Chapter 0 Introduction The Megapixel war continues… I remember vividly when it happened. Six years ago I was on assignment in Cuba, and was writing an email back to my wife over the 120 baud internet link that seemed like it was being shared by the entire island. In the background I was downloading the home page of dpreview.com, thinking that by the time I finished composing my email the front page would have finished loading. It hadn’t; however I did read with great surprise the top of the webpage containing the first story: “Konica Minolta withdraw from camera business.” After a quick defibrillation, I read on and learned that Sony would be buying the entire camera division, leaving Konica Minolta to concentrate on making copiers, the part of their business that was hugely profitable. Minolta had been part of my life since I was 15, when I started shooting with my father’s SRT-101 (a mechanical camera which still works!). Over the next 35 years I reveled in being able to utilize Minolta’s industry firsts: autofocus, wireless flash, 3-CCD digital cameras, in-camera Anti-shake, and the camera I was using at the time, the 7D, which had the best user interface ever to grace a film or digital SLR. While the camera brand was under-respected in many countries, their bodies and glass were top-notch, and it was always good to know that fellow professional photographers would never be asking to borrow my lenses or flashes at press events. But while I loved my Minolta equipment, it was always clear that they were somehow bogged down in R&D. The 7D came out almost two years after everyone else had a 6 MP camera, and their product launch cycles lagged behind the competition. Annual reports revealed that Konica Minolta’s camera division was losing almost $1M a year. That probably couldn’t continue. And I remember how ambivalent I felt when reading about the Sony takeover. After all, Sony was a big company, and had R&D resources that 16 Chapter 0 Contents of this book Copyright © 2012 Gary L. Friedman. All rights reserved.

Minolta lacked. But big companies as a rule don’t innovate. They wait for the smaller companies to innovate and then just copy the ideas that sell. (Microsoft is a good example of this, albeit not the only one.) Plus, at the time history didn’t acknowledge Sony’s important innovations which included the Walkman, Betamax, and the Memory Stick. Would Sony even understand the DSLR market, which is quite different from both point-and-shoots and high-end professional video cameras? In hindsight, I worried too much. In the intervening years Sony has been aggressively coming out with cameras for every conceivable market segment – producing way more models in one year than Minolta was ever able to do. Some were quite noteworthy, such as the A700, which many consider to be the best traditional DSLR they ever made. Or the A850 which gave the world a professionally-constructed, full-frame 24 megapixel camera for only $2000. Sony added live view to the DSLR in an innovative way (preserving fast autofocus) and made them even more useful by incorporating flip-out screens. But despite being able to build cameras that focus groups said they wanted, Sony was not able to command much of a share of the DSLR market. Then the innovation kicked into high gear. In 2010 Sony introduced a brand new camera platform with the NEX 3 and 5 cameras, offering DSLR-quality images in a very compact body. And they also produced the A33 and A55, the only video-capable DSLR-like camera that could autofocus quickly during movies – something even the well-established competition didn’t do. They have incorporated innovative features such as in-camera HDR, in-camera panorama alignment and stitching, and a few other innovations that are truly useful. Sales picked up. The Alpha division was profitable for the first time that year. For a while, Sony cameras were #2 in sales in Japan, which is a first. Sony is earning both respect in the photographic world and market share from real users. This probably never would have happened under Minolta.

This Book is Different Unlike most of my other books, this book will make the assumption that you’re already an experienced photographer. As such, you don’t need tutorials on how to download your images, the basics of f/stops or shutter speeds, or light and composition (although these are explained in the appendix in case I’m wrong). The chapter on using Sony’s software is also being omitted since I’m convinced nobody uses it. And while many of the Introduction 17

new features and functions will be tutorial in nature with plenty of examples (the hallmark of my previous books), about half of this book will be a reference book – you can look up every menu feature and function to learn all about it. Let’s begin!

Chapter 1 The Alpha 65 and 77 in a Nutshell Geez, where do I start? The specs for these cameras looked so perfect that the entire world waited anxiously for them to be released: World’s highest megapixel (for an APS-C sized sensor, that is), world’s best Electronic Viewfinder, a design that allows fast AF (or full manual control) when shooting HD video, Olympic-paced shooting speeds, and probably the best “kit” lens ever produced. You are the proud owner of one of the most advanced cameras ever made (certainly the most advanced for its price point!) So let me start this book off as I usually do – with a brief review of the highlight features for both the Alpha 65 and the 77.

Figure 1-1: You want high-resolution detail and sharpness? Check out these straight-out-of-the-camera (well, they were cropped a little) images made with the A77! http://tinyurl.com/8aajncq (The right image was taken with the new “kit” lens – go ahead, pixel peep!)

SLT Design

Traditional SLRs (which stands for Single Lens Reflex) had a mirror behind the lens that swung out of the way the moment you took the picture (Figure 1-2). The mirror was there to ensure that the composition you saw in the viewfinder was identical to what ended up on the film. (Yes, FILM. It’s an old design!) And moving that mirror up and down five frames per second (or faster with some high-end sports cameras) is a mechanical engineering challenge which can also induce a lot of in-camera vibration.

Figure 1-2: A conventional Single-Lens Reflex (SLR) employs a mirror at 45 degrees in the camera body, deflecting light from the lens UP so you could see it in the viewfinder. When you take the picture, the mirror flips up and out of the way, allowing the light rays to travel straight back and hit the sensor. In the new SLT design, the mirror doesn’t move, and the light travels both straight through to the sensor (to provide live view) AND gets diverted upward (to the autofocus sensors).

But what if the mirror remained fixed in place? Or, more specifically, what if the mirror was a semi-transparent variety, which let most of the light through but reflected about one third of that light up to some autofocus sensors? That would solve two of the biggest problems with most other DSLRs that try to shoot video: 1) you would now be able to add fast autofocus while you’re shooting video, and 2) you would be able to shoot many more frames-per-second (10 in the case of the A65; 12 in the case of the A77) than what a consumer-grade moving mirror would normally be able to allow. AND you wouldn’t have to give up autofocus in this mode! The SLT was conceived to give you a full-time Live View function with no compromises. Sony’s marketing department says that it took a collaboration of five different technology companies to produce this 2nd-generation thin polymer mirror laminate. (They also incorrectly label this semi-transparent

mirror as being “translucent”. Semantics. I’ve gotten over it.) The new mirror is so good that dpreview.com tried and failed to produce a “ghost” (unwanted internal reflection of a specular highlight) in their review of the camera. Figure 1-3: Yes, the mirror doesn’t move – unless you want to clean the sensor. In that case press the button just below the mirror (yellow rectangle) and it swings out of the way to let you get to the sensor.

Another great advantage of this fixed mirror was reported to me by a friend who took his Sony SLT to Peru for a wedding, and exposed it to no shortage of abuse in harsh environments – sand dunes, salt water, humidity, you name it. Oh, and did I mention that he left all of his convenient zoom lenses at home? He only took “prime” (non-zoom) lenses, which means he was changing lenses constantly, outdoors in very dirty conditions. In the old days this kind of behavior would almost certainly guarantee getting dust on the sensor (and having it show up as a dark spot in every shot); however with the new fixed-mirror design the dirt tends to stay on the mirror and never gets to the sensor. Yes, this is actually better for two reasons: 1) it’s much easier to clean dust off the mirror because it’s much easier to see (a boon when you’re traveling!), and 2) even with dust on your mirror you would not see dust spots on your pictures. What would happen instead is, as the fine layers of dust accumulate (and it would have to get pretty thick for this to happen), your contrast and sharpness will gradually diminish, and there would start to develop “halos” around your highlights. You have to keep your digital camera and optics clean anyway; and cleaning the mirror is just so much easier. I talk about how to clean the mirror later on in this book, starting on page 311. You can actually see this mirror yourself – just take off the lens and look into what’s called the mirror box. Notice that you can actually look right through the mirror and see the sensor behind it. That’s what happens when the lens is attached – the light from the lens goes straight through the mirror and hits the sensor. The sensor, in turn, is responsible for generating the live view image that you see either on the camera’s rear LCD screen or on its tiny electronic viewfinder (described in the next section). And then, of course, it captures a full-resolution image every time you hit the shutter release button. Interestingly, that mirror can be moved out of the way should you ever need to clean the sensor. Just press the button at the bottom of the mirror as shown in Figure 1-3 and watch it swing up and out of the way. (You can then reseat it by pushing it back down with your finger and clicking it in place.) Just take care not to touch it – it’s a flexible “laminate with a plastic substrate” (not glass) and, while it can be cleaned, Sony strongly discourages this. (Again, page 311 has more info.)

TIP: My first reaction when I learned that the mirror could move up and out of the way for sensor cleaning was, “That’s ridiculous! Why not keep the mirror fixed,

having it form the front of a sealed chamber so that dust could never reach the sensor to begin with?!” The answer came from one of Sony’s press releases, saying essentially that sometimes fragments of metal from the fast-operating shutter can break down and end up on the sensor. So, it’s better to have access to the sensor to clean it, even if it means increasing the chances of it getting dusty.

The only one of its kind as of this writing (unless you count the Sony NEX-7, which actually uses the same sensor). It’s so unique, in fact, that when all the camera review websites wanted to compare its performance with a competitor, they couldn’t. (And so they decided instead to make an apples-to-oranges comparison with lower-pixel-density competitors simply because “people want to know these things”. That was unfortunate, since higher pixel density will always equal more noise, but the fact remains that today’s high-end cameras are so good that in order to see any difference at all you have to examine the images with a microscope.) Like the A900 and A850 before it (Sony’s previous 24-megapixel offerings on a larger, full-frame sensor), this camera just excels when the light is good (professional photographers always work with good light!), and if you want the best results with high ISO it’s best to shoot RAW and post-process on your computer. I go into more detail about how I handle this in Chapter 14 starting on page 488.

Figure 1-4: People may talk incessantly about noise at high ISOs, but working photographers who don’t eat unless their images are compelling (that’s me) know that good light is more crucial to making people say “Wow” and making the sale than anything else. And like the A900 before it, these cameras perform wonderfully in good light. The left image was shot at ISO 1600 which, while respectable, doesn’t have nearly the impact as the right one at ISO 200 using wireless flash off to the side. If the left image had lower noise, I don’t think it would make a significant improvement.

World’s Best Electronic ViewfinderIt’s not just hyperbole - I’m serious. Everyone who has ever picked up these cameras looks at the EVF and says, “Wow!”. (This is especially true of those who have used this camera’s predecessors, the A33, 35, and 55.) What makes it different? It’s an Organic L.E.D. (OLED) display – the same kind used on high-end smart phones. They’re brighter, have a wider color gamut, and have a faster refresh rate than the camera’s rear LCD. And unlike the A55’s liquid crystal-based EVF, this one doesn’t employ a polarizer, which means you can

use this camera while wearing polarized sunglasses without fear of screen blackout.

The EVF is the other essential ingredient (the first being the translucent mirror) that bring all of the benefits of SLT design to you: in addition to the fact that you can have fast autofocus during video mode, you can also see how your image will look before you shoot (exposure and white balance), plus it gives you tools for focusing manually (Focus Magnifier and Peaking Level functions) that just weren’t available using the old design. The EVF isn’t perfect, though. When shooting under any kind of fluorescent light (whether it be the older tubular bulbs or the newer compact fluorescent variety), the white balance you see in Live View fluctuates and doesn’t always match the final image. Eyeglass wearers shooting outdoors on a bright day say they have to shield the sun which comes in between their face and the eyeglasses. David Kilpatrick at photoclubalpha.com mentions that the EVF doesn’t show you enough detail in the blacks (he says that to save energy the camera turns off any LED pixels if the value is below a certain threshold, something I never would have noticed. You can read his entire review here: http://tinyurl.com/7kbkcpy) And some extreme sports shooters have complained that they have trouble panning in the fastest shooting modes (although I personally haven’t experienced any problem during my experiments).

TIP: I found the EVF to be a little dark right out of the box, and so the first thing I did was to increase the brightness to +1 which looks much better to me. The menu function to do this is MENU 1 Viewfinder Bright. Manual +1

HD Video Auto Focus

While there are many DSLRs on the planet that can shoot video, most either can’t autofocus at all (for technical reasons), or can only autofocus slowly (using what’s called “Contrast Detect” autofocus). The A65 and A77, however, can not only focus rapidly for extreme sports shooting, but can also focus quickly when taking movies. Again, this is the product of the innovative semi-transparent mirror design. Generally speaking, larger sensors produce better quality images, and AVCHD version 2.0 is considered the next generation of high-definition

consumer video format. So this camera produces better quality video than most consumer camcorders out there. Sony engineers listened to reactions to their earlier A33 and A55 cameras from professional videographers and provided a greater range of control for their video modes - specifically, much more control over f/stop and shutter speed (if you’re willing to forego autofocus, which is a technical limitation). Plus, you can now shoot in 50p or 60p frame rates (depending on your country), a benefit of the AVCHD version 2.0 specification. (Don’t worry if that doesn’t make sense to you. I talk more about the video mode, the variables you can control, the editing tools Sony provides, and an explanation of the plethora video standards in Chapter 11 starting on page 369.)

Olympic-style shooting speeds.Normally, the fastest your camera can shoot is about 8 pictures per second (which is certainly impressive!). But if you want Olympic photographer level machine-gun-like shooting, the Alpha 65 can shoot as fast as 10 pictures per second, whereas the A77 can shoot as fast as 12 images per second! (Figure 1-6.) Currently the only other cameras that can do that are the high-end professional-level models from Canon and Nikon (which are considerably more expensive). Furthermore, unlike other cameras which shoot this quickly, the Sony can actually autofocus between shots, helping to keep that sprinter in focus from shot-to-shot. Sony calls this feature “Continuous Advance Priority AE”.

Figure 1-5: 30 years ago, if you wanted 7 frames per second and a semi-transparent mirror, you’d have to spring for this lightweight Nikon F2 High Speed Motor Drive camera F2H-MD at a cost of several thousand dollars. No autofocus or autoexposure. Blow through a 36-exposure roll in less than 5 seconds!

Figure 1-6 Photographing fast-moving subjects (and keeping them in focus) can be achieved by shooting at 10 or 12 pictures per second. This was done indoors in bad light with my Minolta 80-200 f/2.8 G lens – a screwdriver-driven focusing mechanism. (I had originally planned to use other shots of a bicycle going toward me at higher speed – a more difficult motion-tracking exercise – but the collection of images was a little too boring for my tastes.

What’s it good for? Sports. Birds in flight. You know, things that move. Both cameras have a limited “high-speed memory buffer” inside which holds onto the pictures as they’re slowly written to the memory card.

This means you’ll really only be able to shoot between 13 and 17 shots at this high frame rate before the camera pauses and waits for more room to be made (it’s waiting for images to be written to the memory card.) A fast memory card will not allow you to shoot in larger bursts; it means only that once the buffer is full you don’t have to wait quite as long to take the next picture. If you’re a speed demon and are looking for the fastest memory card to use, you should get the new breed of UHS-I SDHC memory cards or the Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo™ HX (the latest ones go up to 50MB/s). These cards can make the most of the limited-sized in-camera buffer. More details on this feature (its strengths and limitations) start on page 502. Having the ability to shoot in such rapid-fire fashion may tempt a few people to employ the “spray-and-pray” approach to photography, which is essentially “take as many pictures as fast as you can, and hopefully one of them will be a perfect, Pulitzer Prize-winning shot!” Let me save you a lot of memory cards and disk space by gently deterring you from using this approach. It is generally wasteful and, even in the world of sports, doesn’t work nearly as well as developing the skill of anticipating the decisive moment and pressing the shutter release at the right time.

Two Panorama Modes

Have you ever tried to take panorama photos the old fashioned way? You had to put your camera on a tripod that was perfectly level, use a specific measure of wide-angle lens, and then you had to use special software on your computer to “stitch” them all together afterwards. If your tripod wasn’t level, or if anything went wrong in the process, the stitching software was most unforgiving. If it wasn’t a pain, then it was surely inconvenient. Well, the joy of taking panoramic images is now with us, for Sony has now alleviated the need for the tripod, the software, or any special camera settings! Just rotate the Exposure Mode dial to “Panorama Mode” (whose icon looks like a long rectangle), put the camera up to your eye, hold down the shutter release button, and “sweep” the camera from left to right (or up and down, or other directions you can tell the camera about). The camera shoots continuously, capturing all the detail it needs, and then stitches them together in the camera for you, producing one very-high-resolution image!

Figure 1-7: The handheld panorama mode makes images like these exceptionally easy. No tripod, no alignments, no post-processing on your home computer. Images are aligned and stitched together in-camera (even if you have an unsteady hand!) As a bonus, your camera can also produce 3-D panoramas as well, with no special hardware needed. The top image had exposure compensation set to -1 to make it look like it looked to my eye.

Don’t have a steady hand? Images don’t overlap perfectly? That’s OK, because the camera can do its best to align the images for you and then stitch them together seamlessly. This camera makes it so easy (and the results are as good or better than doing it the old fashioned way) that I’ve now gone from never taking panoramas to always taking them wherever I go. A sample of Panorama images appears in Figure 1-7. But wait! Sony’s programmers have pulled off (what is in my mind) a software miracle by also including a 3-D Panorama mode. Using no special hardware or lenses, the software actually compares the geometry and perspective of adjacent 2D shots and infers the relative distance from the camera in software. (This was clearly the result of several Ph.D. dissertations.) It then generates a 3-D image in an industry-standard .mpo file which can be viewed on the new breed of 3-D TVs. There are also free programs available for viewing these files on your computer. (You’ll have to provide your own red/green eyeglasses, though. ) More information about these two features can be found starting on page 190.

-camera Lens CorrectionsIf you’re a lens perfectionist, then you’ll probably appreciate this feature: Your camera has the ability to correct for the three most common types of optical deficiencies in consumer-grade lenses: vignetting, distortion, and chromatic aberrations. And it does this the same way that high-end and expensive desktop workflow software does: inside the camera is a database of a small but growing number of lenses and their optical characteristics (and the corrections needed) at different focal lengths. As of this writing, the cameras know about 6 popular lenses; with more to be added via future firmware updates. More about this feature (including which lenses the camera knows about) can be found starting on page 260.

Try This: The camera’s Preview button (formerly known as the “Depth-of-Field Preview button”, shown in the yellow rectangle below) will not only show you what will be in focus when you press it, but it will also show the effects of DRO (Chapter 13) and will preview the lens corrections that will be applied to all of your .JPGs (not RAW files). Try zooming your lens to the widest setting and see the before-and-after effects!

