Photoclub Alpha

Nikon has introduced some of the technologies we might expect to see from Sony, apparently using the IMX021 sensor (the pixel count on the long edge is 4288, rather than 4272 as normally processed from a Sony Alpha 700 file, but this is within the usual limits of different raw conversions). The D90 is an A700-class camera for £699 but includes Live View with face detection contrast-detect focusing, 720p HD movie recording up to 5 minutes, 4.5fps continuous shooting, ISO to 3200 (6400 HI), and Auto Distortion Correction when fitted with current Nikon lenses.

Canon has today officially announced the 15.5 megapixel APS-C EOS 50D. This is a 1.6X factor sensor, packing a density well in excess of the Alpha 350 - if Sony was to make an Alpha with the same pixel density it would be 17.5 megapixels, and a full framer would be 38.5 megapixels.

Calumet has announced that its Wardour Street, Soho, London store is now a Sony Alpha Centre of Excellence:

http://ebm.cheetahmail.com/c/tag/tBImAnOBSZ4PaB7SFuqB8eZtgdl/doc.html

SONY UK has notified us of a press conference to announce an ‘exciting digital camera’ on August 14th.

They have also said that full details will be provided soon. It is possible this will be embargoed - we may attend a meeting on the 14th, but have to agree not to publish until a date later on, perhaps in September.

Update: it seems there is an international Sony Alpha press trip on Sept 9/10th to Edinburgh. Members of the Euro technical press have been invited, as a two-dayer with a stack of nightlife (the Festival and Fringe have just kicked into action today) it is an ideal location for putting the Alpha 900 and new 16-35mm and 70-400mm into the hands of journos. But it’s one week after the Sept 2nd close of the Festival itself, with the fireworks display. The Fringe is still running.

It seems very unlikely that the Aug 14th conference would be the long-awaited Alpha 900 launch since it is only a single day, or part of a day, and would not take place so long before an apparent pre-photokina pan-European press event. Judging by previous launches - Alpha 100, 2-day event in Morocco June 5-7th 2006; Alpha 700 2-day event on Lake Como Italy end of 1st week in September 2007; my guess is that the Edinburgh event is the big hands-on opportunity for the flagship full frame DSLR almost one year to the day after the launch of the 700. A very busy year, too, during which Sony has launched three other DSLR bodies and several important lenses.

Well, Edinburgh’s 45 minutes from my door and even if I am surplus to the tightly controlled A-list of such events I may be able to drop in and join them for a drink, as there’s one or two folk going I would like to say hello to. But then, Edinburgh is an airport! Just because the press gets to land there does not mean the city is where they are headed. I’ve been to big press events at Gleneagles (Kodak) and even in the middle of the Berwickshire countryside (Canon) in the past. It could be anywhere in Scotland - and some places in Scotland are not on our doorstep!

It costs me over one working day and around £200 to get to a London event (I’d rather by invited to almost anywhere in Europe than London in summer…) but whatever goes, the September date is an essential launch I am sure, and not just another Cybershot across the bows of the enemy!

- DK

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.

SONY Alpha prices are now the lowest of any competing DSLR system - for current-model bodies - on the UK market. Dealers are now selling the Alpha 200 body for as little as £229.99 and even the Alpha 350 has dropped to under £400 body-only. £100 cashback on the Alpha 700 body, £150 on any Alpha 700 body+lens kit, has been extended to September 30th.

A typical specialist Sony ACE dealer advertisement from London Camera Exchange, about to be printed in Photoworld, reveals the latest price deals:

Click on the ad to view a full size copy. If you call LCE be sure to ask about their deals offering one year’s FREE membership of Photoclubalpha with four issues of our full colour quarterly Photoworld magazine.

One of the problems with the Alpha 350/300 is that the Live View is linked to the settings when you use Manual exposure. It provides a form of metering, a relatively accurate preview of under or over exposure. This makes it impossible to use Manual with studio flash (AC mains strobe) setups. Currently, there is no menu setting to turn off ‘exposure preview with manual’ and enable ‘auto LV gain with manual’. But there is a solution.

