Photoclub Alpha

At the end of September 2006, I set off for a quick visit to photokina in Cologne, having parted company with Icon’s am-pro magazine ƒ2 and not really needing to report on the whole show in detail. Here’s the report I wrote then, with photos, and some thoughts for the 2008 show.

MANY photographers habitually use layers from everything. I don’t! In fact, I try to minimise my time spent on post-processing shots for stock library sale, and work very quickly. If it needs complex setup or demands working using layers to be able to go back and change things, I’ve probably already wasted too much time. Here’s an example of an Alpha 700 shot created from two slightly different versions, and how it was done.

This article was originally published in Photoworld magazine April 2008. It discusses the reasons for choosing between the 18-70mm, 16-105mm, 16-80mm, 18-200mm and 18-250mm kit lens choices for the Sony Alpha DSLR system and has been updated from the original text.

The parallel development of Carl Zeiss lenses for Sony (AF lenses in the Alpha mount) and independent manual focus lenses for other makes continues. The latest CZ design is a revision of the classic 18mm Distagon last seen in the Contax system, optimised for colour balance and reflection supression with digital SLRs.

Sony has announced the September introduction of the most powerful flash yet for the Alpha system, which incorporates a brand new body design allowing optimum bounce flash illumination regardless of how you hold the camera.

Increases in pixel count are often dismissed because to ‘double’ the resolution of a 6 megapixel sensor you would need 24 megapixels. Indeed, to double it linearly you would - but the human eye judges density of detail on an area basis.

The introduction of a £399 (street price, RRP £449) DSLR with 14.2 megapixels – with or without a useful type of Live View – should have been applauded by reviewers. It’s the single most important point about the camera. No other DSLR approaches this image size and resolution at such a low price.

Our cover photo for the Spring 2008 issue of Photoworld was taken with a Tamron 70-300mm zoom costing less than £120 from most larger retailers or internet shops. The reputation of the lens meant we had to take a look at it, because the current choice in the Sony range is limited to one ‘kit’ 75-300mm costing £179, and the new 70-300mm G SSM lens costing £600.

Today I took delivery of a Sony 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G SSM lens. There is no doubt this is the best built Sony SAL lens I’ve handled (the CZ 135mm 1.8, 85mm f1.4 are a class above again). It weighs over 800g with its lens-hood, which is one of the most efficient deep tele hoods I’ve seen.

Now that there are five Sony Alpha DSLR bodies in circulation, with many owners of the original 2006 Alpha 100 considering a replacement, the differences between this ur-Alpha and the 2007-8 generation of Alpha 700, 200, 300 and 350 need examining.

The Sony Alpha 350 14.2 megapixel DSLR pioneers a new type of Live View, related to Olympus’s original Mode A of the E-330 where a beamsplitting arrangement allowed a video CCD to view the actual focusing screen of the SLR system.

Apple’s Aperture 2.0 is a tedious program to test, with all its creation of ‘projects’ and ‘libraries’, ‘albums’, ‘vaults’ and nonstandard GUI, and it isn’t fast in processing files or passing them to Photoshop (which it does in 16-bit form, just another step to reverse before saving as far as I’m concerned). However, it’s handling Alpha 700 raw quite well. And it does things differently, with non-destructive raw editing, stacks of image versions, and so on.

BEFORE we publish a fuller assessment of the Sony Alpha 700, here is a taster of just one improved function, the Dynamic Range Optimisation (DRO) system built into the camera. For social, wedding, sports, music, theatre, news and event photographers DRO Advanced Manual settings are a real magic bullet zapping the bugbears of excess contrast, poor lighting, and inadequate flash penetration.

IT IS very difficult to find a good JPEG from the Alpha 700 pre-production model tests shot in Italy, because too few cameras were available for too short a time - and many of the journalists present were not photographers. But we have found one image you will love.

PRODUCT shots of the Sony Alpha 700 have been released, and are shown here to our standard web page size of 600 pixels or smaller.