HandheldTwilight / Multi-Frame Noise ReductionThere are other features that use Sony’s ability to do multiple-image alignment in-camera. The first actually has two names and appears in the menus in different places: “Handheld Twilight” (HHT) and “Multi-Frame Noise Reduction” (MFNR).

Shooting in low light and don’t have a tripod handy? Hate noisy pictures, whether in good light or bad? For years professional photographers. (astrophotographers in particular) had a trick up their sleeves when it came to reducing noise in static images – they would take several different shots in succession, and then merge them all in Photoshop. The underlying principle here was that each frame had the same subject but completely random noise, and by combining the images the noise would just get “averaged” away, while the the subject, which appeared consistently in each shot, would be reinforced.

Using the same intelligence found in the panorama stitching algorithms mentioned above, your A65 or A77 camera can use this very same technique, except you don’t need a tripod and you certainly don’t need a computer. Using either Handheld Twilight mode or the Multi-Frame Noise-Reduction function, the camera will take six handheld shots in rapid succession, line them all up (in case your hand wasn’t perfectly steady), merge them all together, and produce one high-resolution, low-noise, low-light image – all in-camera! These are both very innovative features and you can see an example of Handheld Twilight in Figure 1-8. Handheld Twilight is discussed further starting on page 335, and MFNR is covered in detail on page 141. Three Low-Light Modes ComparedSo it turns out that these cameras offer you not one but THREE different features designed to tackle low-light shots: Handheld Twilight, Multi-frame Noise Reduction, and a 3rd one called “Night Scene” mode (page 334) which as far as I can see doesn’t do anything different than AUTO mode with the flash disabled. This seems like as good a place as any to compare all three.

Figure 1-8: Handheld twilight allows you to take low-noise, low-light images without a tripod. This was taken from the inside of Los Angeles International Airport’s iconic “Theme Building”.

Figure 1-9: The three grey boxes show a close-up of the yellow rectangle in the first picture, comparing the three low-light exposure modes: Night Scene vs. Handheld Twilight (discussed next) vs. MFNR and a tripod. (NOTHING beats a tripod!). Night Scene doesn’t appear to be any different than shooting with AUTO without the flash; whereas HHT will take several pictures, align them, and merge them in-camera, reducing noise about 3 stops in the process. MFNR does the same thing, except you

can control your ISO and really push the noise out of the picture. Had I shot MFNR at ISO 1600 it would have been identical to the HHT image.

Conclusion: While Handheld Twilight is a great feature for point-and-shoots that gives amateurs a fighting chance of getting a sharp shot without using tripods (AND it reduces noise about three stops’ worth), the results are not nearly as good as using an old-fashioned tripod with a lower ISO. And using MFNR (page 141) actually makes the low ISO tripod shots look even less noisy!

Handheld High Dynamic Range (HDR)

The last multiple-image, in-camera alignment feature is another great timesaver: High Dynamic Range (often abbreviated HDR). In Chapter 13 I’ll also talk about the limited dynamic range of the digital sensor, and how our eyes can see a significantly greater range of light (bright to dark) than what the camera can see. Over the past century there have been lots of attempts to correct this intentional artifact of photographic representation of real light, trying to render the image so it looks more like how we saw it. The latest technique for trying to achieve this wider dynamic range comes in what’s become known as High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography. The time-honored way to create an HDR image is to put the camera on a tripod and take 3 (sometimes more) pictures of the same scene, each at different exposures – some darker, some lighter. Then, you merge them all in your computer so it sort of looks like the way you saw it in real life. An example of HDR photography appears in Figure 1-10.

Figure 1-10: In-camera High Dynamic Range can turn difficult light with blown-out highlights and too-dark shadows (left) into something a little closer to the way you remember seeing it (right).

Up until now, HDR photography was labor-intensive and unintuitive – in fact, I once wrote a whole article on the subject and gave real-life examples of how to create these images in my Advanced Topics 2 e-booklet (available from www.FriedmanArchives.com/ebooks) (Sorry for the shameless plug! ). That was HDR the old way. With the A65/77 cameras, Sony has made this useful feature significantly easier to use. For starters, there’s no need for a tripod anymore. With the feature enabled (page 162), you just point

the camera at your subject, and press the shutter release button once. The camera will take three sequential pictures at different exposures (one lighter, one darker, one “normal”) and merge them in the camera for you. No computer needed. What’s more, this feature can shoot up to a six-stop range. “But what if you had a shaky hand and the camera moved slightly between the first and third exposure?”, I hear you ask. Just as with the Handheld Twilight function mentioned earlier, the answer is the camera will automatically try to align the three images for you before merging them into a single .jpg image. Again, pretty impressive stuff. This feature is discussed more in Chapter 13, starting on page 462.

Peaking ColorAs mentioned earlier, these cameras also provide two great manual focusing aids. The first is the Focus Magnifier (which shows you a magnified area of the image so you can fine-tune your manual focusing), and the other is a pretty innovative feature called “Peaking Color” (and its counterpart, “Peaking Level”). As you turn the manual focusing ring of your lens, areas that have high contrast (which equates to sharp focus) will be highlighted in the color of your choice. Faster than using the superior ground-glass focusing screens of 1960’s era film-based SLRs! (Figure 1-11.) I talk about Peaking Color in greater detail starting on page 237.

Figure 1-11: Peaking Level and Peaking Color work together to make manual focusing easy again. Things that are sharp (= high contrast) are highlighted in the color of your choice.

Built-in GPSI predicted this back in 1994. In my NASA days I invented the “Trustworthy Digital Camera” (http://tinyurl.com/6bhlw9g); if you took a picture with this camera you’d be able to prove in court that the image had not been manipulated by computer. (I was on a mission to restore the credibility of the photographic image!) Not only could you prove that the image was untouched, you also could authenticate other aspects of the image that were true at the time you took it: the date and time, all EXIF information containing the camera’s settings and exposure values (although it wasn’t called “EXIF” back then), the direction the camera was pointing (assuming a small magnetometer was embedded in the hardware), and finally, where in the world you were standing (when the technology allows for a Global Positioning System receiver to be built into the camera). Oh, sure, you think it’s obvious now… but back then GPS receivers were ginormous (look it up ) and even the Military (which designed and

operates the GPS satellite system for its own purposes) didn’t envision how GPS units would be embraced by civilians. Anyway, there’s one inside. And it eliminates the need for you to carry a separate geotagging device and then embedding the geolocation data into your pictures once they’re on your computer. If it had never occurred to you to do that in the past, let me tell you that having all of your images automatically geotagged is a great benefit when you’re on vacation. More on this feature and how to use it once you get back to your computer appears starting on page 295.

(Scholarly note: Nikon and Canon are now using my “Trustworthy Digital Camera” patent to authenticate their images for courtroom evidence. I get no royalties for this. Yet one more reason I’m not working for NASA anymore. )

Electronic First-Curtain ShutterWhen Sony first introduced the A33 and A55 SLT cameras last year, for technical reasons the shutter would close and open TWICE for each picture you took. (I’ll explain why in Chapter 2.) Not only did this make a nice mechanical noise and make the shutter work twice as hard, but it also introduced a notable delay between when you first pressed the shutter release button and when the camera took the picture. (This delay was even worse for flash pictures, for reasons I’ve never been able to understand.) Well, to address the shutter lag problem, Sony borrowed a technique from Canon: Instead of having to close the shutter and then open it again to initiate a “fresh” exposure, Sony redesigned the sensor so that the first close-open cycle wasn’t necessary. So now when you take a picture the sensor will start the exposure electronically but end it mechanically (with a shutter close – that allows the sensor to send its contents to the camera one row at a time without being unduly influenced by new light coming in). This feature is enabled by default but there are times you might want to disable it and I talk about these starting on page 263.

Object Tracking

The camera can actually track a moving object. (Mind you, it must be a slow moving object, but it will track.) To use it, simply place your subject in the center of the image and press the center button of the multi-selector (Figure 1-12). If that object starts to move, the camera will move that square (telling you it’s tracking it) and the camera will continue to focus on that subject as well. Of course being able to track the object isn’t quite enough - the object has to actually be behind a focus point in order for the camera to really do its stuff. To achieve this, the camera has to analyze the live view feed in real time. (I remember when Northrop Corp. spent millions of dollars to develop this very

object-tracking technology using a huge infrared camera. Trust me, it’s not an easy problem. And Sony has squeezed it into your little camera!) How agile is the object tracking feature? Let’s just say that it works reasonably well for people who are walking, but a galloping horse might be too much for it. More about this feature can be found starting on page 133.

Figure 1-12: Object tracking can automatically track a slow-moving subject across the frame (and will focus on it too if it’s behind a focus point).

Picture EffectsJust because you have one of the best imaging devices on the planet doesn’t mean you have to give up those cool camera effects you can get on your cell phone. In addition to boosted contrast and selective color (Figure 1-13), you can also get a high-dynamic-range monochrome and a selective focus which simulates having a big expensive lens. I go into great details about the “Picture Effects” starting on page 176. One Heck of a Kit LensAnyone who’s in the photo marketing business can tell you how the vast majority of consumer camera buyers make their purchasing decisions: They go to a big-box retailer, look at all the similar-looking cameras that are tied to the shelf, try to make sense of all the specs, and then say “the hell with it” and just buy the cheapest one. It was for these people that the typical “kit lens” was made – these have decent optics and are built as inexpensively as possible to close the sale. The most recent “kit” lens of this type is the Sony 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 SAM lens, which is being bundled with many A65s being sold. This lens is very lightweight and is pretty decent optically – it does its best in good light (f/5.6 or greater). I did a quick informal test of this lens in Figure 1-14, comparing it to the highly-regarded Carl Zeiss 16-80mm f/3.5-4.5 (which costs about four times as much). The differences can be seen in Figure 1-15.

Figure 1-14: A test image taken with both the Sony 18-55 “kit” lens and the Zeiss 16-80 lens (see enlargements of the yellow square in the next figure).

Conclusion: The differences between these two lenses are so small that in order to even see a difference you have to zoom in tight and examine the image more closely than you’ve probably ever examined a film image. It’s a very decent lens for the price.

But this lens does have some drawbacks – the focusing motor is a little loud, and it doesn’t zoom smoothly at all – two characteristics that are fine for stills but not ideal for shooting video. And so, Sony has introduced a new “kit” lens (which is sometimes being bundled with the A77, although A65 owners will probably like it a lot too) that was designed for all those snobs who used to thumb their noses at the cheaply-built-but-optically-pretty-good 18-50 kit lens. It is the 16-50 f/2.8 SSM lens, which I must say is quite impressive. In addition to being a great optical performer, the lens was also designed to get the most of the camera’s other features as well: The lens is an “SSM” type, which focuses quickly and quietly. (Ideal for video!) It zooms smoothly, which is also ideal for shooting video. It holds focus as you zoom, enabling you to get your sharpest shots by using the old “zoom in – focus hold – zoom out – shoot” method. (Most modern zooms change their focus point while zooming, which makes it much easier to design the lens.) It has a constant aperture of f/2.8, which means it can gather more of the available light in a dark room and it stays at f/2.8 throughout its entire zoom range. It also has shallower depth-of-field, meaning you can “defocus” your background more readily. The front element doesn’t rotate as it focuses – a feature you only appreciate if you’ve attached a polarizing filter to the front of the lens.

It even has an anti-zoom-creep switch which will prevent the lens from extending by itself when held upside down (although I don’t see that as being a problem with this lens).

Like the A65 and A77 bodies, it has been designated as “moisture resistant” (which is a vague term). (Frankly all Sony cameras I’ve tried survive the rain quite well.) The new lens is really quite sharp but suffers from some wide-end distortion (which you’ll probably never notice because the camera corrects for it by default on all .jpgs.)

Figure 1-15: A comparison of the 18-55 “kit” lens with the Carl Zeiss 16-80 lens at equivalent settings. The Zeiss enlargement (left) is a tad bit sharper, but nobody in the real world looks at photos this way. If all you’re making is an 8x10 enlargement, there’s a good chance you’ll never see the difference.

A faster power-down? When both cameras were introduced it seemed to take forever for them to turn off – about 6 seconds on average, plus another 5 seconds of behind-the-scenes stuff which could only be measured by a power consumption test. With the introduction of Firmware v1.05, it seems that the camera shuts down INSTANTLY, by virtue of the fact that the lens re-focuses to infinity first. But my power consumption tests confirm my suspicions – the camera takes a total of 8 seconds to power down now, although very few people would know it.

An A65-only feature: Built-in guide!Before I go into the features that are only on the A77, there is a feature that exists only on the A65: Go to MENU 2 Shooting Tip List and hit the center button of the multi-selector. Sony has put a tiny little “memory jog” guide into your camera. Not sure how useful it is, but it’s paving the way toward the future when the entire instruction manual will reside in the camera. Go ahead, try it out! (This is over and above the “help” screens, which both cameras offer and are described on page 350.)

A77-Only Features In an interview (which you can read at http://tinyurl.com/7n5ua8d), the marketing folks at Sony revealed that they designed the A65 to appeal to seniors and women. To that end they made the A65 smaller and lighter (making it a great travel camera) and only put half as many buttons on the exterior so it wouldn’t be so intimidating when they looked at the camera at a big-box store. (Figure 1-16).

Figure 1-16: The A77 (right) has almost twice as many buttons as the A65 (left), appealing to macho photographers and also those who work under pressure and need fast access to important settings.

But the A77 was designed for a different kind of customer than the A65. They were aiming for the “enthusiast” photographer, who knows what they’re doing and loves the psychological rush they get when they hold a big metal machine. (More important, it’s also aimed at people who want fast access to their most important functions. Hence the

There are more differences than that. Here’s a brief run-down: 12 pictures-per-secondAs mentioned earlier, the A77 can shoot at 12 pictures per second (vs. the A65’s 10). A big difference? Not really. The truth is the innards of both cameras are nearly identical, and to get the speed difference they just change

the programming a little bit. For example, both cameras use the same shutter but the top shutter speed of the A77 is 1/8000th of a second, whereas the A65’s is 1/4000th. That change can be dictated in software. Similarly, the shot-to-shot time can be regulated by the camera’s on-board

Figure 1-17: With the 10- and 12-frames-per-second mode, you can either track a bullet or capture a fleeting genuine smile on a child who doesn’t normally act like himself in front of the camera.

computer as well. So these differences were dictated by marketing in order to have clear model differentiation. While a lot of people have dreams of shooting extreme sports with this mode, I’ve found something far more mundane for which this feature just excels – capturing the nanoseconds-long pure expression of glee from Grandson #1 who normally doesn’t like to pose AT ALL for a good portrait. (See Figure 1-17.) That Crazy Articulated ScreenWhile Sony was the very first company to introduce an articulated screen to the DSLR (It was the A300 and A350 for those of you who are keeping score), they never really had an optimum implementation. At first the screen could only flip on one axis (ideal for horizontal compositions but not for verticals). Then the two-axis hinge was introduced (which is also used on the A65). That was great progress, as it finally allowed you to shoot vertically at odd angles. But, you couldn’t do self-portraits like you could with all other cameras with twist-and-flip displays. So with the A77 Sony has come up with an innovative screen with three axes of rotation, and it can finally allow you to do self-portraits (Figure 1-18).

Figure 1-18: While the A65’s screen is certainly versatile, it’s not that good for self-portraits on tripods. The A77’s screen addresses that issue (unless you’re using flash, of course ).

When I first got my A77 I tried to use the screen to shoot vertically the same way as the A65 (force of habit) and got frustrated because the screen didn’t rotate far enough in this configuration. Turns out the two models are designed to shoot vertically very differently. Because the A77 needs to be able to accommodate a vertical grip, they designed the LCD hinge so that it would be positioned behind the eyepiece and not below the camera (Figure 1-19). Now, after having used the camera for a few months, I have found that when I’m shooting indoors, my favorite “home position” of the rear LCD

Figure 1-19: To shoot vertically at obscure angles the A65 screen should be used as shown in the left image, whereas the A77’s screen is designed to be placed behind the eyepiece and rotated about 45 degrees.

Figure 1-20: When I’m using the A77’s rear display the left photo shows my “home position” which works great for horizontal compositions. For verticals I twist it very slightly and then rotate the camera (right). A joy!

screen is that of Figure 1-20. Not only is it comfortable to shoot with at arm’s length, but it’s also a very slight twist to switch to vertical shooting. A lot of Sony shooters over the years have wondered aloud why Sony didn’t just use the now-ubiquitous implementation of hinging the rear LCD screen on the left edge the way God meant it to be. The answer can be gleaned from the interview cited in the previous page: The designers felt it was imperative that the LCD monitor should be aligned with the camera’s optical axis. They don’t say why, but here’s a quick exercise which I feel will drive the point home pretty quickly: Take your rear screen and orient it as shown in Figure 1-21 (which is not recommended for normal use). Now compose a vertical shot. Then try to refine that composition by, say, straightening out the horizon or a similar minor tweak. Hard to do on the first try, right? In configurations like this, your brain must do a two-axis translation / rotation in order to move the camera the right way. I believe that’s the very problem Sony was

Figure 1-21: (Don’t) Try this at home, kids: Having an articulated screen oriented the wrong way can make aligning vertical shots frustratingly difficult.

Figure 1-22: The articulated screen makes it very easy to shoot a baby portrait at eye level without requiring me to lie on the floor like I used to. I like this feature a lot.

trying to solve. By keeping the center of the screen more or less aligned with the optical axis, composing your shot at odd angles should be more intuitive. Two .jpg compression settingsIn Chapter 14 I’ll talk about the tradeoffs involved in .jpg image quality, but here’s the short version: .jpgs can be of high or low quality, depending on how much they’re compressed. The A77 gives you an extra-high quality option (“Extra Fine”) for saving .jpgs which take up a lot more space on your memory card but are pretty much free of visible compression artifacts. More details about .jpg compression artifacts start on page 485.

AF Micro-AdjustHere’s an unfortunate truth: Every SLR and DSLR ever made with autofocus capabilities has the potential to make focusing errors because the path from the lens to the film/sensor is different from the path from the lens to the autofocus phase-detect array. Manufacturers go to great lengths to make sure each path is the identical distance, but there’s a very small chance that something might not be in alignment. (It’s much more complex than that… but hey, this is only Chapter 1!) Focus accuracy errors (often referred to via the term ‘backfocus’) have been plaguing AF cameras since the Canon 10D. Ultimately the best way to fix it is to 1) acknowledge publically that the problem could happen, and 2) provide users with a way to calibrate their own lenses, and provide a means for the camera to remember the calibration values for up to 30 individual lenses. Sony has done this in the form of the “AF Micro-Adjust” feature and it’s described in detail starting on page 315. AdditionalFeaturesHere are a handful of other features unique to the A77: The A77 has an AF Illuminator built in to the camera body. So if you’re shooting in a dark room and not using flash, you can still have the same kind of focus-in-the-dark capability that usually comes with an accessory flash.

