After storm with A77...

We lost electricity, Internet connection, phone lines and for the first time I remember – Verizon cell phone coverage, but the morning after the storm passed was well worth the suffering – blue skies, red and yellow leaves in full color covered with not yet melted snow. That’s what the A77 is made for! It shines – plenty of light and you want to squeeze the resolution. The output is simply incredible! I find exposure metering system significantly fine-tuned and much more accurate on my A77 body compare to previous models I shoot with, including A700, A900, A55, NEX-5 and NEX-5N. For example A900 for me always requires +0.3 compensation, while A55 often produces better results with -0.3 to preserve the highlights. Flash would require constant tweaking on all of them. With A77 so far (granted, not enough to test thoroughly) my flash metering is spot on and does NOT require even smallest correction, unless I want to.

Anyway, here are few shots; you can find some more in my A77 testing folder at pBase here http://www.pbase.com/papasha/a77&page=2

The following post will link to larger size pictures.

Thanks for looking!

1). Sony SLT-A77V, Konica-Minolta 11-18mm f/4.5-5.6 (D) AF DT, 1/500s f/10.0 at 18.0mm iso100



2). Sony SLT-A77V, Konica-Minolta 11-18mm f/4.5-5.6 (D) AF DT, 1/400s f/10.0 at 18.0mm iso100



3). Sony SLT-A77V, Minolta 80-200mm HS-APO G, 1/500s f/4.5 at 200.0mm iso100



4). Sony SLT-A77V, Minolta 80-200mm HS-APO G, 1/640s f/6.3 at 135.0mm iso100



5). Sony SLT-A77V, Minolta 80-200mm HS-APO G, 1/500s f/7.1 at 100.0mm iso100



6). Sony SLT-A77V, Minolta 80-200mm HS-APO G, 1/640s f/8.0 at 90.0mm iso100



7). Sony SLT-A77V, Minolta 80-200mm HS-APO G, 1/640s f/8.0 at 80.0mm iso100



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Some of my older work: http://www.pbase.com/papasha

Here are larger versions of the same pictures. You can find few more here http://www.pbase.com/papasha/a77&page=2

1). Sony SLT-A77V, Konica-Minolta 11-18mm f/4.5-5.6 (D) AF DT, 1/500s f/10.0 at 18.0mm iso100



2). Sony SLT-A77V, Konica-Minolta 11-18mm f/4.5-5.6 (D) AF DT, 1/400s f/10.0 at 18.0mm iso100



3). Sony SLT-A77V, Minolta 80-200mm HS-APO G, 1/500s f/4.5 at 200.0mm iso100



4). Sony SLT-A77V, Minolta 80-200mm HS-APO G, 1/640s f/6.3 at 135.0mm iso100



5). Sony SLT-A77V, Minolta 80-200mm HS-APO G, 1/500s f/7.1 at 100.0mm iso100



6). Sony SLT-A77V, Minolta 80-200mm HS-APO G, 1/640s f/8.0 at 90.0mm iso100



7). Sony SLT-A77V, Minolta 80-200mm HS-APO G, 1/640s f/8.0 at 80.0mm iso100



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Some of my older work: http://www.pbase.com/papasha

Great stuff, I'm dying to get my A77!!

Beautiful!! Even the 11-18 looks sharp, sharp, sharp!

Please correct me if I am mistaken as I am still trying to read all I can and learn. But it seems from your pictures that for the most part this is a still and quiet morning with no wind and no movement? Snow still on leaves and branches. So my question is this. Why are you shooting with such fast shutter speeds? 1/500 1/650 ect.. Just wondering. Maybe because there is so much light with the snow I guess.

Hughesnet said:

Please correct me if I am mistaken as I am still trying to read all I can and learn. But it seems from your pictures that for the most part this is a still and quiet morning with no wind and no movement? Snow still on leaves and branches. So my question is this. Why are you shooting with such fast shutter speeds? 1/500 1/650 ect.. Just wondering. Maybe because there is so much light with the snow I guess.

Click to expand...

As this camera was set to a fairly low ISO and I assume the f stops were chosen for the required DoF (and running beyond f 10 will lead to diffraction-limited photos), then it seems clear that the exposures where driven by the need to avoid burning out the highlights. It was a bright and clear day, snow has very high reflectivity and there is a huge amount of dynamic range in these sort of photographs.

