Calling all Sony Alpha users! (Part 5)

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The original 70-400 was really good, very sharp, although not fast focusing as I recall. Do we know what's improved on this one?

From the photo it looks like the colour of the paint has improved, anyway..
 
onomatopoeia said:
Do we know what's improved on this one?

From the photo it looks like the colour of the paint has improved, anyway..
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paint is back to white
Nano coatings
AF is claimed to be 4x faster due to new SSM implementation

Gustav's photos on Dyxum with it are superb & whilst the basic optical design is
unchanged he's either been shooting with a particularly good copy or the coatings are working. & he claims that the AF improvement is noticeable.
http://www.dyxum.com/DFORUM/today-try-the-new-sal70400-ssm-g-ii_topic96363.html

It's going to be very interesting how the new Nikon 80-400 & the updated G compare.
 
heidfirst said:
paint is back to white
Nano coatings
AF is claimed to be 4x faster due to new SSM implementation

Gustav's photos on Dyxum with it are superb & whilst the basic optical design is
unchanged he's either been shooting with a particularly good copy or the coatings are working. & he claims that the AF improvement is noticeable.
http://www.dyxum.com/DFORUM/today-try-the-new-sal70400-ssm-g-ii_topic96363.html

It's going to be very interesting how the new Nikon 80-400 & the updated G compare.
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Really impressive even allowing for the fact that Gustav could produce quality photos using a milk bottle
 
heidfirst said:
Anybody else noticed some good deals on A77s e.g. http://www.wexphotographic.com/buy-sony-alpha-a77-digital-slt-camera-with-18-135mm-lens/p1531003 ? Or CameraWorld body only for £699. & a few others.
I smell a destock, possibly ahead of a replacement ...

P.S. WEX have some interesting stuff in the Bargain Basement - an STF, a NIB Sigma 300/2.8 etc.
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I'm wondering if the a78 will come in a bit cheaper than the current model. There's still no sign of an a65 replacement, so its looking increasingly like there will only be two aps-c bodies in the lineup.
 
I am at the point where selling my A65 and buying an A77 won't cost me a huge amount to 'change'. The A77 ticks all my boxes and will soon be (if rumors are correct) on its 7th firmware update so for me a cheaper more mature product will make sense over the a78.

Looks like I have just talked myself into waiting for an A78:)
 
A99 features with an APS-C sensor & a stop better usable ISO than an A77 would probably get me to fork out £1k.
I keep telling myself that the A77 performance isn't improved enough over my A700/A580 but if it (or A99) keeps getting cheaper before a new one shows up ...
 
pile of new refurbs on Sony Outlet.
Unfortunately no A99s but I just ordered an A77 body for £590. :D
RX1 for £1800 & RX100 @£390
NEX-5R with 18-55 for £349 seems a deal.
 
heidfirst said:
pile of new refurbs on Sony Outlet.
Unfortunately no A99s but I just ordered an A77 body for £590. :D
RX1 for £1800 & RX100 @£390
NEX-5R with 18-55 for £349 seems a deal.
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I've been watching that a77 deal for a day now. I was going to jump to an a57 but the 2nd hand pices have went up (thanks a58) and you only save about £50 buying from the Sony Outlet for a refurb.

I noticed on HotUKDeals there's a 5% off code if you purchase from the Outlet, the code is ; SOOUTLET5. It ends on the 1st of April.

Edit ; A refurb'd a33 costs the same as a refurb'd a57. Interesting pricing there, Sony!
 
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Thanks Heidi for the heads up and Micehorns I owe you a pint!

A77 for £560! Just need to sell my A65 and changeover cost should be minimal!
 
Well I pushed the button on the A99!

I was hovering and hovering but am glad to say it is all I thought it would be?

Only had a few days so not had chance to give it a full test but here a couple of teaser shots to wet the appetite ha-ha!



ISO 6400 no noise reduction used!

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Couple of landscapes

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And finally a macro!

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Congrats, are you the one that bought the latest refurb for £1600? If someone hadn't beaten me to it first I would probably be somewhat poorer.
 
heidfirst said:
Congrats, are you the one that bought the latest refurb for £1600? If someone hadn't beaten me to it first I would probably be somewhat poorer.
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Unfortunately not LOL

I got the camera and grip for £2250 which I was happy with? Coming from the A77 it a very easy upgrade interface and layout wise?

The first thing that blows you away over the A77 is obviously the high ISO shots and the total lack of noise at normal settings? Also the dynamic range for pulling details out of shadows etc superb!

Only had a few days to play but so far am very happy indeed and am glad I took the gamble!
 
My A77 came from the outlet store in the week, it could have been a brand new camera as it seems every single piece of outer plastic has been replaced, new screen etc.