Direct Manual Focus mode allows you to tweak the focusing manually if you’re using a SSM or a screwdriver-blade lens. (More about lenses later in this chapter.) You can reassign the front and rear control wheels. You can change the bracketing order. You can tell the pop-up flash (which is trivially more powerful – Guide number 12 instead of the A65’s 10) to output only a fixed amount of light. (Ideal if you’re triggering old-fashioned studio flashes that have an optical slave mode.) Using Release Priority, you can tell the camera to take the picture RIGHT NOW, rather than waiting until the camera thinks the subject is in focus. (In fact, this one’s so useful I’ll tell you where to find that now: MENU 3 Priority setup Release) 3 locations where you can memorize your entire camera configuration (well, almost all of it). More bracketing options – the A77 will allow bracketing in 2 and 3-stop increments, rather than the A65’s 0.3 and 0.5-stop increments. I don’t want to get hung up on the differences. Aside from these, both cameras are essentially the same, and where a feature is specific to only one camera, I’ll say so when I talk about the feature.

In fact, the feature overlap between the two cameras is so great that for the remainder of this book I’ll refer to both cameras as the “A77” unless otherwise noted.

Other Sony Standards

Steady Shot

Figure 1-23: Steadyshot can make the difference between a sharp shot you can sell and a slightly blurry one that you can’t. This shot was taken handheld, without a tripod.

If you own another Sony DSLR then you’re already familiar with their image stabilization system. Invented by Minolta, it moves the sensor left and right, up and down to counteract the shakiness of your hands. (Very clever, actually!) Learn more about it starting on page 208. Face Detection / Face RegistrationIn addition to having a sophisticated exposure metering function that is not easily fooled by difficult light, the A77 (this refers to both cameras now, remember?) employs face detection to determine the subject far faster than was previously possible. Have a look at the examples in Figure 1-24.

Figure 1-24: Face recognition helped the camera to choose the subject out of a range of clutter (left), and also chose the face instead of the drum that was closer (right).

Keep in mind that I was always a focus-lock-recompose-shoot kind of guy, which is just completely incompatible with shooting kids. Using Face Detection I can pretty much use the A77 as a point-and-shoot – it will find the face, focus on it (if it’s behind a focusing point), bias the exposure for the face, and then it’s ready – all faster than my experienced skills could do. It’s also much more accurate than the pure “wide-area AF” method, since in the old days there was no intelligent scene analysis going on – the camera would usually focus on whatever was closest. New to these SLTs is the ability to actually register a face so it can have focusing priority when it’s amongst a group of other faces. Is it useful? Find out more about my experiences with this feature on page 265.

Scratch Protection for the LCD Display – Probably the best anti-scratch glass cover is the “DC LCD SCREEN PROTECTOR” (made by GGS) which is actually made of six layers of 0.5mm optical glass. Get the model that’s made for the Sony A700 camera – that will fit the A65 and 77 the best. (Get yours here: http://tinyurl.com/8xd9kp7) This product is thin enough to allow the rear LCD to close completely.

Smile ShutterIf you can recognize a face, you should also be able to recognize when that face is smiling, and these cameras have a feature to take the picture when it recognizes a smile. You can also set thresholds for identifying children’s faces vs. adult’s faces. Is this feature truly useful? I can tell you it’s great for self-portraits (especially when coupled with the A77’s articulated screen.) Other than that…

Figure 1-25: Smile Shutter works as advertised, but it only requires one smiling face to trigger it.

In some of my informal tests, the Smile Shutter feature would fire even when there wasn’t a smile. And if it recognizes that there are two people in the picture, it doesn’t necessarily wait until it detects two smiles before it takes a picture (Figure 1-25). Smile Shutter is described in greater detail starting on page 137. Wireless flashI cannot emphasize enough the significance of this innovation. (In fact, this topic is so important that I have devoted an entire chapter to it!) Professional photographers understand that probably the worst place to put a flash is on top of the camera facing forward. The best place? ANYWHERE ELSE! Walk into a professional portrait studio and you can see that lights are placed in all sorts of places. But all of those lights are connected with wires and they all have to be manually calibrated. So now imagine that you can do the same thing as the professionals, all without wires and all with automatic exposure (i.e., no calibration)! With wireless flash the camera can communicate with off-camera flashes wirelessly using long and short flash pulses, and has the ability to determine exposure completely automatically. It offers endless creative possibilities requiring almost no technical knowledge, and puts a lot of the fun back into learning and experimenting. I’ll bet you’ll get a kick out of using it. Wireless Flash is covered in Chapter 12.

Figure 1-26: Wireless flash is a joy to use and a real catalyst to creativity!

Scene Selection Modes and Auto+

Don’t want to think too much? Your camera offers you special “Scene Selection Modes” – you tell the camera what kind of picture you’re taking, and it will set the optimum parameters for that kind of shot. You can choose from a Sports Program mode, a Nighttime Flash exposure mode known as “Night Portrait”, and a mode specifically designed to optimize pictures at sunset. While the “old pros” know how to achieve these effects using conventional camera controls, these “Scene Selection Modes” make it easy for the beginner to dial in the kind of image they want without the requisite technical background. And if choosing what scene you want to shoot is still too much work, Sony has you covered – the Auto+ mode, which analyzes the scene you’re shooting and chooses a Scene Selection mode for you. (Just be prepared for the camera to take multiple shots instead of just one should it decide to

God said “Ha!” – Sony had a run of bad luck this year which plagued production and distribution with some ill-timed disasters. First it was the March 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan (which nearly caused another Chernobyl-scale nuclear disaster – the first triple-core meltdown in history), which disrupted most businesses in that region. Then came the London riots in August that burned their warehouse down to the ground. Thailand floods followed in October which completely disrupted manufacturing and distribution of most of Sony’s Alpha models (including the Alpha 77, 65, and the NEX 7). Units trickled out at first, then nothing as Sony had to move their factory in Thailand to higher ground. Something tells me their insurance premiums are going to go up next year. I say all this because I’ve been involved in many technology projects in my life, and I can tell you that whenever there’s a schedule slippage (regardless of the cause) and management doesn’t allow the design team enough time to recover, the first thing that ends up absorbing the schedule slip is software Quality Control. They don’t have enough time to do their job (or if they do, there’s not enough time to fix the bugs). So this is kind of a round-about way of saying that, despite the fact that the hard parts about this camera were done right (24 MP at 12 FPS with AF and Live View), the original cameras shipped with pretty buggy firmware. The latest version (1.04 as of this writing) fixes most of the issues and you should make sure that your camera is up-to-date. I talk about how to do this on page 63.

go into HDR mode on its own. ) All of these aforementioned modes are described in greater detail in Chapter 2. YARF (Yet Another RAW format)Just a quick note that whatever program you’re using to convert your old Sony RAW files will probably not work with the A65/A77 RAW files since the format was changed yet again. Software manufacturers are slowly catching up – as of this writing, Adobe Camera RAW, Lightroom 3, Aperture, and RAWTherapee can read the new format and other programs are being updated all the time. The new format is actually a compressed RAW format (similar to the A900’s “cRAW” option) and Sony has re-distributed the way light values are

represented internally, giving lower noise to most pictures and rendering the time-honored “Expose-to-the-right” technique less effective. (Okay, that’s a little advanced… but I do talk about it more on page 489.)

Some Essential Lens History The Sony Alpha system is actually based on the technically outstanding Minolta (later named “Konica Minolta” after a merger) Alpha SLR platform. (Minolta named their cameras “Alpha” in Japan, “Dynax” in Europe, and “Maxxum” in North America.) Minolta made outstanding cameras and manufactured their own optics, the vast majority of which were a serious match for any competition. Life was good. In fact, Minolta had a remarkable history of innovation and achievement. Historically, they had been one of the few companies to mine their own glass for their lenses, and they had designed (and in some cases also manufactured) camera bodies and lenses for Leica, the Rolls Royce of camera brands. They were the first to offer autofocus on SLRs in a major (i.e., non-experimental) way, and were also one of the very early pioneers in DSLRs. Over the years they had managed to out-distance long-time competitors such as Pentax, Konica (pre-merger), and Olympus in the 35mm SLR market space, putting them in the #3 spot in this very competitive arena back in the days of film. They even had achieved major market share with handheld light meters in the professional motion picture industry. Anyway, despite a huge history of innovation, Konica Minolta’s camera division was losing money (mostly, it seems, because of an autofocus patent lawsuit that they lost to Honeywell and the immense amount of R&D needed to be competitive in the DSLR market), and so in April 2006 Konica Minolta pulled out of the market altogether, concentrating its efforts on the more profitable business copier product lines. Sony, wanting to break into the high-end camera market, took over the design, production, and marketing of KM’s highly acclaimed DSLR products. They also took over most of the camera and lens factories and hired many of the engineers and other employees. So, most long-time Minolta users (like me) were ecstatic because it meant that my huge investment in Minolta Autofocus lenses and flashes would still be compatible with Sony’s DSLR offerings! But wait… it gets better. For many years Sony had the rights to use the Carl Zeiss name on their lenses, a brand that is so revered in the photographic world that many discuss it with religious fervor. Before World War II, this German optical company was producing some of the

best optics in its day, relying on brilliantly hand-designed and handcrafted elements before the days of multi-coatings or computerized optical design. Their legendary optics were used exclusively for Medium format cameras like Hasselblad and in high-end Contax 35mm film cameras. For over 50 years, professional photographers worldwide coveted Zeiss lenses. And now, the

well-respected Zeiss optical company is making autofocus lenses for the Sony DSLR camera mount. So now, when choosing accessories for your Sony Alpha camera body, you can choose from not one but THREE different major brand names: All Minolta and Konica Minolta AF (autofocus) lenses (there are over 16 million of them out there) All Sony A-mount (as opposed to the E-mount for the NEX) AF lenses All Zeiss lenses designed for the Alpha mount

In addition, there are two brand names you can tap into for accessory flashes: The Minolta D-series flashes (specifically the 5600 HS(D) and the 3600 HS(D); none of the older Minolta flashes will work properly)

The Sony flashes HVL-F56M and HVL-F36M (which are identical to the Minolta 5600 HS(D) and 3600 HS(D) listed above). Since buying Minolta, Sony has also introduced the HVL-F42AM, HVL-F43AM, and HVL-F58AM flashes which as of this writing are still in production.

There are 3rd party flashes available as well, such as those from Metz and Sigma, but some (okay, Sigma) of these have been known to be incompatible in obscure areas (like wireless flash in High-Speed Sync mode). If all you need is a simple flash and don’t need the fancy features, then these are good choices too.

Lenses Figure 1-27: The Film Plane Marker (yellow rectangle above) shows you where the sensor is for the technical applications where exact sensor-to-subject distance is crucial.

If you’re new to DSLR photography, you may become easily overwhelmed with the different kinds of lenses available. What’s a “D” or a “G” lens? What does “APO” mean? Are there any advantages to a lens that doesn’t zoom? What focal lengths are useful for different kinds of shots? Let’s start with the last question. Have a look at Figure 1-28, which shows several pictures taken from one spot using a variety of lenses. While everyone’s needs are different, lenses can be broadly described as belonging to three general categories: “Wide” (great for landscapes and architechture), “Normal” (great for snapshots and general photography), and “Telephoto” (great for sports, nature, or spying, which of course we all frown upon). But there is no hard rule regarding how these are classified. Generally, “Normal” can be anywhere in the range of 45mm to 70mm; lenses with lower numbers tend to be considered as “Wide”, and those with higher numbers are considered “Telephoto”. There are also a number of lenses out there that have no ability to “zoom”. In the olden days (like before 1975) these “fixed focal length” (sometimes also

referred to as “prime”) lenses offered the best optical performance money could buy; and professionals would use them exclusively. With the advent of computer design and significantly improved manufacturing technology, however, “variable focal length” zoom lenses have practically caught up in terms of image quality, and more than make up for any loss of quality by the fact that you can work so quickly out in the field (if you were a photojournalist, for example, or if you are shooting a 2-year-old or a pet where you don’t have the luxury of repositioning yourself so the subject fills the frame.) With zoom lenses you don’t have to move closer or further away from your subject to frame it the way you want it; instead you can just stand where you want, turn a zoom ring until you see the composition you want, and take the picture. I use zoom lenses almost exclusively now. So you want to order a new lens online or a used one on ebay. How can you tell which lenses are compatible with your camera? Below I’ll discuss things you’ll need to know when choosing a lens. The usual terminology gives the focal length (how far away or close-up an image will look; see Figure 1-28); and also the maximum aperture of the lens. For example, you might see a lens described as a 50 mm f/1.7 or a 300 mm f/2.8. The first number - 50 mm or 300 mm - is the focal length and the second "number" - f/1.7 or f/2.8 - is the maximum aperture. (Yes, both numbers are necessary.) So for example, if you’re looking for a 50mm lens on ebay, you’re likely to find that there are 50mm f/1.7 lenses, 50mm f/1.4 lenses, and 50mm f/2.8 lenses! Often times the units of the focal length - mm - will be left off since all lenses are measured the same way. In addition, the f/ part of the aperture measurement will often be skipped to minimize the number of characters used to describe a lens. So, you might see a lens listed as a 50 1.7 or a 300 2.8.

TIP: While it was once true that some older 3rd party teleconverters (and apparently some 1st generation Minolta teleconverters) wouldn’t work on the A77, Firmware version 1.05 seems to have fixed that. (Another reason to update. )

Figure 1-28: Standing in one place, a variety of different lenses will provide you different levels of magnification.

Zoom lenses will actually list two numbers for the focal length, the number representing how wide it will go, and the number representing the closest it will go, usually separated by a hyphen. So a 28-85 f/2.8 lens is 28mm on the wide side and will zoom in to 85mm, with a maximum aperture of f/2.8. To make it even more confusing, sometimes zoom lenses will change the maximum aperture as you zoom in; such as the 24-105 f/3.5-4.5. In this case, the two apertures listed are the lowest number when at 24mm, and then the highest number when zoomed in to 105mm (again, separated by a hyphen).

Another important point to discuss is the image magnification factor – often called the “Crop Factor” – of lenses that were designed for use on cameras using 35mm film. I’ll talk about that next, then I’ll help you sort through the lens nomenclature starting on page 59. Crop Factor

Figure 1-29: Whereas a full-frame lens (like those used for 35mm film cameras, top) projects a large image circle that will fill a 35mm frame, the designed-for-digital “DT” lenses (bottom) are designed project a smaller image, just enough to cover the smaller APS-C image sensor.

The first thing to be aware of is that pictures taken on your A65/A77 will look more “zoomed in” than using the same lens with the same settings on a 35mm film camera body. (This is true of most DSLRs from any camera manufacturer.) This is because the sensor used in your camera is smaller than that of a full 35mm frame. Have a look at the illustration shown in Figure 1-29, which illustrates how the digital sensor is smaller than that of 35mm film, and also how the newer “DT” lenses (described in a few pages) are optimized for this smaller sensor. Also have a look at Figure 1-30, which shows what happens when you put an older lens (designed to cover the entire 35mm frame) onto a camera with a smaller sensor: the sensor “sees” less of the image that the lens produces.

Figure 1-30: When a full-frame lens Is projected onto an APS-C Sized sensor, very little of the what the lens sees is captured by the sensor. This results in images looking more “cropped” or “zoomed in” (same thing, really…) (See next figure for a more graphic analysis.)

Here’s a more detailed (some of you might think “more long-winded”) explanation: A standard lens is designed to produce an image that is large enough to completely cover the size of a 35mm negative. When you replace the 35mm negative with a smaller sensor (which was done for economic reasons – sensors the same size as 35mm film are very expensive to manufacture), the sensor will only be able to “see” a subset of what the lens produces. The result is a sensor that sees less of the scene than what the lens can produce – think of it as in-camera cropping, or in-camera zooming (the effect is the same!).

The upshot is that a 50mm lens on a film camera will appear to act as a 75mm lens on a digital camera, and a 200mm lens will behave the same as a 300mm lens on a film body. This is the “focal length magnification” factor (sometimes called “crop factor”) that you may have read about; for the Sony Alpha cameras the focal length is effectively multiplied by 1.5. This is great news if you’re a sports or nature photographer, for when shooting on an APS-C-sized

sensor (which your cameras has) your 200mm lens suddenly becomes a 300mm lens. It can be bad news for travel and architecture photographers, however, for it means the wide angle lens they use to capture entire interiors will no longer capture the whole room, and in small rooms there’s no way to “step back” a few feet to get more into the picture.

To address the problem of capturing images with a wide field of view, Sony (plus many 3rd party lens manufacturers) have designed some wide-angle lenses specifically for smaller “APS-C”-sized sensors. Such lenses actually capture what seems like a super-wide view (like an 11mm lens) so they will still provide a decent wide angle after the focal length magnification has kicked in. (For example, an 18mm lens will have a “35mm equivalent” focal length of 27mm, giving it the properties of a mild wide-angle lens.) Such lenses are also designed to provide only enough image to cover the digital sensor, and not fill up the frame of a 35mm negative. In fact, if you were to put a ‘designed for digital” DT lens on a 35mm film camera, you would probably experience severe “vignetting” – a central image with black corners and edges - not unlike how the movies portray someone looking through a pair of binoculars.

Image circle produced by a 35mm lensImage as captured by a 35mm negativeImage as captured by an APS-sized sensor.

Figure 1-31: The sensors in APS-C digital cameras are smaller than that of a standard 35mm frame, resulting in images that look more “zoomed in” when shot in digital. This is what’s behind the 1.5 “crop factor” when using lenses designed for 35mm cameras.

There are other differences, too. “Designed for Digital” DT lenses have rear glass elements which are flat, more coated than usual, and designed to

make all light rays travel perpendicular to the sensor for maximum image quality and illumination in the corners. They are also designed to minimize the internal reflections that sometimes arise because of the highly reflective nature of the sensor. So while your Sony Alpha camera can take every AF lens that Minolta has ever made, the newer “designed for digital” lenses cannot be used with the older Minolta film cameras or with any DSLR which has a “full frame” (same size as 35mm) sensor, such as the Sony Alpha 850 or 900.

