Sony a77 Video Up at Amazon, Gauntlet, Thrown

That's what I thought when I heard about the 12 fps a month or two ago ...

Spacemunkie wrote in post #12995974
But the Sony shooter is capturing more within the second he's shooting...

Honestly, these FPS conversations are vacuous. If you're that bothered about missing out, then shoot video and extract a still. That's where we're heading so might as well get used to it....

Again, Fair point, though you'll only get a 2mp still of iffy quality doing this

Really, i barely have need for 8 90% of the time, the only time i really like it is with Birds and that...

Joris wrote in post #12991620
Wait for real world reports and image results, buying items off "cool" specs is a foolish thing to do, and that's not just the case with Sony products, but with any Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Olympus, Panasonic or whatever make as well .

Show me a Canon product that had notable design issues similar to what sony does to their cameras such as user interface/menus, features that are limited not being able to control aperture or shutter speed in certain modes like Sony's video and burst mode, sensors over heating,etc. Sony has a history of not getting products "right" as far as a design and how people use cameras.

Actually there isn't anything *really* wrong with Sony's user interface(s) or menus. The only user interface that needed an update was the NEX-3's and NEX-5's. And that was a pretty minor update. The menu worked remarkably well, I have to say. It's a completely different approach than a DSLR but if you're willing to learn how it works then it's a perfectly capable camera. Oh, by the way, we're talking about the A77 in this thread, not the NEX-3, NEX-C3, NEX-5, NEX-5N, or even the NEX-7...Not sure what other menus or user interfaces you might have been referring to.

In video mode you can have full manual control (on the A77/A65, don't have a clue about the A55/A33/A35) if you want to. Still, at least you can get decent autofocus, albeit with the aperture wide-open only. I mean, Canon, Nikon, Pentax, etc can't even get somewhat decent autofocus in live view, let alone high speed autofocus while capturing video. I'd rather have autofocus with the aperture fully opened only than having no autofocus at all while using the video mode.

The burst mode works perfectly. You can alter the aperture and shutter speed if you want to, but you'll lose continuous autofocus. If you want that to work you'll have to let the camera control it. The thing you're referring to is the speed priority mode though. On the A77 there's still the 8 fps mode, but that's 'just' 8 fps ...

Regarding the sensors, the overheating problem has been ironed out of the latest generation of cameras - the A35, the A65, the A77 and any future cameras like a hypothetical A99 or so.

Oh, about not getting a product right...Hmm...What shall I say ? The early 7D's autofocus issues, the 1D Mark III's autofocus issues, the 5D Mark II's autofocus, Error 99 on the 40D and pretty much any other camera ...Do you want me to carry on ?

Seriously though, there isn't any camera manufacturer that hasn't had issues of some kind at some point .

From Dpreview's preview:
As with the implementation in previous SLT models, there are some limitations placed on the amount of exposure control you can take with the A77 if AF is to be maintained in the 12fps and video modes. For instance, although the A77 now offers aperture-priority, shutter-priority and manual exposure modes for video recording, these are only available once manual focus has been selected.
Manual focus? Yeah, that's the latest innovation!

I mentioned design issues, some of those that you mentioned were production issues of which a lot was user error manifested from internet forums. Never heard of 5D2 autofocus issue and 7D focus issues were users not understanding the more advanced focus system.

Still, at least you can get decent autofocus...*albeit with the aperture wide-open only*. That's what I said above. It's not a design issue. It's a design choice and a limitation which you cannot get rid of at the moment (at least as far as I know), as phase-detection autofocus systems acquire focus with the aperture wide-open. The only option would be to implement contrast-detection autofocus, but the A-mount lenses have not been designed for C-D AF and phase-detection AF systems are still far better at tracking a moving target as things stand today.

On the Belgian photography forum I frequent there were several (and not just three or so, there were like eight out of 20 guys) 7D users which had to return their 7Ds and get a new one, even after so-called repairs had been undertaken by Canon themselves. They just couldn't get consistently sharp shots. They could take virtually the same photograph within a couple of seconds of a static subject, of which one would be sharp, and the others would be backfocused or frontfocused. A couple of them came from a 1D Mark III and knew what they were doing. Never heard of the 5D Mark II's autofocus issues ? Well I've heard plenty of them. Even a 40D or 50D could do better than that.

Joris wrote in post #13002090
Still, at least you can get decent autofocus...*albeit with the aperture wide-open only*. That's what I said above. It's not a design issue. It's a design choice and a limitation which you cannot get rid of at the moment (at least as far as I know), as phase-detection autofocus systems acquire focus with the aperture wide-open. The only option would be to implement contrast-detection autofocus, but the A-mount lenses have not been designed for C-D AF and phase-detection AF systems are still far better at tracking a moving target as things stand today.

You call it a design "choice" and I call it a design "issue" either way it is a design limitation that a normal user would not expect a camera to have especially one costing $2000 (with new 16-80 likely needing a new lens to actually resolve near the 24 MP of the sensor) to have!

It's still better than having no autofocus at all like on a conventional DSLR . I don't think there's something like a 'normal' user by the way. Oh, and a 'normal' user would at least have the 24-70/2.8, a lens with enough resolving power...

Indeed the 2000 bucks is a A77V body with a 16-50 SSM included. Not bad at all, 600 bucks for that lens...