FUJIO NISHIDA, President of Sony Europe, speaking at the Berlin IFA consumer electronics and technology show on August 30th, mentioned the Alpha system alongside Cyber-shot digital still cameras and Handycam digital video as part of Sony’s plan to introduce HD (High Definition Television) formats throughout. He held up the new ‘smile shoot’ Cyber-shot T200 with its ability to output playback of images in 16:9 format directly to Sony Bravia LCD TVs.

With only three days to go before the launch of the new Alpha, rumours of a ’sneak preview’ press release have appeared on dPreview’s internet forums. Leon van Bommel, writing from Holland, says he has seen a magazine which has a photograph showing the camera with a kit lens marked 16-105mm f/3.5-5.6. Certainly, a more expensive body than the A100 would look out of place wearing the $99 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens which is the only cheap option now.

THIS morning I received from the Managing Director of Sony United Kingdom Limited a copy of the book ‘Sony Alpha Lenses’, inscribed to me and signed by Mr Katsumoto, Senior General Manager of the Alpha Mount Company. This is a very high-quality book which contains not only the expected promotional shoot images (nice freebie trip to the French Riviera in the company of an attractive model, properly credited to the facilitators in small print at the end of the volume) but work from four selected former Minolta shooting stars.

More work went into this page than you think! While it was possible to get an idea of Sony’s lenses and cameras planned for 2007-8 from the group image, the individual press images have all been shot to different scales.

This review from the Summer 2007 edition of Photoworld has been expanded here, and covers the Remote Release IR-1n kit along with third party remote triggers and flash synchronisation options for the Alpha system.

I SELL digital images through Alamy, the on-line photo library. When an original piece of art is out of copyright, and displayed in public or by an owner permitting photography, the ability to get a good quality reproduction copy on the spot without lights, tripod or flash is valuable. Some 8 per cent of my overall Alamy images sales over the past four years have been of signs, notices and labels - disproportionately high, compared to the actual number of such shots. As someone has commented, editors like pictures which tell their own story, and sometimes have words in the pictures does just that.

THE appearance of press-release resolution (14Mb) images of the new Alpha - un-named but thought to be the Alpha 200 or 300 because of the product code earlier assigned to shots of prototypes at PMA - combines with reports on various forums from European Sony executives visiting Japan to suggest that the launch announcement for the new model and a range of full-frame lenses is imminent.

HAODA FU has been supplying alternative focusing screens for the 5D and A100 since 2006 and for many other makes before this. While the Alpha system DSLRs are not intended to have user-changeable screens, it is relatively easy and risk-free.

I CARRY a camera everywhere, because you never know when a good photograph is round the corner. I also just grab the camera from my office, and rarely think to check the settings. Today, I managed to shoot everything with Super Steady Shot (Anti-Shake) carefully switched off on my Alpha 100.

SOME time ago I got hold a Soligor Pro 0.75X converter - a front-of-lens job. This is not something anyone should consider using on a DSLR. The Soligor was a bit different because it cost nearly as much as the ACW-100 wide angle converter for the Konica Minolta A1/A2/A200, which does an excellent job, and fitted a 62mm filter thread. That’s about the largest rear thread on any converter I have seen.

THE PROBLEM of darkened extreme corners with the 16-80mm CZ Sony lens definitely exists. They are there in many of my shots, with or without SSS anti-shake enabled, significant softly darkened corners. Everyone is saying this must be due to filters, and at least one of Forum regulars has emailed Zeiss about this issue (and got a reply almost admitting that the lens falls short of ideal design). But is it?

Our articles are written as ‘Posts’ and automatically added to Categories, Recent Posts and Archives. This manual index to articles will help you find the larger reviews, as distinct from short pieces on assorted subjects:

Main camera reviews

Which Sony Alpha? Choosing between the A700, A200, A300 and A350.

