It's here!

Historic day, got my camera and my country is at war again. So, I guess you've got to take the good with the bad.

My first A99 shot, with the jpeg engine:

Salesman working in the Fotofilm store where I got my A99

It actually looks kind of good, considering the fluorescent lighting in the store, better than other cameras I've tested in the store, including my previous A580.

My brand new A99 (shot with my olden A580, 50mm 1.4 lens)

Going to test RAW soon. The camera itself is very nice. I don't particularly like the Finder/LCD button, which is really small (I like the A580 slider button) but maybe it will grow on me. Interesting to find out that the default display when switching to LCD mode is not to show any picture at all. Kind of confusing, then you press the "Disp" button and you get to see the picture.
The camera is full of bells and whistles some of which are seriously useful like being able to see if you are shooting straight. I have to confess that though I've been shooting pictures for a long time and people really like my stuff (which you can see at http://amitzinman.com) I sometimes tend to tilt to the right, especially when I try all kinds of angles which only a pro Sony camera with a tilting LCD screen can do.
I also got a Sony 20 2.8 lens because I really need an automatic wide lens for nice top and low angle shots which are greatly helped by auto focusing (I guess the 100+ focus points will help)
Got a customer coming in so I have little time for further test, but I will report later on how the camera works in real life projects.

Update:
Tested wireless flash connectivity. Since the A99 doesn't have a built-in flash, you cannot control external flashes wirelessly without having one attached.  With the A580 you could use the built in pop-flash flash to control other flashes. Sure, it wasn't a quality flash, but still was useful when shooting from afar, and since being less brighter then the side and back flashes I used, it produced some nice photos (some of which you can see here.)

I did test my "Shoot" radio wireless controller which uses the old Minolta hotshoe, using the the ISO-to-Minolta connector supplied with the camera and it works without a hitch.