Photoclub Alpha

I AM not a Mom, and if I was, I’d be a Mum because we don’t have Moms in Britain, just the same way we don’t have Pops. I grew up in a world where everyone had Mummies and Daddies, and having a Mum and Dad would have been non-u, infra-dig. Times change and our kids grew up with a Mum and Dad and ended up with parents just as likely to sign off an email with Christian names as anything else.

So, I do not qualify to test out the latest Sony Alpha system ‘product’. It looks like you have to be a Mom to do this one, and it’s firmly aimed at Mickey Mouse’s home territory. Disney has launched a ‘Digital Photogaphy 101′ course

For many years Camera Repair Workshop, based in Milton Keynes close to the original Minolta UK service department, handled the repair of classic SRT, X, Vectis and later film cameras for Minolta UK.

They have obtained many of the spare parts and KM’s stocks of older ‘cannibalisation cameras’ like 7000 and 8000i. Their proprietor is David Boyle, and his two technicians are Minolta trained. As an independent repairer they will specialise in film and digital, and hold parts going back to models like the XM. The Dynax 9 is an exception, previously serviced by a special European centre, and must be sent to JP (see post on UK official details). No VAT is chargeable at present, and they offer Photoworld magazine subscribers a 10 per cent discount on prices which they say are already better than former retail repair charges. This enables the club to continue with its 10 per cent service and repair discount offer.

The Photoworld Camera Check scheme will be operated by Camera Repair Workshop, though in absence of Konica Minolta’s former bulk shipping arrangements, the return carriage costs have increased and a charge of £25 per camera/standard lens combination is now required.

Your equipment is bench-tested for shutter speed, metering, focusing and aperture accuracy, externally cleaned and adjusted (this includes mirror box and film track, and all accessible parts or adjustments). If performance is below standard, a quotation will be issued for optional servicing. A certificate is completed showing the test results and functions checked, and returned with the camera. Camera Repair Workshop were actually responsible for most of the Club Camera Check work, and hold a stock of original ‘Minolta Club’ certificates along with all the necessary bench testing equipment.

They are based at:
Unit 9, Wharfside, Bletchley, Milton Keynes MK2 2AZ.
Telephone 01908 378088, fax 08712 427677.
Email: cameraworkshop@tiscali.co.uk

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.

PHOTOWORLD is published seasonally four times a year and is sent by Airmail to subscribers outside the UK (not by slow surface mail) so it is received within a week of printing. UK subscriptions are posted by 2nd class Press-stream. Every issue has 36 pages on heavy gloss art paper, full colour, printed sheetfed litho with a fine screen to allow the full detail of pictures to be studied. There is an open Gallery you can submit images to, and every edition features tests or reviews of the latest equipment along with articles by professional and enthusiast Alpha system and vintage Minolta users.

Photograph by John Gilkerson - Scotland, mid-November, 2006

PHOTOWORLD is available on subscription by mail to anywhere in the world. You can subscribe at minimum prices with no additional back issue (which we have in the past included) to keep postage costs down. These prices are the same as for advance RENEWAL of subscriptions. You may also use these buy it buttons (please inform us by email) to renew your existing subscription.

UK RENEWAL or starter subscription with current issue only - £17.95.

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EUROPE RENEWAL or starter subscription with current issue only - £19.95.

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WORLD RENEWAL or starter subscription with current issue only - £23.95.

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SUBSCRIPTIONS WITH VINTAGE KONICA MINOLTA GIFTS

We are offering a subscriber gift - the very neat belt/shoulder Konica Minolta CS-DG1000 Z-case which is great for lenses or flashguns as well as Z-series digital cameras. This neat zipper case has a generous belt loop plus two D-rings and a shoulder strap. We find it great to fit on a belt, and use it when changing lenses - a kind of platform to pop the lens in, freeing the hands.

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UK subscription 1 year including free CS-DG1000 Z-case which will fit Z-series cameras, many lenses including 11-18mm, 17-35mm, or flash units including the 3600 (perfect) and 5600 (tight but it fits). Cost - £21.95 (£19.95 subscription includes one back issue and current issue; £2 p&p/handling for case).

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European subscription including the CS-DG1000 case. Cost £24.95. (£21.95 subscription includes back issue and current issue; £3 p&p for case).

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World subscription (outside Europe) including the CS-CG1000 case. Cost £27.95. (£23.95 subscription includes back issue and current, £4 p&p for case).

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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’.

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

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.

An old Japanese folk-tale, discovered in a book of oriental myths and legends, and translated from the original Ancient Sumo script by David Kilpatrick.

THERE WAS once a beautiful Geisha called Minolta (here real name was Chiyoko but she adopted the stage name of Minolta once her fame spread abroad). She had many rivals, and was courted by many suitors.