In honour of Barry's new Camera

[Javelin]

A thrid party battery is released. Coming soon to an E-bay page near you i'm sure.

http://www.pisen.com.cn/tsum/ArticleSho ... icleID=513" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[moire2]

=D

[bfitzgerald]

Yeah I was secretly working behind the scene for months, and only bought a sony on this amazing news

I say we let David test them out on his cameras ist!

[mikeriach]

Anyone taking bets on the next body using a different battery?
Lets hope not, the standardisation so far is good.

At this rate it will be "Mike's new camera and lens" as I fancy pairing the A700 with a 70-400SSM and a few spare batteries.

Mike

[Greg Beetham]

I thought Barry was kidding around with the camera thing and didn't pay it any mind, re the any rumours post.......c'mon BF fess up, which one did you buy? if you actually did that is.
(I'm guessing the A200)
Greg

ps Regarding the Sony batteries, Sony did have that unfortunate incident with the melting laptop batteries....so the battery Div. might have to make up some lost ground and charge a couple of bucks more per unit for a while.

[bfitzgerald]

Obviously I didn't get the A900, though sony are more than welcomed to supply a free one for my critical eye
I would have liked to get an A700, but times are a tad tougher of late..so the A200 was the one.

Being honest, I was never one to plonk down large wads of cash on camera bodies, even in film days. An A500 would have been about ideal for me, but there isn't one...still, so far the A200 is pretty good, though it's not a direct replacement for the Km5d..

[bfitzgerald]

Bit too early to give too much comment, only had it a few days. The 5d was far from perfect, but overall I was, and remain pretty happy with it in most respects, bar the obvious ones, WA flash bounce overexposure drove me nuts (though you can work around it), AF was never up to my film bodies..but the camera is good and the skintones are spot on.

5d remains a great camera.

The A200 is without question a more nippy camera, mirror black out is faster, shoot to shoot improved, and the AF is faster, and accurate, not really tested it aka moving stuff much, will do shortly. The build is good, but not as good as the 5d, it in no way feels weak..just the finish is a matte one, down to taste really, not in the same ballpark as the KM, but most should be happy enough. Esp considering the price.

Metering seems a bit more cautious than the Km, again I need to really work it though to give a fair judgement. Less inclined to blow out..which is not a bad thing. I guess most niggle points are features, that you may, or may not use. MLU is an obvious one..I will do a full article online once I get enough play time with it. Jpegs wise, well I would hope that it gets a tweak firmware, like the A700..the jpegs are ok..but at high ISO..details are lost to NR. Not my cup of tea as I like a more detailed but grainy image. The KM wins high ISO for me, but I can use this with raw..

But overall, it's good, and IMO a bargain..for the money, and as an additional body, I think most A mount users would like it..price was a big factor, so it's not as easy to slap it down..but like I said, I will do a proper write up on it. I don't see it as a replacement for the KM though, not really..though it could do some things better than the minolta, AF is one of those..

Thought you had an A700 though?? Not sure you would need this with that camera..but hey, it's cheap...

[Javelin]

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read. ... e=30063024" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This gave me a chuckle ... barry stop bashing yourself in the face with it and post some pictures!

[bfitzgerald]

Well the 5d never was a speed demon...but I can manage with it. Not really the best person to ask for sports and action shots, managed to wing a few half decent ones out of the 5d..I am no action shooter though

Onto the A200, well being honest, I am going to plague the hell out of sony..on the online forums, to get an updated jpeg engine fixed in firmware (plus a few other bits). What you have at present is not too pretty at ISO 1600 and up..sony is really struggling with NR here, they are bashing the grain like noise, and they don't have an effective NR routine for hitting the colour noise. Rather the reverse of what it should be..colour noise is no good to anybody..but the details cannot be put back when gone, obviously. You may well get acceptable results in RAW, but your buffer isn't big..that could cause a problem.

I would much prefer details and noise (grain like noise) than what is on offer. The images print ok from jpeg, but I just like that bite to them, not everyone will agree. Anyway, have a few jobs at the weekend to do, some indoor horse ones..I am told that the lighting is "good" but it probably won't be, lol..and if that is the case, short of a 70-200mm f2.8 turning up on my door, they will have to make do with some other shots. I will take the A200 and the 5d, maybe even a film body for some headshots outside or something. If I get anything half decent, I will put some samples up.

If you have the lenses to back you up for low ish light, you might be ok with the A200..maybe.

[aster]

Hello Barry,

Congratulations on your acquisition of the A200!
I hope you enjoy it and one day also get a camera like the A900 as I know you like the printed photos out of this particular camera too...

Good luck and enjoy,

Yildiz

ps. Looking forward to seeing your photos with the A200 and also hearing the critism of course.

[rush2112]

In regards to AF speed and accuracy Sonolta, the A200 does really well in even decent light. For my experiences, I found the A200 to keep up with the A700 in terms of speed and accuracy (sometimes more accurate than those with back/front focus issues) which is pretty impressive considering it's price. When light dims to about indoor levels (say at home... typical lighting) the A200 has a bit more trouble to lock onto the center sensor whereas the A700 will make a lock. I presume the lighting at the arenas should be sufficient for the A200 which would make it a good candidate as a back up to your A700.

I have both and for normal shooting which includes landscapes, portraits, macros, and the occasional family shots and weddings, the A200 doesn't feel like a camera where I sacrifice much, if at all. In fact, prior to V4 firmware, I preferred the A200's higher ISO output to the A700s from ISO 800 and up.

Be interesting to see what you think of the A200. MLU to me is a feature they have to have in that camera, and should have. I can live without DOF preview just fine, but MLU (amongst many other items on a list) went directly to Sony's alpha design team by me as requested as suggestions to improvements and criticism's (and even some praise was sent) for all the Alpha lineup .

Carl

[Dr. Harout]

The way I see it, MLU and DOF preview are 2 musts on a camera I'd choose. But then not everybody needs or understands or uses it, hence different cameras with different specifications.

[bfitzgerald]

Well not a lot can be done with the DOF preview, on the A200...no button so nothing will happen there, no much point in me moaning about that one. I would prefer to have it, though I admit, it's a must have for me film body wise (for obvious reasons..no instant review!), not as essential for digital, but nice anyway.

MLU, well I am moaning about that, because something can be done, via firmware, plus a few other tweaks etc would go down well. Not that I am knocking the A200, as the price is very good indeed, and I grasp the concept of needing to trim some stuff down, on budget bodies. If anyone feels the same way, I would encourage them to share their thoughts and moans, on the sony blog, you never know..they may do something for us on this one.

[Javelin]

FWIW i've never been able to duplicate the blurr of a A700 shot at 300mm without MLU on my A200. my A200 shots always come out just as sharp as my A700 with MLU on. I tried every shutter speed all the way from 1" to 1/200 where the A700 would blur right around 1/6 so I don't think you guys are missing anythig on that count.

[A1000]

http://www.falconeyes.com.hk/diyhp/1222 ... uto_Flash_(New" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;).html

A new A-mount-camera flash made in honor of Barry's A200 camera



http://www.falconeyes.com.hk/diyhp/1222 ... outus.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is the new assembly line where they make the thier top-of-the-line products. Barry's flash is made in the basement.