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A65 review is up

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The usual comprehensive review.

The a65 requires two things to have top notch output: Raw shooting and much better optics than the kit lenses. Paired with a top flight lens the camera is suitable for a higher level of user than the reported target market.

I suppose that's why I have struggled with whether to buy the a65 or not. I cannot bring myself to pick up the body with the kit lenses as opposed to the 5n with evf and great manual glass. Same price but the 5n will have better output when compared to a65 with kit lenses in most aspects at most ISO settings, or so I think.

While sitting on an Nex 7 order I could still make a move on the a65 body.

--
HDaRt
 
dlkeller said:
Can you toggle the front wheel to give a P shift mode? Reviewer made several comments to the effect second wheel is not needed, does this imply a way to do this or does he not consider this function important? Not trying to start a discussion on P Shift which I find very important although I know not all here agree.
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Dave
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P-Shift is the default effect of the front dial on the A65 in P mode.

(edited for blatant factual error)
 
Are you like a broken record or what? This forum is about gear not about taking better pictures. Go to the photography forums if you want to talk "better pictures"
mzd said:
sye46 said:
thank you for the review! but how does the A65 get a score of 78% and gets the Gold award while the A77 got 81% and got a Silver award?
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With that gold award the a65 is for sure gonna take better pictures than the a77!
--

Madness is when you start talking about the a77 EVF lag but you've never used the camera once.
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I think comparing one camera with kit glass and another with better glass is a bit of an unfair comparison. To me the ergonomics, stabilization and faster focusing of the SLT make the 1/2 stop difference.
--
Dave
 
Yay, my camera got the Gold! Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have the A77. But DPR's review is pretty much on point as far as the A65 is concerned. It fulfills for budget minded shooters. Hey, I'm not able to get the Lamborghini, but I'm fine with the Ferrari (for lack of a better analogy)! :)
 
OK, thanks, that is GREAT to hear. I assume you then press and hold the + - to for exposure compensation as on my old KM5D?
--
Dave
 
What would be really unusual is if everyone liked the scoring. Now that would be inconsistent :)
 
As to the analogy....despite specs, Ferrari's are much harder to get and/or have better resale. You can grab whatever model Lambo you want in a few months or less...Ferrari might have you waiting 2 years.

A better analogy is that you're happy with the Ferrari 458 vs. the 599, and/or with your Lambo Gallardo vs. the Avantador
WarrenPeas said:
Yay, my camera got the Gold! Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have the A77. But DPR's review is pretty much on point as far as the A65 is concerned. It fulfills for budget minded shooters. Hey, I'm not able to get the Lamborghini, but I'm fine with the Ferrari (for lack of a better analogy)! :)
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NorthwestF said:
Man, you guys are really annoying. DPR staff have posted a million times (for 2 years) that scoring and award are independent of each other, but you guys still keep posting this same question over and over again.
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Man, you're even more annoying. As far as I'm concerned, DPR's process for giving higher awards to lower-rated cameras (unless awards are specifically to be considered on a "bang for the buck" basis) is illogical. The fact that something illogical has been done over and over doesn't make it any less illogical.
 
BMWX5 said:
Are you like a broken record or what? This forum is about gear not about taking better pictures. Go to the photography forums if you want to talk "better pictures"
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No need to be rude BM
BMWX5 said:
mzd said:
sye46 said:
thank you for the review! but how does the A65 get a score of 78% and gets the Gold award while the A77 got 81% and got a Silver award?
Click to expand...
With that gold award the a65 is for sure gonna take better pictures than the a77!
--

Madness is when you start talking about the a77 EVF lag but you've never used the camera once.
Click to expand...
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--
Julesarnia on twitter
 
In the conclusion to the review, you find the following:
Lars Rehm said:
The A65 shouldn't simply be regarded as a stripped-down version of the flagship A77 though. This would be missing the point. It is aimed at a different kind of customer, and competes in the mid-level bracket of the DSLR market against cameras such as the Canon EOS 600D/Rebel T3i, Nikon D5100 and Pentax K-r.
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Fair enough...but, in the follow-up to the A77 review last month, wasn't the point made that the A77 was being ranked as a "mid-level" DSLR as well? If the A65 is "mid-level," and it competes in a different market from the A77, which bracket do you place the A77 in? (I may have my own ideas about this, but I'd be curious to hear how the DPR review staff classifies it.)
 
Lars Rehm said:
Just a quick message to let you know we have just posted our Sony SLT-A65 review:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonyslta65/
--
Lars Rehm, dpreview.com
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Well done sony on another gold for the SLT cameras: that makes it two golds and one silver from dpr for the A55, A65 and A77, gold, gold and silver respectively.

A remarkable success for a radically new approach to SLR cameras...

--
IQ is not judged exclusively by high iso noise performance
 
Thanks for posting this. This has cemented the fact that the A65 is a much better fit for me than the A77. Now the only thing left to do is ... wait a while. :)
 
kvken said:
All those nice feature and 400 bucks less. I would have been shocked if it didn't get gold
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500 bucks, actually. ;)
 
Raven Falls said:
Raven Falls said:
The A65 shouldn't simply be regarded as a stripped-down version of the flagship A77 though. This would be missing the point. It is aimed at a different kind of customer, and competes in the mid-level bracket of the DSLR market against cameras such as the Canon EOS 600D/Rebel T3i, Nikon D5100 and Pentax K-r.
Click to expand...
Fair enough...but, in the follow-up to the A77 review last month, wasn't the point made that the A77 was being ranked as a "mid-level" DSLR as well? If the A65 is "mid-level," and it competes in a different market from the A77, which bracket do you place the A77 in? (I may have my own ideas about this, but I'd be curious to hear how the DPR review staff classifies it.)
Click to expand...
You can't really blame DPReview crew here.

The dSLR (SLT) market is really crowded and it's hard to find a definition for all different kinds of cameras.

Take Nikon for example: D3100, D5100, D90, D7000, D300s.... while many think that the D7000 is the successor of the D300s, it's not. But it is better than the D5100. So, where to put it?

Same thing happens to Sony with the A65/A77.

I think that it's more safe to compare cameras prices to see in which category they fit in rather than "mid-level camera", "entry mid-level camera", "bridge mid-level camera" or whatever fancy names you can think of.

--
I'm lazy to post my pics here. So you can look at them here:
http://www.zenfolio.com/neonights
 
The A77 costs £1200 whereas the A65 costs £700. You would expect £1000+ camera to do well and get a good score. Also you need to compare it with other cameras in the same price segment. You cannot compare Granny Smiths with Golden Delicious.
sye46 said:
thank you for the review! but how does the A65 get a score of 78% and gets the Gold award while the A77 got 81% and got a Silver award?
Click to expand...
--
http://frenske.zenfolio.com
 
mzd said:
sye46 said:
thank you for the review! but how does the A65 get a score of 78% and gets the Gold award while the A77 got 81% and got a Silver award?
Click to expand...
With that gold award the a65 is for sure gonna take better pictures than the a77!
Click to expand...
Actually for me it will take better pictures. Since the A65 is $500 less I can actually buy it and use it. At it's price point the A77 won't take any pictures at all for me. Obviously the camera got a gold award when compared to other cameras in it's price class.
--
Tom

Look at the picture, not the pixels

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25301400@N00/
 
dlkeller said:
Should be easy with a little price comparison. I would think the Nikon 7000 would be. Don't know which Canon as I've never been interested in Canon.
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No the D7000 is more expensive and competes with the A77. As the article states that it competes with the Canon EOS 600D / Rebel T3i and Nikon D5100.

--
Tom

Look at the picture, not the pixels

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