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What are the pros/cons of the a77? Is it worth buying?

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RoxanneY

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Hi!

I find that I love shooting crop and that I use my a550 much more than my a99. That said I'd like to replace my a550 with the a77, esp now that the price has come down so much. Could those of you that have experience with the a77 tell me what the major pros/cons of this camera are? Or if I should just use what I have and wait for the "mirrorless" a78/a79.

Thanks a bunch!

Roxanne
 
I've owned the a560, a580 and a77. In my opinion the a77 was much nicer then any of the 5 series alphas. Better build, AF speed and accuracy, AF Adjust and focus peaking. as for waiting on the 77 replacement, it's hard to say, depends on budget.... Once I bought my 77 the 580 collected dust. Ive since sold it and bought an a900.

you could always rent an a77 from borrow lens.com
 
I don't know about the other cameras but the tilting, always on lcd screen allows me to take low angle shot, well really any angle shots I want. I'll never buy another camera without that feature ever again.

Owen
 
If you have the A99, you will find the A77 handles virtually the same. The AF module is the same, the EVF is the same. The A77 is an APS-C version of the A99. Or the A99 is an FF version of the A77!
 
I went from the A550 to the A77, never touched the A550 again and I've since sold it.
 
Pros:
  • Full time live view/EVF, lots of screen tilt and twist
  • Really fast burst rates
  • High build quality with weather sealing
  • Extended Iso range down to 50
  • Very good video quality
Cons:
  • No OVF, if you're into that
  • Card writeout is slowish
  • Fairly large camera body
  • Video has some moire, low bitrates
  • High ISO sensor performance doesn't quite match Nikon
A big part of the A77's appeal is the excellent 16-50/2.8 lens in the kit, which is extremely low price for what you get.
 
Last edited:
RoxanneY said:
RoxanneY wrote:

Hi!

I find that I love shooting crop and that I use my a550 much more than my a99. That said I'd like to replace my a550 with the a77, esp now that the price has come down so much. Could those of you that have experience with the a77 tell me what the major pros/cons of this camera are? Or if I should just use what I have and wait for the "mirrorless" a78/a79.

Thanks a bunch!

Roxanne
Click to expand...
If you like you're A99 you'll probably find that the A77 is very similar. It lacks a couple of things present on the A99 such as AF-D and the quicknavi menu system. The A77 has faster burst rates than the A99 and can do 12fps in CAP-AE at full res. But the articulated LCD is the same as the A99 as well as most of the controls (except the silent controller wheel on the front. On the A77 it only changes AF modes).

Of course the A99's full frame sensor means that it has better low-light performance and picture quality than the A77. But the IQ on the A77 is still very very good.

Given your concerns with getting the 70-200mm or 70-400mm G-series lenses from your previous threads, the A77 has an advantage. Using the 70-200mm on the A77 would give you a 105-300mm equivalent. One idea, you could get the 70-200mm G and instead of getting the 70-400mm, you could get the A77 + 16-50mm f/2.8 kit. The constant f/2.8 aperture on the 70-200mm would give you equal-ish or better low-light performance on the long end as opposed to the 70-400mm.

If you go with the A77, I'd highly recommend getting the kit, because the 16-50mm gives you a 24-70mm equivalent with a constant aperture. It'd work better on the A77 than your standard zoom from the A99.

Hope that helps.
 
Thank you all for sharing. Am I correct in believing that the photos that the a77 takes is much better than what I'm getting from the a550? I really love my a550 and can't ever see parting with it. (I still have my a350 neatly packed away.) It's good to know that the a99 handles like the a77 and vice versa. It's funny, but after having the heavy a99, the a550 feels too light. I don't think I'll take advantage of the video much in either camera. I just want a camera that takes good photos.

One thing that is holding me back is that I've heard that the a77 is not very good in low light. What exactly is low light? Is it defined somewhere? I am going to need to use it w/o flash in choral concerts sometimes. I did it before with the a550. Will the a77 be just as good or better?

Thanks as always for your help!

Roxanne
 
mrmjs said:
mrmjs wrote:

I've owned the a560, a580 and a77. In my opinion the a77 was much nicer then any of the 5 series alphas. Better build, AF speed and accuracy, AF Adjust and focus peaking. as for waiting on the 77 replacement, it's hard to say, depends on budget.... Once I bought my 77 the 580 collected dust. Ive since sold it and bought an a900.

you could always rent an a77 from borrow lens.com
Click to expand...
Hi mrmjs!

Thanks for the information! How does your a900 compare to the a77? I was also considering an a57, but that was mainly because so many people rave about it and the a58. Between the a77, a900, and a57 which is the best camera? I don't need video, just great photo quality.

Thanks!

