Sony Alpha SLT-A77 Translucent Mirror Camera Review by TR With Rating 9/10

The α65 features nearly all of the features from α77, including the sensor, the HD video, the LCD (minus the rotation), the GPS, the EVF, but without weather sealing, controls is simplified, body is smaller, and has a slower max shutter speed (1/4000 vs 1/8000). The burst rate is also lowered from 12 fps down to 10 fps. Sony also announces the new DT 16-50mm F2.8 SSM standard zoom with 16mm wide angle coverage that's ideal for both portrait and everyday shooting. The lens features a dust- and moisture-resistant design, and offers a zoom range of approximately 3x range at constant wide F2.8 aperture. It comes with aspherical glass and three ED (Extra Low Dispersion) lens elements to minimize aberration at all focal lengths, as well as an internal Super Sonic wave Motor (SSM) drive enables fast, quiet autofocus. There is also an optional dust- and moisture-resistant VG-C77AM Vertical Grip for α77, housing up to two NP-FM500H InfoLITHIUM batteries. The α77 will be available in a kit with the new SAL1650 f2.8 lens for about $2000, and offered as body-only for about $1400. The SAL1650 lens will also be sold separately for about $700. The α65 will be available in a kit with a standard 18-55mm lens (SAL1855) for about $1000, and offered as body-only for about $900. Here's the summary of review of the SLT A77 by TrustedReviews, giving the camera a rating of 9 out of 10:

"Image quality is generally very impressive. The A77's 24.3MP sensor is able to resolve plenty of fine detail and produce images that can be safely enlarged without compromising quality. Of course, the extra resolution does come at the expense of large file sizes and you can expect a typical fine-quality full-res JPEG to measure around 14-18MB in size, with Raw files closer to 25MB. The A77 is well served by the optional DT 16-50mm f/2.8 'kit' zoom that can be supplied with it. Not only is it fairly quick at f/2.8, it also offers good levels of sharpness across the whole frame (especially at f/7.1-f/8) and is capable of producing gorgeous bokeh when opened right up. The A77 offers a number of useful in-camera lens correction options should you require them, including fixes for vignetting, chromatic aberrations and lens distortion. They all work pretty well, although we suspect many Raw shooters will prefer to make their own corrections using Photoshop. Although the A77's 1200-zone metering module generally performs very well we did notice a tendency for it to slightly underexpose images on the odd occasion, although this can easily be rectified with the /-5EV of exposure compensation on offer. The A77 is able to capture a good dynamic range even with the Dynamic Range Optimiser function switched off. It has to be said that this tool does come in handy when you want to boost highlight and shadow retention without going the whole HDR hog - just so long as you are shooting JPEGs, that is. Those with a penchant for HDR photography will find that the Automatic HDR option produces very good results although the use of a tripod is advisable. 

Noise is especially well controlled at lower sensitivity settings of ISO 100-400, although by ISO 800 it is possible to see the softening effects of the A77's built-in noise reduction, but only if you go looking for it by enlarging the image to 100% or more. While noise does begin to creep into the image more noticeably after ISO 1600 and ISO 3200 it's still not really an issue unless you are specifically looking for it and both settings can be used to make perfectly acceptable images with. By ISO 6400, however, noise becomes distinctly visible at all image sizes, while the top two settings of 12,800 and 16,000 offer fairly poor image quality and should only really be treated as a last resort. The Sony Alpha A77 is an excellent addition to Sony's single lens translucent range. As the flagship model within the range it's extremely well specified and flexible camera with a generous range of features that will appeal to serious photography enthusiasts. While it's 12fps continuous shooting speed will certainly appeal to those who regularly shoot fast-moving action, there's a lot more to like about the A77, not least the speedy AF performance, excellent range of movie recording options and high standard of image quality."