This is an intriguing and very hard question. The Sony has lots of
stuff going for it. Its viewfinder is probably the equivalent of the
E-M1 and it has lots of pixels (maybe too many). Although it says Sony
I suspect that the old Konica/Minolta guys had much more to do with this
camera than the the likes of the NEX cameras. I think that's a good
thing to have a real camera designer working the design rather than some
young EE from the audio department whose camera is a cell phone.
But the Minolta AF mount brings both good and bad. That mount has been
around a long time and there are probably a fair amount of used AF
lenses available (keeping in mind the 1.5X crop factor though). On the
other hand, although the register distance of OM lenses is 1.5mm longer
than Minolta AF it is apparently not possible to design an adapter sans
transfer lens. All that you find on ebay have lenses to get to infinity
so your OM Zuikos are not generally usable as they would be on an m.4/3
camera.
My other concern about this camera (probably all in this price range) it
the lack of a second (rear) control wheel. But if you think the camera
is fully usable for you then ignore that part.
As to the noise problem I checked the DPReview noise comparator and see
exactly what you mean. It's definitely noisier than an E-M5 or E-M1 in
JPEG or RAW. I don't know for sure but I believe the noisiness will
also be found in long exposures even at low ISO.
But there may be ways around that. I note that the camera has multiple
image sizes available (24MP, 12MP, 6MP and more). A question in my mind
is whether these smaller image sizes are available in RAW mode as well
as JPEG. If they are it may mean that multiple sensor pixels contribute
to the output of the smaller images and may help reduce the noise
problem. I would start with downloading the user's manual from Sony.
That will tell you if RAW files are available at lower resolutions but
not necessarily if they are quieter than their full size brethren. I
really don't know how to answer that one other than experiment or just
asking Sony tech support.
Also, although I don't know how it's done, there are techniques used in
deep-sky astro photography of combining several short exposure digital
images to get the equivalent of one image at long exposure. I don't
know if that would work for your own long exposure needs but you might
want to chase that down... and tell me about it afterwards as I'd like
to know about it myself. :-)
Good luck, hard decision yet to come
Chuck Norcutt
On 4/30/2014 7:48 PM, Willie Wonka via olympus wrote:
I think I am just about to hit the "Buy" button and get myself a
replacement for the A200 I love so much. More on camera trades and
choices below, now the important part:
This is a dealbreaker for me. The reviews point out the fact that the
noise above ISO 800 is above average. My question is: What if I were
using lower ISO's? Please, keep in mind that I am concerned with one
case only-long exposure. To paraphrase my question: Does it mean that
noisy sensor at high ISO's would produce noisy long exposure pictures
at low ISO's?
Here is on the camera choice:
I have been doing trades for the last few weeks and everything boiled
down to three manufacturers: Fuji, Olympus and Sony. My SFO and boss
in life, gave me a budget of around $800, give or take $100. I can
buy a lot of Fuji, but I wont, because the cheapest telephoto will
cost me $450. Then there were two choices left: Olympus EM-10 and the
Sony A65. Yes, I know the animosity on this list towards Sony,
especially after Nathan's tirade about his TV connectivity issue.
To me, the most important feature in a camera is live view. Sony is
still light years before anybody else. Olympus does it very well in
the mirrorless cameras, Nikon and Canon - just pathetic.
I can have the Sony with two lenses of Olympus compatible quality,
covering the 27-300mm range for about $650. I can have the EM-10 with
a single lens covering 28-84mm for about $790. A coworker of mine
(who has four of my OM lenses) would let me borrow his micro four
third lenses any time I want. Problem is, I do not feel like spending
more money later and in reality, I like both cameras equally.
Needless to say, I have not completely made up my mind and am prolly
easily persuaded against the Sony (but admit, it is hard to argue
against minimum $150 less and 24MP's...:)
Best
Boris
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Boris Grigorov on LinkedIn
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