Hands on: Sony Alpha 77 review

Hands on: Sony Alpha 77 review:

Electronic viewfinder, AF and continuous shooting

On paper the Sony Alpha 77 can't fail to impress with its 24.3MP APS-C format CMOS sensor, 2.4 million dot OLED electronic viewfinder, 19 AF points (11 cross-type), 12fps full-resolution shooting and translucent mirror technology.

Enthusiast photographers, however, are more interested in how the camera performs than the numbers on its spec sheet and the question on everyone's lips is, is the Sony A77 a serious competitor for the likes of the Canon EOS 7D and Nikon D300S?

We'll only be able to answer this question properly after a full test, but our head of testing, Angela Nicholson, got her hands on a preproduction sample and spent a couple of days shooting with it to inform this hands-on review.

Electronic Viewfinder

For many experienced photographers the biggest stumbling block with the A77 is likely to be the electronic viewfinder (EVF), so let's tackle that first.

Although there a few clues that the viewfinder is an EVF, when you are shooting with the Alpha 77, it is actually possible to forget it and think you are using an optical finder. The 1.3cm 2.4 million dot OLED screen uses the same technology as Sony's OLED televisions, albeit with shrunk-down dots, and its detail resolution is impressive. Unlike most EVFs, which have a visible texture, the view in the A77's finder is smooth.

As the EVF displays the scene as it will be captured, any colour discrepancies between it and real life can be taken care of by a white balance adjustment. That's the theory, we'll need to conduct more thorough testing to ascertain whether it is actually the case – but initial indications are good.

Similarly, if the EVF is very dark or light, this indicates that the exposure settings are incorrect. Put simply, the EVF shows how the image will appear, it's even indicating the blurring of movement – something we have seen before with Panasonic Micro Four Thirds compact system cameras. It's all very logical, but those who have used an optical viewfinder for years will find this interpretation of the camera settings novel.

When the Alpha A77 is switched on there is a short delay of around a second before the EVF springs to life and the image remains visible briefly after the camera is turned off, giving away its electronic nature. However, the refresh rate of the EVF has been improved to the extent that it is possible to follow even very fast moving objects in the finder – just as you would with an optical viewfinder.

What's more, we didn't experience any distracting colour drag, so the viewfinder information and furniture aren't pursued by a rainbow of colours as the camera is moved around.

We also really like the fact that it's possible to have a magnified view (up to 11.7x) of the scene displayed in either the EVF or the main LCD screen, and this makes focusing manually very easy in most situations.

Autofocus

One of the biggest benefits of having a fixed translucent mirror is the Alpha 77 and Alpha 65 have full-time continuous phase detection autofocusing whether the image is composed on the main screen or in the viewfinder.

While the Alpha 65 has the same AF module as the Alpha 55, Sony has introduced a new unit for the Alpha 77. This has 19 AF points, 11 of which are the cross-type and sensitive at apertures as small as f/5.6 – great news for photographers without fast f/2.8 lenses.

In use the Alpha 77's AF system proves to be fast and accurate in many situations. Provided you can keep the active AF point over the subject the camera does a good job of tracking focus with fast moving targets.

That's not to say it is infallible, if the AF point strays over an area of low contrast, the lens may hunt and the subject goes in and out of focus. As soon as the AF point is back over an area with contrast, the lens snaps the subject back into sharp register.

A few years ago 19 AF points would have been considered overkill, but with DSLRs having as many as 51, we are starting to become spoilt. The A77's AF points are arranged in groups around the centre of the imaging frame and it would be nice to have a wider spread. We also found that it wasn't always easy to spot which AF point is active because the black AF box becomes only a little bolder when it is selected.

Continuous shooting

In order to utilise its impressive 12fps maximum shooting speed the Alpha 77 must be set to its Continuous Advance Priority AE mode via the main mode dial on the top-plate. When this is selected the camera effectively operates in Program mode with the aperture set to f/3.5 or the lens's maximum, which ever is smaller. The shutter speed also set automatically.

