Sony 24mp Aps-C AND 24mp FF?? WTH is the difference

[Herbc]

Ok, before everybody thinks I am stupid, I did get a D in my optics course in college engineering, but Sony lists  BOTH it's Nex-7 sensor and its RX1R as 24mp.
Given that an APS-C has an area of 370.5 sq mm's and FF is 861.60 sq mm's, there has to be:
A.  Hell of lot of spaces between sensors on the FF, or
B. Much larger sensors on the FF.

Sony lists both sensors as CMOS, so no stacking or whatever?

Would love to be enlightened.

[Dale_Cotton2]

B is correct. Go to DxOMark, select both cameras then do a comparison. Look at the Measurements tab to see performance graphs. The SNR (signal/noise ratio) across various ISO values basically tells the story. SNR impacts every aspect of image quality.

[hjulenissen]

http://www.dxomark.com/index.php/Cameras/Compare-Camera-Sensors/Compare-cameras-side-by-side/(appareil1)/894|0/(brand)/Sony/(appareil2)/736|0/(brand2)/Sony

-h

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

B, pixels are much larger on FF, I have both APS-C (Alpha 77)  and FF (Alpha 99) and the image quality on the Alpha 99 is much better.

Best regards
Erik

Ok, before everybody thinks I am stupid, I did get a D in my optics course in college engineering, but Sony lists  BOTH it's Nex-7 sensor and its RX1R as 24mp.
Given that an APS-C has an area of 370.5 sq mm's and FF is 861.60 sq mm's, there has to be:
A.  Hell of lot of spaces between sensors on the FF, or
B. Much larger sensors on the FF.

Sony lists both sensors as CMOS, so no stacking or whatever?

Would love to be enlightened.

[barryfitzgerald]

DxO are suggesting the A99 is almost full stop off on it's ISO accuracy over ISO 50.
Which is probably a deliberate move from the maker to make high ISO look better than it actually is. (Olympus have pulled the same trick with the EM-5 too)

Regarding the 24mp APS-C sensor, it's surprisingly noisy even allowing for the half stop of light the mirror takes. Maybe a first gen sensor weakness.
Certainly the A99 is a lot better than that sensor in low light, but it's not a huge leap over the best APS-C sensors and the A99's score is surprisingly low for a FF camera in low light.

[Paul2660]

I can't speak to the A99, having never shot it, however I agree with Barry's comments on the 24 APS-C Sony.  Past iso 400 it's just too noisy in most situations.  The noise is more like film grain and doesn't have the banding, color smearing I saw with Canon until the 6D.  However it's still pretty harsh. 

I switched to the Fuji X-E1 for mirrorless and have found it's image much more rewarding than the Sony's in most situations.  The Sony at 100 is excellent but with wide angle glass, (I tried all but the Zeiss 12mm) you end up cropping into the shot to around a 20mp image due to corner softness and detail smearing many times.    The Fuji has less MP, but I feel you get more from them.

The upcoming Nex-9 or whatever it will be called might be a deal breaker for many as it's already been shown that Sony can produce a very clean full frame 24mp chip, Nikon D600, Sony A99, Sony RX1.  Placing that chip or an upgrade to that chip should make for a very competitive camera.  I am wondering where Sony will price the Nex-9 24mm FF camera.  Hopefully not at the same price point as the RX1.

Paul Caldwell

[Herbc]

I think the price point will hinge on how many mp's they use.  If it is 24 or more, expect something north of $2000.00.

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

I shoot the Alpha 99. Normally I use ISO 50, but I once shot ISO 6400 in bad light. The camera made perfectly good A3 prints.

The Alpha 77 works well up to perhaps 1600 ISO.The images don't look good on screen but quite OK in print.

Personally I shoot lowest possible ISO, whenever I can.

Personally, I shoot Sony Alpha 77, Alpha 99 and Hasselblad with P45+. There is a large advantage of Alpha 99 over Alpha 77 , but I may think you would not se it in A2-size prints. The P45+ has a significant resolution advantage over the Alpha 99, at least when pixel peeping on screen, but the Alpha 99 has a significant advantage in shadow detail.


Best regards
Erik

I can't speak to the A99, having never shot it, however I agree with Barry's comments on the 24 APS-C Sony.  Past iso 400 it's just too noisy in most situations.  The noise is more like film grain and doesn't have the banding, color smearing I saw with Canon until the 6D.  However it's still pretty harsh.  

I switched to the Fuji X-E1 for mirrorless and have found it's image much more rewarding than the Sony's in most situations.  The Sony at 100 is excellent but with wide angle glass, (I tried all but the Zeiss 12mm) you end up cropping into the shot to around a 20mp image due to corner softness and detail smearing many times.    The Fuji has less MP, but I feel you get more from them.

The upcoming Nex-9 or whatever it will be called might be a deal breaker for many as it's already been shown that Sony can produce a very clean full frame 24mp chip, Nikon D600, Sony A99, Sony RX1.  Placing that chip or an upgrade to that chip should make for a very competitive camera.  I am wondering where Sony will price the Nex-9 24mm FF camera.  Hopefully not at the same price point as the RX1.

Paul Caldwell