Sony and Minolta Lens NomenclatureThere is a lot of “nomenclature” involved with Sony’s lens labeling – for example, the 100-300 APO (D) or the 70-200mm f2.8 APO G SSM AF (now that’s a mouthful!). What does it all mean? Here’s a quick guide to decode it all. DT – This is a brand new designation for “Digital Technology”. These optics are optimized for the unique needs of the digital sensor – the rear element is recessed somewhat to minimize internal reflections, the exit rays tend to be perpendicular to the sensor (especially in the corners), and (and this is VERY important!) the optics only generate an image circle large enough for an APS-C-sized image sensor, NOT large enough to cover a full-frame sensor. This tactic saves cost and weight, and makes the lens easier to manufacture. APO – Normal glass will bend light much like a prism does – the red colors get bent a little more than the violet, and all colors in between are bent at different rates. This is fine for average lenses where the precision of the image is not super-critical; but in long telephoto lenses this phenomenon can contribute to slightly fuzzy images. A really, really sharp picture requires that all optical rays converge on the same point – an extremely difficult task if the light is bent differently for different colors. Enter the APOchromatic glass element, or APO for short – this kind of glass bends all visible light waves by the same amount, producing noticeably sharper images than equivalent lenses using standard optical glass. A lens marked “APO” means it has one or more optical elements made of this special material. G – This is Sony’s (and Minolta’s) designation for their “Pro” line of lenses – they can be rather expensive, but they are the best to be found anywhere from any manufacturer. I own several.

Before going on to the next two definitions, it is worth pointing out that Minolta’s original autofocus mechanism, which dates way back to 1985, used a single motor in the camera body which drove every lens through a “screwdriver” blade (which you can see sticking out of the lens mount when you remove the lens, Figure 1-32).

Figure 1-32: The “screwdriver blade” couples the in-body focus motor with the older autofocus lenses.

The advantage of this design was that you didn’t have to put a motor into every single lens (like Canon did with its EOS system). All Minolta and Sony autofocus lenses made since that time have used this mechanism to good effect. Recently, however, Sony has started to offer lenses that have motors built-into them, called SSM and SAM lenses. This was done, presumeably, because lenses with built-in motors might theoretically make less noise when focusing. (Focusing noise can be an annoyance when shooting video.) SSM –There are some high-end lenses which incorporate a SuperSonic Motor (SSM) in the lens. This is a fast and quiet focusing mechanism which can be

found in some of the more expensive telephoto lenses because it can reduce the strain on the camera body’s focusing motor. SAM – Introduced in 2009, the Smooth Autofocus Motor (SAM) lens is another type of lens which incorporates the focusing motor in the lens rather than in the body. It is less expensive (and noisier!) than the SSM lenses described above, but according to my tests it makes less focusing noise in videos than a lens which uses the in-body focusing motor. (See my blog at http://tinyurl.com/6ezytcx and scroll down to “Quiet AF for video”.) D – “D” stands for “Distance”; it means that the lens will tell the camera body to what focusing distance the lens is set. (Yes, believe it or not, with early autofocus bodies, although the camera could tell when the subject was in focus, the camera had no idea how far away the subject was!) This feature was introduced in the year 2000 to help make flash exposures more accurate when shooting with highly reflective backgrounds, and is essential for the ADI flash mode (explained in Chapter 5) to work properly. All new Sony and Zeiss lenses will have the “D” feature. AF – This just means “Autofocus”, and is used to distinguish it from Minolta’s older “MC”, “MD”, or “MF” manual-focus lens mounts. Since the lens mount was changed completely when Autofocus was introduced (in 1985), a manual-focus lens cannot be used on an autofocus body. Macro – This means “it can focus closely”. Macro lenses are ideal for taking pictures of insects and other small objects which fill the frame. Reflex (Also called “mirror” lens) - This means the lens is designed primarily using curved optical mirrors rather than lenses. This is similar to the design of large observatory telescope lenses. Reflex mirrors are incredibly lightweight and small compared to their pure-optical brethren. And it should be noted that Sony / Minolta offers (well, used to offer) the ONLY autofocusing Reflex lens in the world – the 500mm f/8. (And since Sony offers in-body stabilization, you could say it was also the world’s only image-stabilized autofocusing Reflex lens in the world.) Because this is a fixed aperture f/8, the Sony specs say that it should work OK for stills but the aperture is too small for video and Continuous Advance Priority AE mode. My tests show that it DOES work for video (although the focusing isn’t the smoothest thing in the world) but doesn’t seem to work on the high-speed shooting mode. RS (Restyled – Minolta only) – This means that Minolta took an established optical design and “updated” the housing, incorporating new features like “D” (distance) encoding and/or faster focusing mechanism. Frequently Asked Questions about LensesQ: Gee, that’s an awful lot of nomenclature! Was someone drunk when they came up with this stuff? A: Hey, that’s nothing – you should see Nikon’s lineup, which includes an 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED-IF AF-S VR DX lens . Q: “What lens shall I get?”

A: Let me tell you a story. Many years ago I had a friend who was dissatisfied with the photographs from his point-and-shoot. Because he had lots of disposable income, he went and bought a very expensive camera (it was a Nikon F5 if you must know), with lots of lenses and flashes. Later on he complained to me that the pictures with his high-end camera were no better than what he was getting before. “Maybe I should have invested in the super-expensive lenses!” I heard him say. What was my friend doing wrong? He, like many, many others, incorrectly assumed that an expensive camera and lenses will result in better pictures. The truth is that there’s no cause-and-effect relationship here. I’ve seen breathtaking pictures taken with a 1960’s-era Pentax Spotmatic and an unassuming 50mm lens, and I’ve seen my friend’s mediocre shots taken with his high-end camera. Had my friend owned this book (or attended one of my seminars, where I talk about how to get “Wow!”-type images using any camera), he would have known that it is the photographer, not the camera, that makes a great picture. And great photographers, in turn, prefer the expensive cameras for the additional amount of control it gives them (so they can realize the vision they first form in their minds). Owning a DSLR (or, ahem, an “SLT”) is like owning a Stradivarius concert violin – just because you have one doesn’t mean your music will sound better. You must learn the skills of the

Cheap but great lenses. Since it is sometimes necessary to optimize a lens’ design for digital photography, one may wonder if some of the older Minolta designs which worked great on film cameras will also work great on digital bodies. Internet forums can be a great place to learn from other peoples’ experiences. While all of Minolta’s lenses work great on film cameras, here are the inexpensive lenses which users say work exceptionally well on the digital bodies: * 24-50 f/4, and the similar 35-70 f/4 * 70-210 f/4 (affectionately known as the “beer can”) * 28-75 f/2.8 (a phenomenal performer for a low price!) * 28-135 f/4 – 4.5 Sharp (but has a minimum focusing distance of 5 ft.) * 35-200mm xi (surprisingly!) This lens also has a motorized zoom feature, which you would think would be ideal for shooting video with, but alas, the camera’s firmware doesn’t correct for the focus while zooming). * 50mm f/1.7 – sharp sharp sharp, and cheap cheap cheap! On the flip side, beware of some older Sigma and other 3rd party lenses, as some will not work on newer bodies! Sigma will fix some of them for free, and you can read a list of problem lenses here: http://tinyurl.com/7zqjhys Also, as mentioned in the text, Minolta’s older (pre-1985) manual-focus lenses, having nomenclature like “Rokkor”, “MF”, “MC”, or “MD”, will not fit onto the Alpha body.

Expensive but great lenses. May as well be fair – here’s a list of some of the best lenses on the planet (that can probably even out-resolve your 24 MP sensor): Zeiss 135mm f/1.8 (probably the best lens you can get) Minolta 200/2.8 Minolta / Sony 100 f/2.8 macro Sony 70-200 G SSM Sony 70-400 G SSM Zeiss 16-35 f/2.8 SSM Minolta / Sony 35mm f/1.4G Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro The new 500mm f/4 G SSM which retails for $16,200 US Dollars!!

photographer first. And so, my answer to this very general question of “What lens shall I get?” is, “Whatever lens you have”. Learn to use it, and your camera. Once you get to the point where you start to become happier with your pictures, that’s the time to start thinking about getting more lenses. The internet and its various discussion forums (see Chapter 15 for a list of additional resources) will have absolutely no shortage of advice, guidance, and links to lens resolution charts as a means of over-answering your questions of what lens to get.

The Latest Firmware This book is written assuming your camera has the latest firmware installed (which is something I highly recommend). As of this writing the latest version is 1.05 for both the A65 and A77. You can see which version you have by MENU 3 Version. If the camera shows you something lower than 1.05 then it’s time to upgrade. The updates will keep all of your personal settings intact EXCEPT for the AF Micro adjust settings. All of your lenses will probably need to be recalibrated after the update, even though the settings you entered before are still there.

The web links below take you to an executable which you run on your computer while the camera is tethered to it via the USB cable. These updates are region-independent; they will work on any A65 or A77 regardless of which geographic region they were intended for. SLT-A65 Firmware Upgrade v 1.05 Windows: http://support.d-imaging.sony.co.jp/download/DSLR/bXnFZ3i0Y2/Update_SLTA65V105.exe?fm=jp Macintosh: http://support.d-imaging.sony.co.jp/download/DSLR/bXnFZ3i0Y2/Update_SLTA65V105.dmg?fm=jp SLT-A77V Firmware Upgrade v1.05

Windows: http://support.d-imaging.sony.co.jp/download/DSLR/bXnFZ3i0Y2/Update_SLTA77V105.exe?fm=jp Macintosh: http://support.d-imaging.sony.co.jp/download/DSLR/bXnFZ3i0Y2/Update_SLTA77V105.dmg?fm=jp

Important TIP: There’s a missing step in Sony’s firmware upgrade instructions: You must have the camera’s rear LCD screen out and visible otherwise you won’t see the prompt in step 4.

“My Pictures Aren’t Sharp!” Let me end this chapter with a pre-emptive strike. After I wrote my book on the Sony A900 (Sony’s previous 24 MP offering) I got a ton of email from people who complained that their first pictures with the camera just weren’t that sharp. (These pictures were invariably made indoors, with poor light, just shooting something that happened to be on the wall after putting down the manual for a moment. Never outdoors in good light. (Never!)) And earlier this year I saw a ton of that same kind of behavior at a photographic trade show when lots of people picked up the A65 and

A77, took a shot of moving people in bad trade show light with high ISO and shallow depth-of-field, then they pixel-peeped on the back of the screen. For some reason, none of them were impressed. There’s a very good chance that your first shots won’t be as sharp as the examples I showed in Figure 1-1 either. To help explain this situation, let me refer you to two blog posts I wrote on the subject entitled Sharper pictures from your camera phone. Go ahead and read them both – I’ll wait: http://tinyurl.com/74vxr7k and the follow-up entry: http://tinyurl.com/6o92vj5 If you don’t have web access, in a nutshell your camera is capable of getting Leica-esque sharpness only if all of your variables are right. (Actually, that’s true of Leicas, too.) The three most important variables are good light, good light, and precise focusing with a great lens. (Also close subject, good light, and good light). So let me show you how to get a really sharp test shot RIGHT NOW: 1. Set your camera to Aperture Priority mode at f/5.6 2. ISO to 400 3. Flash ON (make sure Fn Flash mode is set to Fill Flash). 4. Rotate the rear display so you can see what’s being shot from the front of the camera. 5. Now take a picture of your eyeball. 6. Pixel peep. Now that’s a sharp picture!

Just keep in mind that great photography is not just a point-and-shoot affair – you have to pay attention to ALL of your variables. (Now all of you A77 owners, please don’t send me emails complaining that the LCD screen in self-portrait mode is partially obscured by the pop-up flash… I already know that.)

Figure 1-33: A test shot guaranteed to be sharp!

Chapter 2 Quick Guide for the Impatient User Controls The names of the controls used throughout this book are identical to the way Sony identifies them in their instruction manual. Rather than reproducing what Sony has already printed in their instruction manuals, let me review the names of less-obvious controls:

What it is What I call it

What I call it

That circular switch on the back consisting of 4 arrows and a center button (A65) or the Joystick on the back of the A77

Multi-selector

The rotating wheel just below the shutter release button

“Control Dial” (Or “Front Control Dial” on the A77)

The wheel on the top-left deck that says “P A S M” (plus others)

“The Exposure Mode Dial”

The switch next to the lens mount which switches between Autofocus and Manual Focus

“Focus Mode Knob” (A77) or “Focus Mode Switch” (A65)

The “Fn” button on the back “The Function button”

All other controls will be named when we come to them.

Some Essential Configuration Before I dive into the nitty-gritty details of all the myriad features and what they do, let me take a minute and recommend some very quick function settings that will make the camera work better for you right out of the gate (or box). I know it’s a little rude to talk about camera settings

before I actually talk about what Best image quality options (page 188)

these functions do; however this is supposed to be an “advanced” book and besides, I provide page numbers where you can learn more about these functions right away. Some of these may already be the factory default; however just to make sure, here are my most-essential camera settings. (The end of this chapter contains ALL of my personal camera settings.) MENU 1 Quality = Extra Fine (A77 only) or RAW & JPG

MENU 1 Viewfinder Brightness MANUAL +1

I find the factory default EVF brightness is a little too dark. (page 295)

Fn Object Tracking OFF Fn AF Area Wide

In the old days, when you had your camera set to Wide Area AF you could INSTANTLY switch to Spot AF by pressing the center of the multi-selector. That’s a really useful feature, however if you press that center button now it turns on the Object Tracking feature by default. Although it’s not documented in the manual, it turns out that if you turn Object Tracking OFF then the traditional behavior of Spot AF when you press that button is restored. Huzzah! (page 133)

MENU 2 Auto Review OffAlthough being able to see the shot you just took is a GREAT idea (“Did that person have their eyes closed?”), when shooting kids it can cause you to miss a shot. So I make sure this feature is OFF and I’m always ready. (Note: Although Firmware v1.05 made this feature extremely fast, I still advocate turning it off when shooting kids or anything that moves.) (page 231)

MENU 3 Func. Of AEL button AEL Toggle

I don’t like having to hold that AEL button in all of the time. With AEL Toggle I just have to push the button once to lock the exposure, then press

it again to go back to live metering. In addition, spot metering mode is also activated. (page 241)

MENU 1 Menu Start Previous

Takes you back to the last menu setting you were looking at when you press the MENU button again. (Very handy when you’re still experimenting with your new camera!) (page 293)

MENU 5 Lens Comp. (three variables) Auto

(This function is on 4 on the A65.) Turns on all the lens correction features. (page 260)

MENU 3 Mode Dial Guide Off

I find those “help” screens useless and annoying. Therefore, you shouldn’t want them either. (page 324)

SCN Sports Action Fn. Flash Mode Flash Off

There’s nothing more incompatible than Sports Action mode and flash. For some reason when you put your camera into sports mode the flash will pop up if it’s too dark. (Remember the pop-up flash is only good to about 12 feet!) Turn this behavior off for Sports Action Mode (but don’t forget to turn it back on for other modes). (page 329)

MENU 2 Peaking Level MidMENU 2 Peaking Color Yellow

When in Manual Focus mode, the “Peaking” function highlights the areas that are in focus using a bright color of your choice. (In my case, yellow.) (page 237)

The last three settings, when combined, make for a wonderfully stress-free experience when you’re shooting things quickly. Recall that the peaking function shows you what’s in focus (or, more accurately, it shows you the high contrast areas, which correlate strongly with sharp focus) when you’re in Manual Focus mode. And the previous two settings told the camera to immediately go into Manual Focus mode just as soon as it gets focus confirmation. With this setup, as soon as you do a focus lock, you see instantly what the camera decided to focus on (especially handy if you have Wide Area Focus set, which is the factory default). And while you can tweak it if you want to, I’ve found it handier to actually move back or forth a little to fine-

tune the focusing. MUCH faster and with more peace-of-mind than the old days! (Note: DMF doesn’t work with SAM lenses, and is described in greater detail on page 213. Sony lens nomenclature was covered earlier on page 51.) There are other settings as well that I personally use, and they’re all listed at the end of this chapter, along with page references for more details in Chapters 4-12 which provide a detailed explanation of what every feature does and why I prefer certain settings in different circumstances. But let me share one more combination of settings that I use when photographing the grandkids (or their pets). This is the Friedman Archives equivalent of Sports Action mode but I can specify a low ISO value if I want to for higher image quality: Continuous autofocus (AF-C) Continuous Advance (Hi) Priority Release set to AF (A77 only ) AF area = Wide ISO to something reasonable Face Detection = On (and Smile Shutter = OFF)

Energy-Efficient Mode

Figure 2-1: When you turn the LCD around, not only do you protect the screen, but the camera won’t expend energy showing you the viewfinder unless it thinks you’re looking through the EVF. (Note: Can you tell I bought a green screen? )

It’s true that both the EVF and the LCD screen use more battery power than the optical viewfinder of the traditional DSLR, meaning you’ll have to do things strategically if you’re going to squeeze the most shots from your battery while you’re out in the field. The good news is I was able to get SUBSTANTIALLY more shots per battery than Sony’s published numbers of 500 or so – with careful usage I was able to get over 1,200 shots on one charge (with lots of Live View and pop-up fill flash). The first thing you need to do is make sure you have a spare battery and memory card. The second thing is to tell the camera not to waste any power on Live View unless your eye is actually looking through the EVF. (Normally the rear display is on all the time, and the camera will automatically switch from the LCD to the EVF when you put your eye up to the viewfinder.) Here’s how to use the camera in a more power-miserly way: 1. Flip the rear LCD around so it faces the camera as shown in Figure 2-1. (This removes power from it at all times.)

2. Make sure MENU 1 FINDER / LCD Setting is set to AUTO.

3. For even more savings, you can turn the GPS off if you have it via MENU 1 GPS Settings GPS On/Off Off

In this configuration, the camera powers neither the rear LCD nor the EVF when you’re not actively shooting. It will turn the EVF on only when it senses that something is close. As I point out in the TIP on the next page, the camera has an infrared emitter and detector just above the

TIP: The A77 has a small rectangle above the viewfinder, as shown in the image below. It actually houses both an infrared transmitter and IR receiver. Although you can’t see the light yourself, when any object (such as your face) comes within close proximity to the viewfinder, the object will reflect the infrared light back to the camera, and will be sensed by the infrared receiver, and when that happens the camera will switch between the rear LCD and the EVF. (For maximum battery life, keep the large LCD in the “closed” position (facing the body); this way it is always off and then the EVF will illuminate only when it senses something close.) The IR transmitter / sensor pair is also responsible for telling the camera to start autofocusing immediately if Eye-Start is enabled (MENU 1 Eye-Start AF ON; a great feature if you’re shooting kids running around!) But this mechanism might back-fire on you and actually consume more battery power than necessary if you don’t use it properly. For example, if you wear the camera around your neck, and the back of the camera touches your chest, the camera might incorrectly assume that you are holding it up to your eye, and start focusing needlessly. If this happens to you, either turn the camera off or modify your camera-holding behavior!

