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FF body for old A mount minolta lenses?

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Fswartz

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I have a small collection of A mount Minolta and Sony SLR’s and lenses, and my “newest” is an A77 with the Sony DT 16-80mm lens. I’m interested in adding a full frame body. As I understand it my options are Sony A850/900/99/99ii, or possibly KM 5D/7D. (My budget would not stretch to the Hasselblad HV!)

I’m wondering how much difference there would be across these bodies with the older Minolta lenses, esp. whether the better specs on the a99ii would be noticeable/ worth the much higher price. I haven’t used CF cards in a long time and assume these are still available, but prefer SDs.

I have seen some pretty rough A850s and 900s with high shutter counts so have some concerns there too. In general I prefer an older camera in very good condition to a newer one which has been heavily used.

I am grateful for any thoughts on the tradeoffs in my situation.
 
alanlinde said:
Which body you get depends on what it will mostly be used for. The 850/900 are excellent cameras. The only significant reason I can think of for moving up to the 99II (as I did) is if you need better low light performance. I think that the first 99 wasn't significantly better than the 900.

Alan
Click to expand...
See attached screenshot obtained from https://www.photonstophotos.net/Charts/PDR.htm :

fab0dd24345e4ae5b916c7fe1494102b.jpg.png

That shows 1 stop improved DR of the a99 over the a900 which is roughly on the same level as the APS-C a77.
Cheers,
Ralf
 
Ralf B said:
alanlinde said:
Which body you get depends on what it will mostly be used for. The 850/900 are excellent cameras. The only significant reason I can think of for moving up to the 99II (as I did) is if you need better low light performance. I think that the first 99 wasn't significantly better than the 900.
Click to expand...
See attached screenshot obtained from https://www.photonstophotos.net/Charts/PDR.htm :

fab0dd24345e4ae5b916c7fe1494102b.jpg.png

That shows 1 stop improved DR of the a99 over the a900 which is roughly on the same level as the APS-C a77.
Click to expand...
You posted the chart for the A77II. The A77 is behind both the A900 and A77 in that metric. BTW, there's considerable controversy about what that particular chart really indicates.

494fc154f19d409fb5284e5fc2c8ed54.jpg
 
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Fair enough, yet the a99 remains ahead of the a850/a900.
Cheers,
Ralf
 
Ralf B said:
Fair enough, yet the a99 remains ahead of the a850/a900.
Click to expand...
I think it does too. I see I also made a goof in my own post, which was supposed to say the A77 is behind both the A900 and A77 II in that metric.
 
alanlinde said:
Which body you get depends on what it will mostly be used for. The 850/900 are excellent cameras. The only significant reason I can think of for moving up to the 99II (as I did) is if you need better low light performance. I think that the first 99 wasn't significantly better than the 900.

Alan
Click to expand...
For noise you are correct but for Dynamic Range the A99 had about 1.5 stops more than the A900 according to DXO.
 
Ralf B said:
alanlinde said:
Which body you get depends on what it will mostly be used for. The 850/900 are excellent cameras. The only significant reason I can think of for moving up to the 99II (as I did) is if you need better low light performance. I think that the first 99 wasn't significantly better than the 900.

Alan
Click to expand...
See attached screenshot obtained from https://www.photonstophotos.net/Charts/PDR.htm :

fab0dd24345e4ae5b916c7fe1494102b.jpg.png

That shows 1 stop improved DR of the a99 over the a900 which is roughly on the same level as the APS-C a77.
Cheers,
Ralf
Click to expand...
The Photons-to-photons is a combined measurement that takes noise, dynamic range and possibly other measurements together, so it is not a pure DR measurement. You can find the pure dynamic range measurements on the DXO site. According to DXO the SNR of the 2 cameras is virtually the same so the DR measurement is almost the same as Photons to Photo combined measurement.

7f148694d4d24494847f4e71d01a09ba.jpg

--
Tom
 
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Oops – I didn't mean/intent to imply that the 99 didn't improve on the 900; I was just looking for more improvement in the low light than my impression of what the 99 had. I'm not familiar with those various comparison sites so I haven't seen what the difference between the 99 and the 99 II is for low light. My impression, when I brought the 99II was that it had additional improvement. Perhaps one of you can enlighten?

Alan
 
alanlinde said:
Oops – I didn't mean/intent to imply that the 99 didn't improve on the 900; I was just looking for more improvement in the low light than my impression of what the 99 had. I'm not familiar with those various comparison sites so I haven't seen what the difference between the 99 and the 99 II is for low light. My impression, when I brought the 99II was that it had additional improvement. Perhaps one of you can enlighten?

Alan
Click to expand...
For low light noise the A99 little better than the A900.

Sony Alpha SLT-A99 In-Depth Review: Digital Photography Review

8fdc737b2db647a6bfb5213eeb27a649.jpg

The A99ii is a better than either for low light particularly for Dynamic Range.



f202f27374664dcfbd8aa68fdb16cd18.jpg



1c59328f55fa4e5d9c1ae9bf5098b804.jpg





--
Tom
 
Last edited:
Fswartz said:
I have a small collection of A mount Minolta and Sony SLR’s and lenses, and my “newest” is an A77 with the Sony DT 16-80mm lens. I’m interested in adding a full frame body. As I understand it my options are Sony A850/900/99/99ii, or possibly KM 5D/7D. (My budget would not stretch to the Hasselblad HV!)

I’m wondering how much difference there would be across these bodies with the older Minolta lenses, esp. whether the better specs on the a99ii would be noticeable/ worth the much higher price. I haven’t used CF cards in a long time and assume these are still available, but prefer SDs.
I have seen some pretty rough A850s and 900s with high shutter counts so have some concerns there too. In general I prefer an older camera in very good condition to a newer one which has been heavily used.

I am grateful for any thoughts on the tradeoffs in my situation.
Click to expand...
Without knowing what lenses you have, I will chose a 2nd hand A850 or A900. IMHO, it is the best digital SLR from Sony to use Minolta old FF lenses
 
As a matter of fact, I’m negotiating purchase of a lightly used A850, so your advice is timely.

And many thanks to everyone who offered suggestions here!
 
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