taken from half-press to focus lock is sometimes a tad too slow... but it may be because I am using an old lens with a screw drive rather than a SSM or SAM system...

Nikon 1 uses both:

 

[TME]

Hmm not sure if Steve huff is a right guy to read reviews/comments from. (becos im still new to photography and dont read much or keen with reviews)

But according to him. He said the sensor used on Rx1 and A99 is the same and it may be better than the D800 (better dynamic range, noise performance and its a new 24MP sensor) The best sensor in the market available today.

No. My point is not to start any brand war or etc. But if what he said is right. Then shouldnt the A99 perform much better than the A900? And we should see vast improvement in the ISO performances?

Hello TWmilkteaTW,

It doesn't work out like that... the Sony sensors are some of the best in the market... and that's just the hardware part - in terms of tonality, colour faithfulness, etc... but the images you see are also a function of the software algorithms that convert the light to the image you see... so for noise levels, if it is not handled well, then it can still appear noisy... Nikon practically uses the same sensor as Sony, but the noise level between the two brands are quite different... the noise patterns, the frequency, and compactness as well as the type of noise.... it's quite amazing that Sony hasn't got this done pat since they manufacture the sensor... but it seems that Nikon has something else up their sleeve... it's just speculation at this point that either Nikon has implemented some modification to the Sony design or there is some software wizardry before the image is put together... whatever the case is, it is quite clear that Sony lags in the noise department.

 

[TME]

Nikon 1 uses both:

Well you can see that the PD section is really only in the centre of the frame... in fact, the PD-AF points at the edge may not be really effective or accurate... it's one thing to have the points all the way to the edge and another to have them work accurately and reliably... also since this is a hybrid system, there is not way to tell when CD takes over PD at the interface between the two sets of AF points... and the software that runs both and decides which to use must be really well-done...

 

[ageha]

Hello TWmilkteaTW,

It doesn't work out like that... the Sony sensors are some of the best in the market... and that's just the hardware part - in terms of tonality, colour faithfulness, etc... but the images you see are also a function of the software algorithms that convert the light to the image you see... so for noise levels, if it is not handled well, then it can still appear noisy... Nikon practically uses the same sensor as Sony, but the noise level between the two brands are quite different... the noise patterns, the frequency, and compactness as well as the type of noise.... it's quite amazing that Sony hasn't got this done pat since they manufacture the sensor... but it seems that Nikon has something else up their sleeve... it's just speculation at this point that either Nikon has implemented some modification to the Sony design or there is some software wizardry before the image is put together... whatever the case is, it is quite clear that Sony lags in the noise department.

Actually, I think Sony was better in the past. The "grain" of my Alpha A300 is much finer and easier to clean up than what I get from my NEX-5N at ISO 1600 and 3200.

Well you can see that the PD section is really only in the centre of the frame... in fact, the PD-AF points at the edge may not be really effective or accurate... it's one thing to have the points all the way to the edge and another to have them work accurately and reliably... also since this is a hybrid system, there is not way to tell when CD takes over PD at the interface between the two sets of AF points... and the software that runs both and decides which to use must be really well-done...

The PDAF section goes almost entirely up to the upper and lower edges of the frame. It fills out out the whole frame vertically and tracking works very well. Give it a try yourself!

 

[TWmilkteaTW]

Hello TWmilkteaTW,

It doesn't work out like that... the Sony sensors are some of the best in the market... and that's just the hardware part - in terms of tonality, colour faithfulness, etc... but the images you see are also a function of the software algorithms that convert the light to the image you see... so for noise levels, if it is not handled well, then it can still appear noisy... Nikon practically uses the same sensor as Sony, but the noise level between the two brands are quite different... the noise patterns, the frequency, and compactness as well as the type of noise.... it's quite amazing that Sony hasn't got this done pat since they manufacture the sensor... but it seems that Nikon has something else up their sleeve... it's just speculation at this point that either Nikon has implemented some modification to the Sony design or there is some software wizardry before the image is put together... whatever the case is, it is quite clear that Sony lags in the noise department.

Thanks for your input. Really nice of you. And yes. I agree..and i too thinks that Sony weakest department is the Noise performance especially at high ISO.

 

[TWmilkteaTW]

Nikon 1 uses both:

If im not wrong. According to the introduction A99 video. A99's PDAF green box is smaller than this? Seems to be even more centralize at the center than this.