I spent some time walking the beach today with a Sony SLT-A77V, which was originally released back in June of 2012. Although I have owned several other Sony cameras, including the A200, A230, A37, and A55V, this is a new camera for me. It was purchased so I could hand off the A37 (which I still owned) to Rebekah. Her old Fujifilm point-and-shoot model recently broke.
Rather than buy her a used camera with a different lens mount, I decided to give her my last remaining Sony and one of my Minolta lenses. My Minolta collection includes some stellar performers, including a 500mm f/8 reflex and the classic 70-210mm f/4. I had no intention of adapting these to newer cameras, as they have great auto focus with native a-mount bodies. That meant I needed an affordable Sony replacement.
The A77 was on my wishlist when I purchased the other Sony models, but it was always too expensive. This was their flagship APSC camera at the time of its release, with excellent build quality, weather sealing, a fast burst mode, and the manual controls of a professional body. It is a beautiful piece of equipment that holds up more than a decade later.
My copy was purchased on eBay, in mint condition, and at a very low price. It had less than 5,000 shutter actuations! That means it was sitting on a shelf or in a bag more than being used all these years, but as you can see, it still works well.
I have a project called “Found on the Beach” in mind for this camera and my 50mm f/1.7 Minolta lens. I have included the first seven images in the series.
