I recently upgraded my camera from the Sony Alpha 700 to the Sony Alpha 77. This is a very quick summary of some of the pros and cons of this camera after a few months of usage.

Pros:

  • Compatible with all of my current lenses/accessories

  • 24-megapixel APS-C sensor (largest in the market for this form factor)

  • In camera image stabilisation (which all Alpha cameras inherited from the Konica Minolta acquisition)

  • Up to 12 frames per second (it's very quick)

  • Translucent Lens Reflex (no mirror) - viewfinder is a high-res OLED (what you see is what you get)

  • 1080p video recording, support for external microphone

  • Lots of soccer-mom features (jpg only) - sweep pano, hdr, multiframe noise reduction, 1.4/2x crop zoom

  • Optional vertical grip is excellent - great control layout + extra battery

  • built-in GPS

  • Build quality - great feeling camera, almost identical in shape to the A700 (which I love)

  • Nice Price (I paid $1450).

Cons:

  • No tethered shooting (supported by the A700, A850 and A900)

  • Does not re-orient the display panel when shooting in portrait orientation (the A700 did this)

  • Don't like how the flash exposure compensation is displayed (the old system was way better)

  • A bit slow to flush the buffer when shooting at 12fps (RAW)

  • viewfinder is a bit laggy - sometimes slow to switch on

  • Battery life isn't as good as the A700 (lots more tech to drive)

In other news, Gary Friedman has just finished his excellent eBook discussing the A77 and A65 cameras. It's a monster book, I'm about half way through it at the moment (on the kindle).

I bought his ebooks for the A100 and A700 - both were excellent, this one extends the previous books (doesn't repeat too much).

Well-written, DRM-free, Kindle edition - comes highly recommended for A65 and A77 owners.

http://friedmanarchives.com/ebooks/

BTW - most of my recent shots on flickr have been taken with the A77 (http://www.flickr.com/gavz or www.canberraphotography.com.au).