Podcast Episode 7 – Sony Alpha A77 Review and Light Meter Tutorial

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In this episode we dive into the new Sony Alpha A77 in more detail and look at the way your camera’s light meter sees light.

Review of the Sony Alpha A77

When we recorded the last video about the new Alpha A77 we had literally just got it, now a few weeks on – and two firmware upgrades later – we can share our view point on the camera with a little more authority.

The first thing that will blow you away with the A77 is the screen, the OLED viewfinder is significantly higher resolution than what was offered on the Sony A33 and A55. In addition to the increased resolution, the OLED technology allows for a wider contrast range and more true to life colours. What does this all mean? Essentially we enjoy this electronic viewfinder more than we do an optical one, and I never thought I would see the day that I say that.

I had concerns about image quality when I heard that Sony were cramming 24mp into the smaller APS-C sensor size. In theory the noise levels should be horrendous and yet they have been no where near as bad as we thought it would be. In fact, in early comparisons with the A850 which is 24mp on a larger full frame sensor, we still cannot decide which is the better.

The Autofocus on the A77 is quick and coupled with the 12fps makes for a great tool when the action picks up. With that said, the one limitation the A77 has is that it can only maintain the 12fps burst for 17 frames which means its not even 2 seconds of the action. You also need to use top end speed cards or you will be waiting for days before you can capture the next sequence.

Video quality is also fantastic and Sony have spent a lot of time working on the sound quality you get straight out of the camera, certainly it is better than some other cameras we have used in the past.

All in all we think the wait for this A700 replacement has been well worth it.

Tutorial

Last time we did a tutorial we spoke about the different exposure modes on the camera. This time we are going to just chat a little bit about how the camera sees light. We will then in the next coming shows talk about the different light metering modes your camera has.

The camera’s light-meter can be easily fooled depending on what you are photographing. You get different types of light-meters. The one found in most cameras is what we call a reflective light-meter. It measures the amount of light reflecting off your subject or scene. It is calibrated to find perfect exposure as 18% reflectance which is neutral grey. In the old days, a photographer would buy a “Grey Card” that reflected 18% light at the camera’s light meter, put the card next to their subject and read the light off that card. As you can imagine, measuring light coming off a white dress or snow capped mountain, the light reflected back to the camera is significantly more than the Grey Card would give and it confuses the light meter to make you shut out more light by either closing the aperture or making the shutter speed faster. If you do that, the scene will look grey, not white, and be under-exposed.

Conclusion

That about brings us to the end of another show. Be sure to check out our website at http://alphatutorials.co.za for more articles and information. For example there are three articles following our first show each on one of the areas of exposure, ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speeds. You can also send your questions in to us on the the site.

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