Some advice?

[marine1]

I am and have been a Sony Alpha user for many years now and have been using the 700 model.
Now while I think its a fantastic product and the pictures are brilliant, the low light conditions are pathetic. Anything higher than ISO 400 has noise.

I am now looking at the Nikon series, perhaps the D7000?
Or perhaps the Sony A77.

I want a camera that takes brilliant picture in low light without a flash.
For me that is the most important thing.
Bear in mind I have many lenses for the Sony so switching to Nikon will be costly.

Help

 

[floydthebarber71]

From experience as a Nikon user, the D7000 has great low-light capability for a DX sensor. The same sensor is in the the D5100.

Or just go full frame if you're so worried about noise?

Companies are always upgrading bodies etc so I'm sure Sony will come out with a solution that's fit for your purposes - at some point. I contemplated a change to Canon, but specs on bodies are changing all the time so I didn't bother. Maybe rough it out for the sake of your lens collection.

 

[marine1]

Yeah, not sure what to do, Sony has terrible higher ISO noise which I do not understand as they make sensors for Nikon so surely they should know better?
Will wait to hear from Bwana etc

 

[floydthebarber71]

Sorry, I don't know Sony so I won't know of an alternative.

I still have my Nikon D60 which also has pretty poor performance past ISO400. You just work around it, imo.

 

[marine1]

How would this feature work? On the D7000 Hi 2 (ISO 25600 equivalent)

 

[BigAl-sa]

Bear in mind I have many lenses for the Sony so switching to Nikon will be costly.

Help

This would have been my first thought

Have you looked at the A77 results and comparisons on DPR? Otherwise, you may have to close your eyes and pay...

 

[marine1]

Hey Big Al, I have and there are mixed reports from what I can see on the low light I may be wrong

 

[garyc]

This would have been my first thought

Have you looked at the A77 results and comparisons on DPR? Otherwise, you may have to close your eyes and pay...

I was buying a new camera recently, with low light performance as a primary requirement. The comparison tool on dpreview allowed for a very good assessment of the high ISO performance of various cameras. The camera that I finally bought behaved exactly as expected from this comparison.

 

[DGremlin]

I used to have a Sony and was thinking about the A77, since it is a very nice camera, but there were a few important things that I did not like and got me thinking about alternatives.
The Axx series has had a very minor ghosting issue, and I don't want to have to worry about that when I am taking a photo even if it is a rare thing.
Someone on this forum mentioned loyalty and Sony is not known for its customer loyalty, and that can be a very big thing at the end of the day.
Sony also has gone proprietary on its flash shoe, which is a pain since to use your flash as a remote you need to spend extra and above that not all their flashes like be remotes. I have a Sony flash which refuses to be used as a remote, so simply what else has Sony the done from the industry standard that will make it less convenient for me on a daily basis.
Lastly peripherals, such as lenses and other add-ons are so much easier to find for either Canon or Nikon, and since I use the 2nd hand market for quite a bit of gear you could see where another brand has the advantage for me in terms of choice and price.
On the other hand the Sony do come with a lot of built in tech that other brands sell as extras, so that could be a deal maker.

But its down to you, do you love your Sony , does it give you what you want.

PS: I now roll with Nikon gear, and I am very happy with the choice.

 

[marine1]

I was buying a new camera recently, with low light performance as a primary requirement. The comparison tool on dpreview allowed for a very good assessment of the high ISO performance of various cameras. The camera that I finally bought behaved exactly as expected from this comparison.

Is there a tool to check it? Please provide a link if you could. Thanks

 

[marine1]

I used to have a Sony and was thinking about the A77, since it is a very nice camera, but there were a few important things that I did not like and got me thinking about alternatives.
The Axx series has had a very minor ghosting issue, and I don't want to have to worry about that when I am taking a photo even if it is a rare thing.
Someone on this forum mentioned loyalty and Sony is not known for its customer loyalty, and that can be a very big thing at the end of the day.
Sony also has gone proprietary on its flash shoe, which is a pain since to use your flash as a remote you need to spend extra and above that not all their flashes like be remotes. I have a Sony flash which refuses to be used as a remote, so simply what else has Sony the done from the industry standard that will make it less convenient for me on a daily basis.
Lastly peripherals, such as lenses and other add-ons are so much easier to find for either Canon or Nikon, and since I use the 2nd hand market for quite a bit of gear you could see where another brand has the advantage for me in terms of choice and price.
On the other hand the Sony do come with a lot of built in tech that other brands sell as extras, so that could be a deal maker.

But its down to you, do you love your Sony , does it give you what you want.

PS: I now roll with Nikon gear, and I am very happy with the choice.

You are so right, I am very happy with my Sony gear, only issue is low light is beyond terrible

 

[marine1]

"That said, the A77 is unequivacally a pretty noisy camera towards the upper end of its ISO sensitivity scale and if you plan on using the A77's highest ISO settings you should keep your expectations relatively modest."

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonyslta77/page14.asp

 

[bwana]

You are so right, I am very happy with my Sony gear, only issue is low light is beyond terrible

How bad is it?

 

[marine1]

How bad is it?

On the A700? Shocking, anything over 400 is noisy.

 

[bwana]

On the A700? Shocking, anything over 400 is noisy.

Care to share, an example that is.

 

[marine1]

Care to share, an example that is.

I will when I get home, Tonight I will take a few pics.

 

[floydthebarber71]

Geez how bad can it be? Any DX sensor will start showing noise above ISO 400. If you're underexposing that's just what you get. I took a quick look on Google and I don't see much hair-tearing about high-ISO performance on the A700..

If you have to use anything beyond ISO 800 then you need to start looking at faster lenses anyway. I don't know what your setup is. Or what you're trying to use it for. If you need more light than you have with f/1.4 and ISO 800, then you're probably in a situation where you're going to need a monopod/tripod? I used my D60 (bad high-ISO performance) and worked around the problems and limitations until I couldn't anymore and I upgraded. The D7000 high-ISO performance was more of a bonus than the actual reason I went for it.

If you're hellbent on crazy high ISOs then the D3s is the ultimate. Well, possible until Canon's 1Dx comes out. Then there's the D700, which might be attractive second hand whenever Nikon announces its replacement. Then the D7000/D5100 on a DX sensor. You'll be disappointed with anything less than that.

It's nice to own a Nikon for the sake of having second hand gear readily available. I find more Canon stuff on the classifieds though, they're also a bit cheaper and they have a better prosumer range ito lenses.

 

[bwana]

I will when I get home, Tonight I will take a few pics.

Cool - if you wouldn't mind uploading a raw file I'd love to have a look at it.

 

[floydthebarber71]

PLUS you have vibration reduction built into that body. So if you switch to something else, you're going to lose a stop or two anyway and you'll be back where you started, maybe a bit poorer

 

[garyc]

Is there a tool to check it? Please provide a link if you could. Thanks

Go to dpreview.com and look for the menu at the top of the page. Select reviews > studio comparison tool.

Here you can select the cameras and ISO ratings you want to compare. You will see a small square on the main photo that you can drag around with the mouse to get a full sized crop for each of the selected cameras.