Roxanne
 
Promit said:
Promit wrote:

Pros:
  • Full time live view/EVF, lots of screen tilt and twist
  • Really fast burst rates
  • High build quality with weather sealing
  • Extended Iso range down to 50
  • Very good video quality
Cons:
  • No OVF, if you're into that
  • Card writeout is slowish
  • Fairly large camera body
  • Video has some moire, low bitrates
  • High ISO sensor performance doesn't quite match Nikon
A big part of the A77's appeal is the excellent 16-50/2.8 lens in the kit, which is extremely low price for what you get.
Click to expand...
Thank you Promit for the nice pros vs cons comparison!

I am tempted by that 1650 and the 18135 (because I really hate fiddling with changing the lenses. Sometimes I wish I had separate cameras dedicated to each lens!)

Roxanne
 
RoxanneY said:
RoxanneY wrote:

Thank you all for sharing. Am I correct in believing that the photos that the a77 takes is much better than what I'm getting from the a550? I really love my a550 and can't ever see parting with it. (I still have my a350 neatly packed away.) It's good to know that the a99 handles like the a77 and vice versa. It's funny, but after having the heavy a99, the a550 feels too light. I don't think I'll take advantage of the video much in either camera. I just want a camera that takes good photos.

One thing that is holding me back is that I've heard that the a77 is not very good in low light. What exactly is low light? Is it defined somewhere? I am going to need to use it w/o flash in choral concerts sometimes. I did it before with the a550. Will the a77 be just as good or better?

Thanks as always for your help!

Roxanne
Click to expand...
Well low-light performance usually refers to how noisy a sensor is at higher ISOs. Generally, in low-light you need to up your ISO to get usable shutter speeds. So cameras with better performance in low-light can generally be set to higher ISOs than those that don't perform as well.

Full frame cameras generally able to use higher ISOs than APS-C cameras before becoming to noisy. That being said, don't expect to use the same ISOs you do on the A99 and get the same result.

At the very least the A77 should be able to let you use higher ISOs than your A550. I shoot at rock type shows a lot and use anywhere from 800-3200 ISO on my A77. The A57 is supposed to be the best APS-C SLT for low-light performance, but I don't think the A77 is horrible. If you were able to use your A550 for choral shooting, the A77 should be just as usable, but probably better.

The A77 has a better articulated LCD, Auto ISO adjustment, AF micro adjust, more bracketing options, higher fps, and more dedicated buttons compared to the A57. But if I had to go with any other APS-C SLT than the A77, I'd go with the A57. I don't know how big of a difference the A57 and A77 are with high ISO though. Either of these will be a huge improvement over the A550.
 
Evildogofdoom said:
Evildogofdoom wrote:

If you have the A99, you will find the A77 handles virtually the same. The AF module is the same, the EVF is the same. The A77 is an APS-C version of the A99. Or the A99 is an FF version of the A77!
Click to expand...
I think it's unreasonable for Sony to ask 3 times the price, just because the sensor has a physically bigger sensor. I'm not at all buying how a FF sensor would be so much more to produce than an APSC size sensor. I think FF has a holy status and it's time that at least one manufacturer cuts through the crap.
 
123Mike said:
123Mike wrote:

I think it's unreasonable for Sony to ask 3 times the price, just because the sensor has a physically bigger sensor. I'm not at all buying how a FF sensor would be so much more to produce than an APSC size sensor. I think FF has a holy status and it's time that at least one manufacturer cuts through the crap.
Click to expand...
It a mistake to think that the price of the top-of-the-range camera would be controlled by cost-to-make.

It is controlled by what the manufacturers judgement of what the market will bear.
 
RoxanneY said:
RoxanneY wrote:
RoxanneY said:
mrmjs wrote:

I've owned the a560, a580 and a77. In my opinion the a77 was much nicer then any of the 5 series alphas. Better build, AF speed and accuracy, AF Adjust and focus peaking. as for waiting on the 77 replacement, it's hard to say, depends on budget.... Once I bought my 77 the 580 collected dust. Ive since sold it and bought an a900.

you could always rent an a77 from borrow lens.com
Click to expand...
Hi mrmjs!

Thanks for the information! How does your a900 compare to the a77? I was also considering an a57, but that was mainly because so many people rave about it and the a58. Between the a77, a900, and a57 which is the best camera? I don't need video, just great photo quality.

Thanks!

Roxanne
Click to expand...
Between the two I would take the a900. It is built like a tank, but at the end of the day all the cameras are tools for taking pictures. They all will have advantages and disadvatages, you need to learn which works best for you at a certain time And why it works better (ff vs aps-c).

