It seems it does. So far.
I have nowhere near put it through its paces and there are many things I need to read up on that I have questions on but here are the down and dirty descriptions.... and you can check on what I consider a very good pre review here....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t-C6WAlun8
and here...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAn5bJlCzvk
What I was told about.
Crispness at 600mm with little or no corner darkening...drop off.
24 to 600mm zoom quality.
Silent shutter.
Mechanical Shutter and Electronic Shutter.
Mirrorless.
Light.
Video ability.
Speed of shots.
As the shots I am attaching will show some of these things the main is at 600mm stability is excellent. The vibration reduction is great. Crispness is fantastic. I saw minor corner shadowing. Minor.
Using the switch on the shutter release for zoom from 24 to 600 is easier than using the ring on the lens and lets my left hand free to support the cameras stability. Zoom is fast and smooth.
This is silly. Sony added a shutter sound to the camera. Why.. I just do not know. Its horrible. You can only shut off that sound and the sound of the phase locked focus or the phased lock focus. I want the sound of the focus lock but not the fake shutter. I will be asking about that firmware mod soon.
With the sound shut off there in fact is not a flippen sound when you shoot. Not one. Nothing. Stealth shooting. For street shooting and with the flip up display on the back street shooting would be super easy here. Camera can be at your waist and you can look down and frame and shoot and not a soul will know. This is pretty much the only way to get candid shots on the street. Setting up shots always look fake. So the silent shutter is a favorite.
You can choose either Auto, Mechanical or Electronic shutter. I am in Auto and I still cant hear a thing.
Mirrorless... So this is good for camera vibration on dark shots. No mirror flipping out of the way. I will be testing this at the Red Rock Balloon Rally in Gallup NM on the 1st glow in the red rocks. I will tri-pod the cam and shut off the Vibration to see what happens. * Yeah.. thats a *. Look below.
Lightness... questionable. Maybe lighter than my Nikon D7100 but its slight. I do know that this camera is squattier then my Nikon which does not fit my hand well at all. Scrunchier? Not as tall. Hard to shoot with it... Nope.
Video I have taken one short video. Having a direct to video button on the back instead of my Nikons trip through multiple settings to set up its a dream. If you complain about the settings menu for this Sony you really need to go play with the Nikon. Ill have more on Video soon.
Speed of shots was utterly stupid. It can go up to 900+ shots per second?!?!? It has settings for Continuous fast, medium and slow... Heh. 40 shots on one press on Fast. Slow was perfect. WOW! Though the view of a shot grouping shows as a stack of shots in the back screen its pretty awesome to burn shots that fast. Many more tests for that setting... but ... freakin awesome for sports shooting or birds in flight shooting.
Picture quality for shots take is great. Colors are great. Accuracy is as good as the Nikon or better.
The *. I will be trying this out on the as well... I've done tests and it works very nicely indeed.
What am I going on about. The ability to use your phone to control the camera. Shutter release, zoom control and some setting controls. No more wired remote. Big test at Red Rock.
Some of the shots....
600mm shot in the dark. Some noise. Incomming!
Pibal release. Dark shot adjusted. Crisp.
Dark shot with light behind. Crisp.
Dark shot adjusted to see puppers.
Very dark shot. Crisp flames are excellent.
Hare launches and at 600mm. Adjusted light.
Great contrast shot.
Slight crop on original. Life and times of the Crown Crew.
600mm shot. Somewhat blown out sky but shooting into the rising sun.
300mm
Action shot. low light, gust front. sharp sharp sharp.
600mm shot light adjusted heavily since it was almost directly towards the sun. Still crisp. Look at the wicker on the left side.
So for a "bridge" camera this looks to be my go to for every day shooting. I still need my Nikon D7100 of rmy 10.5 fisheye lens and it still takes a cracking good picture but........ its probably going to be my backup camera. I lose 4meg pixels on this as the Nikon is 24 meg and the Sony is 20 meg but hay.... that's still a huge shot.
Now the ballooning part of my tale. So I spent so much time with the camera I didn't consider the balloon and my location on the field. Since we slipped in beside two others that were there before I was etiquette and just being nice is to not just run out there and inflate over their equipment.
So waiting for them to inflate and launch caused a huge delay in my options and I was so into taking pictures I dallied too long and the thermals started coming up...
So my poor crew got to stand around helping other people launch and then we didn't do a thing. When we had space to lay out it was to gusty and thermally to do it. My bad.
Sigh.
Two weekends to go before REd ROcks. I will refuel and prep but no flying until then. I promise to fly first and take pictures second.. or third. Promise!
