An intermediate photographer's review of the Sony A77

Hello, my name is Mia and I was a proud Sony Alpha series user…until I met the Sony A77. This is my review. 

 

I was so excited to get my hands on this bad boy and explore my wonderful city!! Every photo I snapped  wowed me (and kept my boyfriend entertained).  I tested out the camera and its creative styles with a Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T*(I LOVEEE THIS LENS!!!)  and a Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X 116 Pro DX (another great lens!).

What I loved

1. I loved the tracking feature-helped me a lot during my friend’s wedding and capturing photos of my running happy niece!

Relaxing after 10 minutes of cardio (for her aunt that is)

2. Loved the creative styles! (For me personally it’s pointless since I shoot in RAW and a heavy Photoshop user) Here are 6 out of the 11 styles.

Upper left: Blue only, Red only , B/W Polarized, High Contrast Monochrome, Yellow Only, Green Only

3. TILT-SHIFT PHOTO!!! I love, love, loved this!!!

Not the best “Tiltshift” photo but it’s something! lol

4. The clarity is awesome in both video and photo! (no video sorry)

Lens: Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X 116 Pro DX

What I hated

1. I had so much fun using the Sony A77 at my friend’s wedding until right during the cake cutting the camera went KAPUT! It wasn’t the battery!! I freaked out! I turned it on and off. I couldn’t see through the viewfinder nor the screen and the camera suddenly couldn’t read my 32gb memory card! I already had taken over a 1,000 photos! I quickly took the card out of the camera and ran back to my table where my backup camera sat. I quickly placed the card inside the backup and let out a sigh of relief when I was able to scan through all the photos I had taken with the Sony A77 using the A33 screen.

2. I had a problem with focusing using my 50mm 1.8 DT lens. A lot of my photos were out of focus. This happened to me a LOT! When I wasn’t using MR for some odd reason. I played with every single focus range!!! Thank goodness I had a backup camera but I couldn’t use it too much b/c the Sony A33 does this wonderful thing where it overheat’s and shuts down (on hot days).

Test Shot: Arrrrrgghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Come on Sony!!!! 11 focus points you say?!! I focused on her face not the flower!! Get it together!

3. Using Memory Recall: Taking one photo using Memory Recall was awesome, you can set up your settings and not worry about ISO/speed/blah blah…..however waiting for the photo to process felt like eternity.You have to wait until the photo has processed before snapping another shot (no bueno! Especially when taking photos of kids!)

4. The camera is heavy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Using the Carl Zeiss Lens + an external flash was exhausting! I have little hands people!!! lol If you are looking for a great arm workout combine the 3!!

Would I buy this Camera?

The camera going kaput during an important part of my friend’s wedding pretty much sealed the “I am not shelling out 1,200 bucks for this” deal. If that was a paying gig I would have screamed! Thank goodness my friend hired a photographer to help  for the reception! After 6 hours of shooting the camera started acting funny and that did not sit well with me. My $500 Sony A33 lasted the entire wedding with no problems (and that sucker has an overheating problem!) and on ONE battery! Thank goodness my Sony a33 was fixed!

On the plus side, I am very happy I rented the Sony A77 instead of buying it. Since my Sony A33 is working, I am just going to stick with it and use my iPhone to take photos on hot summer days lol

I hate to do this Sony but I am looking to become a professional….I think I am going to leave you for Nikon…or maybe a Canon…*sigh* I still can’t decide…

Looks like I am going back to borrowlenses.com – They finally have a pick-up site in NYC!

Mia.

 

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