A99 Soft Video Note~

I thought the problem was that the part in focus, at large apertures, was sharp, but when stopping down somewhat, to increase DoF, the parts in focus are actually softer.

I got my A99 exclusively for stills, so this aspect isn't taking anything away from my enjoying the camera. Like you said, since the stills are tack sharp with plenty of detail, it's not the sensor, so the softness issue could technically be solved via a firmware update.