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Sony Alpha A77 Digital SLRs
Product DescriptionThe Sony Alpha SLT-A77 is a solid prosumer DSLR-style camera, featuring Sony's transparent mirror technology, a 2.3-million-dot electronic viewfinder and a 24-megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor. It captures full HD video with stereo sound and it has a max burst rate of 12 FPS at full resolution. The LCD display is a 3-inch 3-way adjustable number and since it's designed for serious photographers, there are separate aperture and shutter speed control dials.
User Reviews 
Submitted by
NoKnees
a Intermediate Date Reviewed: January 9, 2012 Strengths: Choices! Many, many choices. - EVF - You can set this to show you what exactly you see naturally, like an OVF (almost), or what your camera will capture based on your settings. You can also use this for image preview, which is great for shooting in a dark theater or concert where viewing on the LCD might be a distraction to those around you. - Live View - You don't have to use it, but with the flexible swivel options, if you want to use it, it's the most flexible one that I've seen when it comes to viewing angles. And it feels remarkable solid, and can be used to flip the LCD towards the camera, protecting it from unwanted smudges or scratches when not in use. - JPG or RAW - Despite the knocks seen written on forums, the out of camera jpegs were very, very good in most cases. I generally shoot raw+jpg, but found myself not worrying too much about post processing the raw's once I saw the jpg results. However, if you need to milk a little more detail, color, or dynamic range out of a shot, the RAW files still give you the best results. In camera HDR and Panorama photo stitching minimize the occasions that you will need to do this, but there will still be occasions that you just want the hands on tune ability of the final product that RAW gives you. - Sport Shooting - Fast, or Crazy Fast. Fast gives you great focus tracking and adjusts to the lighting as needed, 8fps. Crazy Fast is just that. Locks initially for the light, and fires a 12fps burst... Yes, the EVF blinks while firing off it's bursts, but I didn't feel like I had much trouble tracking because of it. - Movie Modes - Choices here too, but still might not be enough for some. Total control in manual focus modes, limited choices in the AF modes. Still, AF tracking was good and managed lighting changes well. - Controls - Just about everything I wanted to get to quickly I could. Minor tweaks would be nice, but I like having the buttons there that I use the most. - AF Speed/Accuracy - Best in a Sony DSLR yet, and best that I've used so far. - Mid-High ISO - Don't believe the negative hype on this subject. It may not touch the latest low megapixel FF cameras out there, but it is very, very useable at 1600 and usually 3200 with some care. - JPG shooting modes galore! HDR, Low-light image stacking, vertical and horizontal pano's, "shift" style selective focus areas, etc... - Electronic First Curtain Shutter - Minimizes the vibration and time spent with initial shutter opening. Not sure why you would ever want to not use this.... Makes for VERY, VERY responsive shutter. When prefocused or in manual focus mode, virtually instant... - Focus Peaking! - Shows contrast/focus areas on screen or in evf. Still or movie modes. Makes manual focusing a dream! Great, great tool for macro use, or with legacy MF only lenses... Weaknesses: Not many, but some.... Buffer Size - It's too small! Great FPS does occasionally get limited by this. Additionally, a better buffer and caching system would improve performance "feel", and reduce the dependence on the fastest SD cards available. EVF - Bright, extreme contrast situations are still the one flaw I see with these. It just does not have the dynamic range of your eye. However, you can work around this if you shoot in raw. Setup a shooting style with the contrast dialed down and set the camera's EVF to use this, rather than the default "as seen" type of EVF setting. This will "flatten" or "mute" the image a bit, but keeps you from missing details in the highlights and shadows that will show up in the final photo. Bracketing Options: Needs a bit more customization in this area for avid RAW HDR shooters... Controls - Would like to be able to reprogram some of the buttons secondary functions, especially that useless ? button. Movie Manual Settings - If the situation allowed, I think you should be able to shoot wider than f3.5 with AF tracking if you want. Let the end user override this setting, don't take the decision out of their hands! The build is substantially better than most, but not quite as solid as I hoped for after using my a900 for the last year. As the a900 cost twice what the a77 is "listed" at first release, maybe it's not a fair comparison. Still, time will tell how "weather resistant" and "rugged" the new build is. Bottom Line: Expand full review >>Duration Product Used: 11-20 years Similar Products Used: Extensively: Sony a100, a550, a700, a900. A few minutes here and there: Canon TSi's & 5d's, Nikon d300, d3s, d700, d7000 Type of photography: Outdoor
Submitted by
Greg McCary
a Intermediate Date Reviewed: November 5, 2011 Strengths: Easy navigation, fast focus, tilting LCD, awesome EVF with level, tons of lens choices, superior IQ with low noise levels, build quality, ability to change focus modes quickly. I could go on and on with this. Weaknesses: None, time will tell. Bottom Line: Expand full review >>Duration Product Used: 6-10 years Price Paid: $2000.00 Purchased At: Amazon Similar Products Used: Nex 3 and 5n Type of photography: Other
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