A850 vs. A900 for wedding photography

My primary camera is the a900. Unfortunately, the flash control on the camera stopped working in the middle of the last wedding. While I am waiting on Sony to fix this, I thought I better get a second backup camera. The a850 looks good, and is $700 less than the a900. Anyone have first hand experience with the a850? Does it work as well the a900? Are there any significant drawbacks?

Thanks!
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A100, A700, A900

I don't have an answer for u but i'm curious, how did u get out of the situation? Did u have a second body as a back up?

Yes, I used my a700. But now the a900 is back at Sony, and I need a better backup (other then my a100).

The a700 was in my car.
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A100, A700, A900

I just used the 850 on a video set taking stills for the production group.

I used a metz 48af bounced and available light. This was a first for me and I have to say the 850 metered, exposed and focused like a champ. Loved it! Should be the same as the 900.

I have a couple weddings scheduled this year and I will be using it as the main, with a backup of course.

Here's a link to the slideshow if your interested.

http://www.flasheroo.com/p836905950/slideshow
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I have done one shooting with the a850. Great camera and the ISO noise performance is much better.
Go for one and it is definitely a better backup camera for your a900

Eric415 said:

My primary camera is the a900. Unfortunately, the flash control on the camera stopped working in the middle of the last wedding. While I am waiting on Sony to fix this, I thought I better get a second backup camera. The a850 looks good, and is $700 less than the a900. Anyone have first hand experience with the a850? Does it work as well the a900? Are there any significant drawbacks?

Thanks!
--
A100, A700, A900

Click to expand...

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Mark K

Eric415 said:

My primary camera is the a900. Unfortunately, the flash control on the camera stopped working in the middle of the last wedding. While I am waiting on Sony to fix this, I thought I better get a second backup camera. The a850 looks good, and is $700 less than the a900. Anyone have first hand experience with the a850? Does it work as well the a900? Are there any significant drawbacks?

Thanks!
--
A100, A700, A900

Click to expand...

Hi Eric,

While I no longer shoot weddings, I have been using the a850 in the studio and it preforms flawlessly. IMO, it out preforms my Nikon D700 which most in the Nikon camp would consider a decent wedding camera. I suspect that you won't notice any difference between it and your a900.

Cheers,
William
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http://www.williampitcher.ca

--Thanks for the first hand feedback!
A100, A700, A900

I personally bought my A850 for the same reason as you. Eventually, I got used to using both the A850 and the A900 at the same time. Personally, I would have preferred if I bought 2 A900 as 5 fps can be pretty useful for event photography.
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Alpha Warrior
Website: http://www.darrenf.com
Blog: http://www.darrenf.com/blog

There are only three differences that could affect you since you already own an a900 and have the ‘remote’ that comes with it.

By far and away the most trivial is that the finish on the a850 is somewhat more matte than the a900…underneath it is the same body.

There are subtle differences in the viewfinder, with the a850 not having a true 100% view. I am unable to point to a specific specification but I can see the entire field of view in the a850 easier. It must be some combination of magnification, eye relief and/or % of view.

As stated above, perhaps the most obvious is the greater FPS of the a900…but I have no idea how often you burst. I have the a850 and haven’t even tried bursting yet. Strangely enough the buffer seems to hold MORE images in the a850.

Only you can judge if the above differences are significant... the handling and image quality are identical.

Bruce

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http://www.pbase.com/misterpixel

Eric415 said:

My primary camera is the a900. Unfortunately, the flash control on the camera stopped working in the middle of the last wedding. While I am waiting on Sony to fix this, I thought I better get a second backup camera. The a850 looks good, and is $700 less than the a900. Anyone have first hand experience with the a850? Does it work as well the a900? Are there any significant drawbacks?

Click to expand...

I use the a850 for all of my wedding coverage (paired with an A700, as you do as well) and it performs very well. Can't see why the a850 wouldn't work just fine for you in the same situation, especially if it's going to be a backup camera.

On a sidenote, how did the flash control stop working? What was the problem? How long did Sony say they would need to fix it? I'm having an issue with mine as well and would love to hear any info. from your situation.

Eric;

I shoot my 900 in some very adverse environmental conditions (cross country racing) and I was very concerned about the situation you described. When they dropped the price by $200 last month, I traded in my 700, grip, and all DT lens's

for a second 900, because I really did not want to go back to shooting on the 700. And for the price difference, I did not want to give up what I liked. Additionally, my confidence and feeling about reliability went WAY up; in fact I am not even concerned about the next upgrade camera anymore. I hope you get yours back soon.
Dave
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davidsdigitalphotography.com

The A850 has a 97% VF instead of the 100% VF of the A900. To me this is somewhat of an advantage when having to take pictures quickly. With the A900, sometimes you'll put the head to close to the top of the frame, and when you have to print, you find that you may cut off something that you didn't want to. I have to remind myself to leave a little room, in case I have to crop a print. With the A850, you have a little safety margin.

i use a900 and a850 both at same time using black rapid . 24-70cz on one and 135 1.8cz on other. shoot at 3200 all the time and with cs5 no problem at all. only thing that bother me a bit is weight on my shoulders with these two lenses attached plus grip and two 5800 flashes.

and some times slow focusing as compares to nikon d3 which one of my friend uses but he lusts for the 24mp sensor.

a900 has 5 frames per second and 850 3 but in real life after using a900 brust 850 feels very slow compared to 900
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http://www.umersiddidy.com

cyainparadise said:

The A850 has a 97% VF instead of the 100% VF of the A900. To me this is somewhat of an advantage when having to take pictures quickly. With the A900, sometimes you'll put the head to close to the top of the frame, and when you have to print, you find that you may cut off something that you didn't want to. I have to remind myself to leave a little room, in case I have to crop a print. With the A850, you have a little safety margin.

Click to expand...

I believe the viewfinder is 98%.