You already have an a99.. I have to believe it suits you better then the a550 at concerts. What lenses do you have?

also, I have used the a57 before. It was very comparable to my a580, but I'd take the a77 over those two cameras.
 
Here's an explanation I found on a forum post:

"To sum it up:

One CMOS wafer can produce up to 200 APS-C (1.6) sensors compared to only TWENTY (20) Full Frame sensors
The likelihood of random dust or scratches ruining all 20 on a wafer during manufacturing is much higher than losing all 200

SO. Producing 1 Full Frame sensor is in effect 10x's more expensive than producing 1 APS-C sensor.

Also, I would think this explains the longer update cycles on the Full Frame bodies, it probably takes quite a while to just cut a profit after development, whereas the update cycle for APS-C seems to happen more often as they recover the R&D costs quicker, and that market is much more competitive."
 
thebustos said:
thebustos wrote:
At the very least the A77 should be able to let you use higher ISOs than your A550. I shoot at rock type shows a lot and use anywhere from 800-3200 ISO on my A77. The A57 is supposed to be the best APS-C SLT for low-light performance, but I don't think the A77 is horrible. If you were able to use your A550 for choral shooting, the A77 should be just as usable, but probably better.
The A77 has a better articulated LCD, Auto ISO adjustment, AF micro adjust, more bracketing options, higher fps, and more dedicated buttons compared to the A57. But if I had to go with any other APS-C SLT than the A77, I'd go with the A57. I don't know how big of a difference the A57 and A77 are with high ISO though. Either of these will be a huge improvement over the A550.
Click to expand...
 
The A77 is a fantastic camera, but given that you already own the top of the line that Sony has to offer, I'm a bit perplexed as to why you don't just learn, use and master your A99. Sure, you can get the advantage of longer focal lengths with the crop sensor, but you're not gaining anything if your intended use is inside, low light, high ISO. That is where your A99 has the advantage. I have the A77 and love it, but I'd trade you in a heart beat for an A99 because I shoot a lot of concerts, landscapes, indoor sports and just starting to shoot weddings. The A77 might be on equal ground as far as landscapes go, but it can't touch the A99 in the other areas. Unless you have superior PP skills, which I don't.

While you wait for the A77 successor, put nice glass on your A550, use it in good light and take advantage of the fact that you also own a camera (A99) that some of us can only dream about :)

Cheers
 
Last edited:
garykohs said:
garykohs wrote:
garykohs said:
thebustos wrote:

At the very least the A77 should be able to let you use higher ISOs than your A550. I shoot at rock type shows a lot and use anywhere from 800-3200 ISO on my A77. The A57 is supposed to be the best APS-C SLT for low-light performance, but I don't think the A77 is horrible. If you were able to use your A550 for choral shooting, the A77 should be just as usable, but probably better.

The A77 has a better articulated LCD, Auto ISO adjustment, AF micro adjust, more bracketing options, higher fps, and more dedicated buttons compared to the A57. But if I had to go with any other APS-C SLT than the A77, I'd go with the A57. I don't know how big of a difference the A57 and A77 are with high ISO though. Either of these will be a huge improvement over the A550.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
BrewLab said:
BrewLab wrote:

The A77 is a fantastic camera, but given that you already own the top of the line that Sony has to offer, I'm a bit perplexed as to why you don't just learn, use and master your A99. Sure, you can get the advantage of longer focal lengths with the crop sensor, but you're not gaining anything if your intended use is inside, low light, high ISO. That is where your A99 has the advantage. I have the A77 and love it, but I'd trade you in a heart beat for an A99 because I shoot a lot of concerts, landscapes, indoor sports and just starting to shoot weddings. The A77 might be on equal ground as far as landscapes go, but it can't touch the A99 in the other areas. Unless you have superior PP skills, which I don't.

While you wait for the A77 successor, put nice glass on your A550, use it in good light and take advantage of the fact that you also own a camera (A99) that some of us can only dream about :)

Cheers
Click to expand...

Hi BrewLab!

Yes, what you said is probably the advice my husband would give me. I should just try to learn to use what I have and master the a99. I will sit down with my Friedman book today and play with my camera. And the a550 is probably enough for me. I did very well with it shooting concerts last year. I know the camera very well and feel very comfortable with it. I will now focus on trying to get that comfortable with the a99. Thank you!!!

Roxanne



P.S. Thanks to everyone for their suggestions and for teaching me new things!!!
 
RoxanneY said:
Thank you thebustos and Gary!!

I'm guessing that with my skills and the fact that they will be 4 x 6 images that if there are tiny differences between the a77 and a550 in low light they might not be noticeable to the untrained eye.

Roxanne
Click to expand...
I don't think they'll be noticeable at 4 x 6 to anyone's eye.
 
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