Meet my new 24 megapixel camera, shot by my old 24 megapixel camera through… you guessed it… a Sony Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 24mm F2.0 ZA SSM lens!

Like my old 24 megapixel camera, it has a top LCD display (which I still don’t find a need for.)

However, this new 24 megapixel camera has a pop-up flash, and can trigger Sony wireless flashes!

Its screen can also flip out…

…and wave at you from the side! Heck you can even have it face the subject, or sometimes yourself, in case you’d like to camwhore.

In case you forgot where you took the picture, the built-in GPS unit will tell you.

This is, of course, none other than the Sony Alpha SLT-A77! This has a whopping 12 frames per second of APS-C goodness, the highest-pixel-density APS-C camera ever.

Size comparison to my Sony SLT-A55 and Sony DSLR-A900 (the old 24 megapixel camera.)

So how is it?

My A77 came out of the box with firmware v1.03.

Somehow I get the feeling that it’s not comfortable getting tested with my Sandisk Extreme Pro UHS-1 45MB/s card – it occasionally kicks up the “writing to card error – cancel/retry?” message. I let it run through the process, which I presume ‘undeletes’ files, and may possibly wipe files from other cameras i.e. my previous A55 pictures. After that it didn’t happen again, but then I didn’t do burst-mode testing with RAW again. The writing speeds after bursts are not consistent (they were, on the Memory Stick Pro Duo HG 30MB/s with the A55).

In general yes, it does seem a bit sluggish in certain screens, enough that Sony should be doing something about it right now.

So, how does it perform with the Sandisk Extreme Pro UHS-1 45MB/s card?

Rough testing with 12 FPS mode; I held down the shutter until it slowed down and I stopped pressing the shutter.
RAW+JPG = 11 shots before slowdown, 9 seconds (from release) before black screen clears, 16 seconds (from release) before red light clears. About 0.7 FPS if you continue holding down the shutter when it slows down.
24 megapixel Extra Fine JPG = 12 shots before slowdown, 7 seconds (from release) before black screen clears, 11 seconds (from release) before red light clears. About 1.3 FPS if you continue holding down the shutter when it slows down.
24 megapixel Standard JPG = 13 shots before slowdown, 5 seconds (from release) before black screen clears, 6 seconds (from release) before red light clears. About 3 FPS if you continue holding down the shutter when it slows down.
6 megapixel Standard JPG = 13 shots before slowdown, 2 seconds (from release) before black screen clears, 4 seconds (from release) before red light clears. About 4-5 FPS if you continue holding down the shutter when it slows down.

Note that there is a variance where the black screen and red light may clear faster, or occasionally slower. Also, you are able to half-press to kill the black screen and resume shooting (usually) unlike how it was on the A55.

If you continue holding down the shutter, the FPS slows down or speeds up sometimes.

I also tried using the RMT-DSLR1 remote to trigger all three cameras with a flash in manual power mounted – the A900 fired first, followed by the A77, and the A55. So there is still a bit of flash delay, but not as bad as the A55. I haven’t done meticulous testing for this, but if the delay isn’t causing me to lose photos, I’d just leave it at that.

Picture of the A77 with F58 mounted in CTRL/CTRL2 mode, triggering the F43 and F56, not possible previously on a 7-series body!

As a crazy bonus, it seems that the camera totally supports wireless flash using the F20 on body, the F43/F58 in CTRL/CTRL2 mode to trigger an F56, which was only possible on the A850 and A900 before this!

So what about actual pictures from the A77? Well I’ve posted some before:
Jakling And The A77
A77/A65/NEX-5N Launch, Part 1