Sections
- Page 1 Sony Alpha A77 II Review
- Page 2 Design and Performance Review
- Page 3 Image Quality and Verdict Review
Sony Alpha A77 II: Image Quality
It takes a pretty sharp metering system to keep up with the shooting and focusing speeds of the Sony Alpha 77 II. Fortunately, the 1200-zone evaluative metering system is up to the task, producing good, even exposures the vast majority of the time.
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Even when the focal point is rapidly shifting, the spot-metering system keeps up and delivers balanced results. As well as Spot, the A77 II also provides Multi-Segment and Center-Weighted metering modes.
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Colour-wise things are positive as well. With a total of 15 white balance settings, many of which can have their colour biases fine-tuned, the Alpha 77 has a wealth of colour options.
Even without fiddling though, the colours the A77 II produces are vibrant and punchy, with a pleasing level of accuracy. Blue sunny skies come out just as nature intended.
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With a native ISO range of 100-25,600, which can be expanded to 50, the A77 II produces a good healthy level of detail.
While ISO 100 is nice and crisp, a little luminance noise begins to creep in at ISO 400, and thereafter at ISO 800 colour starts entering shadow areas (albeit very slightly).
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Once you get past ISO 6400 things do start to become very noticeable, though by no means extreme. It’s worth pointing out that the in-camera noise reduction is a bit hammer-like in its effectiveness, tending to break down a fair bit of the detail.
Should I buy the Sony Alpha A77 II?
If you’re an outdoor shooter who likes fast subjects such as sports or wildlife then yes, definitely. The Sony Alpha 77 II is a superb action shooter, hefty without being heavy and fast without being unreliable.
It might take you a little while to get comfortable with the menu system, but once you’ve gotten to grips with it, it’s streamlined and easy to use.
Producing great, vivid, punchy images right out of camera, the Alpha 77 II is an inventive and well-engineered camera.
Verdict
Solidly built and boasting top-notch autofocus, the Alpha 77 II is jostling with high-end DSLRs at a price point that’s hard to argue with. You won’t want to push your images past ISO 6400 too often, but this really is a fine offering from Sony. Built-in Wi-fi, outstanding EVF and LCD, snappy burst shooting – the Alpha 77 II is packed with good points. Excellent.
Next, read our Best Cameras Roundup
Trusted Score
Score in detail
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Value 8
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Design 9
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Features 9
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Image Quality 9
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Performance 9
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Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
