My a33 issues - considering swapping ot something else...

I've had a new a33 and a new SAL18250 for about a week now and I have mixed feelings. In good lighting, this camera takes excellent pictures. Dark lighting pics are a challenge for me and look very "point & shoot" like a large majority of the time. Even when trying several different modes. I'll admit, I don't have a good understand of the manual modes - I'm most use auto. I had a D90 before and I had a very difficult time taking any bad pics even in bad lighting - it was a great picture taker. However, I really wanted the auto focus video. Here are my issues with the a33:

1. Very bizarre but it really seems like the timiing of the flash is off. 90% of the pics I take of my oldest daughter here eyes are half way closed when using the flash. Same with my dog - even several pics of my wife. I never had this with my d90. Its like the timing betwwen the flash and the pic are off - too close together. Anyone experience this??

2. Battery life. we've heard about the battery issues. I told myself I could deal with but I don't know that I can. We simply had a night out last night with the kids. I took probably 50 - 60 pics and about 5 videos. By the time I got home, I had 18% battery left. I had just charged it a day earlier about maybe took 10 pics before going out. In a week, Ive had to charge the battery 3 times now. Let me say for the record that I'm far from a Nikon snob, but the battery life in the D90 was insane - probably charged it 3 times in 6 - 9 months. I just can't see myself constantly carrying around extra batteries.

3. poor lighting pics flat out look poor to me. I'm sure I could get a lot better with this but with all the auto modes, hdr, etc... I thought they would be better. nosiy and grainy.

4. HD Video - good overall and the auto focus is great - It may sound silly, but I wish there was a 720p mode - why? smaller file size and will play better on "not so fast" computers. Lets get real, 720p is more than enough for family videos.

1 and 2 are pretty big deals to me. 3 is an issue but I'm sure I could get better.

I'm considering heavily going back to a D90 or somehting else - I've heard the new A580 is good??? I would love to hear any comments, experiences, etc.. with the issues I mentioned - especially 1, 2 and 3. Also, other camera suggestions. thanks!

iceburg said:

I'm considering heavily going back to a D90 or somehting else - I've heard the new A580 is good??? I would love to hear any comments, experiences, etc.. with the issues I mentioned - especially 1, 2 and 3. Also, other camera suggestions. thanks!

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Yes, A580 is about one stop better at high ISO and battery life is over 1050 photos per charge. A55 is better than A33 too.

Similar with me.. I also had those issues, especially in low light and battery life. That's why I refunded my A33 for A580.

I read in several websites, show that A580 have a decent battery life.. up to 1000 or even more. My old Sony A550 also has a decent battery life.

Here is the very comprehensive review about A580:
http://www.alphamountworld.com/reviews/sony-a580-review-parts-i-and-ii-combined

At first time, I did consider for my A33 replacement. It could be A580, NEX-5, Canon 550D, or Nikon something.. but I persuaded my self for A580 after look for several A580's reviews and samples. I also visited diwa-labs (but don't believe 100% what you see).

Hopefully can help you to decide.

Appreciate the feedback and the confirmation of what I experienced with the a33. I really wanted to love the cam, but the issues were far too glaring for the money. I read the a580 review and it sound outstanding! Battery life sounds excellent and low-light pics sound like they're very good. Apparantly the sensor is just killer! I'm excited.

What do plan on getting for a walk around lens? I was initially planning on getting the SAL16105 but gave the SAL18250 a shot. So far, I like it. I hope the long zoom isn't taking away from the quality. My former d90 had the 18 - 105 and it was pretty much perfect for the most part.

The a580 and a33/55 share the same sensor. Your low-light pics look that way probably due to the heightened NR settings and the wrong lens being used. I have a 35 mm 1.8, a 50 mm 1.7, and a 135 2.8 and am very happy with the results. I do not use the on camera flash and stop action very well.