As the high sensitivity noise reduction system needs to be turned off to get the full 12fps rate, we will need to investigate the A77's noise performance before we can recommend a maximum sensitivity setting for the Continuous Advance Priority AE mode.

Although the Alpha 77 uses an EVF, we found that it was possible to track a fast moving subject in the finder when shooting at 12fps.

The sample we used was not yet ready for market and it proved impossible to shoot a faster rate than about 2fps in the normal continuous shooting mode. This is something we will explore when a full-production sample becomes available for full testing as it should be possible to shoot at 8fps.

Build and handling

ABOVE: The Sony Alpha 77 is seen here with its optional grip

One of the key differences between the Alpha 65 and the A77 is that while the A65 is made from plastic, the Alpha 77 has a magnesium alloy chassis and is sealed against dust and moisture ingress. It makes a notable difference in the feel of the two cameras, with the A77 feeling more rugged.

There's plenty of opportunity to customise the A77 and A65, and it may take a while to find the perfect configuration. Those wanting to shoot action and sport should track down the option to turn off the image review so that the image isn't displayed in the EVF before the next one is captured – it makes it far easier to pan with the subject. It would be nice if it were possible to switch off the EVF review while retaining it on the LCD screen, but that is a step too far at this point.

Articulated LCD screen

An articulated screen is a great bonus for creative shooting, when implemented well it really encourages shooting from a range of angles. The Sony Alpha 77's screen is unusual because it's mounted on a rotating hinge on a tilting arrangement.

This takes a little bit of getting used to, and it takes a while to work out which way to twist or lift the screen, but it means the LCD can be positioned in a much wider range of angles than usual. For viewing from above, for example, it can be positioned behind the main body of the camera or just above the camera so that the protruding eyecup of the viewfinder doesn't obscure the view.

In many situations it is more natural to shoot with a camera like the Alpha 77 held to the eye, but when the 921,600 dot LCD is used to compose images, it provides a clear view. Even in very bright sunlight it is still possible to see the main elements of the scene on the screen, however, some setting options become hard to make out.

As you might expect, there are several display options available for the EVF and LCD screen. The digital level display is especially useful and extremely well implemented indicating the yaw of the camera as well as whether it is tipped up or down. It's very easy to work out which way the camera needs to be rotated to get the horizon level.

The histogram is also useful, as is the 'Peaking' display which reveals which areas of the image are overexposed. They both make it easy to see when enough exposure compensation has been applied.

GPS

Sony has built a GPS (Global Positioning System) unit into the A77 so that images can be tagged with data that indicates where they were taken. Although the unit draws power from the camera battery, we didn't find the battery drained unusually quickly despite having the GPS activated throughout the two days that we shot with the camera.

Sample images

The Alpha 77 we used isn't a final production sample and Sony's representatives say that the image quality could change as a result of firmware alterations. Nevertheless, Sony is happy for us to share the images that were captured during our time with the camera.

The AF system is capable of locking onto very fast moving subjects (see full image)

Despite the bright conditions 1200-zone metering system has coped very well here (see full image)

Miniature mode boosts saturation and adds blur to give the popular model-like effect (see full image)

An APS-C sized sensor means that depth of field can be restricted to emphasise subjects (see full image)

1 EV of exposure compensation was required to get these chimney pots white, but not burned out (see full image)

Sony's Sweep Panorama is on hand and is easy to use (see full image)

Taken with the Dynamic Range Optimsation and HDR modes deactivated (see full image)

Taken with the HDR mode set to +6EV (see full image)

The fast AF system is useful for capturing little moments like this (see full image)

Colour and exposure are spot on here (see full image)

The built-in level is invaluable for shots like this (see full image)

Taken at ISO 16000, the level of noise may be different from the final production samples (see full image)

Source : Google Reader