Sony a99

An A99 (& lenses) is going to be a lot larger/heavier than a G2.
& of course it's expensive atm as it's very new - if you can wait I think that it will start dropping to ~ £1800 body only.

& of course you realise that whilst Alpha mount lenses will fit on your NEX with an adapter (but may not AF depending upon which adapter & which lens) your NEX E-mount lenses won't fit on an Alpha?

What types of photo do you intend to take?
 
I am a big Sony SLT fan. When they announced the A99 I decided to save up and get one of these bad boys rather than switch to Canon/Nikon.

I did have a good play with one last weekend at a local camera shop. First time I'd seen the A99 in the flesh. It's a solid camera. Feels very tough. Ergonomically it's very similar to the A77.

The biggest problem in my opinion is the current price. It simply makes NO sense. It's £2200 which is nearly a grand more than the D600 which uses the same sensor and even more than the D800!

So what would I get for that money? It seems not much. The EVF? That's great as is the A77's but it's not worth that sort of money. The video? Meh. I don't do video. The AF focus points are all bunched up in the middle and the new AFD mode only works with very specific Sony lenses. It's not even got a great FPS anymore.

Sure ISO performance has been boosted. Whereas the A77 looks dodgy from ISO1600 onwards, apparently the A99 is from about ISO6400. But so what. The D600 can do that for £1k less.

If they drop the price to somewhere between the D600 & D800 then they have a competitive product. But as it stands their current price has even put Sony fans who have existing lenses off. I have a D700 now.
 
Compare the specs of the D600 and a99. The a99 is in a different class. If sharing the same sensor makes the a99 overpriced, then so is the Canon 7D when compared to every other canon aps-c camera. By the same measure, the D7000 should cost about £350, to compete with the a37.
 
Johnd2000 said:
Compare the specs of the D600 and a99. The a99 is in a different class. If sharing the same sensor makes the a99 overpriced, then so is the Canon 7D when compared to every other canon aps-c camera. By the same measure, the D7000 should cost about £350, to compete with the a37.
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I have to agree with you.

Is the a99 the best performing video dslr/slt?
 
Is the A99 in a different class than the D600? On paper yes. In practice I think the difference is not big. Is the A99 better specced than the D800? No way.

I'm not dissing the A99 as a camera. It's great. I just think the price point is wrong. If they can sort it out, I could be seriously tempted to switch back to Sony since I love their SLT technology.
 
The list price of the D800 is higher than the A99's - the difference is that because it has been out long enough to soak up all the early adopters it's street price has been allowed to fall. As I mentioned I expect this to happen for the A99 too but currently you are comparing 2 cameras at 2 different points in their lives.

Also, it seems that Nikon have decided to be "disruptive" & lacking different technology have decided to do so purely on price (possibly due to high stock levels, trying to preempt the Canon 6D etc. etc.). For whatever reason this is good for customers now but it's going to massacre Nikon's margin which probably isn't good for consumers in the long run ...
 
gadgeteer said:
Is the A99 in a different class than the D600? On paper yes. In practice I think the difference is not big. Is the A99 better specced than the D800? No way.

I'm not dissing the A99 as a camera. It's great. I just think the price point is wrong. If they can sort it out, I could be seriously tempted to switch back to Sony since I love their SLT technology.
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Apart from sensor resolution, its hard to see where the D800 is better spec'd than the a99. Fixed LCD? No 60p video? Needs a grip for 6fps?

The a99 is only more expensive because its newer. Compare the release prices of the 3 cameras in the class (a99, D800 and 5D3) and the Sony doesn't look at all over-priced. In 6 months, they'll all settle down to around the same street price, just like the D700, 5D2 and a900 before them.
 
People use tilting screens to compare these days? Really?
 
iced_jacob said:
actually once you get used to it...you can't go back to a fixed one. especially the one on my a77 is a dream to use
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I have one on my 60D and I hardly use it to be honest. I use a 6D most of the time and don't miss it at all, guess it's horses for courses!
 
hi
i have to agree well over priced
but if shop around a99 can be got for about £1800
but must admit
when i played with it and the a65
the a99 felt so much better focus ing was lot better but them agen at twice the price

hopefully by jan mite be some deals about
 
Just bought Sony A99 and Zeiss 2470 lens yesterday. Upgraded from my A77.
What a camera! the performance is insane. I can shoot at 6400 ISO without worrying and the speed of the AF is unlike anything i have seen. Very pleased. :)
 
Kirk Tuck seems to like his - he's talking about buying a 2nd.
Somebody got a bargain on Sony's outlet store the other day - an A99 refurb for £1600.
 
Chobber said:
Just bought Sony A99 and Zeiss 2470 lens yesterday. Upgraded from my A77.
What a camera! the performance is insane. I can shoot at 6400 ISO without worrying and the speed of the AF is unlike anything i have seen. Very pleased. :)
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According to the rumour mill, there's a new firmware version coming out tomorrow. It adds AF-D support for most of the missing lenses.
 
heidfirst said:
Kirk Tuck seems to like his - he's talking about buying a 2nd.
Somebody got a bargain on Sony's outlet store the other day - an A99 refurb for £1600.
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Ack. Wish I'd seen that and had the other £1599 quid spare :D

On import they're that sort of money I think. I'd rather have a fully supported UK model though with no doubts over where it's come from.

The A99 gives me GAS!
 
Why don't they do an A99 with a 36MP sensor like the D800 has? That would've made me seriously consider Sony as opposed to going for a D800.
 
If the current A99 is expensive I wonder what that would cost.
 
tbh in production cost very little if it was a simple sensor replacement.
If they also increased storage & a new Bionz to keep buffer depth & the fps up that would make a bigger difference.
 
So basically why dont they change the whole camera apart from the shape?
 
why would they?

but there would be additional costs in terms of marketing & stock.
 
Because you said they need to fit a new brain, different sensor and increase storage, theres not much else to change after that.

If the Sony users arent buying the A99 they arent going to buy a camera thats almost the same but costs an extra £500+. It would need to be the A99 replacement and cost less, if its alongside the current A99 theres no way that would happen.
 
twist said:
Because you said they need to fit a new brain, different sensor and increase storage, theres not much else to change after that.
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No, I didn't say that they had to. Some people (landscape, product photography etc.) would be happy with the higher MP sensor but don't care about the fps & buffer.
They would only have to if they also wanted to keep the buffer depth & fps at A99 levels e.g. a D800 doesn't do the same fps as a D4.
& there is more to a body than just a couple of ICs & an image sensor - mirror, AF sensor, shutter, EVF etc. etc.

If the Sony users arent buying the A99 they arent going to buy a camera thats almost the same but costs an extra £500+.
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actually some would - whether it's a big enough market to justify the marketing & stock keeping is another question.
 
You may be right, its not as if Sony are adverse to throwing money round aka RX1, even if they lose a lot by doing it.
 
Imo the RX1 started out as a halo product but I suspect that Sony may have been surprised at quite how well it's doing (probably the RX100 too).

& that could be good for us :)
 
I agree, very good for the consumer, especially the rehashed compacts every year, the RX100 is a game changer and shows togs want a good compact and will pay for it. Want the RX1 but like most cant afford it as a second camera (or main lol).
 
Johnd2000 said:
According to the rumour mill, there's a new firmware version coming out tomorrow. It adds AF-D support for most of the missing lenses.
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New FW (v1.01) now available on the Sony UK Support site.
 
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