Sony contacted me about A99's poor video IQ

I got a call from a technician at Sony that's investigating the poor video performance of the A99.  He was looking for samples of soft video that's been brought up here and other sites such as EOSHD.  He asked me to upload some files so they could examine the raw video output and compare it to others they have collected.  I gave them what I have already posted and some other stuff I shot.

Its nice to see the company is looking into the problem.  The aliasing and moire are going to be a part of the A99's video no matter what, but hopefully the resolution is a codec problem and it can be improved.  I wish they could make the fix before my return window closes.  I'm shooting stills for an event this weekend - daytime, indoors, mixed lighting, big windows on one side of the room and a few hundred people - so it'll be a good environment to shoot more test video at various ISO's and a mix of shots from near macro at MFD to wides of the entire room.

Sadly, it looks like my A99 is heading to the refurb bin unless it decides to start rendering more detail.  I hate to see it go as its 1/2 the perfect camera for me - I really don't want to lose the articulating LCD and the 24-70z.  So disappointing.  Sony is supposed to call me back to follow up.  We'll see.  Hopefully down the line others will benefit from a firmware update that improves video IQ.

Thanks for posting this, and I hope there's a favorable resolution for you (you did mention that your upcoming event is stills-only, so I'm sure you'll be happy with it). This is a good sign that Sony will do something; I hope they get all the samples they need, and that they do a thorough job.

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Rich
http://philosurfer.zenfolio.com/

Thanks, Chris

A much more constructive and productive approach than simply running around and bleating to everyone not to buy the camera.

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i know what i know, which is a fraction of what i don't

That's good news!

Maybe if they do issue a fix, you can re-appraise if it's worth buying one again.

Good luck with this situation.
Sony hasn't done anything about the flash overexposure and inconsistency problems with the A77/A65. I own both an A65 and an A99 and feel your pain.

Cheers,

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"Those who would sacrifice liberty for safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin.
You can see larger versions of my pictures at www.dennismullen.com.

That's good news, it means they are working on it, and will probably release a new FW  to fix the video.

Thanks for the support, it won't help me as I can't afford to hold onto the A99 and wait for a fix.  I have a busy first couple months of 2013, it looks like I'm going to have to shift my current setup and move to something else pretty quickly.

Because Sony contacted you and seems to be serious about a fix..I suspect you have some sort of contact number.. you sent file to an email.. I would get Sony to back up your return window,, in other words, give you the option to return if they cant get this figured out in a reasonable amount of time... they are acknowledging there is a problem.. Make sure if you can get them to agree to this that you keep a good hard copy of that agreement. dated and signed etc... just a copy of the email would do but a hard copy in the event that some how your computer lost that email...

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Bill aka EO

( )

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Michel J
« Having the latest gear is nice, but great photographers don't have to have it. They can shoot good stuff with anything »

You seem to find something amusing, but I can't decipher your message. Would you let me know what it means, please?

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2012 : My new year's resolution -
To be decided...

Sony's President contacted me about my lost lens issue, and I got a new lens 2 days later.  They wanted me to be happy!

Great service, won't hear me griping, especially in Public.

People here can't help you, it's best to go through the channels.  The seem to listen hard.

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Retired forensic photographer.
London, Ontario, Canada.

Interesting that they called you.  Let me know if you need more soft samples; I've got lots of them from the a99 + 24-70 + 24mm F/2.

This sort of assumes though that you bought it directly from Sony - if you bought from a reseller I'm not sure they have any obligation to extend your return period no matter what Sony themselves have to say.

Chris, did you get it from Sony directly?

Yes, ordered from Sony online.  The contact was a follow up to my original service call that led to my first A99 being returned.  I didn't get Ontario John service as it took them two full weeks to get back to me, and the guy on the other end didn't seem very presidential.

Mmmmmh, looks positive at first, but sorry: I don't believe it at all.

Nobody noticed that the OP has already made his own conclusions before he got any answer from the technician?

Just my two cents... ^^

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Michel J
« Having the latest gear is nice, but great photographers don't have to have it. They can shoot good stuff with anything »

I wish I could wait, but it took 9 months for a FW update for the FS100 and about the same amount of time for the Nex7 update just to kill the video record button, I can't wait until May 2013 or so for a fix.  Sony is a big company, losing tons of money with a huge amount of debt, in the process of a massive reduction in its workforce and a dizzying portfolio of products to support.  It doesn't do small tweaks like Fuji or even periodic updates like Olympus - but those two don't have the lineup of a giant like Sony.  I don't know where the A99 ranks in terms of camera sales, but I think its safe to say its probably Sony's lowest volume camera.  Where that ranks in terms of updates is anybody's guess.

It was johnbee that debunked your fake test:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3346882

Chris, DPreview has completed their review on the a99.

Did you watch the video links?

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sony-alpha-slt-a99/18

Yikes.

Again johnbee was wrong and you are wrong too. See my second thread where I did the same test and racked focus completely through the focus range.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3347335

Focus was perfect. The camera needs glasses.

Watch my video, stop it at any point to check focus yourself. And if you look in the thread I posted stills taken right before hitting record to make sure I was in focus - all done manually with focus magnify to ensure critical focus. Good luck finding a sharp frame, because it doesn't exist as the A99 is not capable of producing one.

A99 vs EM5 test

Thankfully Sony doesn't have the same head in the sand attitude certain people on this board have, otherwise problems would never get addressed.

But why actaully take the time to contribute something constructive to this thread when you can just hurl insults at me?

Yup.  The dpreview sample videos show this as well.