Photoclub Alpha

London Camera Exchange Colchester manager David Jenner has two of these hardback books, which showcase the Alpha lens range as it was in 2007-8 and feature photography from round the world plus technical data and diagrams for both Sony G and Carl Zeiss designs.

He has agreed to give them away to two UK-based Photoclubalpha readers, and you can find the link and instructions hiding in our Forum now. Happy hunting! Just click the Forum link, register with the forum, and locate today’s new post about the lens book giveaway. It closes end of July 31st. By entering this draw you agree to allow LCE to email you with any appropriate news of Sony Alpha system offers in future.

Sorry, it is only open to UK addresses. Drawn winners will be asked for their postal address by email.

- David

What we thought would be the ‘Alpha Pro’ project - display centres for the entire system sited at key retail outlets through Britain - turned out to be the ‘ACE’ project. That is, Sony Alpha Centres of Excellence. London Camera Exchange Colchester, one of the selected dealers, supplied these shots of the new showcase.

The parallel development of Carl Zeiss lenses for Sony (AF lenses in the Alpha mount) and independent manual focus lenses for other makes continues. The latest CZ design is a revision of the classic 18mm Distagon last seen in the Contax system, optimised for colour balance and reflection supression with digital SLRs.

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.

Photoworld 2008 #2 is now being mailed to subscribers!

Our Spring edition features -

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.

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.

Take your passion for photography to the next level with the most advanced digital SLR camera from Sony to date. Until 31 January 2008 you can claim up to £150 cashback on the new A700 DSLR.

This information is from the Sony UK website with some explanatory additions.

It’s the same on every web forum - if you post a digital picture which would be acceptable to a photo library or professional buyer, half a dozen grumpy one-liners will come out saying ‘That don’t look sharp to me’ or ‘there must be something wrong with your XXX’ (fill in D300, A700, E-3, D3, 40D as required). Then someone posts a hugely messed up image and people say ‘Wow! What sharpness!’…

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.

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.

SELECTED ALPHA system lens prices - including the 70-200mm f/2.8 SSM - have been cut on the direct sales SonyStyle website for the USA. B&H and other retailers are following suit.

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).

Weybridge, 22nd August 2007 - The stylish, slimline Cyber-shot T Series from Sony gains two feature-packed new models that make it easier than ever to grab great pictures (reads a press release issued by Sony UK).

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.

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.

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.

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.

THE PROBLEM of darkened extreme corners with the 16-80mm CZ Sony lens definitely exists. They are there in many of my shots, with or without SSS anti-shake enabled, significant softly darkened corners. Everyone is saying this must be due to filters, and at least one of Forum regulars has emailed Zeiss about this issue (and got a reply almost admitting that the lens falls short of ideal design). But is it?

Our articles are written as ‘Posts’ and automatically added to Categories, Recent Posts and Archives. This manual index to articles will help you find the larger reviews, as distinct from short pieces on assorted subjects:

Main camera reviews

Which Sony Alpha? Choosing between the A700, A200, A300 and A350.

Sony Alpha 350 Live View tested

Sony Alpha 200 guided tour (full description with large photos and comments on operation)

Sony Alpha 700 operation and use review: the Interface

Sony Alpha 100 report from the launch of the camera

Major overviews

70 Years of Minolta History - 113 cameras from 1928 to 1998

Lens Reviews

The 70-300mm SSM G sized up (first report)

Carl Zeiss 16-80mm zoom review

Tamron 18-250mm zoom review

Lensbaby 3G selective zonal focus tilt/swing lens

Software Reviews

DxO Optics Pro 4.1 review

Seven raw processors tested with Alpha 700

Apple Aperture 2.0

Capture One v4Â

Accessories and aftermarket

Haoda Fu split-image/microprism replacement focusing screen for Dynax 5D or Alpha 100

Flash choices for the digital SLRs (camera top bounce/direct)

Studio Light table review and technique

Sony GPS-CS1 device to pin your pictures on Googlemaps

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.

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.