a57 low light performance acceptable?

kangaroo in oz · Apr 4, 2013

Hi everyone,

i've been tempted to buy an a57 recently as they appear very good value for money.

i was just looking at the DXOmark sensor data however, and something that did concern me was the low light ISO scores for the a57 and 65. They scored worse in low light criteria than nearly all SLR competitors and the Olympus OMD and Sony Nex range.

My question therefore how accurate is DXOmark as a gauge as to the low light performance of the a57 and more importantly are those of you out there who shoot with the a57 happy with the results you get in low light?

Cheers

Marco Cinnirella · Apr 4, 2013

kangaroo in oz said:
kangaroo in oz wrote:

Hi everyone,

i've been tempted to buy an a57 recently as they appear very good value for money.

i was just looking at the DXOmark sensor data however, and something that did concern me was the low light ISO scores for the a57 and 65. They scored worse in low light criteria than nearly all SLR competitors and the Olympus OMD and Sony Nex range.

My question therefore how accurate is DXOmark as a gauge as to the low light performance of the a57 and more importantly are those of you out there who shoot with the a57 happy with the results you get in low light?

Cheers

I think you will find that most are happy with it - I have a57 and a77 as well as a GH3 (which has the same performance as OM-D). I am happy using all these cameras up to 3200 and sometimes up to 5000 depending on the tones in the image, but I do also regularly use noise reduction plugins in Photoshop or the noise reduction in Lightroom or DXO. Are you a raw or JPEG shooter? The high ISO JPEGs are not so great IMHO from the Sony cameras but I know some think they are OK. If you provide a bit more info on what subjects you shoot etc then folks can post examples.

Rab G · Apr 5, 2013

Here is an example from flikr

https://flic.kr/p/ditQM6

Settings: 1/60 f2.0 iso 1600 35mm.

You can see full size image on flikr.

That's from an A37 same sensor and Bionz chip as the A57.

RabG

GaryMiller1951 · Apr 5, 2013

Not studio controlled shots these. Real world use examples for you though. The photos in this gallery were all shot hand held at IS0 800-3200 'under fire' using older classic Minolta 2.8 primes. Probably a 50mm 1.7 too. Not too bad for a darned versatile camera at the price they are going for at the moment.

Night Structure Fire High ISO shots

superx · Apr 5, 2013

I would ask, what are you using it for? example... for indoor sports with poor or mediocre, you might not enjoy it. For stills in low light, it might be just fine.

superx · Apr 5, 2013

superx said:
superx wrote:

I would ask, what are you using it for? example... for indoor sports with poor or mediocre, you might not enjoy it. For stills in low light, it might be just fine.

Sorry, I meant to say "poor or mediocre lighting"

Sonyshine · Apr 5, 2013

Low light is not just about the camera and ISO. Its about using a fast lens too. I have no problem with my A57 at higher ISO or low light.

emmanuelg · Apr 5, 2013

Yes, to me the A57 low light or high ISO performance up to 3200 is acceptable. I've been using my A57 for more than a year now and I am very satisfied with it's performance. Here are sample images;

--
Emmanuel
"A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger." - King Solomon

emmanuelg · Apr 5, 2013

Member said:
Sonyshine wrote:

Low light is not just about the camera and ISO. Its about using a fast lens too. I have no problem with my A57 at higher ISO or low light.

I agree. I use the 70-200G, 24-70CZ and the 16-50 f2.8

superx · Apr 5, 2013

Member said:
Sonyshine wrote:

Low light is not just about the camera and ISO. Its about using a fast lens too. I have no problem with my A57 at higher ISO or low light.

You're correct about the lens... My ask about indoor sports is regarding taking shots of my daughter in gymnastics. Often the lighting in the venue is so poor, even with a f2.8 lens you sometimes need to operate at 6400 ISO and the A57 will require a lot of post clean-up in those situations.

Stills will be fine as Emmanuel just posted some nice pictures to demonstrate it.

Sonyshine · Apr 5, 2013

F2.8 is fast but not THAT fast. Go for f1.8 at least if its gloomy.

kangaroo in oz · Apr 5, 2013

hi everyone

Thanks for your input

I mostly shoot landscapes and the occasional bit of action. Light weight is important too as i often have it around my neck all day..

