Smaller, Cheaper, Lighter, Faster. It's Sony's Rebel.

I'm a fan of the Sony a57 camera. It's got a great 16 megapixel sensor in a pretty decent body, coupled with an electronic viewfinder. The thing I like best about the camera is the really decent, HD video I can get out of it. To be honest, if there was one thing I'd change about the camera it would be the EVF. No, I don't want an optical finder, but the EVF in the a57 is an LCD version that's not as detailed or clear as the EVFs in the Nex 6, Nex 7, A65, A77, A99 or RX1. The a57 would have been a perfect intro/tyro camera if it had been launched with the OLED version of the finder. But then would anyone have ever needed to upgrade?

Well, along comes the a58, and while it takes one or two steps backwards (black plastic lens mount??), it does comes with the higher spec finder. It keeps the same battery as the a57 (and most of the rest of the Sony SLT line) and it's also going to be bundled with what Sony is referring to as "an improved version" of their 18-55mm kit lens. And I am not unimpressed with the current kit lens.

When I first engaged with the Sony SLT system I bought two of the best cameras they had available at the time, the a77s. A couple of months later I bought an a57 as a lighter, cheaper, carry around/throw down camera and used it mostly with smaller and lighter primes in the place of a point and shoot camera. While the finder isn't as good as its older siblings the actual images are great. Right in line with competitive 16 megapixels cameras from Pentax and Nikon (in fact, it was the same imaging chip).

At one point Ben needed a better video rig so I passed the a57 camera, the kit lens, a Rode shotgun mic and a 55-200mm lens along to him and he's made good use of it. I thought I'd just go through life with the two a77s but I missed having a cheap camera that I could kick around, leave in the car and spill red wine on without too much worry so I picked up another one.

Now I'm getting ready to pass along that a57 (or sell it) and pre-order an a58. Why? Because it's cheap, has a much improved finder, has the latest generation Sony imaging chip inside and, did I mention that it seems as though it will be priced under $600 with a new kit lens?

The interesting thing about digital imaging now is how the new generations of consumer targeted cameras are getting really great sensors in them. Nikon users are beside themselves with impatience waiting for the availability of the new 24 megapixel D7100. And can you really blame them when you find out that it comes with a new sensor that sports NO anti-aliasing filter? I've always felt like that was one of the sole advantages of the Leica digital M's and the medium format cameras; the lack of an AA filter gave a better rendering of really fine detail which leads to a greater impression of sharpness and overall file quality.

Also, reading between the lines of the Nikon press releases it seems as though Nikon will be adapting some sort of on chip distance measuring meant to speed up camera AF (a la the V1 series) in live view and video. Who knows, with all the improvements Nikon seems to be making in the pursuit of good video performance do you think it's only a matter of time before they move to a mirrorless APS-C camera? Or even a fixed mirror camera?

While the Sony a58 doesn't use the new 24mm anti-AA non-filter the Nikon sports it is the first Sony camera out of the gate with a brand new 20 megapixel imager. Seems like a step down from their current 24 megapixel rectangle, as expressed in the Nex 7 and the a77, but if Sony is able to provide the same kind of great dynamic range with better noise characteristics at high ISOs then I'm sure many will embrace it.

I love it when companies make cheap cameras that, in the hands of people who know what they are doing, can perform in the same ballpark as much more expensive and feature laden cameras.

Who needs a fancy point and shoot when you can get so much performance for so little in cameras like these? And who needs behemoth cameras when the on sensor performance is so incredibly close? At some point it really is all down to the lens on the front and the brain in the back of the modern cameras. Almost like the days of film.....

The one thing missing on the a58 that I'm waiting to confirm is a plug for an external stereo microphone. If I'm wrong and they have included one then nothing stands in my way. We will extend the line...

Hello Sony !!!! Where the heck are your wide angle lenses for the a77 and a57 APS-C cameras ?????

Image taken with the Sigma 10-20mm 4-5.6 EX DC

I mostly shoot portraits so when I switched camera systems to the Sony a77 and then added the a57 I made sure all my portrait focal lengths were covered.  I bought the 16-50mm 2.8 zoom lens and I think it's marvellous; sharp and snappy at all focal lengths.  I also bought the 70-200mm 2.8 G lens and it's capable of making great images as well.  Then I went in and backfilled with some inexpensive but surprisingly good single focal length lenses such as the 30mm DT macro, the 35mm 1.8 DT, the 50mm 1.8 DT, the 50mm 1.4 and the 85mm 2.8.  All of them have proven to be good lenses for the system.  All are capable of professional results.  But there's a blind spot in the Sony APS-C lineup. The only lens wider than the 16-50mm (FF equivalent = 24mm to 75mm) is the 11-18mm.  The focal length range is right what I'm looking for but the lens is obviously a re-badged Tamron 11-18mm zoom lens and I've been down that road before.  I owned the Canon version and it was barely usable, at best. 