Anytime you use the little on-camera flash the picture quality will flatten giving the "point and shoot" quality to which you refer.

The a580 will give you identical results as they are due to the lens and flash rather than the sensor.

Turn down the high iso noise reduction and use either a nice low-light lens or a large supplemental flash to improve your pics.

iceburg said:

I've had a new a33 and a new SAL18250 for about a week now and I have mixed feelings. In good lighting, this camera takes excellent pictures. Dark lighting pics are a challenge for me and look very "point & shoot" like a large majority of the time. Even when trying several different modes. I'll admit, I don't have a good understand of the manual modes - I'm most use auto. I had a D90 before and I had a very difficult time taking any bad pics even in bad lighting - it was a great picture taker. However, I really wanted the auto focus video. Here are my issues with the a33:

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iceburg said:

I'm considering heavily going back to a D90 or somehting else - I've heard the new A580 is good??? I would love to hear any comments, experiences, etc.. with the issues I mentioned - especially 1, 2 and 3. Also, other camera suggestions. thanks!

Click to expand...

Sounds like the primary reason for you getting the A33 was video auto focus, therefore it doesn't make sense to me that you are considering the A580. Don't know what your Nikon mount lenses collection is like, but if you are happy with the D90 and anything other than the A33/A55 won't give you PDAF in video mode, my recommendation is to keep your D90, or try out the new D7000. I read that the D7000 has some basic AF in video mode, so that's probably the model I would look into if I were you.

Regards,

TK.

Roam said:

The a580 and a33/55 share the same sensor. Your low-light pics look that way probably due to the heightened NR settings and the wrong lens being used. I have a 35 mm 1.8, a 50 mm 1.7, and a 135 2.8 and am very happy with the results. I do not use the on camera flash and stop action very well.

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Just a point of fact for anyone not familiar with these cameras - the a580 and a55 share the same sensor, but the a33 does not - it has the NEX sensor, which has 14MP versus 16MP but is one generation earlier in design than the 16MP sensor. This latter point apparently causes some differences which go against the normal logic (of fewer megapixels giving less noise) in that it is a little noisier than the a55/a580 sensor and it also uses more power. There is also the small light loss of the "translucent" mirror of the a33 and a55 to factor in (based on my personal experience, the a33 can show a little more noise at the same settings than the NEX-5 which uses the identical sensor, so presumably a similar difference may exist between the a55 and the a580).

Roam said:

Anytime you use the little on-camera flash the picture quality will flatten giving the "point and shoot" quality to which you refer.

The a580 will give you identical results as they are due to the lens and flash rather than the sensor.

Turn down the high iso noise reduction and use either a nice low-light lens or a large supplemental flash to improve your pics.

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All good advice...

Sorry to hear that about your A33. I too like the A33 alot, but is willing to wait for an A77 Taller Camera with better grip and hopefully a longer batter life. In the mean time, I want to comment on your problem #1

iceburg said:

1. Very bizarre but it really seems like the timiing of the flash is off. 90% of the pics I take of my oldest daughter here eyes are half way closed when using the flash. Same with my dog - even several pics of my wife. I never had this with my d90. Its like the timing betwwen the flash and the pic are off - too close together. Anyone experience this??

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This is a common problem dated back to Konica Minolta. In fact, its so common that you can just google Sony minolta " lazy eyes . My 1st DSLR (KM5D) suffer from this problem exactly as you describe. I would say as high as 60% of my photo with KM5D and 5600HS flash comes out with lazy eyes. It is very frustrating, like you say, it seem like the flash timing is exactly match with human eyes blinking and result in lazy eyes most of the time. You might want to google it or read this past post here:

• http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1037&message=33399366

iceburg said:

2. Battery life. we've heard about the battery issues. I told myself I could deal with but I don't know that I can. We simply had a night out last night with the kids. I took probably 50 - 60 pics and about 5 videos. By the time I got home, I had 18% battery left. I had just charged it a day earlier about maybe took 10 pics before going out. In a week, Ive had to charge the battery 3 times now. Let me say for the record that I'm far from a Nikon snob, but the battery life in the D90 was insane - probably charged it 3 times in 6 - 9 months. I just can't see myself constantly carrying around extra batteries.