EVF for detecting when your eye is near it and it turns it on. The downside is it’s easily fooled; if you keep the camera on a strap and let the camera rest on your chest the EVF might turn on all the time and really drain your battery. If this becomes a problem, just turn the camera OFF when you’re not using it.

Which Display? The answer is “there is no best choice; each one provides its own advantages and disadvantages. Below is a summary of each: LCD Display EVF

EVF

Great for shooting at unusual angles Great for shooting movies (you tend to hold the camera steadier if it’s next to your eye)

Can be difficult to see on bright days.

A slightly better choice for bright days, unless you’re wearing glasses and the sun is coming in directly over your head.

Preferred for shooting sweep panoramas (the algorithms work best when the sensor is close to the axis of rotation)Consumes slightly less power than the EVF.

Consumes a little more power, but can be configured to turn off if you’re not looking at it as previously described.

Essential when showing your pictures to others.Can be configured to show all relevant shooting variables on one screen.

Can be configured to show most relevant shooting variables on one screen.

How Much Power? The Sony specs say that the EVF actually takes more power than the LCD display. I didn’t believe it, so I measured the current consumption for myself. Here are my results: A77: With LCD and GPS On: 300 mA With EVF and GPS On: 310 mA With LCD on and GPS off: 284 mA A65: With LCD and GPS On: 267 mA With EVF and GPS On: 312 mA With LCD on and GPS off: 244 mA Both Cameras AF with SAM Lens 303 mA (peak) AF with SSM Lens 338 mA (peak) AF with Screwdriver lens 405 mA (peak) LCD Brightness Differences With EVF brightness set to +1 296 mA With EVF brightness set to -1 286 mA With LCD brightness set to +2 308.75 mA With LCD brightness set to -2 257.75 mA ======= Surprise #1: The EVF really does consume more power! (Counter-intuitive since it doesn’t have a huge backlight like the LCD) Surprise #2: The GPS takes less power than I would have guessed. So if you’re looking to maximize battery life out in the field, turn GPS off and use the ‘Energy Efficient’ mode as outlined on page 71. Yes, it uses the EVF, however it’s on for significantly less time.

Configuring the DISPlay Figure 2-2: The DISPlay button on the A65 (left) and the A77 (right)

Figure 2-3: You can choose which displays the DISP button cycles through via this screen. Notice that once you make your selection, pressing the MENU button is the ONLY way to have your selections stick!

When you’re composing a picture on either the LCD or EVF, the A77 gives you many choices as to how much information it can show you. Just press the DISP(lay) button (Figure 2-2) several times until the screen you want appears. (Figure 2-4). There are actually up to six different screens that you can cycle through with the DISP button (five for the EVF), and you can specify which screens you want via MENU 2 DISP Button (Monitor) for the large LCD or MENU 2 DISP Button (Finder) for the EVF (Figure 2-3). When you go to this screen you can scroll amongst the options and a small preview will appear in the lower-right-hand corner. You can select and unselect the screens you want using the center button of the multi-selector. In order to have your settings take effect, though, you MUST press the MENU button to exit the screen – pressing anything else (such as the shutter release button) will exit the screen but not remember any of the changes you just made. Notice that the selection screen for the Finder doesn’t have the “For Viewfinder” option on the right (poorly worded option; it essentially is referring to the white-on-black status display which is only available on the large LCD.)

Figure 2-4: The six display screens available. (Yes, it’s a boring test image.) Pressing the DISP button switches from one screen to another. The last screen (status screen) is not available in the EVF.

TIP: Want to just disable that infrared sensor altogether so it won’t keep shutting off the large LCD display inadvertently? Just do MENU 1 Finder / LCD Setting Manual and press the Finder / LCD button until the rear LCD is on.

The Panorama Mode I believe in instant gratification. And for that reason I’m going to skip ahead and talk about one of the most impressive features of this camera: the ability to shoot, align, and stitch together panoramas, all handheld, all without needing a tripod or a computer with extra software.

The Panorama Mode 77

So to get started, turn your exposure mode dial to “Sweep Panorama” (Figure 2-5). Then perform the following: 1) If you have a zoom lens attached, zoom it all the way out so it’s on its widest setting. (The camera does its best panoramas when there’s a lot of overlapping information in adjacent images.) 2) Hold the camera as close to your body as possible and use the Electronic Viewfinder. The stitching algorithms work best when the camera is closest to the axis of rotation (= YOU!) (So whatever you do, don’t hold the camera at arm’s length!) 3) Find your subject (which may or may not be at the very left of your composition) and press and hold the shutter release button halfway. This locks the focus and your exposure. 4) Move the camera to the left of where you want the left part of your panorama to begin. Notice that the left third of the EVF looks greyed out – that portion of the image will NOT appear in the final picture. 5) Press and hold the shutter release button down and start to sweep (or pan – same thing) the camera from left to right. The camera actually starts the stitching process internally after the first two images are taken, and if you’re going too fast or too slow it will let you know immediately. You’ll get the hang of what the correct panning speed is after a few tries. (Officially, Sony recommends covering 180 degrees over a period of six seconds.) 6) Once you’re finished, hit the Playback button and you’ll see the entire image on the rear display. To see it close-up, press the center button of the multi-selector and the image will start to scroll right before your eyes. If you did it well, and there were no moving objects in your shot, the entire image will look quite seamless.

If you have your panorama mode set to Wide (MENU 1 Panorama: Size Wide), what you get is a high-resolution panorama picture – 12,416 pixels x 1,856 pixels (Figure 2-6). Most impressive! (Interestingly, these are the same dimensions as what the A55 produced – a bigger sensor doesn’t result in a bigger panorama.)

There’s much more to say about the Panorama features – and I’ll continue this subject on page 190.

Figure 2-6: A sample Sweep Panorama shot. For the first time in history, these kinds of shots are ridiculously easy. No tripod nor home computer is required.

AUTO setting Let’s start with the most basic operating mode. Your camera has a mode of taking pictures in a completely automatic manner, which requires no knowledge of other, complicated camera settings on your part. It is called the

“AUTO” setting (Figure 2-7). You can think of it as a convenient setting for turning your camera into a point-and-shoot. But, more accurately, it acts as a RESET button -- it resets most of the adjustable controls to default values immediately. This setting will reset almost every user-changeable feature, so you can shoot the moment and not have to worry about, “Did I remember to reset mode Q?” Once you’re finished shooting, you can move right back to your previous exposure mode (probably P, A, S, or M) and all of your previous settings are restored. Auto mode is also ideal when handing the camera to someone else to take a picture of you. Another benefit (or not, depending on your level of experience) to AUTO mode is the flash will automatically pop up if the camera thinks the scene is too dark.

The A65 actually has TWO “AUTO” settings: the Green AUTO mode as seen in Figure 2-7, and the “No-Flash” AUTO mode (Figure 2-8). (We’ll get to the AUTO+ function in a second.) The two are identical EXCEPT with the “No Flash” AUTO mode the camera will not invoke the flash when it thinks it’s too dark. (But then, neither will it let you do it – the camera’s display will read “Unavailable in this shooting mode” if you try.) A77 owners can achieve the same thing by going to AUTO mode and then Fn Flash Mode No Flash. (Interestingly, A65 owners can do this too!) Here is a summary of what happens to the camera’s settings when you go into AUTO mode (don’t worry; many of these concepts will be explained more thoroughly in Chapters 4 and 5): Fill-flash (only if the camera thinks the scene is dark enough to pop up the flash) Flash mode set to “ADI” “Multi-segment” metering Wide-area focus (the camera chooses which focus sensor to use) Single-frame advance Flash compensation reset to 0 Exposure compensation reset to 0 Auto white balance ISO (the camera’s sensitivity to light) set to “Auto” (which in this case means between 100 and 1600 and no, you can’t change it). Creative Style mode set to “Standard”; contrast, sharpness, saturation all reset to 0 High ISO Noise reduction is reset to Normal Long exposure Noise Reduction is reset to ON.

Features that are NOT reset are:

Focus Mode – If you put the camera into Manual Focus Mode, AUTO will not override it. Image Quality – if you were shooting RAW before, it will still shoot RAW in AUTO mode.

Figure 2-8: The “No-Flash” AUTO mode (A65 only).

Image Size (Large, Medium, or Small) Red Eye Reduction mode Aspect Ratio (3:2 or 16:9) Eye-Start AF Probably one of the most important characteristics of AUTO mode is that the camera gives you no control at all over some very important settings, such as exposure compensation, ISO, white balance – in other words, if you know what you’re doing, AUTO mode can get in your way. That’s why it’s great for beginners but a nuisance to experienced photographers. Shortly I’ll talk about Program mode which is essentially “AUTO mode with benefits”.

AUTO+ Setting So you know what AUTO does – it essentially turns the camera into a point-and-shoot. AUTO+ (Figure 2-9) does the same thing, but in addition it will automatically decide whether or not to invoke one of several advanced shooting modes that will be discussed in detail later on. So it might be a little irresponsible to discuss it so early, but let’s give it a try. Earlier I briefly touched on the Scene Selection modes (where you tell the camera the kind of picture you’re taking, and it will make the necessary adjustments for you). We also discussed the Über modes like High Dynamic Range shooting, Handheld Twilight, and other functions where the camera takes several pictures in rapid-fire sequence and then aligns and merges them in-camera as a means of dealing with difficult light. I like these features a lot. And it’s true that you do have to understand what they do technically in order to know when to invoke them. But what if you didn’t even want to understand what those functions did in order to benefit from them? Extrapolating this thought process further, what if you didn’t even want to know WHERE these functions existed in the menus in order to invoke them?

Figure 2-9: Auto+ setting.

Welcome to AUTO+ mode, where the camera will analyze the scene you’re looking at, figure out which of the advanced scene modes is appropriate (listed below), and then automatically invoke it for you. It’s a point-and-shoot on steroids!! With AUTO+ mode, you can get all the advanced benefits your camera has to offer, without really needing to know much about photography. Just be aware that there will be times when you think you’re going to take one picture but you’ll hear the camera take six (Figure 2-10). You’ll get used to that, and after awhile you’ll thank the camera for taking better pictures than your friends were able to get with their pedestrian point-and-shoots. Although it may not mean much to you now, here’s a list of the different shooting modes that AUTO+ is capable of invoking on its own: Night Scene

Handheld Twilight

Landscape Backlight Portrait

Portrait Tripod Night Scene

Backlight Macro

Night Portrait Auto HDR Slow Sync Slow ShutterDaylight Sync Spotlight Low Brightness Baby (!)

Figure 2-10: AUTO+ mode will tell you what special shooting mode it has selected, and how many shots it will fire off beforehand so you won’t be too surprised when it takes 3 shots instead of one.

Interestingly, there are modes here that aren’t selectable from any menu, such as “Backlight”, “Backlight Portrait”, “Daylight Sync” (what does that do?) and my favorite, “Baby” (!!!). And since I can’t invoke these AUTO+-only modes on command, I can’t be completely sure what the camera does when it decides to use them. (I guess the joy of any “AUTO” function is that you don’t really need to know.)

But I can explain two menu functions that relate to AUTO+. (Of course, you have to be in AUTO+ mode in order to change these menu settings.) The first is

MENU 1 AUTO+ Cont. Shooting [Choose from AUTO or OFF] Normally, when ascertaining the kind of scene you’re shooting, the camera may decide on its own that you’re trying to shoot something that’s moving, whether it be a runner or a close-up of a flower being blown in the wind. In such an instance the camera may decide to take multiple pictures instead of just one (shooting continuously for as long as you hold your finger on the shutter release button), increasing the chances of you getting the one perfect shot you seek. This is the factory default behavior. If for some reason you don’t want the camera shooting continuously like this, you can set this menu function to OFF, but be aware that the camera will still shoot multiple times when it decides to go into HDR or Handheld Twilight mode. The second menu function is MENU 1 AUTO+ Image Extract. [Choose from AUTO or OFF] Now this one is even less intuitive. When the Cont. Shooting function above is set to AUTO, and the camera decides to shoot continuously, you can tell the camera whether to save all of the shots it takes (OFF) or save only what it thinks is the best one (AUTO). Again, this function has no effect if AUTO+ chooses Auto HDR or Handheld Twilight multi-shot modes. The factory setting for both of these variables is AUTO, and I can’t see any good reason to change them. If this brief section left you feeling a little confused, then worry not – all will be explained properly later on. It was included here because AUTO+ was designed to be effective in the hands of people who don’t know what it does. In that light it makes sense to introduce it before I get into more of the details of your camera. Program (“P”) Mode 83

Program (“P”) Mode This is almost identical to the regular AUTO (not AUTO+) mode described two sections ago. The “P” setting puts the camera into “Program Mode”. In Program mode, the camera does the basic decision-making for you -- it decides what combination of shutter speed and f/stop to use based upon the ambient light, the currently set ISO sensitivity, and what the lens is zoomed to. The only difference between Program and the AUTO mode is that Program mode allows you to change important settings (such as exposure compensation, ISO, or white balance), whereas AUTO mode does not. For this reason, as you read through the rest of this book, I recommend you keep the camera set to “P”rogram mode as you try out the different features and settings. In Program mode you’ll never get a message saying “This feature is not available in this mode” (as will so often happen in AUTO mode; Figure 2-12). To take a proper picture in Program mode, just point the camera at the subject, and press the shutter release button. Make sure you hold the shutter release button down until the camera takes the picture. The camera will autofocus first before shooting. Furthermore, the camera won’t take a picture unless it thinks something is in focus.

Figure 2-11: Program exposure mode.

Figure 2-12: AUTO mode will keep beginners from becoming frustrated by not allowing them to accidentally change some basic settings. (Conversely, it makes non-beginners frustrated because they can’t change some basic settings.)

TIP: The camera won’t take a picture unless and until it thinks there is something in focus. A77 owners can override this by invoking MENU 3 Priority setup Release. (Why would you want to override it? Read the full feature description on page 215.)

The “Images Remaining Counter” I’m referring specifically to the number in the top row of the rear LCD display. Unlike a film counter in a camera, this counter (Figure 2-13) counts BACKWARDS, always showing you how many more images you can take (approximately) based on the current image settings and how much space is free on your memory card. This is only a guess; however – the actual size of a .jpg image can vary wildly based on the content of the image. (Chapter 14 will explain why.) Interestingly, the camera doesn’t take the currently-set aspect ratio into account when making its images-remaining calculation. Files shot in 16:9

aspect ratio take up less room on your memory card than the standard 3:2; yet the camera will show the same number of images remaining for both settings.

Focusing Basics Focusing with this camera is no different from focusing with any other autofocus camera. There are two popular methods: The point-and-shoot method: point the camera at the subject, press and hold the shutter release button down all the way until the camera finds focus and takes the picture. Although this is the easiest way to take a picture, it also takes the longest time – sometimes up to a full second (depending on many factors) to take the picture. If you’re looking to capture just the right expression at just the right time, this is probably not the way to go. The smarter method: you can do what’s called “pre-focusing”. Once the camera is pre-focused, it will take the picture the instant you press the shutter release button. How do you pre-focus? You will notice that the shutter button is actually a “two-stage” button. The first “stage” is encountered when the button is half-way down. The second “stage” is tripped when the button is pressed all the way down. When the button is half-way down, it tells the camera to focus on something and then wait for further instructions. Once the camera is “primed” (that is, once the focus is locked), pressing the shutter release button all the way down will take the picture instantly How does the camera know what to focus on?Well, let’s answer that question two ways. First, let’s discuss Old School focusing intelligence, before the advent of Face Detection. With Face Detection off (or when there are no people in the shot), the camera has no idea of what to focus on, and usually has to guess - which means it has to figure out which of the viewfinder’s 19 (or 15 for the A65) focusing

Figure 2-14: Wide Area Focus Example. The wide-area autofocus algorithms do an outstanding job for the vast majority of snapshots like this one.

sensors (as shown in Figure 2-16) is superimposed “on top of” the subject. Although the camera will usually guess correctly (for common compositions like the kind shown in Figure 2-14), there are times when it will have no clue and you will have to tell it specifically which focusing sensor to use (like in Figure 2-15). How do you tell it which focusing sensor to use? Fn AF Area Local. The sensors themselves are designed to detect contrast – a strong difference in light values. This method of autofocus is preferred for DSLRs (and, in this case, SLTs) because it works with any type of lens – from wide to extreme telephoto – whereas more foolproof methods that have been employed on point-and-shoot cameras for decades will fail when you have an extreme telephoto attached.

Because the camera requires contrast in order to focus properly, you may find that you can easily fool the autofocus logic by pointing the camera to a blank, featureless wall. If there is no contrast, the camera will try to focus for about a second, and then “give up”, having not found any contrast to focus on. When the camera “gives up”, a flashing green dot will appear in the lower left corner in the display or viewfinder and the camera will refuse to take a picture because it doesn’t want to take a shot that’s out of focus. Conversely, if

Figure 2-15: Another situation where the Wide Area AF setting will be fooled. Switching to Spot AF allowed me to tell the camera, “Focus on the fowl, not on the fence!”.

TIP: That center button in the multi-selector says “AF” (at least it does on the A65, but this works on the A77 too), but what does it really do? Well, when the AF Area is set to either “Wide” or “Spot”, pressing that button will initiate (and usually lock) AF using the center focusing point - in other words, it jumps to spot focusing mode immediately. When the AF Area is set to “Local”, it quickly selects the center focus point and keeps it there. (You have to set Fn Object Tracking OFF in order for this characteristic to work.)

focus is successful, the green dot illuminates and it will also verify focus lock via a cute little “chirp” sound effect – a great mechanism which allows you to capture your subject just a little faster.

Figure 2-16: Focus points (squares) for the A77 (left) and A65 (right). The red focus points actually contain TWO focusing sensors oriented perpendicular to each other, making them twice as likely to find contrast if used.

(A77 owners who tried the above experiment on a blank wall might have been startled that the camera was able to achieve focus after all! That’s because it has an AF illuminator built into the body and it helps in borderline situations like this. See TIP below for an explanation of what’s going on.) There are more AF Area choices as well, and they’re discussed in full starting on page 127.

TIP: Your camera can focus in the dark! When the ambient light is too low for the autofocus mechanism to work properly, the A65 will try to use its built-in flash to

produce one or two low-intensity flash bursts to illuminate the subject briefly, thereby allowing the camera to focus in the dark. Wait, it gets better! If you attach an accessory flash with the AF Illuminator function set to AUTO, such flashes have a pair of near-infrared LEDs mounted on the front, which can shine a contrast pattern onto your subject, thereby giving your camera’s autofocus system the contrast it needs to focus quickly – even on featureless, blank walls. How impressive is that?! (more)

Okay, one more thing. The A77 has one of these near IR LEDs built right into the body, so you can still focus in the dark (on close subjects) for existing-light photography. Huzzah!

