I acquired one of the last new A700 cameras and it has been handed to my son. He takes Jpegs for books and I am helping him prepare for publication.
The camera is on ex factory standard settings. Every single one needs levels and some highlight/shadows adjustment as well as contrast. I think that Barry Fitzgerand was probably spot on when he claimed that the Sony Jpeg output could be improved.
I seem to remember that either agorabasta or David Kilpatrick published a set of settings in Photoshop, which would produce an acceptable Jpeg output from the A700.
My request is that somebody points me to where I can find these settings.
Thanks in advance.

Here's the latest/last of my 'instances of attention' in the subject - http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1037&message=34199463.

Now, if for some reason I need a quick JPEG out of a700, I simply dial in some negative EV comp, then some positive brightness adj, the image style is invariantly 'deep', then some contrast/sharpness/saturation to the like.

Basically, you'd better tell your son to experiment with the in-cam curve adjustments to the taste - it gains/delivers a good feel of HW/limitations and puts the operator in command, where he better belong.

Thanks for the information Agorabasta. I will go through the settings with him and try and get a camera output that is nearer our desired result after PS processing. There is definitely almost a constant need for levels and contrast adjustments in the rather flat standard setting output from the camera.

Unless already mentioned, try these settings:

Got to Menu 1 - Creative Style - Scroll down to '1 Portrait'. 'Portrait' is the default setting for this first of the 'switchable' creative styles -- the ones prefixed with a number.

Shift right so that 'Portrait' is highlighted bottom left of the right hand panel. Now use the up and down shift to find any of the Creative styles -- including 'Deep', 'Clear' and 'Light', which can't be found anywhere else.



Set your creative style to DEEP and set as follows:

Saturation: +1
Sharpness: +1
Brightness: +/- 0
Zone: +1
Contrast: BLANKED OUT as Zone Matching has been adjusted from zero

You should now be good to go for optimal JPEG output. DO NOT use AUTO for any of the main settings, rather select WB: Daylight, matrix metering, spot focus, JPEG quality = Fine, image size = Large, Mode = (A) Aperture. This way you have a decent amount of pre-sets that are perfect for normal daylight use. Your son then controls depth of field (DoF) via the control wheel and the shutter speed by the camera. You son can become more creative with his shooting by separating the subject from the background. One great function is the Depth of Field button. Look through the viewfinder whilst holding the button in and turning the control wheel to adjust aperture. He'll hear a shutter sound and see the level of DoF being applied though the viewfinder so he can then select the appropriate aperture knowing what will be in focus or not. It's not a perfect system, but it does work very well.