Spent a few hours yesterday fine tuning lenses with AF micro adjust.
 
heidfirst said:
they've just started a new A99 deal in the US - A99 body+grip+F60AM for the price of the body only!
If that comes here I'm buying. :eek:
http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/st...10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921666552650
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That sounds about right LOL!

When I bought my A77 within a month they brought out a £100 summer cash back that I missed out on :crying:

I never buy at right time but hey ho!

If you thought like that you would never buy anything I don't suppose?



Here a test I was just trying out to show the crop-ability of the images?


Original image

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Big old crop! (Just added some sharpness in CS6 no other filters added)

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mufftrix said:
That sounds about right LOL!

When I bought my A77 within a month they brought out a £100 summer cash back that I missed out on :crying:

I never buy at right time but hey ho!

If you thought like that you would never buy anything I don't suppose?
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I remember when I bought my 1st A700 (December 2007). I was due to collect t and the guy from the shop phoned me to ask if I could collect it the next day instead. I was a little disappointed and asked why it had been delayed. He said "Oh no, it's not delayed, it's sitting here in front of me but f you collect t tomorrow, you'll be able to get £100 cashback".My disappointment soon disappeared. :D

Sad day when that shop closed down though. :(
 
Does anyone have any thoughts on the A77 for sport (motorsport, specifically)? I'm considering a DSLR, would love GPS for travel, and a decent standard zoom for my everyday shooting. Burst rate doesn't concern me as I tend to shoot one at a time, but AF speed is critical.

The A77 with 16-50mm 2.8 is ticking all the boxes at the moment, GPS built in, a very high quality kit lens that would cover all my non motorsport needs. I would have about £800 left for a motorsport lens but I'm a little stuck in that area, there doesn't appear to be a great deal of choice. As far as I can tell, it's...

Sony 70-300 G SSM
Sigma 120-400
Sigma 150-500

I'm trying to weigh up this vs a D7100 kit (which has a lesser kit zoom, but I can pick up a Nikon 300mm f4 for my motorsport needs for around the same overall budget of £2k)
 
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if you are just using single shot it'll be fine - the only real issue supposedly (only recently got an A77 & not yet had the opportunity to test this) comes when panning/tracking on 12fps where the display apparently can't keep up.

There is also the SP Tamron 70-300 USD which performs similarly to the 70-300 G except lacks the focus limiter & is 1/2 the price. If you could find a s/ 70-400 G SSM that would be my recommendation.

The D7100 is probably the better body technically atm (assuming no Nikon QC problems) as it's brand new v an 18 month old one but is it 40% better (diff. in price)?
 
heidfirst said:
if you are just using single shot it'll be fine - the only real issue supposedly (only recently got an A77 & not yet had the opportunity to test this) comes when panning/tracking on 12fps where the display apparently can't keep up.

There is also the SP Tamron 70-300 USD which performs similarly to the 70-300 G except lacks the focus limiter & is 1/2 the price. If you could find a s/ 70-400 G SSM that would be my recommendation.

The D7100 is probably the better body technically atm (assuming no Nikon QC problems) as it's brand new v an 18 month old one but is it 40% better (diff. in price)?
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Thanks for the response, I've just had a look at the first version of the 70-400 which is just over-budget in some places, so I will keep my eye open for a second-hand one however unlikely that may be. The Tamron also looks interesting and would be quite a bit more practical for travel.

The D7100 would need the GPS unit factored in, plus the difference in kit lens seems fairly substantial, so I think I'm pretty happy the the A77 in that respect.
 
Yup, Nikon don't have an equal to the 16-50 anywhere near it in price (£399 at Cameraworld).
 
I've not used an a77 for motorsports, but have used the a55, a57 and a99 at everything from 4 to 12fps. I find panning at all speeds fairly successful. What's referred to as the slide show effect does get worse as the speed goes up, but with motorsports its not too much of a problem because the direction and speed is fairly predictable.

Generally I don't use the fastest frame rates unless I'm trying to catch something very fleeting (flaming exhausts), but it is possible to pan at 12fps, with a bit of practice.

The 70-300G is a great, mid-price option from motorsports. Nice and light. Fast focussing and plenty sharp if you can stop down a notch or three.
 
I use the A77 with a Sigma 100-300mm f4 for Motorsport and find it a great combination. I also do not use burst mode and prefer to leave the camera on single shot. If you can find a used Sigma I would recommend it.
 