Sony Alpha 350 Live View tested

Sony Alpha 200 guided tour (full description with large photos and comments on operation)

Sony Alpha 700 operation and use review: the Interface

Sony Alpha 100 report from the launch of the camera

Major overviews

70 Years of Minolta History - 113 cameras from 1928 to 1998

Lens Reviews

The 70-300mm SSM G sized up (first report)

Carl Zeiss 16-80mm zoom review

Tamron 18-250mm zoom review

Lensbaby 3G selective zonal focus tilt/swing lens

Software Reviews

DxO Optics Pro 4.1 review

Seven raw processors tested with Alpha 700

Apple Aperture 2.0

Capture One v4Â

Accessories and aftermarket

Haoda Fu split-image/microprism replacement focusing screen for Dynax 5D or Alpha 100

Flash choices for the digital SLRs (camera top bounce/direct)

Studio Light table review and technique

Sony GPS-CS1 device to pin your pictures on Googlemaps

A review by David Kilpatrick from Photoworld Spring 2007 with additional updates

MY SONY Carl Zeiss 16-80mm “superzoom” arrived from Warehouseexpress - the best price I could find and one of the very best dealers in terms of service - packed rather minimally for a £465 purchase.

THE NEW Tamron 18-250mm has some importance to Alpha system users. It is almost certainly the optical basis for the forthcoming Sony SAL 18-250mm version, and as a APS-C 13.7X zoom with an equivalent 27-375mm (in full frame terms) range is uniquely suited to the SSS-enabled Dynax 5D, 7D and Sony Alpha 100

PHOTOCLUB ALPHA is the website for the Photoworld Club - the former Minolta Club of Great Britain after the final closure of the Konica Minolta camera division on March 31st 2006. David & Shirley Kilpatrick - that’s us, aka Icon Publications Ltd - first started using Minolta SLR systems in 1974. In 1981 we were asked by Minolta Camera Co. Ltd to run the existing club and produce its quarterly magazine, Photoworld; we did this for 25 years with their support and later that of Konica Minolta Photo Imaging (UK) Ltd. In 1987 we formed Icon which is the siteowner of photoclubalpha.com, and now publishes Photoworld as an independent quarterly full colour glossy magazine for Minolta, KM and Sony Alpha DSLR system users.

SUBSCRIBE NOW to the magazine and support this website!

Photoworld started life in 1966 as a black and white newsletter produced by David Shaw, marketing manager of Japanese Cameras Ltd, the UK importing company owned by Charles Strasser which handled Minolta, Soligor, Miranda and several other brands. It became an A4 magazine with some colour in 1976. Between 1982 and 2004 it changed name to Minolta Image. Over 100 editions have been produced under our editorship.

You can download the entire PDF for the final Konica Minolta supported edition, which would have been a 25th anniversary edition for us and nearly 40th anniversary edition for the British Minolta Club. It includes a few words of farewell as well as optimism for the future.

What made the Minolta Club of Great Britain possible was the long-term loyalty of thousands of system owners, and the regular intake of new members through the medium of leaflets in product packaging. This new intake is no longer easy to find. Sony packaging will not contain any references to the former Minolta Club for obvious reasons, and Minolta or Konica Minolta products are now generally out of stock as well as out of production.

The future of the club and the magazine are Icon Publications Ltd’s responsibility. Sony will provide their own web-based club open only to buyers of new Alpha equipment, closed to our existing Minolta Club members unless they invest in Alpha. Konica Minolta will not allow use of its trade names for a continued Minolta owner club site, something difficult to reconcile with the many enthusiast and owner clubs independently run for countless makes and brands past and present.

Existing subscribers have received the Autumn 2006, Winter 2007 and Spring 2007 magazines, following up Summer’s first Alpha 100 report with more detailed tests. We have welcomed support from Sigma Imaging (UK) Ltd, Intro2020 Ltd (Tamron lenses), The Flash Centre, and Calumet Group. This enabled us to mail all current and previous subscribers, including those who have allowed their subscription to lapse, with the first (Summer 06) magazine in our new situation. We really need new blood, however - new photographers to feature in our pages and competitions, to join in with or create future events for readers, to write for us, perhaps to lecture in our sponsored camera club talks programme.

We are offering a chance to resubscribe with a worthwhile welcome gift of a versatile Z-case or a Minolta MB-1 camera kit bag (subject to postage and packing charges only).

Download and install latest FIRMWARE and SOFTWARE updates for the Alpha 100 and Sony image conversion/browsing packages.

View David Kilpatrick’s latest page of images on pBase - example shots from the new Carl Zeiss 16-80mm f3.5-4.5 DT ZA zoom taken on the Alpha 100.

Run our Alpha System web slideshow