Sony A77 24MP APS-C amera plus Sony f2.8 70-400 G lens (1 Viewer)

[digiscope09]

Thought I would share my brief experience with the above combo which I have moved too from my Swarov 80 scope/canon S95 coupling for a few reasons:

[*]I wanted to start taking bird in flight photos.
[*]Back problems prompted me to reduce some of the weight I was carrying around.
[*]I wanted some more flexibility with my photo taking and trekking around.

The above combo gives me 560mm when using the inbuilt digital 1.4 teleconverter which at 12MP does not affect photo quality too much.

I can still take good quality photos without the 1.4 TC at almost the distance of my spotting scope/camera combo through cropping which using the 24MP camera results in little loss of quality.

I use the camera/lens combo both on and off the tripod.

A few photos from recent Galapagos/Ecuador tip

finno

 

[digiscope09]

Further to my above post, I should have added that my Sony combo cost considerably less than my Swarov scope/camera combo and is another option given it is getting more difficult to obtain suitable digiscoping cameras.

finno

 

[kitefarrago]

As somebody who is interested in getting the Sony A77 to replace my now aging A700 I'm interested in which teleconverter you use. I get the impression that a lot of these don't work well with zoom lenses, at least as far as focussing goes.

(I have the 70-300G, so not really in your league as far as reach goes.)

I've also heard a lot of people not being too happy with jpg out of the A77, and prefer to use raw (eg, the noise reduction seems very heavy-handed). Have you experimented with that as well, or do you prefer the in-built crop?

Thanks,

Andrea

PS I appreciate that my follow-up questions belong more on the Sony photography forum than the digiscoping one...

 

[digiscope09]

Still only a beginner myself with this combo.

I have used the Sony 1.4TC when I have the A77/70-400 lens on my tripod, requiring manual focus. As you mentioned, autofocus will not work with the current batch of zoom lenses/TC.

I also use the A77 at 400mm without the Sony 1.4TC, both hand held and on the tripod and when extra distance is required, I simply press the digital TC button at 1.4x. You can also use this built in digital TC at 2x but the image is not very good.

I cannot comment on RAW as I have not used it.

I have found that the difference between a very sharp shot and a decent shot with the A77 is more to do with holding the camera steady and good light rather than the A77 being "soft". The A77/70-400 f4.5 G lens combo with 1.4TC is still cheaper than my Swarovski digiscoping set up, the images are comparable or better than my digiscoping combo and plus I get to take shots of birds in flight. Of course if I had $6000, I would buy the f2.8 300 G lens with which the TC will work with autofocus.

Hope this helps.

finno

 

[kitefarrago]

Thanks for the additional information. I do appreciate it.

Thanks,

Andrea

 

[dsnoir]

under estimating reach

What you are forgetting is the fact that the A77 is an APC-S camera so that you are increasing the reach of a full frame lens by 1.5 automatically, giving you 105-600 without any additional converters. If you then add the 1.4 internal extender or a 1.4 physical extender you end up with a reach of 840, not surprising you need a tripod!

 

[digiscope09]

Sony A77

dsnoir

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