Well the new A580 has officially replaced the A550 - I've had my first week of test shots, and got the JPGs tuned up, tried out the high ISO...I must admit that the already excellent A550 has indeed been improved upon - the sensor is noticeably better at the higher ISOs, and processing better in the mid-ISOs, the focus speed is up a notch, the body is tighter, the controls are improved, and I'm happy! For those of you who have the Sony 16MP sensor, or were considering one (Pentax K5, Nikon D5100, Nikon D7000, Sony A55, Sony NEX-5N), I strongly recommend it! ; Quite a lovely sensor they've developed here, and very stable and capable at high ISO, even straight from the JPGs (RAW will go even further, as the noise profile of this sensor is excellent - very low chroma, no blotchiness, fine-grained lumi noise). Some of my first test shot samples with the new camera - I only had some nighttime around my house, one very overcast day shooting birds, and one afternoon this weekend in my yard. ISO12800 (yes, 12800!): ISO6400 handheld, 11pm at night in my backyard: Here's a 100% crop from the tiny little center area, just to see the noise of the camera and the detail retention especially in shadow which is quite good for APS-C - it's a wee bit soft due to my manual focus. ; To me, this is surprisingly clean for ISO6400 with very good detail - a good NR software, or a properly processed RAW file, would be quite usable even for large prints: ISO1600 in overcast and shadow light: ISO6400 handheld: ISO1600, super shallow DOF: ISO500, overcast: These were all shot as JPGs, straight from the camera, no post processing. ; High ISO NR was set to 'weak', JPGs set to 'vivid', with contrast 0, sharpening +1, and saturation -1. ; Center-weighted metering, -.3 EV, spot focus. ; Now, can't wait to get on my 2-week vacation starting this weekend! ; And to have much more time to shoot with the camera, which I won't for the rest of this week.
Those are some great shots Justin! ; Me being me and not knowing much when it comes to the technical mumbo-jumbo, I have a D7000, so are you saying my camera has the same sensor? ; I know I get some good shots at high ISO, but these look great!
Yep - you've got the very same sensor in there! ; Crank up the high ISO and enjoy. ; A little noise cleanup at ISO6400 - 25600 should make them usable, and straight from the camera, as long as you properly expose, your camera should have no problem whatsoever up through ISO5000+.
Enjoy your last of an era OVF camera there Justin. ; Stories are coming out of Japan that the king of OVF has ceased production.....
