Photoclub Alpha

While I appreciate the threads on dPreview calling for them to lift their ban on my using the dPreview forums, they have gone over the top - if they do unban me, what if have nothing useful to say? I can not be a permanent fixture on the dPreview Sony SLR forum although I am happy to participate in that, and several other dPreview forums. In a way I am hoping they do not lift the ban.

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

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.

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.

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.

Epson has today launched an innovative new print plug-in for the Adobe Photoshop family of products that provides users with enhanced functionality and flexibility, making colour-managed printing quicker and easier.

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…

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.

NOT everyone will want the live view offered by the A300 and A350 - it does turn out to be more or less as we suggested, a secondary optical path adjacent to the eyepiece inside the prism housing. I’ll explain here exactly what the implications are, and why a future model - let’s call it the A500 - offering the 14.2 megapixel sensor without the live view may be worth waiting for.

Sony Corporation today announced the development of a 35mm full size (diagonal:43.3mm) 24.81 effective megapixel, ultra-high speed high image quality CMOS image sensor designed to meet the increasing requirement for rapid image capture and advanced picture quality within digital SLR cameras.

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.

AT THE Consumer Electronics Show, Las Vegas, Sony has announced introduction of the new Alpha DSLR-A200 camera which has been the subject of some strange speculation but was known beforehand to be a replacement for the Alpha 100. This is the first time a DSLR has been launched to the world at this show, and Sony’s decision to do so sends a major signal out as to where they see themselves and the Alpha system in the marketplace. It is highly competitive in price and we have just ordered our body for £369 including VAT (£314 + VAT) plus £13 express shipping from www.sonystyle.co.uk. This is exactly the same price as we paid for our last Alpha 100 in summer 2006.

SINCE September 2007 I have had for test the Canon EOS 40D, Sony Alpha 700, Nikon D300, Olympus E-3 and Nikon D3 in that order. The reports have been published in the British Journal of Photography, and later on in Master Photo Digital and f2 magazines (some are yet to appear, in February, in these titles). My own system is Sony Alpha but I have to be as objective as possible when field testing all makes. I also have to seek out the unique selling points, the reasons for owning any given model, rather than just compare them on a tick-chart feature basis.

With the Alpha 200 about to appear, I guess it’s time to sum up what I think about the Sony Alpha 700 and how it compares to the competition.

OUR local dealer, Hector Innes in Kelso, used to be a totally Minolta-dedicated retail shop. Hector and his son Alastair have always been Minolta photographers, and Alastair currently uses the Dynax 7D as weapon of choice for weddings. Their shop is one of those few remaining which combines a professional studio (ABIPP, in Hector’s case) with processing and printing, and retail. On the wall there’s a Minolta clock from two or three changes of logo ago, and on the counter, I found a well-used and yellowed Minolta lens chart mat.

LET’S not get too acronymical about all this… or indeed moanious! After posting today’s earlier piece on DRO Advanced, I’ve been asked for some further examples of the potential for processing the raw file using Sony Image Data Converter, which includes DRO. Or so it says on the box.

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.

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.

I know that many of you expect a full detailed report about new Alpha 700 (writes Damir Tiljak). Unfortunately we had limited time to spent with new camera, which left us with just a few impressions. Good news is that most of impressions are positive. Although Sony rates this camera as their ‘advanced amateur’ model, I am sure it will be suitable for semi-professional or even professional use in fields like wedding photography.

System
Camera type: Digital SLR with built-in flash and interchangeable lenses
Lens mount: Sony mount; compatible with Minolta A-type bayonet mount
Lens compatibility: All Sony a lenses and Konica Minolta MAXXUM / DYNAX lenses

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.

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.

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.

DUE to be launched on Monday August 20th to the press, and to reach the shops a month later, the new Canon EOS 40D anticipates some of the rumoured features of the Sony AA (Advanced Amateur) project also known as the A300. It also leapfrogs the more conversative rumours.

To save a few dollars, whoever assembled a double page advert for Sony-sponsored photo workshops which (I gather) has just appeared in the US magazine Popular Photography went to cheap online stock library iStockphoto and downloaded this image:

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.

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 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.