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That is the nature of all EVIL which use battery-draining electronic viewfinder all the time. Call me old fashion, I prefer good old optical viewfinder which almost always translate into longer battery life. Solution: wait for Sony A77 or go back to Nikon D90

iceburg said:

3. poor lighting pics flat out look poor to me. I'm sure I could get a lot better with this but with all the auto modes, hdr, etc... I thought they would be better. nosiy and grainy.

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No comment here, but from all the great review of A33/A55, I'm surprise to hear this.

iceburg said:

4. HD Video - good overall and the auto focus is great - It may sound silly, but I wish there was a 720p mode - why? smaller file size and will play better on "not so fast" computers. Lets get real, 720p is more than enough for family videos.

1 and 2 are pretty big deals to me. 3 is an issue but I'm sure I could get better.

Click to expand...

iceburg said:

I'm considering heavily going back to a D90 or somehting else - I've heard the new A580 is good??? I would love to hear any comments, experiences, etc.. with the issues I mentioned - especially 1, 2 and 3. Also, other camera suggestions. thanks!

Click to expand...

A580 is good, but I find its viewfinder rather small...especially compare to the Big Optical Viewfinder in your Nikon d90. Which is one of the bigger viewfinder on the market.

After reading some good advice, I'm going to keep the a33 and focus more on better lenses and becoming a better photographer.

The more lens reviews I've read, the more confusing it gets. I was thinking of getting either the sal 1680z or the sal 18105, or possibly the 2875. the best for low light seemed to be the 2875 becuase of the fixed 2.8 aperature. However, many prefer the 1680z saying pics are better and pop more. Another however, many say the 1680z focuses slow indoors which doesn't sound good. I want a good, all around lens that will still do good in lower light. I'll probably get the sal 50f18 lens sometime soon which would probably do great in low light.

I think any of the lenses I mentioned will do very good with good lighting and outdoors. I have the sal 18250 now but feel like I'm probably giving up some quality, especially indoors using such a massive zoom lens. Any thoughts, opinions appreciated.

Id really suggest to learn how to take photos, that camera is probably above your capabilities if you are having issues with it. If people can take stellar pics with an A100 surely you should not have issues with the A33. Learn the camera

My wife has an A33 and gets great photos from it, low or high light.
Still very good at 3200 ISO. I have an A300 so we can share lenses.
We like our Sony's.

What you might consider is either the Minolta 50 1.7 or the 35 1.8 (I have both and love them) for your low light primes. Then you can simply use a the kit lens or the 16-70 depending on your budget. You might even want an 18-250 or an equivalent zoom that needs a lot of light as your walk-around lens. The 28-75 is a bit odd on an APS-c sensor. It has great reach but it is not very wide. It is an option but even with the high-iso capabilities of the a33 I like dipping into a big aperture lens when I need it.

You're not going to get good low light pictures out of a superzoom, especially handheld. I use a 50mm f1.8 and it can still get blurry.

On that note, you have to first get an idea of what you will regularly take photos of. Indoors, low light will require large apertures. So if you insist on a zoom, then go for the constant f2.8. But the Easy Choice primes at f1.8 may serve you better even though you may have to move around (not easy in a church, quite easy at home, for example).

That 18-250 is good back-up lens to fill in the gaps as you get better lenses that fit your needs more closely. But it won't shine unless, well, the sun is! Meaning you need pretty good light for that lens to AF quickly and shoot sharp photos. A tripod wouldn't hurt either.

Do yourself a favor and read up on the many online sources for new DSLR users. It will give you a good basis going forward and help you avoid wasting money on lenses that don't fit your needs.