Pentax K-50 vs Sony SLT Alpha 77 — Which Is Better?

The Sony SLT Alpha 77 and the Pentax K-50 are both APS-C DSLRs with different priorities. The Alpha 77, from 2011, puts resolution and shooting speed into a larger body. The newer K-50 is the lighter carry at 650 g against 732 g, and more compact at 130 x 97 x 71 mm against 143 x 104 x 81 mm.

The Alpha 77 is the stronger choice for heavy cropping. Its 24.3 megapixels give about 49 percent more pixels than the K-50's 16.28, leaving more room to enlarge a distant bird or a tight portrait. It also shoots at 12 frames per second, double the K-50's 6, so it catches the peak of fast action more often. Its 19 autofocus points outnumber the K-50's 11 for off-centre subjects.

The K-50 answers with a native ISO ceiling of 51200 against the Alpha 77's 16000, more headroom for hand-held work in dim venues. Both use APS-C CMOS sensors with in-body stabilisation, so any native lens you mount is steadied. The Alpha 77's 1/8000 second is a shorter exposure than the K-50's 1/6000 for wide apertures in bright light. Their Pentax KAF and Sony Alpha DT mounts take separate native lens ranges.

Both record Full HD, but the Alpha 77 gives editors more room with motion. Its 60 frames per second maximum recording rate doubles the K-50's 30, smoothing fast pans and allowing half-speed slow motion playback. The K-50's useful counterpoint is a built-in interval timelapse the Alpha 77 lacks, which condenses a sunset or a construction sequence without an external remote. The Alpha 77 records in AVCHD and MP4, the K-50 in MPEG-4.

The Alpha 77 is the better tool for location shooting. It offers GPS to geotag travel and wildlife frames, Wi-Fi for wireless transfer, and a flip screen that tilts for waist-level macro or overhead crowd shots. The K-50 has none of these, so low or high angles mean composing from a fixed screen.

The essentials match. Both are weather sealed, both carry a built-in flash with external flash support, and both share a 3-inch, 921000-dot LCD with live view for composing on the screen.

The Alpha 77's NP-FM500H battery is rated at 470 shots under its test conditions, 60 more than the K-50's 410-shot D-LI109 rating. Both take SD, SDHC and SDXC cards in a single slot, and the Alpha 77 additionally accepts Memory Stick Pro Duo and Pro-HG Duo media. Neither supports USB charging.