Autofocus Using Face DetectionAs mentioned in Chapter 1, when using the camera with Face Detection enabled (which is the factory default), the camera doesn’t have to guess which of the myriad focusing points to use. If it recognizes a face behind one of those 15 or 19 points, it will choose that focusing point. (It will also use the light from the face to help determine the proper exposure, meaning it can get the exposure right in a great many more difficult lighting situations than before.) In order for Face Detection to do its job, the faces have to be of a reasonably large size (not specs on a football field), be facing the camera, and be unobscured (i.e., no sunglasses, hats with large brims, or veils). Face Detection is on by default, but if you want to change it, go to Fn Face Detection [On or Off].

Autofocus (AF) / Manual Focus (MF) SwitchIn the old days it wasn’t so confusing. Sony used to have one mechanical switch by the base of the lens mount for switching between Autofocus (AF) and Manual Focus (MF). (And in fact, it’s still there – check out the lower rectangle in Figure 2-17 for both cameras.) However, if you have a lens with an internal focusing motor (such as the ones labeled “SAM” or “SSM”; see page 59 for an explanation), then this lens has its own AF/MF focusing switch on the side of the barrel. The rules of camera behavior for the two switches vary by the lens type, but a blanket statement which is mostly true is, “When the switch on the side of the lens is set to AF, then the camera has control. When the switch on the side of the lens is set to MF, then that’s the final word – the camera has no focusing control at all.” The problem with the above description is the A77’s AF/MF button on the back of the camera which doesn’t always adhere to the general rule. A more nuanced description of the actual behavior appears in the table below:

Figure 2-17: Some lenses have their own AF/MF switch in addition to the one that appears on the camera’s body. (Top = A65; bottom = A77). The body switch is for older lenses. The general rule is “If the lens has the switch, it takes precedence”.

Lens Type Behavior using the Focus Mode Switch at base of lens

Behavior of A77’s AF/MF button by the right thumb

“Screwdriver Blade” The camera has full control.

This switch enables and disables autofocus.

SSM When lens is set to AF: The camera has full control.When lens is set to MF: All AF is disabled. MF means MF!!

This switch enables and disables autofocus.

SAM When lens is set to AF: The camera has no control. AF will always be on.When lens is set to MF: The camera has no control. And the lens’s focusing ring is now free to turn!

This switch enables and disables autofocus. However, when this switch is used to disable autofocus, the focusing ring doesn’t turn easily – you’re fighting the in-lens focusing motor. Not recommended.

TIP: When the camera is set to Manual Focus, the Autofocus Mode in the Function menu will be greyed out, since it doesn’t make sense to set this in MF mode. (But, interestingly, the AF Area option IS changeable while in MF mode.)

Single-Shot AF / Continuous AF Focusing ModesAs discussed earlier, the factory default for focusing modes is “Focus on a subject, and then lock focus until I take the picture”. This is called “Single-Shot AF” (AutoFocus) mode. The camera also has a “Continuous AF” mode setting, which can be used when you’re shooting sports or toddlers (or anything that moves). When this mode is enabled, you are essentially telling the camera “My subject is moving, so even when you’ve found focus, keep trying to focus on the subject because my subject will not stay still!” You can invoke Continuous AF mode on the A65 via FN Autofocus Mode AF-C (Continuous AF). To return it to Single-Shot AF (the factory default), it’s FN Autofocus Mode AF-S (Single-Shot AF). The Focus Mode menu is covered in detail

starting on page 127, as is the 3rd option, AF-A (which automatically switches between the two modes for you). (A77 owners: These options are selected via the focus mode knob near the lens mount.)

Figure 2-18: A77 owners will notice a gaping hole in the Fn. Menu screen. The culprit: Lazy (or perhaps unduly rushed) programmers. While both cameras allow you to choose between AF-S, AF-A and AF-C modes, the A65 does it via a menu (left), while the A77 does it via a physical switch near the base of the lens. No need to have two ways to set it (unless you’re talking about ISO, WB, or Drive mode ), so the programmers just removed the feature from the A77’s firmware and pushed the product out the door.

Continuous Shooting and Memory CardsOne of these cameras’ headline features is the ability to shoot 10 and 12 pictures per second using Continuous Advance Priority AE (CAPAE for short). But for how long can the camera sustain such a burst?Here’s a quick answer: Because the internal high-speed memory buffer is limited in size, the burst can last for only a second and a half or so, regardless of the type of memory card you’re using. In these cameras, a faster memory card will only make a difference once the memory buffer is filled, and they determine how much time will elapse before you can take the next picture.DPREVIEW.com did an excellent test of times using one of the fastest (and most expensive) memory cards available (and I’m not going toreproduce their work here – but you can see it for the A77 here http://tinyurl.com/75gp8gj and for the A65 here http://tinyurl.com/77xnr6q.) They used one of the fastest SDHC cards available – the 16GB SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-I SDHC card which has a write time of 45 MB/s and costs about $150 at the time of writing. You may wonder to yourself “Is it worth the investment? How will the camera perform using the card I already have?”Of course I wonder the same thing. So as a public service let me re-run dpreview’s test using two other memory cards I happen to have: a Class 6 SDHC card, and a Class 10. I’ll also extend dpreview’s tests one further by seeing if shooting in Medium or Small size .jpgs makes a significant difference in lengthening the high-speed burst.Enjoy these tables; they took me 3 days to compile and I’m certainly not going to put myself through that again!A77 - Class 10 SDHC 1 Sandisk Extreme 8 GB

Continuous Advance Priority AETiming JPEG

Large / Fine

JPG Large / Extra Fine

RAW RAW+ JPG Fine

JPEG Med / Fine

JPG Med. / Extra Fine

JPG Small / Fine

JPG Small / Extra Fine

Frame Rate

12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12

# of frames

13 13 13 12 17 14 14 15

Buffer full rate

2.141 1.579 1.136 0.945 3.193 2.250 4.478 2.89

Write Complete

7.9 8.1 12.1 13 6.4 6.5 4.9 5.3

Continuous HiTiming JPEG

Large / Fine

JPG Large / Extra Fine

RAW RAW+JPG Fine

JPEG Med. / Fine

JPG Med. / Extra Fine

JPG Small / Fine

JPG Small / Extra Fine

Frame Rate

8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

# of frames

15 14 13 12 16 13 18 15

Buffer full rate

2.354 1.313 1.163 0.893 3.865 2.500 4.052 4.866

Write Complete

8.4 12.14 12.32 15.47 6.4 8.7 5.2 6.48

Continuous LoTiming JPEG

Large / Fine

JPG Large / Extra Fine

RAW RAW+JPG Fine

JPEG Med. / Fine

JPG Med. / Extra Fine

JPG Small / Fine

JPG Small / Extra Fine

Frame Rate

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

# of frames

28 23 17 14 (∞) 30 (∞) (∞)

Buffer full rate

2.094 1.333 1.348 0.960 ~3 1.739 ~3 ~3

Write Complete

8 11.1 12.3 14.6 2.3 6.2 1.9 2.1

A77 - Class 4 SDHC Continuous Advance Priority AE

Timing JPEG Large / Fine

JPG Large / Extra Fine

RAW RAW+JPG Fine

JPEG Med. / Fine

JPG Med. / Extra Fine

JPG Small / Fine

JPG Small / Extra Fine

Frame Rate

12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12

# of frames

13 11 11 12 14 15 17 15

Buffer full rate

1.304 0.528 0.391 0.313 1.333 0.704 1.973 1.286

Write Complete

13.9 24.6 33.5 39.2 10.3 15.9 7.3 12

Continuous HiTiming JPEG

Large / Fine

JPG Large / Extra Fine

RAW RAW+JPG Fine

JPEG Med. / Fine

JPG Med. / Extra Fine

JPG Small / Fine

JPG Small / Extra Fine

Frame Rate

8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

# of frames

15 14 13 12 16 12 17 13

Buffer full rate

1.364 0.515 0.451 0.354 1.622 0.824 2.684 1.745

Write Complete

13.4 20.3 32.8 37.3 12.2 16 6.6 9.2

Continuous LoTiming JPEG

Large / Fine

JPG Large / Extra Fine

RAW RAW+JPG Fine

JPEG Med. / Fine

JPG Med. / Extra Fine

JPG Small / Fine

JPG Small / Extra Fine

Frame Rate

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

# of frames

19 14 13 12 22 16 31 18

Buffer full rate

1.091 0.492 0.445 0.332 1.538 0.805 2.087 1.402

Write Complete

12.8 26.8 33.6 36.7 6 10.5 3.4 7.7

So what can we conclude from these tests? Well, for starters my write times seem to be much less than dpreview’s for the same tests. Also when you shoot RAW with a Class 4 card, when the buffer fills, the camera locks up for about 4 times longer before you’re allowed to take your next picture compared to a Class 10. That’s pretty significant and it can translate into real frustration if you’re shooting something that isn’t repeatable.

BatteriesBatteries are kind of important. Thanks to a new generation of Lithium-Ion battery technology, which has a higher energy density than

the older NiCad rechargeable batteries, you can now do some serious shooting for much of the day.Some salient points: The camera rigidly enforces the use of the NP-FM500H battery. You cannot use older model batteries that look similar (such as the FM55 battery used in the A100).

They charge fully within 4 hours. (Longer than charging your cell phone, but then again the battery holds a LOT more energy!) Carrying a spare battery (and a spare memory card) with you is considered wise, just like the off-roaders always carry a spare gallon of gas. 3rd party batteries may be tempting due to their lower price. I used to recommend HAMA as being a safebrand, but recently people buying 3rd party batteries from ebay have had lots of problems with the battery either not charging or not holding a charge. (Turns out those that were being sold to the retailer as “original” were not. Caveat emptor.) A popular one on ebay now is Phottix brand, which seems to have the same capacity as the Sony version but lacks the computer chip which communicates remaining battery life to the camera. (Subsequently you won’t see the % remaining charge amount in the display.) But they seem to work well.)So what’s with the “InfoLithium™” logo – is this just marketing speak, or what? The answer is “What”, and to explain what it does let me share with you what’s called a battery discharge curve in Figure 2-20. This graphically depicts how much voltage the battery can produce as power is drawn from it – going from left (fully charged) to the right (as the battery is slowly discharged), you can see that the voltage the battery can provide is relatively flat – that is, until the voltage drops suddenly and dramatically near the right side (where the straight red line is).This relatively flat voltage characteristic of Lithium-ion batteries (as with their predecessors, the Ni-MH and the Ni-Cd recharagables) is a joy to consumer electronics companies, who love a stable voltage until the battery is almost discharged – this means you get maximum use out of the batteries before they are depleted. (This was generally not true of the earlier batteries, such as Carbon-Zinc and Alkaline.) The downside is, atleast until recently, it was difficult for a camera to ascertain where along the discharge curve the battery was. (Well, okay, it wasn’t really difficult; but the fact remains that nobody made much of an effort to even guess.) Cameras and camcorders alike simply showed “Full charge” as long as the battery’s voltage was above a certain threshold, and as soon as it fell below that threshold (when the battery was nearly dead) the camera would provide a “Battery Depleted” warning a mere

minutes before it would be depleted. This was hardly a warning at all!So Sony invented the InfoLithium mechanism to allow its cameras and camcorders to act more like a car’s gas gauge and less like a “3 minute warning” display. And the mechanism is really quite straightforward: Inside the battery there is a small memory chip. The chip knows when it’s fully charged, and it knows what its total energy capacity is. During use the memory receives power consumption information from the camera continuously, and the memory chip takes note of how much power has been extracted so far. The battery can then use this information to estimate how much life remains (in terms of percentage). As the battery ages, the memory chip notes the reduced capacity from last time and adjusts its future calculations accordingly.Unlike a gas gauge (which actually measures how much gas is actually left), the InfoLithium mechanism merely provides an estimate of how much power remains. This explains why you can still take a lot more pictures once the display shows 0% power left. But still, when you’re

Figure 2-20: A discharge curve for a Lithium-ion battery. That sharp downturn near the right (straight red line) is the point where the battery can no longer power the camera. In the olden days the camera had a poor idea of how close to the right the battery was getting, and so it would often show “Full” until very near the end. InfoLithium™ batteries have a “dead reckoning” feature which tracks how much energy has been used and can estimate how much remains.

shooting an important assignment having this additional indication of battery life available to you is certainly useful information.The Other BatteryThat’s right, your camera uses TWO different batteries! One is the NP-FM500H battery that you already know about; the other is an internal rechargeable battery that is soldered to the circuit board inside and is not user replaceable. This internal battery is used to keep track of the date and time even when the camera is off -- even if the battery is removed for months at a time.The battery naturally recharges itself by drawing on power from the NP-FM500H battery, or from when the camera is connected to the AC Adapter (described on page 363). If you tend to keep a fully-charged battery in your camera as I do (it’s always good to be prepared!), then you have nothing to fear – the internal battery will always have power and will be invisible to you. If, however, you leave the camera sitting on a shelf for more than 8 months without the NP-FM500H battery inside, then the internal battery will surely deplete and you’ll be prompted to set the date and time again when you finally turn the camera back on. Should the internal battery become depleted like this, keep a fully-charged NP-FM500H battery in the camera for 24 hours, and the internal battery will absorb enough power to keep the memory alive for

another eight months.In theory this internal battery will last forever; however just like any rechargeable battery its ability to hold a charge will diminish over time. Ten years from now, if you find that the camera constantly asks you to specify the date and time when you turn it on, you’ll know that it’s time to send the camera in and have that internal battery replaced by Sony.

Flash

If you’re an impatient user, here’s all you need to know about the built-in flash: If you keep the camera in either of the AUTO modes (or some of the SCENE modes which we haven’t talked about yet), it will pop up and fire automatically only if it thinks it’s warranted. But if you’re in P, A, S, or M mode, you’re in control and you can enable the flash on demand by pressing the Pop-Up Flash button (Figure 2-21).You should also know that the circuitry on the pop-up flash for the A65 and A77 are different than on previous Sony cameras. With previous cameras you’d have to wait between 1-5 seconds between shots for the flash to recharge. Here the internal capacitor is much larger, allowing you to take several shots with the pop-up flash in rapid-fire sequence. (The number of shots you can take all depends on a number of factors such as subject distance, ISO, ambient light, etc.) I was able to shoot 30 flash pictures in a row (space about ½ a second apart), which is pretty remarkable.That’s the good news. The bad news is if you try to shoot 31 you have to wait for the internal capacitor to recharge, which takes about 10-15 seconds even if you’re just using the pop-up flash to trigger the wireless flash (Chapter 12). Still pretty respectable for a pop-up flash!

TIP: The pop-up flash isn’t positioned very high above the lens, which means shots taken with it might be prone to red-eye, or shadows at the bottom of the frame might appear from lens shades or long lenses (including the kit lens). If this shadowing happens to you, the two ways to fix it are 1) zoom in to effectively “crop out” the shadow, or 2) use an accessory flash.

Flash Exposure AccuracyThere’s no easy way to say this. I’ve been using flash for decades, and my copies of the A65 and A77 are having problems. (Many don’t, so this may not affect you.) Both my cameras tend to overexpose the subject by about one stop compared to all my previous cameras, regardless of the flash being used. It happens whether I'm using the pop-up flash, the 58, or 56 flashes. It happens indoors and outdoors, bounced or not, with the electronic first curtain shutter feature enabled or

disabled, ADI or TTL. Firmware version 1.03 AND 1.04. It's frustrating, I tell you!Figure 2-22 shows some controlled studio test shots using the pop-up flash, the 58 flash mounted on the hot shoe, and the 56 flash set off wirelessly. The first row is the A77, the second row is the A65, and the third row is the A55 (but the last row could have been any other Sony or Minolta camera I own). See the difference?

Figure 2-22: The top row is the A77, the middle row is the A65, and the bottom row is the A55 (previous SLT camera). The A65 and A77 overexpose flash by about one stop compared to any previous camera I’ve owned.

The problem doesn't always happen. One of the first tests I did was to shoot a grey card with multiple cameras (and with multiple white balances, to test for a possible different issue that turned out to not be an issue) (Figure 2-23). Here I'm comparing an A700, A900, A55, A65, and A77 - all had perfectly consistent flash exposures. (The only surprise there was the A55, 65, and 77 exposed the ambient (left column) and flash (right three columns) differently. But the flash shots were all consistent with previous cameras!)

Flash Exposure Accuracy

Figure 2-23: Some tests show consistency across flash exposures. The left column is ambient light, whereas the next three are all with the flash on. Here The A65 and A77 produce the same flash exposure as the A55, A700, and A900. (I can’t believe I have all these high-end cameras just lying around!)

Figure 2-24: Out of the box, when trying to do fill-flash, there were many occasions when there was no consistency.

Wait, it gets worse. Out of the box the flash exposure accuracy is all over the map. (See more examples in Figure 2-24.) The variation amongst these shots (all with the same settings, all taken seconds apart) is much wider than what should be acceptable.Since it happens across cameras and across flashes I'm tempted to say it's a firmware issue, but a quick check with the Sony DSLR Forum on dpreview (http://tinyurl.com/6orqrrf) revealed that while some people shared this problem in a big way, others had perfectly exposed and consistent flash exposures at all times. (Scholarly comment: "Hmmmph!")So while I'm not sure what the root of the problem could be, I have found a solution. (Mostly.) When I set the Flash Exposure

Compensation to -1.0 or -1.3, the flash exposures match what the previous cameras produce (hence it behaves the way I expect it to), plus the large deviations in flash exposures goes away almost completely. Flash Exposure Compensation is discussed starting on page 152.

My Personal Camera SettingsI know there are a lot of features to absorb and settings to understand. And I’ll try to explain each one to you properly throughout the course of this book. But, I know from history that the most often-referenced part of my previous books has been “My Personal Camera Settings”, and so I’m including them here just to give you a jump-start and help walk you through some of the features at the same time. Of course I change these settings a lot depending on what I’m shooting, the light level, and the effect I want to achieve. But these represent my “standard” configuration.

Recording Menu 1

Function SettingImage Size L: 24 M (It’s always best to shoot at

the highest quality and resize later) (page 185)

Aspect Ratio 3:2 (I’d shoot 16:9 if I knew my work would only be seen on an HDTV. But 16:9 actually chops off part of the picture. More is better.) (page 187)

Quality Usually RAW+JPG (although for casual shots I’ll shoot either FINE (A65) or Extra Fine (A77). (page 188)

Panorama: Size Wide. (Available only when Panorama mode is selected on the exposure mode dial.) (page 190)

Panorama: Direction Either Right or Down depending on the aspect ratio I’d like to get. (page 190)

3D Pan.: Image Size Wide (available only when 3D Panorama mode is selected on the exposure mode dial) (page 190)

3D Pan.: Direction Right (or left, but I prefer right)

Recording Menu 2

Function SettingLong Exposure NR Reduces noise for exposures longer

than one second using a technique called Dark Frame Subtraction. On,

unless I’m shooting fireworks.

