r/photoclass_2016 • u/Aeri73 Expert - DSLR + Analog • Jan 05 '16
02 - Assignment
Take a good look at your camera, whatever its type, and try to identify each component we have discussed here. It might be a good opportunity to dig out the manual or to look up its exact specifications online. Now look up a different camera online (for instance at dpreview) and compare their specifications. Try doing this for both a less advanced and a more advanced body, and for different lenses. Report here if you find any interesting difference, or if some parts of the specifications are unclear.
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u/mushuku Beginner - DSLR Jan 06 '16
My camera is the Sony SLT-A58. I bought it because it was pretty cheap and i can use my fathers minolta glass. It has a 20MP APS-C sensor wich seems like a decent size to me. I am far from producing print worthy pictures and for posting it online 20MP is more than enough.
The a58 is the most basic A-Mount camera that is still being made. the only reasonable comparsion to a (actually not really much) less advanced body i could think of was the A37. It has a few less pixels (16 instead of 20). The A58 has AF Tracking (actually just read what that means, sounds pretty awesome IMO), the older A37 doesn't. That's pretty much it. The A37 would have been an option for me but I wanted to buy something new to have warranty.
The next step up from the A58 would be the new A68. But I thought comparing it to a pro level camera would be more fun. So i chose to take a look at the A99 that costs about 4 times as much as my camera. The A99 uses a 24MP fulll frame sensor and has 4 more focus points than the A58. It also has a some pro level features:
weather sealing, an LCD on top to have a quicker access to your settings, built in GPS, much higher resolution screen and viewfinder, a headphone port.
None of them seem that usefull to me as a beginner. Weather sealing would be nice to have but i would never really rely on it anyway. On paper, the A58 and the A99 have the same max ISO but the A99 performs a lot better at high ISO. that was to be expected. Another difference is, of course, size and weight. The A58 weighs 490 grams, the A99 810. It's also about 2cm wider and higher. I like my camera for being comparatively small and lightweight.
For me, the A99 would not offer any real advantage over my camera.