I really wanted the Olympus OMD however i just thought it may let me down a bit for shooting surfing from the beach ..it would feel too small i think..wheras i would think the alphas burst mode would be great.

Also the a57 is currently half the price of the OMD

kangaroo in oz · Apr 5, 2013

Fantastic shots Gary

kangaroo in oz · Apr 5, 2013

Nice shot Rab.. was that taken with the kit lens or better glass?

Rab G · Apr 5, 2013

Not mine 35mm f2 so not a kit lens !

Peter Heckert2 · Apr 5, 2013

Fixating on a single aspect is not good.
Without doubt the A57 has better focus in low light and with moving objects than mirrorless cameras.

Before I got the A57, I had a Minolta D5D and the low light performance and high ISO performance of the A57 is 4 times better. Maybe the OMD has better ISO performance, but this is useless if you cannot get focus fast enough.
Bright lenses for the OMD are very expensive, so if one wants low light performance, he might be better served with an a57 and (maybe thirdparty or used) lenses.

It all depends on what you want to do with the camera.

Peter

Nordstjernen · Apr 5, 2013

kangaroo in oz said:
kangaroo in oz wrote:

i was just looking at the DXOmark sensor data however, and something that did concern me was the low light ISO scores for the a57 and 65. They scored worse in low light criteria than nearly all SLR competitors and the Olympus OMD and Sony Nex range.

1) The differences at very high ISO are hardly noticeable when comparing processed images

2) If you look for real world very high ISO pictures, you will hardly find any

3) Very high ISO is rarely used

4) If you are concerned about handheld camera high ISO work, get a bright lens

5) For low light photography with a tripod, you always use low ISO settings for the best result

So don't worry about high ISO performance.

_Fotogrfr_ · Apr 5, 2013

kangaroo in oz said:
kangaroo in oz wrote:
are those of you out there who shoot with the a57 happy with the results you get in low light?

I love so much about my a57, but personally, have been very disappointed with the low light performance. I was on an outing on a cloudy day and even at ISO100, there is obvious noise in the shadow areas. My a550 was so much better in that area.

I'll post some examples when I get home tonight.

Nordstjernen · Apr 5, 2013

_Fotogrfr_ said:
_Fotogrfr_ wrote:

_Fotogrfr_ said:

kangaroo in oz wrote:
are those of you out there who shoot with the a57 happy with the results you get in low light?

Click to expand...

I love so much about my a57, but personally, have been very disappointed with the low light performance. I was on an outing on a cloudy day and even at ISO100, there is obvious noise in the shadow areas. My a550 was so much better in that area.

I'll post some examples when I get home tonight.

--
JPEG Shooter
galleries at: http://www.pbase.com/fotogrfr

Then I recommend posting pictures that can be directly compared - same subject, camera settings and exposure.

Not some with DRO and others with this feature turned off, or quite different subjects with auto exposure, and stuff like this.

TrojMacReady · Apr 5, 2013

_Fotogrfr_ said:
_Fotogrfr_ wrote:

_Fotogrfr_ said:

kangaroo in oz wrote:
are those of you out there who shoot with the a57 happy with the results you get in low light?

Click to expand...

I love so much about my a57, but personally, have been very disappointed with the low light performance. I was on an outing on a cloudy day and even at ISO100, there is obvious noise in the shadow areas. My a550 was so much better in that area.

I'll post some examples when I get home tonight.

Noise vs detail, an endless battle of opinions.

Going by my A500 jpegs (which I stopped using for a reason too), there's a considerable amount of shadow smudging (loss of detail) due to noise reduction. Maybe Sony decided to leave more detail at the cost of some noise. Or maybe you have DRO active and the A57 does more shadow lifting (more shadow noise as a result) with DRO turned on.

a57 low light performance acceptable?

Well-known member

Veteran Member

Forum Enthusiast

Leading Member

New member

New member

Sonyshine

Guest

Senior Member

Attachments

Senior Member

New member

Sonyshine

Guest

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Forum Enthusiast

Senior Member

Veteran Member

Leading Member

Veteran Member

Veteran Member

Similar threads

Keyboard shortcuts