SLT-A99V
4.5
5
27
27
Many awesome features but fails in key areas
First let me say, I wanted to love this camera so much! It takes some really great pictures of landscapes (still pics are awesome) but where it falls down is indoor sports :(
The buffer is way too small for sports - ripping off 15 pictures at 5fps (cont Hi), then waiting 8 - 10 seconds for the buffer to clear is awful as you miss so much action -- like my daughter's gymnastics routine. A camera of this caliber should be on par with the Canon 5d Mk III, which allows for 3x as many pictures in the buffer. Auto focus and tracking is a problem for things like gymnastics where the number of focus points is pretty small (19) where others are greater (ex. the 5d is 61). I know the AF-D has 102 points but they don't support the sigma 70 - 200 lens I have and so I am hobbled. ISO noise at 6400 is pretty low and I am impressed, but I wish 12800 was less noisy. For me, it came down to the buffer size -- If the buffer was bigger, I could live with the camera but I am missing too many shots now due it's size. (shoot 10 shots rapidly then not being able to shoot anything for several seconds is a killer when the gymnastics routine is only 45 - 90 seconds long in the first place)
Again, this is an incredible camera for other types of photography -- the EVF is amazing, the folding screen is great, menus are easy to navigate and video support is great too. I understand not everyone does sports or even indoor sports, but for my main need (indoor gymnastics) it just doesn't work and that's a shame :(
March 27, 2013
GREAT CAMERA!
I LOVE this camera and it's Electronic View finder. I wasn't sure about the EVF the first few times I used it, but after a week I was sold. I don't want to shoot without it. Long live EVF!
March 4, 2013
impresive machina
i wish more bundle options with lens designet for this camera
February 23, 2013
An outstanding piece of equipment
Make no mistake, this is a fantastic camera; it offers a slew of shooting settings so expansive that most of these features will remain (at least largely) unused, even by professional photographers. The image processor is, for lack of a better word, insane. It allows for (by my count) 30 full-res raw photos in a single burst before having to take a break to write to a class 10 SD card, and it's far lighter than its predecessors, the A900 and A850.
That being said, the camera's improvements also remove any reason why the camera shouldn't have a pop-up flash. In classic full-frame (and generally high-end) cameras, a pentaprism was used to direct light to the viewfinder, as it allowed for larger image coverage, sometimes up to 99%. Now that the camera has dropped the optical viewfinder, the space formerly used by the pentaprism can be used for a pop-up flash, for the rare ? but not nonexistent ? occasions when you have to use it.
The translucent mirror is also a drawback, if a corrigible one: as the mirror is only semi-transparent (after all, it is a mirror), less light gets to the sensor, effectively forcing you to use either ridiculously expensive lenses that are marginally faster, or to use slower shutter speeds, which can blur your images. Sony attempts to compensate for this by adding a new noise-reduction engine, but it unfortunately pales in comparison to the algorithm developed by Nikon, and used in their full-frame bodies. This could, on paper, be fixed through a firmware patch, but Sony must first either match/surpass Nikon's algorithm, or license it for use in its cameras.
The video very nearly makes up for this issue, though, and needless to say, shooting with a 35mm sensor produces simply amazing results. But again, for video, much of the sensor's area goes unused: given that the 4K UHD TV standard has a total of about 8.25 MP per frame, this camera could, in theory, record brief 4K video clips (anything longer than about 5 minutes would likely fill up the processor's queue, once again requiring a short break to write the clip to the card). Still, it would be nice to have the feature available, even if it turned out to be limited to a minute.
The microphone on the camera is rubbish, and the ones sold by sony aren't superb either. Since this camera finally uses a standard hot-shoe (as opposed to the contorted monstrosity known as the Minolta hot-shoe), I've taken the liberty to attach a Røde VideoMic to the setup. In addition to working like a charm and being one of the finest non-dedicated camera/shotgun mic combos I've seen and heard in awhile, it even *looks* awesome.
Bottom line:
? The camera's excellent, and should be enough for the vast majority of prosumers and professionals out there
? Low-light shooting is ok, not great, but could be fixed with a firmware patch
? I find this camera's lack of flash disturbing
? But now you can attach a standard flash or mic using the standard hot-shoe
? The OLED display is generous in size and resolution
? The viewfinder takes some getting used to, but doesn't cause headaches (it doesn't flicker visibly)
? If Sony plans to support this camera with major software patches addressing what I've outlined here (they should probably make a press release, or something), don't even *think* of buying any other full-frame, this is your camera.
February 18, 2013