I didn't think much of it until a client asked me to shoot a new architectural project he'd just finished.  It's a grocery store for a well known, national chain.  We need to photograph multiple shots of the exterior and, a few weeks from now, multiple shots of the interior.  In the Canon shooting days I could rent a 24mm shift lens and do most of my work with that.  I'd round out the mix with the old 20mm lens.  But the Sony catalog doesn't include any tilt/shift lenses and since it's not a big part of my business I am loathe to buy them.  Especially when I can do most of my corrections in PhotoShop.  But I do need a clean, sharp lens to start with.  That, and a good ladder...

I shot all the exteriors with the 16-50mm lens.  The profiles in DXO and in PhotoShop CS6 both work very well. The image files come out with a high degree of sharpness and no discernable geometric distortion.  If I shoot from a ten foot high vantage point I don't need to do a lot of "keystone" correction either. When I'm shooting the exteriors and need a wider view than that offered by the 24mm equivalent focal length of the 16-50mm I can always move back to get in more.  But when I head inside it's another story.  I want to be able to go as wide as a standard 20mm or even an 18mm to do justice to the interior space.  

I've been reading up on various alternatives to the Sony 11-18 and I was optimistic about a lens made by Sigma.  It's a 10-20mm f4-5.6.  I headed over to Precision Camera to see if they had one in stock and not only did they have the lens but the Sony rep was there for a promotional event so I gave him and earful too.  He readily agreed that the current lens wasn't an earth-shaking game changer but suggested that Sony is hard at work making their own lens and that all indications are it will be good.  Nice to know but it won't be available for a while  and certainly not by next week when I need it.  I conferred with my personal sales associate, Ian, and ended up walking out the door with the Sigma 10-20mm.  Ian told me I could bring it back within 30 days for a refund, if not thoroughly satisfied (another reason I shop there....).

I had three hours before I was expected home for dinner so I put the lens on the front of the a77 I had in the car and started walking through downtown.  (I did stop at the big, Whole Foods headquarters to have magic almond bar and a good cup of coffee before I got down to lens testing business.  A man has to have priorities).

The handling and build quality of the Sigma is as good as anything out there, short of a Leica or Zeiss lens.  The lens yields sharp images when I focus in the right places and the color and contrast is good.  The only troubling characteristic is the distortion on the extreme edges and the extreme corners.  I'm going to use the Adobe lens profiler to try and make a corrected profile for the distortions.  Unless I can find a profile that someone else has already made.  I think there may also be a profile of the combination of the Sony camera and the Sigma lens in the latest DXO software.  If I can correct the corner and edge distortion I'll be pretty darn happy. The lens is already a much better performer than the Sony 11-18 I borrowed several weeks ago to test.

But this brings up the question:  If Sony is really interested in competing with Nikon and Canon, and now even Olympus, why haven't they filled this important gap with something decent?  Even if they had a really good lens that was just 12-20mm with a slow aperture but really good performance they'd be way ahead of the game.  I was told that Sony owns a big stake in Tamron and Tamron recently rolled out a 10-24mm that supposed to be much better than the 11-18 as well.  At the very least they should re-badge that lens...

I'd love to shoot nothing but portraits but I live in work in a second tier market and it pays off to be able to offer good clients a wider menu of services.  From the walking tests I've done today I'm confident I can pull off what I need to do with the Sigma lens.  But I shouldn't have to.  There are enough great solutions out there that Sony should have this covered.  My dream lens for wide angle would be a prime 12mm f4 that's designed and made by Zeiss.  It doesn't even need to autofocus as long as it has an accurate focus scale on it.  With a super sharp, 12mm lens stopped down to f8 and hanging in front of a 24 megapixel sensor it would be a zone focusing dream.  Add in effect focus peaking and you're absolutely there.

 This image is a 10mm image that was originally tilted back to include the building in the background and then quickly corrected in post.

This image was taken at 20mm.  And left uncorrected and without processing.

I'd read in one of the poorer reviews about the Sigma 10-20mm that flare was an issue.  There's a vicious glare on  the building, smack in the middle of the frame, but I think the lens does a great job handling it.  10mm.

While there is some linear distortion, at the widest setting I think it's pretty well controlled and at most focal lengths is pretty easy to correct.

Snappy and sharp at f5.6 if what I'm seeing.

