The Sony A77 Review! [Part 1]

After waiting a long 4 years, those who wanted a successor for the [still great but] aging A700 have been given what seems to be the answer to their prayers, even if it wasn't exactly as they would have wanted it to be.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably wondering if it’s worth buying into the A77 as a replacement for your current camera or quite possibly thinking of shifting to the Alpha system, hopefully this would help you make a decision.

As a short overview, the A77 is marketed as an enthusiast/semi-pro level camera but with its system geared towards making even novices appreciate and easily learn to fully utilize. It’s also probably the highest MP APS-C cam in the market now at 24 megapixels and pretty fast at 12 fps. It also has 1080p movie capture as well as a slew of other gadgetry and features that can get almost any photographer’s mouth watering.

I won’t go into the spec details as a lot of sites already have it and even if you go to the Sony site, you’ll be able to see almost all of them, what I’ll be tackling first is stuff from before the box and stuff out of the box.

Buying the unit wasn’t as hard as it used to be considering what could be considered a shortage of camera and gear from Sony Philippines back when we were starting. Thankfully things have changed for the better and Sony Philippines was able to bring the A77 [and other cams and gear] to us here [though there is no 16-50 kits available] with the body only and 18-55 kit. And the best part, with a price figure that’s pretty awesome with freebies to boot! The body kit was bought at Php 59,990 or roughly $1,363 USD which is a little bit cheaper than most places outside the country and packed with a nice bag, 8gig memory stick to start you off and an awesome 3 year warranty.

The box itself is pretty big, bigger [taller] than the A33 box, and this was one without the lens but had ample space for any short to medium lens inside the box, kinda wasted space if you ask me. What came in the box was as expected but is was very considerate in my opinion, aside from the manuals, usb cable, strap, battery, charger and the body, they packaged in the sealed box an adapter for the plug [which was of the round variety] for local use.

For the most part, when you take the body out and start to play with the dials and buttons, you get the feeling of  comfort and can easily find buttons but there is a level of sponginess when you click buttons, its not like the sharp click you get with any of the previous Alphas which am attributing to the weather sealing and the mode dial has a semi-blunt/solid click when you turn it. The feelings of the buttons are not really disturbing or detrimental to its use but its one of those things that you’ll need to get used to as well as the single click that almost sounds like a ‘psst’ when the electronic first shutter is engaged [which is on by default]. Also the weight the camera even with the battery inside [without a lens] seems a lot lighter than the A700 [and very very light compared to the beefy Konica-Minolta 7D] though it isn’t as light as the A33. This doesn’t mean that it feels flimsy, on the contrary, it feels good in the hand, solid and the rubber grips help your confidence in handling the cam without fear of it slipping. Bigger hands than mine [and I consider my hands medium sized] might feel a little more comfortable with the optional vertical grip but even without it, the cam should fit their hands if a bit tight.

Turning it on for the first time would mean you’d have to set the location and time [like the newer Alphas A33/55/35] and it’s at almost fully auto all as the default setting. Diving into the menu system without the manual can be daunting but not all that difficult since it’s almost logically placed [and previous Alpha users would have a good learning curve to adapt] but there are a LOT of things to play around with.

You got 7 main menu options with 5 sub menus at the most and one that just to me eats up space. There are some options not available on all Alpha’s and I’d like to point that out here:

*Peaking Level which was initially available on the Nex series, this basically outlines the subject in a certain color [chosen with Peaking Color] when it’s in focus and how strong the influence it. The color doesn’t show in the pictures btw and it aids in manual focusing and selective focusing.

*Lens Compensation, something only the A77 has, which with right lens [apparently it’s not backward compatible, bummer] it’ll compensate for shading, chromatic aberration and distortion.

* Front Curtain Shutter which is by default turned ON, this engages the electronic [first] shutter and it’s the reason you just hear psst or fsst when you click the release button, turning it on allows the cam to use a physical first curtain and it goes back to the original two sliding sound. Incidentally, the manual states that when using a Minolta lens, set this to OFF otherwise exposure problems or uneven brightness may occur. This begs the question how would that happen? In using my old minolta lenses, it seems alright, but lets see how that goes along in the days to come.

*GPS Settings, Use GPS Assist Data was at first a mystery without reading the manual, but basically, this option becomes available if you connect the camera while the PMB software is active and it automatically updates the GPS assist data [valid for 30 days] you can also just do THIS so you can update this GPS Assist data without PMB.

Please note: In trying to update my GPS data I connected my cam to my laptop [I just normally pop the mem card directly into the laptop's reader] and got an error message "Check the connected  device". In case this happens to you, double check if the cable is ok, try different mini usb cables, mine worked after using an old mini usb. If that fails, uninstall and reinstall the PMB software and then try the cables again. It should work.

For those using PMB:

To import the GPS assist data, a computer connected to the internet and either of the supplied software (PMB or PMB Portable) is necessary.

For Windows(R) users:Connect the camera to the computer with the supplied USB cable, then GPS assist data update message appears and data will be imported automatically.

* If Device Stage for Windows(R) 7 starts, select PMB Portable. The GPS assist data can be saved on a memory card from PMB Launcher  GPS  GPS Support Tool. The GPS assist data can be updated automatically by inserting the memory card to the camera.

For Mac Users:The GPS assist data can be updated by selecting PMBP_Mac in the PMBPORTABLE folder to start PMB Portable.

Note:The GPS assist data is valid for approx. 30 days. If it is expired, the time for GPS acquiring position information may not be shortened. This part of the post was taken from the Sony.com.ph website HERE.

I'll be continuing the review in a coupla hours, see you then.