London Camera Exchange Colchester manager David Jenner has two of these hardback books, which showcase the Alpha lens range as it was in 2007-8 and feature photography from round the world plus technical data and diagrams for both Sony G and Carl Zeiss designs.

He has agreed to give them away to two UK-based Photoclubalpha readers, and you can find the link and instructions hiding in our Forum now. Happy hunting! Just click the Forum link, register with the forum, and locate today’s new post about the lens book giveaway. It closes end of July 31st. By entering this draw you agree to allow LCE to email you with any appropriate news of Sony Alpha system offers in future.

Sorry, it is only open to UK addresses. Drawn winners will be asked for their postal address by email.

- David

What we thought would be the ‘Alpha Pro’ project - display centres for the entire system sited at key retail outlets through Britain - turned out to be the ‘ACE’ project. That is, Sony Alpha Centres of Excellence. London Camera Exchange Colchester, one of the selected dealers, supplied these shots of the new showcase.

Nikon is holding a launch today (June 30th) in London, and presumably worldwide. Richard Kilpatrick is attending for Icon Publications Ltd. As at 1.30am Monday, no press release has been received from Nikon, so we can assume an embargo will be in place but news may be released around 10.30am Monday 30th (GMT).

The launch is expected to reveal a low-cost 12 megapixel ‘full frame D300′ based on the sensor used in the D3, with a D100-type body like the D300. It may also preview the D3X, a full frame 24.x megapixel D3-type body using the new Sony high resolution full frame sensor.

We had early information that Sony would launch new products in June, which now has one day to go. The 58 flashgun may have been the only launch for June. A possible clue to imminent roll-outs may be that new Sony point of sale cabinets have space for products which the dealers don’t yet have! The 24-105mm f/4 G SSM has already been leaked but we can expect two more key lenses in the wide angle and medium tele zoom ranges. Rumours of a June 30th launch may apply to the Nikon conferences, not Sony.

My bet is that the first we may actually see of some new items for sale will be in the window of Foto Gregor, Cologne, around September 23rd. We shall be at photokina from the press day on September 22nd - watch this space!

- David

Photoworld 2008 #2 is now being mailed to subscribers!

Our Spring edition features -

This is the latest press release from Sony UK - filling the streets of Miami with club-style foam for their new digital photography ad campaign:

London— April 2, 2008 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq: ADBE) today announced Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 beta, a public preview of new and improved functionality to be delivered in the next major release. Lightroom is the professional photographer’s essential toolbox, providing one application for managing, adjusting, and presenting large volumes of digital photographs. Lightroom 2.0 beta will feature enhancements such as dual-monitor support, localised dodge and burn correction and will be the first Adobe application to support 64-bit for Mac OS X 10.5 Intel Macs and Microsoft Vista 64-bit operating systems.

On January 5th, Photoworld was lucky enough to be able to attend the dress rehearsal and official photo-call for the new Cirque du Soleil production at the Royal Albert Hall in London, and to put the Alpha 700 through its paces for high ISO fast action stage show capture. This article with large reproductions of the images appears in our Photoworld issue due out later in January.

The Sony Alpha Unseen Britain Challenge has embarked on its campaign to capture never seen before images of Britain with renowned photographer and climber Mike Robertson. Commissioned by Sony, Mike will tour the country scaling new heights and legendary landmarks to create totally new and exciting photographic images using the new Sony Alpha 700 (α700) Digital SLR camera.

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.

Online trade photographic supplier www.photomart.co.uk is to hold a bumper day of photo workshops in its huge London showrooms on November 28, 2007. Billed as an “Anniversary Day”, the day-long programme of workshops is to celebrate the second anniversary of the opening of this major photographic venue.

ON OCTOBER 10th I left the UK London press launch complete with an Alpha 700 review camera. I’ll be covering the many aspects of the Alpha 700 performance in later reviews, but this camera is so good I wanted to get just something out to you right the next day.

SONY, following their entry into the serious DSLR arena with the Alpha system inherited from Minolta, is to become the sponsor of a high-profile World Photography Awards salon and event with a 2008 presentation ceremony in Cannes and support from some of the biggest names in independent fine photography.

