Photoclub Alpha

SONY puts two 10.2 megapixel consumer digicams on the market in September 2009 using the back-illuminated Exmor R sensor. This CMOS sensor architecture takes the ’sandwich’ which forms the light-sensitive pixel wells, and reverses it so that the side previously used for connections now faces the image-forming light. This change allows more light to be captured, resulting in improved high ISO performance. So far, the Exmor R technology has only been used in video cameras and this is the first appearance of it in still cameras. The cameras can shoot at 10 frames per second.

Nikon has announced a May 1st launch for a competitor to the Canon EOS 500D, in their D5000. This camera has the first articulated screen (only 230,000 pixels) to be designed by Nikon. See:
http://www.dphotoexpert.com/2009/04/14/nikon-d5000-live-view-hdv-articulated-screen/

Sony has announced another release of Cyber-shot pocket cameras, without giving any price indications at this stage. 720p movie mode is present in the three of the camera types, and a new GPS tracking unit is separate, not built-in.

You can download a Sony press conference video from IFA Berlin show via this link:

http://www.gginternet1.co.uk/sony01/

It is mainly about HDTV Motionflow, LED technology, Reader, OLED (Organic LED) screens, Handycam, the electronic Picture Frame, something called Sountina which appears to radiate sound from a column speaker – etc. It features Fujio Nishida, President of Sony Europe; Chairman and CEO Sir Howard Stringer making jokes which fell on a rather mirthless set of ears;

“We continue to grow our enormous digital imaging business where we maintain leading market share”, said Stringer, before lauding the success of Blu-Ray (something which was by no means sure until recently).

He promised network connectivity in 90% of devices in 2010 – which means, perhaps, that DSLRs will have built-in WiFi, just to keep up the count towards a target figure. But he also refers to “electronic” devices in this context, and the Alpha division appears to be a separate category.

He said that Sony has committed to doubling its revenue from countries like China, Russia, Brazil and the Eastern European zone. “The global economic downturn is beginning to have an effect on Western Europe”, he told the journalists, but the east was showing a 25% growth. Eastern Europe and Russia show a 60% sales increase for Sony. Poland showed a 65% sales increase in the first four months of 2008. In Turkey, Sony has seen 43 months of consecutive growth, increasing by 500% in five years.

Nishida said that new products would be launched in Europe on the same date as in Japan. These include the OLED TV XEL-1 which is only 3mm deep. The Bravia EX-1 HDTV will receive its HD content via a wireless link from a media box sited up to 30 metres away. It mounts on the wall like a picture, without wires except power supply.

He said that the 50Hz frame rate of TVs was now old-fashioned and too slow for fast-moving sports. Motionflow introduced 100Hz in March 2007. The new Bravia 200Hz Z-4500 has four times the frame rate of standard HDTV, using algorithms to interpolate between the frames of the original. It will be on sale by Christmas.

New LED TVs would use side-injected illumination instead of a lighting panel placed behind the picture elements. The Bravia ZX-1, only 9.9mm thick, is the world’s slimmest TV and uses this new illumination method. It will also go on sale in Europe in December.

After discussing Blu-Ray, Nishida introduced the Sony T-500 with 10.1 megapixel still camera shooting 720p HDTV video clips, which goes on sale from this month. He then moved on to Walkman S-series players including photo storage, and mood sensing – it will pick the right music to play according to your activity level.

The Sony Reader was explained in the conference by Nishida – it is an electronic book reading device – and its first launch will be in the UK this week, followed by rollout in other countries. Nishida-san concluded with discussion of built-in wireless networking and control connectivity, including reference to Cybershot cameras but not to the Alpha range.

Simon McDowell, of Sony Entertainment Europe, spoke mainly about Blu-Ray and home entertainment. The most spooky thing is a new Blu-Ray based feature, BDLive, which lets you upload a snapshot of yourself into a movie and appear in the film…

Fujio Nishida concluded the press conference by announcing football sponsorship of the EUFA Champions League – a new signing to continue for a further 3 years up to 2012. “We have some exciting technology developments planned for football in the coming months”, he said.

BDLive to let the viewer in as a substitute?

- DK

There seems to be a lot of speculation about the Alpha 900 or Pro, and uncertainty about the timing of introduction. The August 14th date is not the 900, it’s two Cybershot models. The Alpha 900 will, as far as we are aware, be shown to the press on September 9th/10th worldwide.

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

The first SONY World Photography Awards were presented in the late April sunshine of Cannes, to what must have been an exclusive gala dinner audience – at €250 a head, our ‘man on the spot’ Thomas Goseberg decided against the opportunity to take his wife out for a quiet meal…

In mid 2007, rumours of a 14.8 megapixel Sony sensor came from the usual Far Eastern ‘inside’ sources. As a full-frame Alpha model (the so-called 900) had been previewed at PMA 2007, it was possible this megapixel count related to full frame, or near-full frame. It now looks as if it may have been a leak of development for currently rumoured 14.2 megapixel (active) Alpha 350, which is an APS-C sensor camera.

BRANCHES of Currys, the large UK electronic box-shifter, have been displaying notices saying ‘Discontinued’ under their remaining Alpha 100 kits. This needed some explanation, so we contacted Sony UK to ask whether the camera was genuinely discontinued.

Weybridge, 22nd August 2007 – For sports, for travel or simply for having fun with friends and family – the Cyber-shot H3 from Sony packs big-camera features into its ultra-compact body at a price that’s irresistible (reads Sony press release).

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.

THE FIRST QUESTION anyone asks about the Sony GPS-CS1 device is whether it will work with their non-Sony digital camera. The answer is ‘yes’ but you may need to buy some extra software, as it only comes with software to link up to Sony Picture Motion Browser. If you can ensure that you buy the product sold as GPS-CS1KA it should include a copy of this software in full. If you buy the product coded only as GPS-CS1, it may have nothing apart from a patch-updater program you are supposed to use with your existing Sony installation. So make sure you know exactly what you are buying (there appears to be no price difference, and very few retailers are making any distinction between the two bundles). There seems to be no reason to continue offering the kit with the updater only.

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!