Richard B posted a Sony A700 user review comparing the high-ISO performance of the Sony A700 vs KM 5D, and concludes:
I am sure everyone will have their own opinion, but my observations are that the KM5D raw and JPEG simply gets noisier, but retaining detail, as iso increases. The A700 extra fines JPGs appear pretty soft to me, even at 800. The A700 raw shots show very good detail to my eyes at ISO 800 and 1600. At ISO 3200 the A700 raw image is starting to show a mottled, painting like quality rather than speckling from noise. Having said that, I can still read the Seiko legend on the watch in all the A700 shots, I am not sure its possible on the KM5D 3200 shots.
Richard used the Sony SAL-1680Z 16-80mm f/3.5-4.5 Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T DT Zoom Lens for the test.
Other noteworthy points from that thread:
- The A700 matches the image quality of the KM 5D, but has the benefit of more resolution.
- The quality of the RAW file from the A700 is excellent.
- Richard replies that the varying white balance in the images is probably due to the way Lightroom renders the RAW files. For the JPEG files, the white balance of the A700 was spot on.
Related
Sony A700 – Main page.