SONY UK is finally to reveal the Alpha 700 to the UK press on October 10th, over a month after the European launch and three weeks after the first Alpha 700 cameras began shipping in other parts of the world.

INSIDE sources - mainly people who have been invited to press launch events - confirm that Sony is to show its new Advanced Amateur camera, thought to be called the Alpha 300, on Thursday September 6th. A press conference is being held in Italy on the 5th/6th, and journalists from European mainland countries have been invited to attend. Nigel Atherton, editor of What Digital Camera magazine, wrote on the Amateur Photographer public website forums that the product/s would be unveiled on the 5th. (I have now seen a programme for the event, and the main launch conference is on the 6th).

This article has been edited on January 28th 2008 - the Alpha 700 was known shortly after it appeared, but I left the original title with ‘A300′. Since there is to be an Alpha 300 (probably the cause of the confusion originally as this model number was identified in Sony website databases) I am changing the title and references to the body to avoid search engines finding the wrong information.

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.

9 July, 2007 - As take up of High Definition (HD) gains momentum in Europe, Sony is to launch a major Pan-European marketing campaign to demonstrate the breadth and depth of the company’s HD proposition and to educate consumers about the intricacies of HD.

ASDA and Sony launch fastest digital photo printing service on the market

Britain’s second largest supermarket chain invests in multi-million pound deal to install 260 kiosks in 130 stores across the UK to maximise customer convenience and profits

LONDON, 20th June 2007 - By the end of 2007, ASDA customers will have access to the fastest digital printing facilities on the market with new Sony printing kiosks. The Sony kiosks utilise state-of-the-art printing technology to create standard 4×6″ photos at market leading speed.

For everyone who is passionate about photography, the AOP Open is a celebration of the diversity of photography and the perfect opportunity to achieve recognition for outstanding images. You may be a professional photographer or a weekend snapper, it doesn’t matter – there are no restrictions or categories, you just have to take a great picture. Enter now, for the opportunity to exhibit at the AOP Gallery and to win a variety of outstanding prizes.

E-Books from Gary Friedman are user guides, mines of information and all-round treasuries of inspiration for Alpha owners - see www.friedmanarchives.com for details and how to buy them either as a physical printed book, or a download. His e-Books include:

• Dynax 7D/5D
• Dimage A1/A2 book (equally applicable to the Dimage A200)
• Alpha 100
• Alpha 700
• Alpha 200/300/350

dPreview

dPreview is recognised as one of the most important camera test sites on the web. While some visitors complain of bias, we do not believe that is the case, and Phil Askey’s test report on the Alpha 100 while missing a few minor plus points was very fair. This report also showed that the Sony Alpha 100 has (and still has) the highest extinction resolution of all the 10.2 megapixel class DSLRs. dPreview has now covered the Alpha 350 and 200 as well as the 700, a different staff writer covering each camera.

Read Phil’s review.

Phil has also done a review of the Alpha 700.

Alpha 200 review - Alpha 350 review

Raw converters

Sony Alpha owners will find that Adobe Photoshop CS2/3 and Photoshop Elements 4.0/5.0/6.0 include a good .ARW raw file converter in the current version of Adobe Camera Raw 3.x/4.x (anything later than 3.4 will process Alpha 100 .ARW files, 4.3 or later is needed for .ARW2 files from the A700/200 and is much improved over the first compatible version, 4.2, so upgrade your installation if you are still using 4.2). Earlier versions will not handle Alpha files. 4.5 handles 350 files well.

You can also convert .ARW raw files from the Sony Alpha 100 into Adobe .DNG (Digital Negative) universal raw files, readable by earlier versions Adobe Photoshop 7, CS and Elements 3. Please note that downloading auto-updates for Photoshop does NOT automatically update the raw converter, and this must be done as a separate, manual download. There are two download options, both entirely free, for the DNG converter and the ACR 3.x/4.x plug-in (which requires CS2/3 Mac/PC; or PSE 3/4 for Mac, PSE 4/5 for Windows; and is not compatible with earlier versions):

Windows download page

Mac download page

Adobe Lightroom, a dedicated raw file conversion and ‘digital asset management’ utility, which is a complete stand alone product including A100 conversion, can be purchased from:

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/

There’s a great Mac-only raw file developer for the A100, A700, A200 and previous Konica Minolta DSLRs - RAWDeveloper from Iridient. This is really fast, allows scaled exports, has superb noise reduction and is a highly professional workflow solution.

