A700 - four months and counting
Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 7:35 pm
Today is the four month aniversary of Santa's delivery of my A700 and so I thought I would give an update on how I am finding it - for no other reason than to try and generate some discussion on current (and recent past) dslr bodies. I think there are three major things I am enjoying with the new body, compared to the A100.
1. Viewfinder. When I go back to the A100 it is like looking down a long, gloomy tunnel. I am sure the improvement helps with manual focusing and composition. (Please do not tell me that the A850 or even A900 are even better as I can only cope with so much gear lust
.)
2. Handling. A bit difficult to tie down, but although bigger and heavier, it is just "nicer" to use in the hand.
3. Dynamic range. Now I am quite prepared to be shot down at this point as I have no objective measures, but the A700 seems to be a lot more forgiving in dynamic range, by this I mean not clipping highlights and/or low lights. This does not seem to be something that makes it in to reviews, or pehaps it is just not something I understand the review language for? Is this something that generally gets better up the scale? Do D3s and A900s have awesome dynamic range? When I consider how important the dynamic range of the camera is to me, I am surprised that manufacturers do not make more of it.
Any minus points? High ISO is still not great, but I suspect this is down to (my) software and not the camera. While I like the size and weight, my wife (an infrequent dslr user) does not like it at all. I can well imagine the feedback she would be giving in a focus group
. With so much recent flower shooting I think that a flexible rear screen and live view would be nice to have (next time ), along with video of course 
.
1. Viewfinder. When I go back to the A100 it is like looking down a long, gloomy tunnel. I am sure the improvement helps with manual focusing and composition. (Please do not tell me that the A850 or even A900 are even better as I can only cope with so much gear lust
.)2. Handling. A bit difficult to tie down, but although bigger and heavier, it is just "nicer" to use in the hand.
3. Dynamic range. Now I am quite prepared to be shot down at this point as I have no objective measures, but the A700 seems to be a lot more forgiving in dynamic range, by this I mean not clipping highlights and/or low lights. This does not seem to be something that makes it in to reviews, or pehaps it is just not something I understand the review language for? Is this something that generally gets better up the scale? Do D3s and A900s have awesome dynamic range? When I consider how important the dynamic range of the camera is to me, I am surprised that manufacturers do not make more of it.
Any minus points? High ISO is still not great, but I suspect this is down to (my) software and not the camera. While I like the size and weight, my wife (an infrequent dslr user) does not like it at all. I can well imagine the feedback she would be giving in a focus group
. With so much recent flower shooting I think that a flexible rear screen and live view would be nice to have (next time ), along with video of course .
It might have to be a few Christmas before the A7xx reaches the right price point. But then there is the NEX 5 or whatever the EVIL will be called, and I guess when the A550 gets replaced they might come down to an interesting price as well 