Sneeks said:
I use the A77 with a Sigma 100-300mm f4 for Motorsport and find it a great combination. I also do not use burst mode and prefer to leave the camera on single shot. If you can find a used Sigma I would recommend it.
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The 100-300 would be ideal, but it's a hard lens to find even in CaNikon fit. I'm amazed they discontinued it as there is nothing really like it out there now.
 
ukaskew said:
The A77 with 16-50mm 2.8 is ticking all the boxes at the moment, GPS built in, a very high quality kit lens that would cover all my non motorsport needs. I would have about £800 left for a motorsport lens but I'm a little stuck in that area, there doesn't appear to be a great deal of choice.
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No matter what you start of with, if you photograph a lot of motorsport eventually you will buy a 70-200/2.8. You have a good lens budget, save up a bit more and buy one now - mine (Sony version, but Sigma and Tamron do them as well) cost me £1k s/h on Dyxum and I wouldn't be without it.
 
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ukaskew said:
The 100-300 would be ideal, but it's a hard lens to find even in CaNikon fit. I'm amazed they discontinued it as there is nothing really like it out there now.
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I have one sitting here that never gets used since I got my 70-400G SSM.
 
In case anyone is interested I've bought & received (quickly) this VG-C77AM knock-off http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vertical-...t=UK_Camera_Battery_Grips&hash=item4608110f42

Unlike the Meike grip for the A77 it replicates all the extra buttons of the real thing.
Is it as good as the real VG-C77AM? I doubt it (the battery tray doesn't slide in & out as easily as on my genuine Sony grips & I will be wary of the strap connector & tripod thread) but it cost £42 as opposed to £150 for the cheapest genuine that I could find.
 
Just ordered my a77 with 16-50mm, very excited! Arrives tomorrow, ordered from WEX, they were not the cheapest (but not far off) but the grip was £110 and 70-300 was £69 if ordered at the same time, so that was a significant saving. The 70-300 is just going to be a back-up/travel lens as hopefully if I end up with a Sigma 100-300 f4 (or further down the line a 70-400) for motorsport they will be too big for that, for £69 it seemed rude not to.

I have a busy weekend with the camera, so in preparation I was wondering about the GPS. Can I gather all my photos from a particular day and save them on a map, which I can then share with people? If so do I need any particular software?
 
I've been watching those on eBay, especially the 75-300mm. I need a cheap zoom and i'm happy to accept the limits of a lens at that price but part of me still wants to hang on incase the 55-300mm drops to about £200. I'm in no rush and there's still quite a few on their eBay shop anyway.
 
Had an interesting first day with the a77 yesterday. Very pleased with it, but slightly disappointed with a dust issue, I left one lens on all day, and all of a sudden after about 2 hours a huge dusk speck appeared in all my shots (I was shooting large apertures all day), the auto cleaning doesn't budge it.

Absolutely blown away by the 70-300mm G SSM, I was highly skeptical of a slow expensive lens, but it seems worth every penny, well built, fast AF, I have the non G 70-300 here as well and the difference is worth the huge cost in my opinion.

Silverstone Endurance Championship

Also tried the Smart Teleconvertor mode, I know a lot of people don't get it, but I hate editing, and composing in camera with the crop is far more efficient.

2x Smart Teleconvertor...


Silverstone WEC 2013 by Harry_S, on Flickr
 
ukaskew said:
Had an interesting first day with the a77 yesterday. Very pleased with it, but slightly disappointed with a dust issue, I left one lens on all day, and all of a sudden after about 2 hours a huge dusk speck appeared in all my shots (I was shooting large apertures all day), the auto cleaning doesn't budge it.

Absolutely blown away by the 70-300mm G SSM, I was highly skeptical of a slow expensive lens, but it seems worth every penny, well built, fast AF, I have the non G 70-300 here as well and the difference is worth the huge cost in my opinion.

Silverstone Endurance Championship

Also tried the Smart Teleconvertor mode, I know a lot of people don't get it, but I hate editing, and composing in camera with the crop is far more efficient.

2x Smart Teleconvertor...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/harry_s/8645442981/
Silverstone WEC 2013 by Harry_S, on Flickr
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You shouldn't be seeing dust at "large apertures". Very small apertures (eg f22) will show every tiny spec.

Dust is a fact of life for photographers. Get yourself a rocket blower. I use mine once a week and have only had to wet clean once in the last 5 years.
 
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Johnd2000 said:
You shouldn't be seeing dust at "large apertures". Very small apertures (eg f22) will show every tiny spec.

Dust is a fact of life for photographers. Get yourself a rocket blower. I use mine once a week and have only had to wet clean once in the last 5 years.
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Sorry I meant small apertures. It was more the fact that it appeared between shots that were taken seconds apart, without me removing the lens or anything.

I'm very careful so usually go a good 6 months or so without any noticeable dust bunnies, 1 day with a brand new camera without me actually changing lenses is a bit strange, I thought.
 
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