Photoclub Alpha

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

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.

CLICKING on key mapping points of a face, then adjusting some simple overlaid Bezier curves using movable anchors, it takes only a minute to load a typical headshot portrait into Portrait Professional.

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.

Sony Europe’s Recording Media & Energy (RME) division today announced a new LTO-4 photo contest promotion that offers the chance to win one of three digital cameras from Sony – in return for creative pictures of LTO-4 tape cartridges. The competition can be entered by distributors, resellers and end-customers of Sony’s LTO-4, its highest capacity media.

After reading Andrea Nivini’s article in Italian Tutti Fotografi, December 2007, which launches an attack on Adobe’s Camera Raw plug-in and its handling of many camera types - but specifically, the Sony Alpha 700 - I decided to check out whether the December 5th release, ACR 4.3.1, fixed the problems.

THE question is being asked, will the Alpha 700 match the rich colour rendering of the Konica Minolta 7D and 5D? These cameras had identical colour profiles, and were in turn very similar to the Dimage A1 and A2. The Sony Alpha 100 proved very different. Here’s my best attempt to explain why.

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.

THE PRESS and trade announcement made below on August 20th 2007 does little to confirm on deny rumours about the forthcoming AA and Flagship DSLRs. Why? You need to study the image, and study the dimension data, and fully understand what they are talking about, before the implications are clear.

NEW YORK, Aug. 16, 2007: Sony Electronics has launched its largest integrated marketing campaign in the USA, centreing on its high definition DNA known as “HDNA.” The campaign, featuring Super Bowl MVP Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts and NASCAR’s Dale Earnhardt, Jr., focuses on how Sony’s high-definition technology in a variety of product categories comes together to bring consumers unparalleled HD entertainment experiences.

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.

THE Konica Minolta Maxxum/Dynax 5D colour modes and conversions are like a whole box of film choices in one roll. This article was written using the 5D in 2005. The modes of the Sony Alpha 100 are similar, but the colour palettes will vary from these results.

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.

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.

DOWNLOAD COMPLETE PDF VERSIONS OF PHOTOWORLD BACK ISSUES

You may now download from this site a complete 36-page ‘edition’ PDF of the Summer06 issue of Photoworld, at a medium quality 150dpi resolution suitable for viewing up to 200 per cent on most monitors or printing out to better than webpage quality. Printed copies are still available for new subscribers.

You can also download as an alternative just our eight-page article covering the European launch of the Sony Alpha 100 camera in Morocco. It is in two versions, page by page and in spreads, and is a little over 2Mb in size.

We have now made the autumn06 edition of Photoworld available for download, again, it’s a 36-page edition. Click here to download (10MB). It includes a report on Sony’s Alpha system as exhibited at photokina (Sept 25-Oct 1st, Cologne). There is some detailed test material on the A100 including comparisons with other 10 megapixel DSLRs; a great account of Duncan McEwan’s assignment to cover the Commonwealth Games in Australia using his Dynax 7D kit with 70-200mm SSM; a timely portfolio of off-season images from award winning garden photographer Tony Jones.

Photoworld Winter07 (January) is one of the best editions we’ve had yet. It contains a superb Carl Zeiss 135mm Æ’1.8 ZA lens portfolio from Wietse Jongsma, and a brilliant landscape essay from the Dynax 7D of Neil Paskin. At the heart of the issue is a big article from a big man - Gary Friedman visits Cuba, taking wonderful character portraits of people he met, talked to, and encountered in their own space. This is not tourist photography, it’s something else. You can now download the entire 36-page issue as an 8.5Mb PDF file.

If you wish to subscribe to Photoworld just download our complete postal application form. However, you can also do so using our online Paypal subscription service. This has additional bare-bones price and free gift offer options not included on the postal form.

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

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