Photoclub Alpha

The launch of the Alpha 350, with its small 0.74X viewfinder, makes a proper eyepiece magnifier attachment an essential addition to the Sony accessory range. Olympus, Nikon and Pentax all have such magnifiers, which permit a full view of the screen for most wearers and make all the difference to the manual focusing and general comfort in composing shots. We tested two devices, one of them the highly affordable Seagull 1x-2.5x right angle finder, and the other Olympus’s ME-1 1.2X ocular magnifier.

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.

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.

The Sony DSLR A200 is now on sale, following the end of Alpha 100 production. Although it is without any doubt the Alpha 100 replacement mentioned by Sony executives in October 2007, when they first revealed that the 100 was no longer being made, it is not an exact equivalent and represents a mixture of upgraded performance and simplified specification. Because it has gone in two directions at the same time, the A200 poses a problem for A100 owners.

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.

I HAVE set up a pBase gallery with a large number of comparison studio shots, all the way from ISO 100 to the maximum, using the A700 and Nikon D300. It has some minor discrepancies in shooting conditions which I need to explain to anyone visiting the gallery.

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.

I’m still testing the Alpha 700 and still struggling with aspects of image quality, notably the failure to get much wow factor from straightforward shots in good light. It seems easy enough to get exceptional high ISO images, of the type they are expected to be, but even then many examples seen are marred by a very coarse noise structure.

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.

Adobe has posted updates to Photoshop, Lightroom, and the Photoshop Camera Raw plug-in, both available immediately for download on Adobe.com. The updates provide raw file support for 14 additional camera models and camera backs within Lightroom and Camera Raw, including the Sony Alpha 700. Links here.

Burlingame, CA, September 12, 2007 — FotoNation, Inc. (www.fotonation.com), a world-leading imaging solutions company for the digital photography industry, announced today that it has been selected by Sony’s Professional Printer Group to provide its award winning digital Red-Eye Correction technology for new professional Sony photo printers, Picture Station Kiosks, and photo application products.

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.

TOUGH, RESPONSIVE α700 DELIVERS STUNNING NEXT-GENERATION PICTURE QUALITY… FROM SHOOTING TO VIEWING

Sep 6, 2007

• Superb picture quality with newly developed Sony 12.24 effective megapixel Exmorâ„¢ CMOS sensor and brand new high-speed BIONZâ„¢ processor with RAW noise reduction
• Ultra-responsive operation with fast, high-accuracy 11-point autofocus and 5fps continuous shooting
• New ‘Quick Navigation’ function for instant access to camera settings
• Rugged magnesium body with dust/moisture resistant seals
• ‘PhotoTV HD’ Full HD image display on new BRAVIA televisions
• 3-inch 921k dot photo-quality LCD screen and bright, high-magnification viewfinder

TEMPORARY website pages on the afternoon (GMT) of September 5th managed to leak the entire specification sheet and several new PR images of the advanced amateur Alpha model, along with its name - the Alpha 700. You wouldn’t pick a wife or husband on the basis of their on-paper specification, so remember, the only way to partner up with a DSLR and be happy is to try it in your hands first.

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.

IN 1998 Minolta published, for their 70th anniversary, a large poster featuring all the landmark cameras from their own museum and employee collections. Many of the cameras shown - all fairly small on the poster - were well used and worn examples. The original image-files for the poster, which we have archived, are of poor quality. They are Japanese inkset CMYK sharpened for pre-press, with very dark gamma. This page re-creates all the information from the original poster, complete with the photographs.

THE LENSBABY was a novelty item when first introduced as a low-cost meniscus lens mounted on a flexible concertina tube with an SLR mount-fitting at the other end. Like the Diana or Holga cameras sometimes used by professionals to capture a feel of post-modern grunge, it used aberrations creatively.

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.

DxO OPTICS PRO 4.1 is the latest version of a clever raw file processor which includes lens lookup tables to auto-correct distortion, vignetting and chromatic aberration. It also lets you alter the look of Dynax or Alpha images so they match popular films - or other DSLRs by Canon and Nikon!

There is now an excellent PDF format e-book written by Gary Friedman as a user guide, mine of information and all-round treasury of inspiration for Alpha 100 owners – see www.friedmanarchives.com for details and how to buy this either as a physical printed book, or a download. It’s nearly 400 pages but very easy to read on-screen, and the expensive printed edition (even more so if you use your own inkjet!) is not necessary. Gary also has a Dynax 7D/5D book, and Dimage A1/A2 book (equally applicable to the A200).

There’s a new e-book in for the Alpha 700 as well on this site, and Gary has been busy shooting with it in the Autumn season!
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 is very fair. This report also shows that the Sony Alpha 100 has (and still has) the highest extinction resolution of all the 10.2 megapixel class DSLRs.

Read Phil’s review.

Phil has also done a review of the Alpha 700.

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.

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 Alpha 700 was not supported last time we checked.

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 Beta 4 version is remarkably unstable and still doesn’t support all the newer cameras.

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.

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, Æ’2 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. Æ’2 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

The main Icon Publications Ltd site allows subscription to Photoworld magazine, including special offer options with free gifts (subject to additional postage & packing only). We also have a range of discontinued Minolta products for sale, some Alpha-compatible, and details of our other photo magazines: http://www.iconpublications.com/

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.

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/. Sad news is that in January 2008 they sold off a lot of stock at half price because it had not been shifting well enough.

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’.

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