Sony A77 II review

Video quality was excellent, with rich colours, sharp details and responsive autofocus. We spotted occasional compression artefacts in the AVCHD footage, though. It’s disappointing that this camera doesn’t support the XAVC S format that Sony is increasingly using in its upmarket cameras. Video details weren’t as fine as from the Sony RX100 M3, but they were much better than from the Canon EOS 70D. Noise levels were restrained, with excellent video quality at ISO 3200.

Photo quality was every bit as good as we’d hope for at this price. The 24-megapixel sensor captured lots of detail, and the JPEG engine squeezed every last drop out of the RAW image data. If anything, the sharpening was too strong, revealing aliasing artefacts on fine details such as hair in our studio scene. However, we rarely spotted this in our real-world test shots. The 16-50mm kit lens deserves a mention, too. It pushes up the price by almost £500, but this lens is a marked improvement on most kit lenses with its constant f/2.8 aperture. Corner focus was good rather than great but we’d happily use this as our main go-to lens. Its specifications are equivalent to a 24-75mm f/4 lens on a full-frame camera.

^ There’s lots of crisp detail in this shot, but some of the strands of hair on the doll look slightly pixelated. (1/10s, f/8, ISO 100, 60mm equivalent)

^ It’s hard to fault the sharpness of this photo, picking up individual hairs on the dragonfly’s body. (1/250s, f/7.1, ISO 100, 75mm equivalent)

Sony’s Dynamic Range Optimisation (DRO) processing did an excellent job of brightening shadows and boosting saturation to bring out subtle details. As ever, though, best results come from processing RAW output in software.

^ The camera’s automatic mode has nailed the exposure settings here, preserving details in both the shaded areas of rock and the white bark of the tree. (1/250s, f/8, ISO 100, 36mm equivalent)

^ There are some nice tones in this JPEG, and no risk of losing details in the shadows. (1/160s, f/5.6, ISO 100, 60mm equivalent)

^ The RAW version of the same shot (processed in Lightroom 5) lets us bring the colours out far more dramatically. (1/160s, f/5.6, ISO 100, 60mm equivalent)

Noise levels are the biggest challenge for Sony’s SLT cameras, as the translucent mirror reduces the amount of light that reaches the imaging sensor. However, the A77 II showed a vast improvement compared to the A77. Its ISO 12800 RAW files were a little noisier than from the Canon 70D and Nikon D7100, but their JPEGs were harder to separate. Sony uses heavier noise reduction at fast ISO speeds, which means softer fine details on close inspection, but cleaner images when resized to more modest dimensions. Our only reservation regarding noise is that the noise-reduction algorithm struggled with out-of-focus areas of the frame, resulting in strange blotchy patterns.

^ There’s lots of fine detail in the main subjects of this ISO 500 shot, but the background looks a little scruffy. (1/60s, f/2.8, ISO 500, 42mm equivalent)

^ Image quality is holding together well at ISO 2000 – there’s a lack of definition to the hair and fabric but it’s fine at modest sizes. The defocused background is pretty blotchy, though. (1/60s, f/2.8, ISO 2000, 52mm equivalent)

^ Liberal use of noise reduction at ISO 4000 has resulted in a perfectly presentable snapshot. (1/60s, f/2.8, ISO 4000, 24mm equivalent)

Conclusion – The great and the good

There’s much to admire in the A77 II, but at this price that’s hardly surprising. There is no shortage of outstanding cameras for around £1,000 (body only), not just in SLRs such as the Canon EOS 70D and Nikon D7100, but also in premium CSCs such as the Fujifilm X-T1,  Panasonic GH4 and the full-frame Sony A7.

The Sony A77 II won’t be everyone’s first choice in this distinguished crowd, but it carves a niche for itself with its combination of substantial SLR-like ergonomics, fast continuous performance and the ability to move effortlessly between viewfinder and LCD screen operation.