The Sony Alpha a99 is a unique camera. It delivers the look and feel of a professional DSLR with the functionality of a mirrorless camera. It’s an excellent choice for those considering a different take on professional photography.

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  This camera has excellent autofocus tracking.

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  Battery life is poor when compared to other professional cameras.

By all means, this is a camera that can hold its own with the 5D Mk III and D800. Though its standard autofocus may not be as good as its competitors, where it excels is in tracking focusing.

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  Great image quality, AF-D is the best tracking system we've seen, Excellent stabilization built-in for video, Fast FPS shooting, Center focusing point is extremely quick, Fairly silent shutter, Amazing EVF

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  Autofocus is only best in the center, Very short battery life, Slow startup, A tad more smudging at the higher ISOs than we'd like, Deep menus that aren't intuitive at first, No autofocus in manual video mode

The Sony Alpha 99 is a full-featured full-frame D-SLR that can focus as quickly when recording video as it does for still images, but it doesn't have an optical viewfinder.

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  Excellent high ISO performance. Fast focus for stills and video. 5.7fps shooting. Quiet. Articulating rear LCD. 1080p60 video capture. Integrated GPS.

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  No optical viewfinder. Lacks built-in flash.

A comparison with its two most immediate rivals, Nikon’s D800 and Canon’s EOS 5D Mark III models, shows it to be currently priced a little higher than the latter and significantly higher than the former, although this is largely due to how long each has spent on the market.

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  Light body, bright and detailed viewfinder, most flexible LCD on any camera, high level of customisation, general image quality, superb handling, Smart Teleconversion function, high-quality video

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  Delay in changing exposure settings, slow start up, electronic viewfinder can stagger, occasional focus freezing issues, unhelpful error messages lead to dead ends in operation

The SLT-A99 is a feature-rich camera that still provides a wealth of easily accessed manual user controls. It stands out as the only full-frame camera to offer in-body stabilization, an EVF, and an articulated rear screen.

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  Very good JPEG output at default settings, Excellent high ISO output in both JPEG and Raw images, Wide dynamic range Raw files, Pleasing metering and white balance results, Solid build quality, light weight and good ergonomics / handling, In-body image stabilization system works with all lenses,...

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  Small coverage area of AF array compared to its peers, Autofocus not compatible with manual exposure control in video mode, No histogram available in video mode, Live view not available with continuous shooting above 3 fps (an image review is displayed instead), Magnified live view not available in...

The new SLT-A99 is Sony’s first full-frame camera with an electronic viewfinder. While former Sony full-format cameras like the A900 or A850 offered a standard SLR system, the new A99 offers an electronic viewfinder with extremely high resolution (2.3 million RGB dots).

The Sony Alpha SLT-A99V is a generally great camera that's equally adept at both stills and video, but with a few caveats.

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  The Sony Alpha a99 SLT-A99V has a lot going for it, including excellent photos and very good video, a well-constructed and well-designed body, solid performance, and a great feature set.

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  For some folks, things like the lack of CompactFlash, poor battery life, and compromises on video autofocus may not be reasonable trade-offs.

Sony’s flagship camera, the Alpha SLT-A99, provides the demanding photographer with excellent image quality and a host of innovative features through its use of a full frame sensor and its SLT electronic viewfinder system.

I really like the Sony A99, especially for people and family shots. The AF system is marvelous, and the colors and focus are always great. Likewise for nature, landscape and fine-art work, the A99 excels for its fantastic viewfinder that lets us see much better what we're doing while we're doing it...

Even though the Canon won our 2012 Camera of the Year award (see page 58), the Sony A99 remains one of the best new cameras we’ve seen this year. It shows that the new perspectives being brought to photography by the likes of traditional electronics companies are having a positive effect on the...

A superb, impressive product. Sony has done it again. But be aware that the Sony A99 is not for the beginner photographer. It is a complex and sophisticated professional class instrument which demands a significant investment of time and effort in order to learn to use effectively.

I got the a99 and spent about 35 hours shooting in 20-30F degree weather all weekend long. As a street fashion photographer it is customary for me to carry around a camera in my hand for 6-10 hours a day, so my review will be based with these conditions in mind (heavy and continuous use) and in...

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  I say everything in summary

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  I say everything in summary

Everything I want and need except that it will not tether to my lap top. Shame! Sony do something about that.Otherwise an amazing camera in every way! Flash great. Battery grip supplies needed power for video.So it only is good for 200,000 shots.

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  Easy to Use, Good in Low Light, Great Zoom, Large Clear LCD

My best camera ever. With the vertical grip and the handstrap it is glued to my hand just like a natural extension of my artistic brain.

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  My best camera ever. With the vertical grip and the handstrap it is glued to my hand just like a natural extension of my artistic brain.

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  None

Well let me start out by saying I don't shoot video so I can't base any of this review on the a99s video capability. But right out of the box I noticed just how the a99 looks like the a77. They are almost the same size but the a99 just ever so slightly bigger. Most of the controls are the same.

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  Electronic view finder, in body image stabilization, fast and low light focus, focus peaking, much improved dynamic range and very low noise up to 6400 iso,

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  No pop up flash. No factory supplied screen protector