Tropical Theme: Dew After Rain

Raining season on Caribbean islands is always surprising. This time will be dew - small jewelry drops.

Vacation in Dominican Republic: Part I

...finally, vacation...

 

...to be continued...

SLT-A77 Q&A: FPS vs Buffer?

Question:

Hi ,

I'm considering buying a slt-A77... What is the most important thing for me is the frame per second.

What I read is that the buffer is good only for 13 frames... Is that truth?

How many pictures can in one shoot? How long can we take pictures?

Thank you

Sebastien Ferron

Answer:

Simplifying and rephrasing a question of Sebastien a bit: will be 13 FPS working with no problem on SLT-A77? Here is not only buffering should be counted but also another factors of camera architecture, logic of in-body pre- and post-processing, type of memory cards used, and firmware loaded in body.

A bit of history...

First translucent camera I used was SLT-A55, and I've been a bit disappointed of real bug – 7 maximum shoots in raw I could do with this camera but only, after that camera became “frozen”. Same bug I was interested in SLT-A77, but...

We have a deal with software and hardware

SLT series are really fast processing bodies including build-in image post-processing. This is mostly in reason of “simplified” post-processing flow Sony uses in α cameras in respect of “EXMOR R” “BIZONE” chips they are using. So, 24.7 MP image can be “assembled” easy and this is not a problem in “in-body post-processing”. This part together with translucent technologies of SLT bodies making it really fast cam. Even more: all of pre-processing additional things like measurement, auto-focus, face-recognition, in-focus-object-tracking, etc. are not delaying at all during operations – they are just working and not slowing camera down. All of software features are very optimized with hardware.

Memory, memory, mem...

Another question is where this cam is writing to content (images and movies). SLT-A77 supports Memory Stick Pro Duo (any for pictures and Mark2 for video), Memory Stick Pro-HG Duo, and Class 4 (and higher) SD, SDHC and SDXC memory cards. If Memory Stick Pro just working, SD, SDHC, SDXC cards are stacked on class rating, what falls below a particular speed. Class 4 has 26x rating and 4.0 Mbps read/write spead, what is quite enough as minimal requirements for this camera. In practice, I am using Class 6 SDHC cards, what works just fine with SLT-A77. And do not ask me about read/write buffers in Sony made SD and Memory Stick readers - they are just working fine.

Always conditions

Vary valuable factor is existing what affects continuous shooting drive mode, bulb shutter speed usage and movie filming. It requires a lot of power to perform high quality movie recording or continuous shooting using the APS-C size image sensor. Therefore, if you continue to shoot, the temperature inside the camera will rise, especially that of the image sensor. In such cases, the camera is turned off automatically since higher temperatures affect the quality of the images or burden the internal mechanism of the camera. If you frequently recompose or shoot images after the power is turned on, the temperature inside the camera rises and the recording time available is shorter.

As cure of it (helping to me sometimes):

– Keep the camera out of direct sunlight.

– Turn the camera off when it is not being used.

– If possible, use a tripod and disable the SteadyShot function.

What is Sony saying?

Now we know where problems can be: speed of memory card, conditions of shooting, and environmental conditions as affecting “shooting continuation” factor. But what Sony is declaring?

May I correct a bit “input information”. Sony α SLT-A77V supports following Continuous Shooting speed (according to official source):

Continuous Advance Priority AE: Maximum 12 images/second

Continuous Shoot “Hi” (image recorded between the frames is displayed): Maximum 8 images/second

Continuous Shoot “Lo”: Maximum 3 images/second

Note: The speed of continuous shooting is slower, depending on shooting conditions (see above).

with maximum number of continuous shots:

in Continuous Advance Priority AE mode

Extra fine: 13 images

Fine: 17 images

Standard: 17 images

RAW & JPEG: 11 images

RAW: 13 images

in Continuous shooting

Extra fine: 13 images

Fine: 18 images

Standard: 18 images

RAW & JPEG: 11 images

RAW: 13 images

I have practiced with my SLT-A77V and all of above are near to same - “depending on shooting conditions”.

Summary

1. Here is no 13FPS supported by SLT-A77
2. SLT-A77 can perform 12FPS with exposure set in Continuous Advance Priority AE mode
3. Bufferisation is not a problem here and not related in general
4. pay attention to memory cards you will use with
5. pay attention to environmental factors

PS: Why I mentioned SLT-A55 above? Just because my problem was in incorrect settings and very hot temperature of air around. SLT-A55 is working fine in Cont.Shoot Drive Mode if follow by rules described in this cam Manual.

Bit more than just 12FPS vs Buffer... hah!

Want to ask a question?  Go here 

B&W with no PhotoShop

I mentioned about art-features in Sony SLT-A77 from manual mode in this article. One of amazing art modes to make your images touching, with warm filling about good old B&W photography (what I am really thinking about with nostalgia), and save time in non existing post-processing. Literally, you will see alive your picture in B&W before you click a shutter.

So, Eleonora Orlova, art-photographer, with long term Nikon cameras experience made creative pictures in B&W by Sony SLT-A55. B&W images with nice compositions are showing small creative photo-story here. By the way, you can compare there B&W pictures made by Nikon and post-processed with pictures made by Sony SLT-A55 in B&W art-mode. 

Evening in winter. Odessa, Ukraine. Something what we felt about 70s. Just download from camera to Facebook. No Photoshop, no waste of time.

So, Art-modes are available in manual mode in Sony SLT-A55 with firmware version 2.0, same way like on Sony SLT A77. 

...Let's see how helpful will be A99 (son of A900)...