Sony A33 - Any Opinions?

[dougp]

nice pug! i stare at you!

She's a bugg, not a pug! 🙂

1/2 Boston and 1/2 Pug - we were looking at a puggle when she arrived at the pug rescue. Her right ear is stuck in a permanent flop, and her tail is all kinds of jacked up - has two 45-90* angles in it!

 

[twistedlogic]

Lol, how come its our poor helpless animals that get subjected to the first few shutter actuations. Glad to see its not a cat though, 😛

Congrats.

I don't have a pug but I do share in the misery of trying to properly expose a black dog,

 

[Roberts Rob]

^^^ the A33/A55 was pretty tempting to me (really really dig the continuous-AF during video recording), but it would be hard to convince my wife to have me turn around the T2i haha

Also, the T2i's limited to 12 min per recording because that's when it hits 4gb file size (16gb = 48min), not because of overheating

AcumaX: The reason behind this 4gb file size recording limit is EXACTLY to prevent serious overheating of the sensor - no camera in this class can escape this. In fact, if you are shooting in 85 degree weather, you will get twice as long movie time with the A33 than with the T2i, if you turn the image stabilization off, as it is recommended by Sony.

And, as the a55 will ''overheat'' more than the a33 because of the higher sensor pixel count, the Canon will also overheat faster!

The Canon probably has a self-off mode when getting close to camera damage, like the Sony, but the Sony has no file-size limit.

It's all pretty academic though for me, as even when I used a camcorder, I only shot short durations of less than a minute or two....

 

[dougp]

Lol, how come its our poor helpless animals that get subjected to the first few shutter actuations. Glad to see its not a cat though, 😛

Congrats.

I don't have a pug but I do share in the misery of trying to properly expose a black dog,

I plan on getting a diffuser for the pop-up flash, which should help the hard light throw, and even help the shadows caused by natural light. But yes, my dog is a pain to get a good photo of and bring out her details. But then again, if it wasn't for the whites in her eyes, I'd lose her in the back of the car at night!

 

[AkumaX]

AkumaX: The reason behind this 4gb file size recording limit is EXACTLY to prevent serious overheating of the sensor - no camera in this class can escape this. In fact, if you are shooting in 85 degree weather, you will get twice as long movie time with the A33 than with the T2i, if you turn the image stabilization off, as it is recommended by Sony.

Uhhh... the 4gb file size limit is a limitation of the FAT32 file system...

 

[Roberts Rob]

Nice dog!

 

[AkumaX]

Lol, how come its our poor helpless animals that get subjected to the first few shutter actuations. Glad to see its not a cat though, 😛

Congrats.

I don't have a pug but I do share in the misery of trying to properly expose a black dog

Much misery, indeed >_<

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

BTW, the comment directed at the 18-55mm kit lenses from Nikon and Canon are false. Even the best L lenses from Canon have trouble beating out the 18-55mm. Look at MTF Charts at Photozone.de if you don't believe.

Or maybe you can be like me and spend $1000 on the revered 17-55mm f/2.8 IS lens only to find that it's about the same in terms of sharpness as the 18-55mm kit lens.

 

[dougp]

I also need to say - I mostly went with the A33 because I felt it fit my hands better than the D3100 or T2i. I didn't get a chance to play with a K-r, but I wasn't fond of the K-x that I held at Walmart.

 

[MercenaryYoureFired]

Sony is a no-brainer, etc.

I don't see how the Sony is a "no-brainer", pretty much every review rates the T2i higher than the Sony. In fact, most reviewers personally recommend the T2i more when directly compared to the Alpha series. They're both great cameras, but to say that the Sony is a no-brainer is ridiculous.

Either way, you can't go wrong with either of them, and yeah the feel of the camera in your hand will definitely affect how much you like it. It's a lot about personal preference when it comes to these cameras.

 

[AkumaX]

the 7x zoom you can do in the EVF for the A33/A55 is a pretty useful feature

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

is it a true 7x zoom or is a blown up version of the mini image?

The Nikon D3100 allows you to blow up the zoom in the VF, but it's not like Canon's live view. A blown up pixelated version doesn't really help with AF....

 

[AkumaX]

is it a true 7x zoom or is a blown up version of the mini image?

The Nikon D3100 allows you to blow up the zoom in the VF, but it's not like Canon's live view. A blown up pixelated version doesn't really help with AF....

It's blown up. It helps in MF, though. It has 2 modes, 7x and 14x zoom. I use it with the Canon (which has 5x and 10x zoom) on MF when taking a shot in low light. However, you'd have to use the Live View Screen to do it, but with the Sony EVF, it's very interesting 😉