OKAY, A FEW FACTS . . . in the field, powered up for 2 hrs 40 mins except to power down for a few lens changes . . . approx 175 frames shot, about a third of those using flash, used 56% of battery. Hopefully battery life will improve a bit after it's cycled a few times. The a35 is even worse...
. . . and SOME SUBJECTIVE STUFF: turns out that little so-I-thought "viewfinder magnification" button crops the frame size! Still
no apparent glitches/bugs whatsoever observed during operation. After about 10 minutes, the minor lag in response to changing aperture and/or shutter speed just seems negligible. AF to MF on the fly requires one slight thumb motion, which almost rewrites the book on bug shooting. For shooting at a specific distance, use AF to get in the ballpark, push the MF button to move to precise focus. For specific magnification, use the scale on the lens, thumb that button, move into precise focus, and nail the critter! Slide the thumb off the button and you've got instant AF again. And if that's not easy enough, peaking comes on as soon as MF is selected, but you'll see it only on in-focus areas in your subject.
OTHER THINGS TO LIKE: when going back and forth between aperture priority and manual mode, the camera remembered my settings for each, unlike the D700, which had to have aperture dialed in again with each change. Changing aperture and shutter speed in manual mode makes use of front and rear wheels, rather than also requiring the simultaneous push of a button (as in the D700 does for shutter speed change). Virtual horizon is full-time on demand if needed. ALL shooting info can be displayed in the EVF, enabling tweaking by menu or FN button while not losing track of the subject. I haven't gotten around to the two presets, but I'll probably end up using the mode dial more often.
AS FOR THE NOISE ISSUE: more subjective observation... I did dial it up for a few shots just to see what all the hoopla is about. It looks about the same as my a35--coarse grain and/or mottling is more or less obvious in OOF areas depending on what color those areas are. Generally, though, at 100% magnification, even ISO 400 bothers me. Below 65% magnification at ISO 400 it's not so noticeable. Strange as it may seem, my NEX C3 seems to do better in the ISO noise department.
AND THE EVF: Using my standard of being able to see the texture of a dragonfly's eyes inside 1:2 magnification, the EVF doesn't render detail comparable to a FF OVF. But it gives enough detail to enable accurate MF, even to an aging pair of eyes like mine. And, given what I mentioned in my previous post, I much prefer it to an OVF.
AND WHAT ABOUT DETAIL? Unretouched 100% crop at around 1:1 . . . well, you be the judge . . .
See y'all in the field . . . happy shooting!