(page 197)High ISO NR Normal. (page 198)Flash Control ADI. ADI is only useful when the

flash is on top of your camera and pointing forward. The camera automatically switches to TTL at all other times.) (page 200)

Power ratio (A77 only) When “Flash Control” is set to “Manual flash” then this option is available, and then it only applies to the pop-up flash. (Setting would depend on my subject distance. If I were using traditional studio optical slaves I’d set it to 1/16th.) (page 203)

AF Illuminator This specifies whether any form of focusing aid should be used. I keep it set to AUTO. (page 204)

Color Space sRGB. AdobeRGB is for experts who probably won’t be reading this book. (page 206)

SteadyShot ON unless my camera’s on a tripod. (This setting applies to stills only.) (page 208)

Shooting Tip List (A65 only) (it’s not a setting – it just brings up a help guide.) (page 210)

Recording Menu 3 (A77 Only)

Function SettingExposure Step 0.3 EV (personal preference) (page

211)AF-A setup DMF. (Too long to explain here.

Read more on page 213.)Priority setup When set to AF, tells the camera to

not take a picture unless it thinks the subject is in focus. I’m a low-stress guy so I prefer “Release”. (page 215)

AF w/ shutter When set to “On”, pressing the shutter release button halfway engages the autofocus. (I like mine “On”. (page 216)

Memory Stores the current camera configuration into one of three memory slots. (page 218)

Movie Menu 1

Function SettingFile Format .mp4 (it’s either that or the more

difficult to deal with AVCHD.) (page 381)

Record Setting Choose more detail for the “File Format” setting above. If I have .mp4 selected, then I choose “1440 x 1080 12M”. (page 381 again)

Audio Recording Do you want audio with your video? I choose “On”. (page 392)

Wind Noise Reduct. Cuts out the lower frequencies where wind noise usually occurs. Usually I set this to OFF unless it’s actually windy. (page 393)

SteadyShot For movies only, which works on a completely different principle than SteadyShot for stills to avoid overheating problems of previous cameras. I set mine to “On”. (page 394)

Custom Menu 1

Function SettingEye-Start AF This function will initiate

autofocusing as soon as the EVF senses something close to it (like your eye). I set this to “Off” because it’s prone to too many false positives which wastes precious battery power. (page 221)

FINDER/LCD Setting AUTO will automatically switch between the rear LCD and the EVF. (page 224)

Red Eye Reduction I hate this feature. “Off”. (page 225)Release w/o Lens “Enable” because I like watching the

shutter work with the lens removed. Also I can attach a non-standard lens like a telescope (page 226).

Auto+ Cont. Shooting When in Auto+ mode (exposure mode dial), gives the camera permission to shoot more than one shot if it thinks the subject is moving. Although I never use Auto+

mode, I keep this set to “Auto”. (page 227)

Auto+ Image Extract. When in Auto+ mode (exposure mode dial), gives the camera permission to throw away all but the

good shot when it decided to shoot multiple exposures on its own. Although I never use Auto+ mode, I keep this set to “Auto”. (page 228)

Function SettingGrid Line You can have a compositional aid

grid appear superimposed over your live view image. I personally prefer “Rule of 3rds Grid”. (Page 229)

Auto Review Do you want the camera to show you the image you just took? If it didn’t have such long delay I’d say “Yes, for X many seconds”; however I keep it “Off” to reduce my stress. (page 231)

DISP Button (Monitor) Lets you specify which of several information screens to cycle through on the rear LCD each time you press the “DISP” button. (page 231)

DISP Button (Finder) Same as above, only it’s for the EVF.Peaking Level A great manual focusing aid – all the

high-contrast areas are “lit up” in Live View. I keep this set to “Mid”. (page 237)

Peaking Color Used in conjunction with Peaking Level above. Specifies which color to display when things are in focus. I prefer Yellow unless my subject is yellow. (page 237)

Live View Display Do you want live view to show you how your image will look before you shoot? Turn “Setting Effect ON”. (Turn it off if you’re shooting with studio strobes.) (page 239)

Custom Menu 3

Function SettingFunc. Of AEL button AEL Toggle. (Long story on this one.

See page 241)

ISO Button Lets you re-assign the ISO button. The ISO button is so useful I keep it set to “ISO” (page 244)

AF/MF button (A77 only) AF/MF Control Toggle. (You can set it to other things too.) (page 244)

Preview Button Shot. Result Preview (this lets you preview other things in addition to depth-of-field, such as lens correction and DRO.) (page 246)

Focus Hold Button Only a handful of lenses have this button mounted on the side; this function specifies what that button does. I never use that button, but if I did I’d keep it set to “Focus Hold”. (page 248)

Smart Telecon. Button “Focus Magnifier” (the other option crops the image when you shoot it, turning your expensive camera into a 12 Megapixel camera.) (page 249)

Custom Menu 4 (A77 only)

Function SettingCtrl dial setup This function lets you swap the roles

of the front and rear control dials. I prefer . (page 253)

Dial exp.comp This lets you reassign the front control dial to “Exposure compensation”, a customization I like very much. (page 255)

Exp.comp.set Do you want the exposure compensation function to adjust for ambient light only, or ambient and flash together? I prefer “Ambient Only” and I’ll control my flash intensity using the “Flash Exposure Compensation” in the Fn. Menu. (page 257)

Bracket order When bracketing 3 pictures in a row, use this order: 0 - + . (page 258)

AF drive speed “Slow” might yield more accurate

autofocusing; however in practice I surely can’t tell the difference. (page 259)

Custom Menu 4 (A65) or Custom Menu 5 (A77)

Function SettingLens Comp.: Shading Gets rid of vignetting in the corners

for known

lenses. I keep this set to “Auto”. (page 261)Lens Comp.: Chro. Aber. Gets rid of Chromatic Aberration for

known lenses. I prefer “Auto”. (page 262)

Lens Comp.: Distortion Corrects for distortion for known lenses. “Auto” is what I prefer. (page 262)

Front Curtain Shutter Long story on this one. Keep this set to “On” unless you’re experiencing occasional mysterious overexposures. (page 263)

Face Registration Tells your camera to give AF preference to the 8 faces you can register with this function. (page 265)

Playback menu 1

Function SettingDelete Delete one or many images. (page

267)View Mode Do you want to view stills, AVCHD

videos, or .mp4 videos? (You MUST pick one!) (page 269)

Slide Show Automatically runs through your still images every few seconds. Ideal when hooked up to an HDTV. (page 270)

3D Viewing Allows you to play back 3D pictures

taken with the 3D Sweep Panorama mode when you’re connected to a 3D TV. (page 276)

Protect Protect individual images from accidental deletion while they’re in the camera. (page 277)

Specify Printing Lets you control what gets printed when you hook up your camera or insert your memory card into a compatible inkjet printer. (page 278)

Playback menu 2

Function SettingVolume Settings How loud is the volume when

you’re playing back movies? (I set mine to “2”.) (page 279)

Playback Display “Manual Rotate” means I see every picture as large

as possible. (“Auto Rotate” will try to rotate vertical pictures and make them look smaller on the screen.) (page 280)

Memory Card menu 1

Function SettingFormat Quickly erases all images and

movies from the card. (page 281)File Number Specifies whether the camera resets

the file number scheme when you change memory cards. I prefer “Series”. (page 284)

Folder Name Lets you choose between a cryptic-looking folder name, and one containing the date the images were shot (but in a format that is not computer-sortable). I prefer “Standard Form”. (page 285)

Select REC Folder If there is more than one directory for holding still images on the memory card, this function lets you choose which one future images will

be stored in. (page 288)New Folder Create a new folder to hold new

stills. (page 288)Recover Image DB Attempts to recover from a

corrupted AVCHD movie database while it’s still on the card. (page 289)

Display Card Space Shows you how many more stills can fit on the card, or how many more minutes of video will fit using current settings. (page 290)

Time / Date Settings 1

Function SettingDate/Time Setup Lets you set the date and time. (Not

needed if GPS is enabled.) (page 291)

Area Setting Lets the camera know what time zone you’re in. (Not needed if GPS is enabled.) (page 291)

Setup menu 1

Function SettingMenu Start Do you want to the camera to take

you to the last-used MENU setting each time you press the button? I do, so I choose “Previous”. (page 293)

LCD Brightness I prefer “Manual” set to +1. (Otherwise the display brightness changes a lot outdoors, making it really hard to evaluate your image quality.) (page 294)

Viewfinder Bright. I also prefer “Manual” set to +1 (as bright as it gets) otherwise the EVF looks too dark to me. (page 295)

GPS Settings OFF (to save batteries) unless I’m on a trip. (page 295)

Power Save How long before the camera goes into “sleep” mode? My preference is 10 seconds. (page 301)

HDMI Resolution This function exists in case your TV and your camera can’t figure each other out upon initial connection. I

keep this on “Auto”. (page 303)CTRL for HDMI Enables the ability for your big

screen’s remote control to control your camera. I keep this set to “On”. (page 304)

Setup menu 2

Function SettingUSB Connection How do you want your camera to

appear to your computer when tethered via USB? I go for “Mass Storage” and I explain why on page 305.

Audio Signals Enables / Disables audio feedback during camera operation. I prefer my camera to remain quiet (“Off”). (page 307)

Cleaning Mode Vigorously shakes the sensor in order to loosen (and hopefully shake off) any dust particles that might have migrated behind the fixed mirror. (page 308)

Delete confirm. (A77 only) This can save you one step when deleting an image from the memory card. I prefer “’Delete’ first”. (page 314)

AF Micro Adj. (a77 only) Invokes a feature which can correct for focusing problems when using certain lenses. (page 315)

Upload settings (Eye-Fi card only) Enables or disables transmitting for a 3rd party SD card called “Eye-Fi”. (Keep it on unless you’re on an airplane.) (page 322)

Setup menu 3 Function SettingVersion Lets you know the firmware version

of your camera. (As of this writing it ought to be v1.04.) (page 322)

Language Duh! (page 323)Mode Dial Guide OffDemo Mode Always greyed out. Is designed for

retailers. You can safely ignore this.Initialize Resets some or all of the camera’s

settings (page 325).

Fn Menu Function SettingDrive Mode “Single Shooting”, unless I’m

shooting either sports or grandchildren, in which case it’s “Continuous” (with a lot of image deletions afterward). (Page 113.)

Flash Mode I oscillate between “Fill-Flash” and “Wireless”. (Page 121.)

Autofocus Mode (A65 Only) I usually keep it set to AF-S (Single-shot AF) unless I’m shooting sports, in which case I set it to AF-C (Continuous). I never let the camera decide (which is the AF-A setting). (Page 127.)

AF Area My default setting is “Wide”. I’ll change it when specific situations come up. (Page 129.)

Object Tracking Off. (Not a useful feature in my mind.) When set to “Off” the center button between the arrow keys becomes a spot AF button, so I can go from Wide

Area AF to Spot AF instantly. (Page 133.)Face Detection “On” (This is a useful feature!) (Page

135.)Smile Shutter “Off” (Page 137.)ISO My default setting is usually Auto,

then that’s one of the first things I’ll change in the process of making the shot better. (Page 139.)

Metering Mode Multi-Segment. (If the lighting is tricky, I’ve configured the AEL button to go into spot metering mode as soon as I hit it. So there’s never a reason to change this setting.) (Page 146.)

Flash Comp. Ideally it should be set to +/- 0; however my cameras experienced a problem with flash exposure accuracy which, strangely enough, was corrected when I set this to -1.0 or -1.3. (More about this on page 402.) (Page 152.)

White Balance I keep this on AWB as my default. If the lighting is tricky, I’ll use Custom White Balance. (Page 153.)

DRO / Auto HDR My default setting is DRO Auto (which is the factory default). (The chapter on this topic starts on page 449.)

Creative Style I keep mine set to “Std” (Standard).

My preference is to do any image tweaking by computer rather than using these Creative Style settings. (Page 163.)

Picture Effect “Off”. (See above explanation for “Creative Style”). (Page 176.)

Well, that’s about it for the general introduction. Now, on to specifics!

Chapter 3 The Function (Fn) Functions Drive Mode Menu Position Fn Drive Mode What it Does Lets you specify how the camera behaves if you keep your finger held down on the shutter release button Recommended Setting “Single” as the default setting for day-to-day use, unless I’m shooting kids or sports, in which case it’s “Continuous Hi” The term “Drive” is derived from the old “motor drive” accessory from the film camera days, and is used now to generally specify how the camera advances shot-to-shot. There are two ways to invoke the Drive Mode menu: The first is to use Fn Drive Mode and the other is push your camera’s dedicated button (Figure 3-1). You can then use the UP and DOWN of the Multi-Selector (or the front control dial) to select from several options. In some cases, once you choose a drive mode you can tweak its characteristics by using the LEFT and RIGHT multi-selector positions. The various modes are described below.

Figure 3-1: The drive mode buttons (A77, A65) and screen.

TIP: The drive mode menu is greyed out if you’re in HDR (page 462) or MFNR mode (page 141).

Single-Shot AdvanceThis is the most basic mode, which works like a point-and-shoot does. Single Shot will take only one picture, no matter how long your finger stays on the shutter release button. Continuous Advance You can think of “continuous advance” as a modern-day equivalent of a motor drive – if you hold the shutter release button down, the camera will continue to take picture after picture after picture as fast as it can until the memory card is full. “Hi” Continuous Advance mode will capture images as fast as 8 pictures per second until the buffer is full (at which point the camera pauses as it writes images to the memory card. The faster the memory card, the faster room for one more image will open up and the camera shoots again). If autofocus is enabled, the camera will autofocus before each image. When you select Continuous Advance, you can use the multi-selector’s LEFT and RIGHT position to choose from either “Hi” (up to 8 frames per second), or “Lo” (up to 3 pictures per second). A

sports photographer can tell you that there will be times when shooting more slowly is more advantageous, and is in better keeping with the pace of activity. Note that this mode is different from the camera’s top shooting speed

TIP: If you’re shooting objects that are moving extremely fast, there’s one thing you should know: When you’re shooting in Continuous – Lo (3 pictures per second), the camera will show you live view between shots. When you’re shooting Continuous – Hi (8 pps), the camera will show you the image you just shot between frames. (This is true with Continuous Advance Priority AE mode as well.) I’ve seen this characteristic derided on more than one camera review site, but I have to tell you it certainly hasn’t affected my sports shooting in a negative way. When you’re shooting that quickly the image you just took is pretty much identical to the image you’re going to take.

(formally called “Continuous Advance Priority AE”) which can only be invoked from the exposure mode dial and is discussed in greater detail on page 337. 10s and 2s Self-TimersThere are actually two self-timer durations. The first one, with a delay of 10 seconds, is ideal for the typical group shot scenario. The second one is a 2-second delay that’s designed for macro photography – you’re behind a tripod, taking lots of pictures in a row, you don’t want your finger-on-the-shutter-release action to induce vibration in the camera, and you’re too impatient to wait a full 10 seconds for every shot. (In situations like these you could also use a remote release (also called a “cable release”) like the optional RM-S1AM or the Minolta RC-1000L or the infrared remote commander described starting on page 357. It’s good to have choices!) Bracketing Bracketing was a concept that was very useful in the days of film – specifically when shooting transparencies, where you had to really nail the exposure in-camera and there was no such thing as post-processing. While in the days of shooting slide film this was an important function, in the era of digital (where you can see a preview of exactly how it will come out before you shoot, and /or examine the results immediately afterward, and whose output you can tweak in Photoshop) its usefulness is pretty muted. It can be handy for making High-Dynamic Range images the old fashioned way, but only the A77 gives you enough bracketing range to make Bracketing useful for that function. For the A65, the Bracketing function automatically takes a sequence of 3 shots whose exposure is tweaked by either 1/3 of a stop (“0.3 EV”) or 2/3 of a stop (“0.7 EV”). For the A77, the Bracketing function automatically takes a sequence of 3 or 5 shots whose exposure is tweaked by either 1/3 of a stop (“0.3 EV”), ½ stop (“0.5 EV”), 2/3 of a stop (“0.7 EV”), 2 full stops (“2.0 EV”), or 3 full stops (“3.0 EV”). Those last two functions – bracketing by two stops, and bracketing by three stops – are useful for HDR imaging – more about that in a minute.

Figure 3-2: Exposure Bracketing Example. Automatic bracketing can help you make sure you have the best exposure when you don’t have a lot of time. It is also very handy for do-it-yourself High Dynamic Range (HDR) images.

While in bracketing mode, when you take three pictures in a row, the first will be exposed according to the camera’s recommendation; the second will be underexposed by the amount chosen, and the third will be overexposed by the amount chosen. Taking five pictures does the same thing in the same order, except you are shooting two more images, one even more underexposed, and one even more overexposed. Bracketing mode remains in effect until you turn it off.

You’ll notice that your camera has TWO bracketing modes – one labeled “BRK S” (Single) and the other labeled “BRK C” (Continuous). For the “Single”, you must depress the shutter release button three separate times in order to capture the three bracketed exposures. For Continuous, press and hold the shutter release button, and the camera will take three bracketed pictures as described above. So, to summarize, when choosing a bracketing mode you have three different parameters to specify: Single or Continuous 0.3 or 0.7 stops apart for the A65 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, 2.0 or 3.0 EV stops apart for the A77 3 frames or 5 frames for the A77 (5 frames not available when choosing 2.0 or 3.0 EV)

And that is the reason so many different permutations appear to you as you select from the Bracketing mode menu. To choose among them, first use UP and DOWN to select either BRK-C or BRK-S, and then use LEFT and RIGHT to choose the icon containing the other two parameters.

TIP: On the A77 (only) you can also change the bracketing order by doing MENU 4 Bracket order [Choose from “Normal – Under –Over” and “Under – Normal – Over”].

Bracketing for HDR(A77 only)As mentioned earlier, the A77 has the ability to do automatic bracketing using a much greater range than the 0.3 EV and 0.7 EV of the A65. It can bracket 3 pictures, each spaced two or three full stops apart in either Bracket-Single or Bracket-Continuous mode. This is designed for High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography – specifically for those people who want to do it themselves and not rely on the camera’s über-convenient built-in HDR function. To do HDR photography on your own, you put the camera on a tripod and take three pictures, each two or three stops apart, and then you merge them on your computer once you get back home using special software. Conventional HDR photography is a large subject, and I talk about it more (and walk you through how to do it) in my “Advanced Topics 2” e-booklet, which can be purchased at www.FriedmanArchives.com/ebooks . But don’t forget that your camera now has this function built-in (described in Chapter 13 starting on page 449) so you may want to try that method first.