Another alternative is Silkypix Developer Studio, a Japanese developed raw file converter, which has something in common with Sony’s Image Converter SR, and will - again - handle both the new A700/A200 and A100 file formats and previous Minolta and Konica Minolta raw files, for those with mixed systems. This is available in both Windows and Mac versions.

Bibble, a popular commercial multi-format raw converter and browser utility, now supports the Alpha 100/700/200. We have had some problems with scaled-up output showing unwanted raster-like patterns, but for normal size files BibblePro offers NoiseNinja which is one of the best ways of dealing with the Alpha 100’s rather strong high-ISO noise levels.

DxOptics Pro also now supports some Konica Minolta/Sony DSLRs and includes automatic correction for a few Minolta/Sony lenses. This deals with chromatic aberration, fringes, curvature of lines and vignetting of brightness towards the corners of the field, and it is especially useful with digital format zooms. They do not appear to have fulfilled the promise of serious support, and are concentrating on the obvious cashcows of Canon and Nikon ownership percentages. The latest v5.2 update brings the Alpha 700, 200 and 350 into the fold with an odd set of lenses but omits the 300 entirely.

An excellent top-level raw .MRW/.ARW converter, if a little hard to master, is Capture One Pro made by Phase One, the Danish digital medium-format back manufacturer. The good news is that if you buy a SanDisk Extreme III memory card right now (as from October 16th 2006) a version normally costing $99 called CaptureOne Pro LE is included on the card free of charge. You can also download trial software, and upgrade this LE version to the full product, by visiting Phase One’s website. The latest versions are good at handling high ISO noise but Phase One is fairly slow to add new camera models.

Recently, a Mac-only converter came to light, RawPhotoProcessor. This is simple and deep. It reveals a lot about the image through reading the makernote and metadata comments hidden in each file. It is fast and small. It has no noise reduction beyond simply chroma blurring, and no sharpening option.

http://www.raw-photo-processor.com/RPP/Downloads.html

Another commercial program we really like - it has a very good interface - which works well with the 5D, 7D and A100 but awaits A700 addition is LightZone from Lightcrafts Inc. This is a feature-laden full image management system which can match Aperture or Lightroom on most levels and even replace Photoshop for some work.

http://www.lightcrafts.com/download/download.html

This program is not very well marketed internationally, yet. Of all the commercial offerings it has the most potential, I think, for cross-platform universal application. It is apparently JAVA-based.

A good PC-only raw converter, small enough to run on palmtop devices and Origami platform machines, is RawTherapee. This independently written experimental converter has won many converts amongst Alpha 700 users, as it offered support right from the start and overcame most of the smurrging issues present in high ISO detail:

http://www.rawtherapee.com

Let us know of any other raw converter links, and I will add them.

Support and resources

For legacy support and information on Konica Minolta photo-digital products, we currently recommend the website below, which has not disabled all its downloads of software, firmware, etc: http://ca.konicaminolta.com/support/americas/

For information on the Sony Alpha system and the new Sony Alpha 100 DSLR, the UK Sony site now has some really excellent resources in place. Use the High Bandwidth option if you possibly can, and expore both ‘Assignments’ and ‘Equipment’: http://www.sony.co.uk/nextlevel

The bimonthly magazine for freelance photographers, f2 Freelance+Digital, has a dedicated website where many PDF articles can be downloaded. We have included on this site many PDFs from our Photoworld magazine. f2 magazine moved to new publishers from the October/November 2006 edition, but our website remains operational. Registration is necessary but paid subscription is only required to access the archives of older articles - new editions are free for two months to all comers, subscribers can download from well over 100 previous articles: http://www.f2photo.co.uk/