 10mm corrected in Lightroom 4.2.

By the end of my walk I had pretty much talked myself into keeping the lens.  What I was really looking for is good performance at 14mm.  That's the equivalent of 21mm in full frame and that corresponds to the Zeiss 21 ZE lens I used on the Canon.  When I shot at 14mm I was very happy with sharpness and contrast.  If I can make the distortion corrections I'll be happy.  And at about 1/4th the price of the Zeiss lens.  More tests, under duress, tomorrow.

Don't settle for whatever the manufacturer wants to throw at you.....

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The Sony a57 Goes to School.

This is an available light photograph shot for Kipp Austin College Prep, a charter school here in Austin, Texas. I had an assignment there yesterday.  We spent most of the day photographing representative kids in their K-12 program. The images will be used on the web and for various printed collateral.

I was using several cameras during the course of the shoot but today I'd like to give my general impression of the Sony a57 as I just finished post processing about 650 files from that particular camera. (I shot around 2200 frames, divided among three cameras...).

I used a fast, wide angle zoom on another camera but I used only the 85mm 2.8 Sony lens on the a57. Having used the camera for several, previous, low light shoots I was confident using it at 1600 ISO which gave me a good range of exposure options as I moved through the various buildings at the school. I shot Jpeg.  I didn't have any issue with using Jpeg. In the past I usually shot raw but I've gotten into the habit of doing a quick custom white balance when I first enter a room and leaving the camera set there.  It generally means much less post processing after the fact since the color balance doesn't change or shift as it would in AWB as you point the camera at different scenes with different dominant colors and no real white references in the frame.

Unlike the a77, which has a superfine Jpeg setting, the a57 has only fine and normal.  I used fine.

The lens is a bit primitive in its AF construction. It's still using the little "screwdriver blade" drive shaft connected to the camera body.  But in any lighting situation where I can see to focus, it's pretty fast to lock in focus and it doesn't spend much time hunting.  I really like the performance.
In the scene above there was enough light to allow me to shoot at 1/320th of a second, f3.2 (one third stop down from wide open).

I think the bokeh (ha. ha.  I said, "bokeh") is nuanced and lazy, infused with echoes of plum and spices, blended for a nice, long finish, with hints of soft tangerine...  Actually, I think the out of focus areas are rendered softly and without much Sturm und Drang.  Whatever.  I think it looks nice in the parts that are out of focus...

While the finder in the a77 is better at previewing color and contrast than the a57 I found my routine white balancing exercise gave me the confidence to shoot even when the EVF showed colors to be a bit wonky.  If they were too wonky I would go back and re-do my WB.  Takes 15 seconds at the most.

When photographing kindergarteners it's always good to go in without much gear and without any flash.  The flash draws the kids like moths.

The Sony's also share the attribute of having fairly quiet and pleasant sounding shutters when the electronic first curtain is engaged.

As a lower tier camera, aimed squarely at entry level photographers and hobbyists, I find several things that I quickly figured out work arounds for.  The saturation levels for the standard Jpegs are much too high so I lowered them.  The metering (multi area) is not as accurate as the metering in the a77 so I either rode the exposure compensation adjustment or switched to manual, depending how long I'd be in one area. I didn't have much issue with highlights burning out and I routinely added back some black (+7) in Lightroom 4.2.

The benefits of the a57 are these:  It handles 1600 ISO to my complete satisfaction.  With menu modifications it is a charming Jpeg camera.  The standard files (with reduced saturation ) are very sharp at 1600 ISO and require no additional sharpening.  When correctly exposed the files have very nice, neutral color.  The battery life is good.  Not good like a Nikon D3s but much better than my Olympus EP3 or Panasonic GH2 and, just a bit better than my Sony a77's.

The camera is very light weight.  I'm familiar enough with my most used buttons that I am able to use the camera and set controls without having to take it away from my eye.

The camera is good enough, from a speed and quality of file point of view, to make a good, workable professional camera for someone who is thinking of starting a small wedding photography business or portrait business.  I am comfortable using it for professional assignments but confess that I'm working hard at using its bigger brother, the a77 for most things because I really like the "look" I'm getting by shooting very sharp and noiseless images at very low ISOs.
That camera is returning me to the kind of lighting I used to do with my old, medium format cameras, and that's not such a bad thing...

As far as I know the a57 is not waterproof or bullet proof.  It's just a fast handling, straightforward choice for people who prefer to "pre-chimp", shoot in low light and who want to use an EVF for most of their art or work.  It's a great back-up camera for the a77 but because of the higher quality of the a77 EVF the a57 is not a replacement for it.

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