TIP: When in Bracketing – Single mode, your camera will show you what each exposure will look like before you shoot. So don’t be alarmed if your viewfinder looks a little dark or light sometimes – remember, you told your camera to do this! Also, if you have an A77, if you’re in Bracketing mode you’ll be reminded of this in the top LCD status screen.

What exactly changes when you bracket?I already said that the camera will underexpose and overexpose an image when you bracket. How does it do this – by changing the f/stop, shutter speed, or ISO? The answer depends upon what exposure mode you’re in: In Aperture Priority exposure mode, the camera keeps the aperture constant and changes the shutter speed.

In Shutter Priority exposure mode, the camera keeps the shutter speed constant and changes the f/stop. If the camera reaches the end of its f/stop range (for example, if you’re shooting in low light and have the shutter speed set to 1/1,000th of a second), the camera will still take multiple pictures, but they may all have the same exposure.

In Program exposure mode, the camera modifies both the f/stop and shutter speed.

In Manual exposure mode, the camera modifies the shutter speed, unless you activate the AEL button, in which case it modifies the f/stop.

When you use a flash, the f/stop and shutter speed remain constant across all bracketed images – it is the flash burst that is adjusted. And, because the camera designers were afraid that the flash wouldn’t be able to recycle in time, when you’re bracketing with flash the camera automatically switches to Bracketing – Single mode (even if you had specifically told it to shoot Bracketing – Continuous). White Balance BracketingJust as it’s tough to assess whether the exposure is perfect out in the field (driving the need for exposure bracketing), so too can you sometimes be unsure about the Auto White Balance setting. White Balance Bracketing will take ONE image and store it three different ways: “Normal” (the way the camera would normally shoot the image), a little on the blue side, and a little on the yellow side, as shown in Figure 3-3.

In Shutter Priority exposure mode, the camera keeps the shutter speed constant and changes the f/stop. If the camera reaches the end of its f/stop range (for example, if you’re shooting in low light and have the shutter speed set to 1/1,000th of a second), the camera will still take multiple pictures, but they may all have the same exposure.

In Program exposure mode, the camera modifies both the f/stop and shutter speed.

In Manual exposure mode, the camera modifies the shutter speed, unless you activate the AEL button, in which case it modifies the f/stop.

When you use a flash, the f/stop and shutter speed remain constant across all bracketed images – it is the flash burst that is adjusted. And, because the camera designers were afraid that the flash wouldn’t be able to recycle in time, when you’re bracketing with flash the camera automatically switches to Bracketing – Single mode (even if you had specifically told it to shoot Bracketing – Continuous). White Balance BracketingJust as it’s tough to assess whether the exposure is perfect out in the field (driving the need for exposure bracketing), so too can you sometimes be unsure about the Auto White Balance setting. White Balance Bracketing will take ONE image and store it three different ways: “Normal” (the way the camera would normally shoot the image), a little on the blue side, and a little on the yellow side, as shown in Figure 3-3.

TIP: I strongly prefer either using Custom White Balance (page 160) or shooting RAW and choosing the right white balance at my computer. I’ve never seen a situation where WB bracketing gave me a better result.

DRO Adv. BracketChapter 13 discusses the very useful Dynamic Range Optimization function, which starts on page 449. DRO ADVanced Bracketing mode is useful if you’re not sure which manual DRO setting to use. With this setting set to “Hi 3”, the camera takes one picture but saves 3 different images, each taken with the equivalent Level 1, 3, and 5 to the image. With “Lo 3”, the Camera will apply Level 1, 2, and 3 to the image.

TIP: Shooting RAW+JPG, combined with DRO Bracketing as described above, will result in SIX files on your memory card for every single click of the shutter: three JPG files (each with different levels of DRO applied), and three identical RAW files (with only slightly different file sizes – that’s due to the different EXIF information and thumbnail contained within the file). (And the memory card access light stays on for a long time!)

Infrared Remote CommanderWant another option to have the camera trigger without you physically pressing the button? Sony also sells an optional Wireless Remote Control which works with both cameras (Figure 3-4). The A65 and A77 have an infrared receiver built-into the camera’s grip, but to conserve power this receiver is OFF by default. To turn it ON you have to enable the last option in the Drive Mode menu. Notice that this function is mutually exclusive – you can’t use the Infrared remote control and, say, the 10-second self timer at the same time. It’s one function or the other. Once enabled, only two buttons on the remote control will function: The one labeled “Shutter” (which works like a remote shutter release), and the one marked “2 sec” (which will fire the shutter after a 2-second delay – this is handy when you want to be in the group shot but don’t want the shot to show you pointing the remote at the camera ). The rest of the buttons are useful for when your camera is attached to a TV and you’re playing back your images through an HDMI cable (which I discuss starting on page 270).

Figure 3-4: The Infrared Remote Commander (sold separately) is a device that can improve the sharpness of time exposures when you use shaky tripods on windy nights. To use it, you must first enable the camera’s IR receiver (built into the hand grip) via the Drive Mode menu.

The infrared remote commander has a limited range – maybe 20 feet or so indoors, and as little as 5 feet outdoors on a bright day. So if it doesn’t work for you, at least you have the 10 second self-timer to fall back on.

TIP: When you use the remote shutter release (either the “shutter” or the “2 sec” button), the camera will autofocus first before it takes the picture. If it can’t find focus, it won’t take a picture. (A77 owners can disable that behavior and have the camera shoot right away by invoking MENU 3 Priority setup Release. ) ALSO: When your camera is in Remote Commander mode, the camera remains in a high state of alert – the computer never goes to “sleep”, and the rear display stays on full-blast. This will drain your battery in a hurry, so be sure to take your camera OUT of Remote Commander mode as soon as you are finished!

Flash Mode Menu Position Fn Flash Mode What it Does Chooses between Auto, Fill Flash, and some specialty flash settings Recommended Setting I alternate between “Fill Flash” and “Wireless Flash” No Flash I probably don’t have to describe what this does. I probably should mention, though, that this option will be greyed out if you’re in P/A/S/M modes. (In those modes, the flash will only fire if you pop it up. You’re in control!) Auto FlashSimilar to the above – this function will be greyed out unless you’re in Auto / Auto+, Portrait, and Macro modes. (Pages 78, 80, 329, and 332 respectively.) Basically, when in Autoflash mode the camera decides whether to use the flash or not, and when it decides to do so it behaves according to the “Fill Flash” behavior described below.

Figure 3-5: Flash mode (top) can also be used to better capture close action and to give your subjects better illumination. To get this shot I left bread crumbs on the back of a boat that was going close to shore and waited.

Fill FlashFill-flash is the “default” flash mode and the way it behaves depends on how much light there is in the scene. Normally, the camera makes the assumption that the flash (either the built-in pop-up flash or a larger accessory flash) will be providing the only source of light. If you are shooting a dance party in a darkened room this is not a bad assumption and the images will come out well-exposed (well… the subjects will be well-exposed, and the backgrounds black.) But, when the majority of the subject’s illumination comes from another source (usually the sun), then the flash gives only a tiny burst of light, just enough to lighten the shadows a little bit (see Figure 3-6). Your camera automatically switches between these two modes when in AutoFlash and Fill-Flash mode. The best time to use it is when your subject is too dark (even if it’s bright outside!) For example, in Figure 3-6, the light was poor and the subject (the face of the fisherman) was in shade, under his hat. It looked fine to me when I was standing there, but because cameras don’t see the same range of light as the human eye, fill-flash was in order.

Figure 3-6: Portrait with and without fill flash.

What’s the difference between Auto Flash and Fill Flash, then? One difference only: With Auto Flash, the camera will decide when the flash should be used (and will pop it up automatically); whereas in Fill Flash mode, it is the user (YOU!) who makes that choice and the camera will blindly obey. In Auto Flash, even when the flash is up it will only fire when the camera thinks it’s necessary; whereas with Fill Flash, when the flash is popped up it will ALWAYS fire.

Rear SyncRear Sync is an indispensable tool for certain kinds of shots where ambient light (with longish shutter speeds) is combined with flash. The classic image is a person running in a marathon, with a “ghost” trail behind them. When you use a fast shutter speed, flash pictures are easy: The exposure starts, the flash goes off, and the exposure stops. Not too hard. But, what if you kept the shutter open for several seconds and you wanted to use the flash? When should the flash fire – at the beginning of the exposure, or at the end, coinciding with the 2nd or “rear” shutter curtain? Most cameras will only fire the flash at the beginning of the exposure. The Rear-Sync function tells the camera to select the second option: fire the flash near the end of

the exposure, at a time when the rear shutter curtain would close. When would you want to do this? See Figure 3-8.

Figure 3-8: Examples of Normal (left) and Rear (right) Flash Sync The idea is that you can control leading or trailing light when you’re using both long shutter speeds (ambient) and flash on a moving subject. Rear sync (right) allows the pedestrian’s trail to show up behind him, whereas with normal settings (left) the trail appears in front of him! Who wants that? For this shot, the shutter speed was set to 1.5 seconds to capture the motion, and the flash still went off to freeze the subject – hence we have both a blur and a “frozen” subject all in the same shot. (This test sequence also illustrates why photographers hire beautiful models to show off certain features rather than using ordinary-looking people. )

TIP: There’s another, rather whimsical graphical method of selecting Function options. Just select Fn [Choose a category] and then use the camera’s front control wheel (below the shutter release button) to change settings. You’ll see the values scroll across the top in a very cool way.

Wireless FlashWireless Mode was designed around this simple concept: flash pictures can often look much more dramatic and professional if the light is coming from someplace OTHER than where the camera is. In the old days, having a flash work properly while off the camera involved a lot of hocus-pocus and technical mumbo-jumbo. In the early 1990s, Minolta developed a brilliant system where the flash could be removed from the camera and placed elsewhere in the room, pointing toward your subject, and firing automatically as if it were still attached to the top of your camera, all with automatic exposure!! (See Figure 3-9.) How does it work? When in Wireless mode, the pop-up flash doesn’t even attempt to illuminate the subject. Instead, it sends out tiny little bursts of light of negligible brightness – kind of like a Morse code – to tell other flashes (which are sitting off-camera), when to turn on and off. This is such an important and useful feature that I have actually dedicated an entire chapter to this subject. Please see Chapter 12 to get a taste of the realm of possibilities that this innovation offers you (and how to use it).

Slow Sync Flash (A77 only -not in the menu)This does EXACTLY the same thing as Night Portrait mode (page 335) – that is, when you take a flash picture at night, instead of the shutter speed defaulting to 1/60th of a second, it will be whatever it would normally be had the flash not been enabled. That way you can “burn in” your ambient light yet still illuminate your subject via the flash.

Figure 3-9: Sample of Wireless Flash image. With the flash off-camera, you can produce shadows giving dramatic results!

The only difference between this and the Night Portrait function is that with the slow sync function, you can change important parameters like ISO, white balance, exposure compensation, etc. To invoke the Slow Sync function, set up a flash shot as you normally would in P/A/S/M mode and then press and hold the AEL button (Figure 3-10) while you’re taking the picture. (Don’t want to hold it down? You can invoke MENU 3 Func. Of AEL button AEL toggle so you can press it once to engage the function, and press it again to cancel it.)

Figure 3-10: Pressing the AEL button during a flash picture will “drag the shutter” and give you a long nighttime exposure.

Figure 3-11: That Slow-Sync function you always wondered about will help you balance out the light from the flash and allow the background light (dim as it may be) to show up brighter than if your camera were simply on Auto mode.

Autofocus Mode (A65 Only) Menu Position Fn Autofocus Mode What it Does Chooses which of 3 autofocus modes to enter: Single (AF-S), Continuous (AF-C), or Auto (the camera chooses, AF-A) Recommended Setting AF-S, unless you’re shooting sports or kids, in which case use AF-C (I don’t trust AF-A – it guesses wrong too often for my tastes) NOTE: On the A77 (only), this function is handled via the Focus Mode Knob near the base of the lens. It’s discussed on page 351, however for the most part that section just refers to this page.) Recall the factory default for focusing modes is “Focus on a subject, and then lock focus until I take the picture”. This is called “Single Shot AF” (AutoFocus) mode, and is denoted by the letter “S”. The camera also has a “Continuous AF” mode setting (denoted by the letter “C”), which can be used when you’re shooting sports (or anything that moves). When this mode is enabled you are essentially telling the camera “my subject is moving. Even when you’ve found focus, keep trying to focus on the subject because my subject will not stay still!” Keep in mind that in Continuous mode, once the camera achieves autofocus, it will not give you a steady green light and an audible “chirp”. Instead, it will continue to track and refocus (the subject is moving after all, right?) in an attempt to keep the subject in focus until the final shot is taken. You can always tell when you’re in Continuous focus mode, because the green focus indicator along the bottom left corner of the screen is surrounded by two sets of parentheses, which is supposed to convey movement.

What does the “A” setting do? It “A”utomatically switches between “S” and “C” modes – the camera uses its own native intelligence to lock onto a subject, and then continues to re-evaluate whether that same subject is changing distances. If such motion is detected the camera automatically switches to “C” mode and starts to track the subject. “A” focusing mode is the factory default; it is designed to have you futz with the Focus Mode as little as possible. It is also the focusing mode your camera uses when you set the exposure dial to Green AUTO or AUTO+. 128 The Function (Fn) Functions Contents of this book Copyright © 2012 Gary L. Friedman. All rights reserved.

Although the “A” setting is convenient for those who don’t wish to futz with their camera settings a lot, sometimes the camera thinks that a stationary subject is actually moving, thereby delaying what otherwise should be a fast picture-taking operation. It doesn’t happen often, but is truly annoying when it does. Advice: use “Single” mode as your default setting, unless you’re shooting sports or other moving objects, in which case you should manually invoke “Continuous” mode. Avoid “A” focusing mode if you can.

TIP: As a shortcut, when you put the camera into Sports Action mode (page 330), the camera automatically invokes wide area focus for you. However, unlike previous cameras, it will not automatically invoke Continuous AF (AF-C) mode for you – you must do it yourself.

AF Area Menu Position Fn AF Area What it Does Helps the camera decide which focusing point to use Recommended Setting “Wide” and use the center of the multi-selector when you want to quickly switch to Spot AF (This requires turning Object Tracking off) WideFigure 3-12: Choosing an Autofocus selection scheme.

WideThe A77 has 19 autofocus points (15 for the A65) which are visible in the viewfinder, and when you have this variable set to “Wide”, then the camera gets to decide which of the focusing points contains the subject, and to focus on that subject (and not on other objects behind other focusing points). The truth is, the camera has no idea what to focus on. It has to guess. My personal tests indicate that the camera will actually measure the subject-to-camera distance behind each of the focusing points, compares them, and then chooses the closest object as the subject. The good news is, if you have Face Detection enabled (Fn Face Detection On – the factory default) and there are people in your picture, then the camera will choose the focusing point closest to the recognized face and the camera will almost never guess the wrong focus point. Ideal for shooting children! (And I say this as a veteran of the old focus-lock-recompose-shoot school. I used to miss priceless expressions that way.) ZoneThis is a new feature, and was borrowed from some high-end Canon cameras. It’s a compromise between wide angle and spot focus –

here you only have to enable one of three autofocus zones (Figure 3-13) and the camera will choose one of the AF points within that zone. Moving the multi-selector left or right will change

zones. I’ve found that a very good use for this feature is while making family videos (formerly called “home movies” ). Face Detection doesn’t work in video mode and so the AF logic needs some help in this mode. Zone focus works differently for the A65 and A77. To use it on the A65: 1. Fn AF Area Zone (hit the center button to select). Alternatively, if Object Tracking is disabled you can just push the center of the multi-selector to enter this mode. 2. Use the multi-selector to choose the left, right, or middle zone. 3. Hit the center button to select. 4. Your zone is now set. If you want to change it, go back to step 1.

Figure 3-13: Choosing AF Area – Zone takes the entire AF area and divides it into three vertical zones. I’ve found this most useful when shooting family videos.

Not in the Manual: I used to prefer using only the “Spot Area”, because I’ve been using the Focus Recompose Shoot method for over 20 years and I found it to be much faster than selecting focusing points via the Multi-Selector. Nowadays, I find myself using Wide Area focus instead and taking advantage of a feature which is not discussed in the instruction manual: When you’re in Wide AF mode, you can press the center of the multi-selector to instantly switch to spot-focusing mode. The best of both worlds! (Holding the multi-selector button down constitutes a kind of focus-lock, at which time the shutter release button has no effect on focusing. So your thumb acts as autofocus lock, and your index finger then takes the picture. Teamwork!) This feature works for zone focus mode as well. (more) In order to have this feature work, though, you have to disable Object Tracking (Fn Object Tracking Off). Then the center button of the multi-selector will take you instantly to Spot Focus mode. (And if you were in AF-C before, invoking that button will also temporarily invoke AF-S for as long as you hold that button down.)

To use Zone focusing on the A77: 1. Fn AF Area Zone (hit the center button to select) 2. That’s it. Go about shooting. To change your zone, just use the multi-selector to go left or right.

I found zone focus to be much easier on the photographer than spot focusing in movie mode (spot focusing produces a lot of jarring). Just move the joystick during filming mode and the camera will take care of the rest. Spot“Spot” uses ONLY the center focus point, ignoring all others. Like spot metering, it’s useful in difficult situations where the camera’s automation just fails. I gave an example back in Chapter 2 (specifically, Figure 2-15). Local“Local” lets YOU choose which of the focus points to use via the Multi-Selector (which you can quickly change at any time). And again, the two cameras implement this function slightly differently: To use it on the A65:

1. Fn AF Area Local (hit the center button to select) 2. Use the multi-selector to choose your focus point.

Figure 3-14: Focus points (squares) for the A77 (left) and A65 (right). The red focus points actually contains TWO focusing sensors oriented perpendicular to each other, making it twice as likely to find contrast if used.

TIP: When in Local Focus Area mode, if Object Tracking is disabled, then hitting the center of the multi-multi-selector will select the center focus point. (No surprise there.) But unlike Wide Area or Zone modes, releasing that button will not restore the previous focus point. You’ll have to select it again.

TIP (A77 only): The A77’s multi-selector makes it extremely easy to accidentally change the focusing point when AF Area is set to LOCAL. (Just sayin’…)