You can view a selection of full size, 10.2 megapixel images taken with the new Sony Alpha 100 on David Kilpatrick’s pBase pages. At the last count there were over 70 examples and the Alpha images had clocked up over 100,000 views. There’s lots of technical information on the tests, examples, and comparison present on these pages. These include comments, captions and EXIF shooting data: http://www.pbase.com/davidkilpatrick

There is an independent Minolta M-AF forum and website, Dyxum, which offers many useful resources including lens tests and storage card speed comparisons. Unlike dPreview, Dyxum does not ban participants for being associated with specialist websites like Photoclubalpha, and has kindly promoted and helped us in the past: http://www.dyxum.com

Yahoogroups include one dedicated entirely to Minolta which in practice is used by Sony Alpha owners as well - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Minolta/. There is also a Yahoogroup called SonyAlpha, at least until Sony’s legal dept ask them to cease and desist: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SonyAlpha/.

A busy forum is well established at Dynaxdigital - http://www.dynaxdigital.com/

Carl Garrard and T E Morrison have set up a site called Alphamountworld which offers forums, reviews and articles and will be reporting from major trade shows in the US. Carl is also going to post articles from his show visits or press invites to Photoworldalpha.

A useful group with a strong photography emphasis is UKExpert - forums and galleries and many further onwards links. It was a pleasure to meet Andy from UKExpert at the Sony Alpha 700 launch, and great to know that Sony value the presence of independent opinion-formers.

There is a photo sharing site (by far the most popular web activity for photographers!) at Shootalpha.com. This is, after all, what camera clubs and even august professional associations do - share their pictures and pass generally not unkind comments on them to each other, with the occasional bit of constructive crit. Do not expect to encounter the photo equivalent of Simon Cowell stalking the gallery pages, you will be welcomed as a beginner and find your level quickly. There is also an active forum.

Dealers and spares

At Icon Publications Ltd we now have just a selection of Minolta glass filters; MD/AF hard lens cases (many types); Dynax branded original camera straps; Minolta leather cases ideal for iPhones, iPods etc; and Vectis BPS-1 battery base grips for the Vectis S-1.

Former Minolta Club administrator Adrian Paul has his own specialist business selling spares, accessories and smaller hard-to-obtain products from the Minolta and Konica Minolta ranges, and will be offering Sony Alpha system products in future. The Photostore is a mail-order business only and Adrian offers a fast, excellent standard of service and knowledge: http://www.photostore-uk.com/

Lens rental is also available from the Photostore in the UK, but applies only to Photoworld magazine subscribers, and full details are printed in each magazine. There is a new Alpha lens rental service operating in the USA - http://www.alphalensrental.com/index.html.

In New Zealand, the Sony Service Centre for Alpha is http://www.phototronic.co.nz/ - they are also dealers, an ideal one-stop shop for purchases and repairs, run by a former Minolta UK Ltd service department staff member.

Pro dealers Calumet have the Alpha system now as a main line, after decades of sidelining the Minolta mount. This is very important and will put the Alpha in front of Britain’s working professionals: http://www.calumetphoto.co.uk/.

London Camera Exchange Colchester is now a Sony ACE dealer and has committed to supporting this website and our magazine. Manager David Jenner will always try to offer the best deal to Photoclubalpha members! Email them on colchester@LCEgroup.co.uk or call 01206 573444.

To find out about the values of used cameras, visit the Monark camera price guide site - http://www.cameravalues.com/

Thank you for visiting the photoclubalpha.com site. If you would like to receive future information by email from Sony UK about the Alpha system, and news of future developments for the former Minolta Club of Great Britain, please email david@photoclubalpha.com using the heading ‘Add to Alpha mailing list’.

Shortly before the June 6th 2006 worldwide launch of the Sony Alpha digital SLR system the European press learned that major title editors would meet in Marrakesh for the unveiling of the Alpha 100. No-one anticipated being driven miles into the desert-like countryside of Oued Nfis for the experience of a night under canvas after witnessing feats of Berber horsemanship and a massive pyrotechnic intro! Read David Kilpatrick’s original report from the Summer 2006 edition of Photoworld magazine.