Sony A99 Camera
The A65 is a great camera, the only downside is the flash fitting that we all know they changed from the universal fitting to a four pin shoe, this limited you to what flash you used and remote triggers, but putting that all to one side, its still a great camera in my view.
When I started looking at what to get to upgrade to a more professional camera, I didn't and couldn't afford to start from scratch in buying a whole new load of lenses. I have about ten lenses in my bag and they all do a certain job, from two telephoto lenses, one ultra wide and the prime lenses.
I know that the all the manufactures are going for the retro look, which is fine for that just walking around work, but for more industry style images you have to revert back to the normal andconventional cameras.
So the A99 was my choice after much reading on reviews and talking to people that actually own one, and the great thing is that my lenses fit this body, but they've stuck stuck to the conventional flash shoe, but for the fix for those like me that bought the HVL-F58AM flash, they supplied free of charge ahot shoe adaptor, which works fine, so no need to go out and get a new flash or remote trigger system etc.
While I was about it, I also got the battery grip but was slightly annoyed that for £300, they didn't include some batteries! The battery grip though is more that just a battery pack as when you do portrait images you have a shutter button on the grip and a few other buttons to tweak that image. The grip is so comfortable and when attached to the main body, with a lens and flash, its half the weight of say a Nikon. Everything is within easy reach, button wise and the LCD screen is far better set than on the A65, you can even do a selfy if you wanted to as it goes is all directions for great viewing.
I could go through all the different setting but you can see other blogs for that, this is just a personal view on the camera and how it feels and looks. But the the images have great colour and when looking closer at the colour aberration, there is very little magenta in the images, the ISO doesn't start to deteriorate till about 16,000 so great for low light shooting. The bracketing is great for that HDR work we do with Photomatix etc and does come with a HDR image if you wanted it.
The camera is full of great features, but like many have said, it is power hungry, so the battery grip is a good option to get.
The price of £2,350 or there about's is hefty, and I decided to go down the road of leasing the camera by using Culmanet which is a professional photography company and have underwriters that is just for the purpose. So no big loan with interest rates to worry about and a set monthly outlay and paid off in three years. Leasing photographic equipment gives photgraphers that are starting out to get the best with ease,I couldn't of afforded that kind of money straight out, but if I want to take professional looking images that then hopefully goes towards paying for the camera, then that's got to be a good thing and there is know reason not to pay off earlier.
I love the camera and starting to play and I think that because I've had one of Sony's A series cameras beforehand, does give that little heads up as most of the camera has the same layout of buttons with just a few new ones to learn about, but you can adjust while looking through the viewfinder with ease and none of this having to look where you have to place you thumb to click on a setting for those changes, its much lighter than other makes of camera which is a real benefit for me as I struggle with heavy gear. Yes the camera does look bulky, but once its in your hand then it moulds to you, so there is know struggling when it comes to taking an image even quickly.
Thanks for reading, AndyD
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