Sony A77II

Top of the Sony A77II
Top of the Sony A77II

Sony recently announced the successor to their A77 SLT DSLR: the A77II. It looks like an incremental upgrade, definitely not enough for me to consider upgrading my A77, but there is one “feature” I really like. That would be the main control dial! I thought the dial on my Konica-Minolta 7D was fantastic and was a little disappointed when they changed it for the A77. But Sony has brought back the style of the older dial, which is cool because not only does it work well, but it goes way back to the design of the Minolta Alpha/Maxxum/Dynax 7 film SLR. I love it! In the photo below, you can see the dial on the KM-7D. It is actually a dual-dial design, while the new A77II only has the single dial.

Konica-Minolta 7D Dials
Photo info: SONY SLT-A77V, 35mm, f/2.5, 1/8 sec, ISO500
Konica-Minolta 7D Dials

Other enhancements to the new A77II are WiFi and remote tethering, a better sensor, and better auto-focus; none of these are enough to make me want to upgrade. In fact, the new A77II loses a feature that I absolutely love on my A77: GPS. It’s very convenient to see the location of a photo, but it is also nice to have the date/time automatically corrected.

I like to think that the A77 was such a great camera when originally released that it is difficult to improve upon it. And that’s good because I really have too much camera gear already, and don’t need to spend any more money! The A77 will be my main shooter for the foreseeable future, probably until it no longer functions. Happy shooting!

One thought on “Sony A77II

  1. I enjoyed my A77 for several years as well before passing it on to my daughter and moving to the A7s. I know the A77ii looks like just an incremental upgrade but I’ve heard that one of Sony’s regrets was using a similar form factor and the “mark ii” naming system, because in fact they feel that it was far more than just an incremental upgrade. They claim that once you’re under the cover almost every single component is new… although I don’t know how true that is.

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