Peekayoh Loc: UK

I realise that budgetary considerations are important but I think that choosing a single lens solution to satisfy all your needs is not optimal. I'm sure the 18-135mm Canon is a decent lens but it's clearly optimised for best performance at the wide end and the long end suffers because of it. That's not a criticism as such as it's simply not reasonable to expect perfection from a 7.5x Zoom.

Obviously, we all have different priorities so my choices won't be your choices which is why these questions never have definitive answers.

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

Here's how I look at it. A camera manufacter can have as many great expensive lenses as they want...but if I can't afford them, it doesn't do me any good. Now if they have a few great lenses at an affordable price, that's a different story.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

Rod. I could not find anything else in the thread about this. What lenses do you have for your old Pentax? Will they work on a Pentax digital?

Desert Gecko Loc: desert southwest, USA

SS, who pissed in your Wheaties? This isn't and never was about you, so kindly take your nonsense elsewhere. Sorry if I touched a nerve, man, but take a blood pressure pill before you get all apoplectic on us.

I shouldn't even bother with someone who claims a sensor at the bottom of dXomark's list is as good as that of an a77ii, but what the Hell. I never disparaged Canon shooters except in jest in reference to my friends, clearly indicated by a "hehe." Please don't be as dense as your bottom-of-the-list sensor.

My remarks about the 70D's inferiority to the a77ii stand, so why don't you put up something other than your tired old rhetoric to show otherwise - you don't because you can't (that sounds like a challenge... I dare you.)

Good grief.

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

Hard to dispute the numbers...

Rodbolt Loc: Western Colorado

Woah! Easy guys! I don't want my first post on UUH to become a bloodbath. We're all here for a common interest so about a hug and a cold beer?

Gecko,
I stopped by my local Best Buy and they actually had an A77 in the back so I got to hold it and look it over. It felt solid and good ergos. Unfortunately the battery wasn't charged so couldn't power it up and play with it.

A few questions on the A77ii

How is the auto focus tracking in both still and video? This is a huge strength of the 70D that has drawn me in that direction.

How is the buffer capacity at the 12fps? This alone has turned me off on the Nikon D7100. Fast action shooting is a priority and I want to able to hold that trigger down!

What's your opinion of the video capability and ease of use? Another quality that's made the 70D famous.

How is the electronic view finder? I don't like live view and I've seen some EVFs that are jumpy and low quality. I'm undecided on this.

Do you have any experience with the 18-135 kit lens?

How bad is the battery life really?

I've looked at the Dxo numbers on all kinds of cameras and sort of elected not to put a ton of stock in them. It's great if the has the best image quality on the block but if the autofocus fails or the buffer fills and I miss the shot who cares? I've looked at images from them all and they are remarkably close in quality. I want good pictures but it has to do what I want it to and be comfortable.

Thanks,
Reed

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Gecko, jeez, pissing in the Wheaties? Hey, everybody gets a little pee in their Wheaties on occasion, but hey, it's just a figure of speech, nobody actually eats them, :lol: ,at least I didn't think so! And I'm sure you're WAY smarter than I am. I, after all have been accused on more than one occasion of being the dumbest guy on the Hog, so it must be true.
Hey, don't take it personal, it wasn't meant to be so.
Apologies if you took it so skewed. Careful where there's smoke, sometimes there can be fire.
Let me interpret for you, as it went RIGHT over your head.
There are a lot of reasons to buy a camera or to be in a camera line besides the minutiae of sensor IQ. Maybe to you that is the ONLY reason you will ever buy a Camera. If so, go to DXO and ONLY get what is number one on their list. Brand should not even enter into the scenario, just bean counting numbers!!
I guess what irks the bean counters is that to about half of the world, the numbers are meaningless. Sure, if the camera I owned had the #1 sensor, then yippeeeee, but that is Sooo low on my priority list, my radar doesn't even go "bleep", when it goes past that part.
I could care less what is important to you or what makes you agonize at night.
Just today someone provided a link to Borrow Lenses where they dissected the 7ll to inspect the weather sealing! WOW, I an so stocked that I can shoot that camera in a driving rain, with no condom, so I can fully use all the menues, unencumbered in the rain. Now I want that chitty little camera that is dead last in the DXO ratings more than ever!!!
WHY, because the way I shoot and what I look for in a camera probably doesn't even come close to the IQ decisions that you have to make.

The whole thing comes back to the 70d. Yes, many can't begin to fathom why anybody would want such a piece of chit.
But alas, for the bean counters there is DXO and its scientific list!
For the rest of us, the are tons of choices that work just fine in the real world, even as crappy as they are.
Again, there are a lot of reasons to want and shoot cameras that are clearly some of the crappiest cameras made.
Some of those reasons seem to just bounce of the heads of some of the best and the brightest!! :lol: hehe
SS

Desert Gecko Loc: desert southwest, USA

I don't take it personal, even though it clearly was. I consider the source, and I've seen your lame vitriol before, many times.

When one has facts and not just weak, pathetic rhetoric on his side, nothing is personal.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Yes, good one! :lol: :lol:
SS

tamalero Loc: Mexico

get a room you two.

Tracy B. Loc: Indiana

Is there a way I can unfollow this post. I hate getting emailed everytime, for this nonsense?

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Tracy, there is no need to follow any nonsense.
I don't follow ANY post. I've never gotten any emails, except the one that goes out at 2am to announce the new posts!
But I don't know if you can pick and choose them, the nonsense I mean.
Tracy, better yet, just start to throw some nonsense around. Better than kicking the poor dog! :lol: :lol:
Just try to enjoy yourself! :thumbup:
SS

Tracy B. Loc: Indiana

That's weird. Every post I respond to, I will get an email when anyone posts on the topic. Plus, I get the one announcing the new topics.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

Click "Unwatch" at the top of the page.

Or

Go to Watched topics up in the menu and you can unwatch any topic by clicking the link on the right hand side. Whenever you comment on a topic, it is added to your watched list.

Or

In your profile, you can scroll down to "Notification Information" and uncheck "Send e-mail notification when I receive a new reply in a topic" Then you will still be able to check any watched topics while not receiving emails each time it changes

Rodbolt Loc: Western Colorado

I'd like to unfollow this post and I'm the one who started it!

I think it's cute that Desert Gecko took the time throw another childish rebuttal back at Sharpshooter but didn't bother to answer my questions about his beloved camera....