The only way of using slower shutter speeds in those circumstances would be to attach an ND filter.

As it is I would say the exposure is spot-on. Snow scenes under bright sunlight with deep shadows are difficult to capture - it's all to easy to lose any image structure.

So, in short, the shutter speed will have been dictated by the need to capture highlights and avoid very small apertures which would have damaged resolution due to diffraction.

SteveGJ said:

Hughesnet said:

Please correct me if I am mistaken as I am still trying to read all I can and learn. But it seems from your pictures that for the most part this is a still and quiet morning with no wind and no movement? Snow still on leaves and branches. So my question is this. Why are you shooting with such fast shutter speeds? 1/500 1/650 ect.. Just wondering. Maybe because there is so much light with the snow I guess.

Click to expand...

As this camera was set to a fairly low ISO and I assume the f stops were chosen for the required DoF (and running beyond f 10 will lead to diffraction-limited photos), then it seems clear that the exposures where driven by the need to avoid burning out the highlights. It was a bright and clear day, snow has very high reflectivity and there is a huge amount of dynamic range in these sort of photographs.

The only way of using slower shutter speeds in those circumstances would be to attach an ND filter.

As it is I would say the exposure is spot-on. Snow scenes under bright sunlight with deep shadows are difficult to capture - it's all to easy to lose any image structure.

So, in short, the shutter speed will have been dictated by the need to capture highlights and avoid very small apertures which would have damaged resolution due to diffraction.

Click to expand...

Excellent explanation Steve, precisely – to limit diffraction’s ill effects even 10 is probably too much, so with ISO already lowered to 100 I let the shutter compensate. If and when there is even a little wind, I’d rather open aperture (lower numbers) and use even shorter shutter (higher numbers) to freeze any movement, as in my experience, with such high density sensor even slight movement will lead to less sharp pictures and freezing the movement is more important for the sharp output than DOF (which would be achieved by increasing aperture’s number).

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Some of my older work: http://www.pbase.com/papasha

WOW!!! talk about winter doing a surprise attack!!! the leaves have not even fallen yet!...LOL!!! these are great shots by the way, thanks for posting!

The bright leaves look terrific against all that snow :-D

How did the camera handle the snow? I know my D80 will always undexpose when left on matrix metering and I'm curious how the Sony handled it.

Nice!

Papasha,

Mine is finally on the way, can't wait to try it out. I think I have a fair understanding of limitations and virtues from all the postings so far.

My acid test is small BIF @12fps

Metering really shines, cant remember not having to use exposure comp for snow.

TFS,

Cheers,

N

You have some nice scenes here, but they just don't look sharp to me. Especially this one. Any ideas why that would be?



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Best regards,
Jon

Really enjoyed these, thanks!

It's sunny and 76 in Houston right now. I'll take it.
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Gary

And gave a good test of your white balance.

Nice pictures, but they are too soft, they have no detail, I am not too sure about those lenses...???

Those are wonderful photos; you really caught the feel of the nor'easter followed by glorious sun : )

Regards,

Tony

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Ralf
http://RalfRalph.smugmug.com/

Why two thread participants comment on observed softness is beyond me.

I applaud the exposure on the snow, the crisp sharpness, contrast and the bursting colors in these shots. Cam and photog handled the challenge well. I hope the region recovers fast from this NorEaster surprise.
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Ralf
http://RalfRalph.smugmug.com/

Papasha said:

Excellent explanation Steve, precisely – to limit diffraction’s ill effects even 10 is probably too much, so with ISO already lowered to 100 I let the shutter compensate. If and when there is even a little wind, I’d rather open aperture (lower numbers) and use even shorter shutter (higher numbers) to freeze any movement, as in my experience, with such high density sensor even slight movement will lead to less sharp pictures and freezing the movement is more important for the sharp output than DOF (which would be achieved by increasing aperture’s number).

Click to expand...

From my own experience problems with diffraction limits on APS-C cameras it isn't visible until you get beyond f16 and even then it is only visible at 100% and A-B comparison. For that reason I like to use f16 for macro work if possible.

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Tom

Look at the picture, not the pixels

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25301400@N00/

Very wonderful images which clearly show how well the a77 performs. Splendid work!

Sure glad you got that white fluffy stuff instead of us! But, I'm sure our turn is coming.

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Busch

Take the scenic route! Life is too short to do otherwise.

http://www.pbase.com/busch