Sony A77 Digital SLR Camera: Top Pick, Hard to Find

Nov. 27, 2011 — -- The new and nearly sold out Sony SLT-A77 digital SLR is, hands-down, the best video camera I've used in years. And it's a fine still camera, too.

Video on digital SLRs such as the A77 has taken off the past few years, thanks to the ground-breaking Canon EOS 5D Mark II. DSLRs have image sensors 20 times the size of those found in most video cameras, making a huge, dramatic difference in quality.

You get a cinematic look, with blurry backgrounds and amazing sharpness, but there typically are issues.

Focusing tends to be manual, and it's hard to stay sharp while shooting. The $1,399 (body only) A77 is the first digital SLR I've used that not only has true auto focus during shooting, but also lets you compose the image through the viewfinder or the LCD.

The coolest feature of all: When you start composing on the LCD, then bring the camera up to your eye, the camera senses the touch of your face and switches from LCD view to viewfinder.

Sony achieves this with its translucent mirror technology, which bypasses the traditional camera mirror that's used to help compose images and show the photographer a true rendition of the scene. Instead, the A77 has an electronic OLED viewfinder that mimics what you see. It's not the real thing, in real time, but it's very close.

On the Canon DSLRs, like the 5D, 60D and Rebel T3i, video clips have a limit of 12 minutes. That makes the Canons quite hard to use at events such as school plays, ballet recitals or weddings, because you have to monitor the camera to turn it back on.

The A77 goes for 29 minutes at a clip. In my tests, I easily got 2½ hours of footage on a 32-gigabyte card, without exhausting the battery. The video looked fantastic. Sony says the battery will last for three hours of continuous video shooting.

But there are issues:

•The camera's light sensitivity goes up to 16,000 ISO, allowing for stills in very dark situations; but the limit is 1,600 for video, and there's no override. (I shoot video at ISO 3,600 on my Canon cameras all the time in darker settings.)

•Autofocus works in video only if you shoot in automatic mode. The exacting photographer who wants to manually set exposure can't do it.

•The hot shoe that sits atop the camera to accept a flash or accessories, such as a remote trigger or shotgun microphone, is proprietary. This means that none of your accessories fit there unless you spring for a $129 add-on adapter from Sony.

Specs for the camera: 24.3 megapixel and 12 frames a second for stills. Because the 19-point focus system is so fast and so good, this is a great camera for sports and other fast-moving action.

But good luck finding it. The initial shipment has all but sold out at many top retailers. Sony says the recent floods in Thailand, where the A77 was being made, hurt production. Sony shifted production to another factory and says more cameras should be in stores soon.

I tested the A77 with the fine and ultra-sharp 16-50mm/f2.8 lens, which is great in low and ample light. It's a massive improvement on the usual so-so lenses that come with many DSLRs, which are fine outside but fall apart inside.

The lens (with body) brings the price tag to $2,000. If you want to save money, you could pick up a cheaper Sony lens, such as the $199 18-55mm medium-wide to medium-telephoto zoom lens, but don't waste your time. For the quality you expect, it's all but unusable indoors.

If you're serious about photography and video, spend what it takes.

I know I will. I liked the camera so much, I plan on buying it once it is back in stock.

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