I've had an A33 since September, ditched my K-x for it. (same basic camera, but 14MP, no GPS and only 7fps in the special burst mode). A couple comments interspersed.
On Sun, Dec 5, 2010 at 12:33 PM, Miserere <[email protected]> wrote: > On 5 December 2010 03:48, Boris Liberman <[email protected]> wrote: >> Hello there, great and wise women and men of PDML. I have witnessed Sony >> SLT-A55 and here is the impressions from that encounter: >> >> 1. It is small and light. It is so small that people with bigger hands >> (unlike me) may have difficulty operating it. If you're OK with a K-m/x/r, the A33/55 are fine for size, they're just a smidgen smaller. >> >> 2. A number of operations require that you press buttons on the back of the >> camera and if you want to do so without taking it away from your eye, it may >> be a bit difficult at first. But after two-three times I did it, it did not >> felt awkward at all. It generally works well, some things are a bit awkward though, but I rarely find myself changing most settings at eyelevel. >> >> 3. The lack of mirror slap is unusual. It is even more unusual that the >> sound of shutter release /seems/ like it is combined of two distinct sounds. >> It is not loud, though it is hard to tell if K-7 is quieter. And I did not >> have K-7 on me to compare them side by side. The shutter is normally open and fires twice (closes before the exposure, opens for the exposure, closes again then opens for the LV feed). This 'fires twice' sound is common to all the EVIL cameras. >> >> 4. The EVF. Well, EVFs will rule the world. Seriously. Consider this: >> >> a. To perform precision manual focus you simply point you camera where you >> want, press "delete" button twice and you get x7.5 magnified area where you >> can focus as precise as you want. You will also see how shaky your hands, >> but once you depress ever so slightly the shutter release button, the view >> returns back to regular and you can compose the shot. My immediate and first >> impression is that this is /significantly/ more convenient than split >> focusing screen and magnifying eye cap, simply because you get way more >> magnification and hence the precision. I tried it and was impressed by how >> easy the process was and how precise I could focus effectively right out of >> the box. And that's the killer app for the EVF. I replaced the K-x with the A33 solely because of the EVF making precision focus easier, especially in low light. It's also surprisingly easy to focus accurately without the magnification when using an EVF. >> >> b. Since this thing is electronic, you can do all kinds of menu related >> operations without taking the camera off your eye. I can hardly imagine how >> often such a thing could be useful, but it is there nonetheless. >> >> c. I did a but of moving of the camera around rapidly - the response of the >> VF was sufficiently smooth. Nothing I could object to. >> >> d. At the end I did feel a bit of strain in my eyes, but it has to be said >> that: >> d1. I couldn't change the diopter correction if there were any. Diopter adjustment is a wheel on the viewfinder like most SLR's, not Pentax's slide-type setting. >> d2. I usually have one or two days of felt eye strain if I change monitors. >> Then it subsides. May be something similar would have happened if I had this >> camera for more than 15 minutes. >> >> 5. As a funny or peculiar point, I'd like to point out that this camera also >> has the electronic level that is implemented as a rather odd looking bracket >> around the center of the screen. It works pretty well though, I like it better than most level implementations >> >> 6. And finally, for those of us who like to geotag - this camera has a >> built-in GPS module that automatically geotags your images. A55V is only available in some markets, a non-GPS A55 unit is available in the others. The A33 loses the GPS as well. >> >> All in all - worthy of any praise and quite excellent camera. >> >> Boris > > Welcome to the Dark Side of EVF lovers, Boris. I was also impressed > with the A55, which is saying something because I've never been > impressed by any of Sony's APS-C cameras (though never used the A700). > > How did you find AF speed? I thought it was good, with the added > benefit that you can set your AF point to practically any place in the > VF. > > > —M. The AF speed is amazing for a camera at this pricepoint, as good as anything else in the sub-$1k USD range. In really low light the AF is as good or better than the D300 on the centre point (I was stunned when I found my A33 could AF in any light where I could reasonably get an exposure). You can't select an AF point anywhere in the frame though (unlike the Micro-4/3rds cameras), just one of the 15 fixed AF points. They cover a good portion of the frame though. -Adam -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
