Sony A77 II - normal?

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Blonkster

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Hi,

I've just got the above with the 16-50mm 2.8 lens as an upgrade to my A57, and wanted to check if the following were normal as I've spent all my savings and more on it!

- joystick a but loose/rattly, seems like it should be more securely attached, but works fine

- seems to eat batteries much quicker than the A57 - probably in about 200 shots- but I need to test further.

- lens zoom stiff - probably due to weather proofing, but I have nothing similar to compare against - all my other zooms a easier to zoom.

Other than this, I'm loving the camera and lens - very fast auto focus, when I can work out which mode it should be in :)

thanks

Blonkster
 
Been a while since I had the A77-II now and my memory's not the greatest but I don't remember the joystick feeling loose, maybe worth trying another to see if it feels the same. As for the battery life, no camera I've had with electronic viewfinder has had good battery life, but also I don't remember it being as bad as 200 shots. Of course I guess it all depends on whether you leave the camera on all the time as the EVF eats batteries. Without trying it for myself it's difficult to say whether the lens is stiff. Certainly these big heavy f2.8 zooms are built much more like tanks than your average kit lens and maybe it's the 'quality' of the zoom which you're interpreting as stiff?
 
Blonkster said:
Hi,

I've just got the above with the 16-50mm 2.8 lens as an upgrade to my A57, and wanted to check if the following were normal as I've spent all my savings and more on it!

- joystick a but loose/rattly, seems like it should be more securely attached, but works fine
Click to expand...
If it's like my A77, being a bit wobbly is normal. Over three years of heavy use it's not got any worse, still as solidly reliable as a train.

- seems to eat batteries much quicker than the A57 - probably in about 200 shots- but I need to test further.
Click to expand...
Your new camera has a much greater variety of fancy options which consume extra battery power, some of which are set on by default out of the box. You can reduce battery consumption a lot by configuring your camera not to be consuming power when you don't need it to. The most important things are not having the display or viewfinder running when you don't need them. The worst secret thief of battery power is having eye-start EVF which switches on the EVF when the camera approaches your eye, or all the time if your usual method of carrying the camera keeps activating it. Couple that with eye-start continuous AF and your battery will go down in no time. Read the manual, became aware of the options, and use them intelligently in a way which fits in with your use of the camera.

- lens zoom stiff - probably due to weather proofing, but I have nothing similar to compare against - all my other zooms a easier to zoom.
Click to expand...

You're right, that's the weatherproof sealing.
Other than this, I'm loving the camera and lens - very fast auto focus, when I can work out which mode it should be in :)

thanks

Blonkster
Click to expand...
 
hi I have 2 a77mk2 and yes they do eat battery power if you customise use, I would not say that the joysticks feel loose but they don't take much pressure to use, lens sound same as mine
 
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