Alphatracks

1/64 scale steam locomotive captured with Sony A350’s tilt-out live view system.

Jan 21, 2009: For the last several years, I’ve taken the grandkids to see the “trains, trains, trains” exhibit at the Kings Mountain Historical Museum. Held each December, the event is put on by the Carolinas Division of the Atlantic Coast S-Gaugers.

S-gauge is a model railroad term that indicates the scale of the model trains; larger than HO scale but smaller than the O-Gauge rolling stock from Lionel and other makers. American Flyer is the best known maker of S-Gauge rolling stock, but manufacturers like American Models, S-Helper Services and others produce compatible 1/64 scale locomotives, cars, track and accessories.

Naturally, I always haul a camera to these events. This year, the choice was the Sony Alpha A350. I figured the Live View option on the A350 would come in handy. I was, however, surprised how great the adjustable LCD screen proved to be for this type of work. By placing the camera right on the layout and composing with the LV screen, it was like I walked right into the scene. I’ve shot models at various times in the past, but the A350 Live View opened a brand new dimension for me.

The Carolinas Division of the Atlantic Coast S-Gaugers has created a large layout table, with two tracks running around the perimeter. While the trains are the centerpiece, there are dozens of buttons arranged around the table. Each button triggers an animated display of some sort. One button might cause a building to light up, while other buttons trigger railroad sounds, a plane to swoop over the layout or some lumberjacks to saw away at a fallen tree.

You can spend hours experimenting with the buttons, but for a photographer, the layout offers a host of wonderful subjects. Live View allowed me to capture some interesting viewpoints that I missed when shooting in the past.

By flipping the A350’s LCD into the horizontal position, I found I could aim directly down the track at an approaching locomotive. Choosing a vantage point outside a curve let me compose a head-on shot, secure that the train would swing away before it hit the camera.

Shooting in this manner, I did encounter one of the limitations of the Live View system. Like most electronic view finders (EVF) the Sony Live View LCD can’t show you an instant preview. There is a slight lag between what you see on the screen and what is actually happening. You can prove this by moving the camera quickly from side to side. You notice the image on the LCS screen will look smeared, because the LCD can’t refresh quickly enough.

In the case of the train heading directly at the camera, I found I had to shoot slightly before the locomotive looked in focus. If I waited until the front of the engine was perfectly focused on the LCD, the train would be unfocused in the actual image. Because of the shallow DOF, the engine would move beyond of the zone of sharpness while it still look perfectly focussed on the LCD.

Once I understood what was happening, I was able to significantly increase the number of in-focus, head-on shots using the LCD.

Shooting models (not that kind of model…we’re talking toy trains here) is always a challenge, due to depth of field issues. If you read the my basics article on depth of field, you know that the closer your lens gets to a subject, the shallower the depth of field will become. It is tempting to use a macro lens for this type of shooting, but with a macro lens the DOF is so shallow that only a very slim part of your subject will be in focus.

Even without resorting to a macro lens, you’ll probably notice very shallow DOF. Usually I would stop the lens down to create more DOF. However the trains at the King’s Mountain Exhibit were always moving. This led to an interesting dilemma. If I stopped the lens down, the shutter speed became too slow to stop the moving trains. Opening the lens up to the maximum aperture gave me a sufficient shutter speed to prevent the trains from blurring, but the DOF became too shallow to display an entire locomotive — let alone an entire train.

I tried some flash images, with a hand held Minolta 4000 AF flash cabled to the Sony A350. By hand-holding the flash I could aim it in various directions to get some interesting, shadowless light. This gave me some decent DOF and effectively froze the motion of the trains. Actually the flash was too effective in freezing the motion. The 4000 AF stopped the locomotives so well that they appeared static. If I was going to shoot with the flash, I might just as well have asked the guys from the Atlantic Coast S-Gaugers to stop the trains so I could shoot them while they were not moving.

I could have upped the ISO, which would have allowed me to shoot at faster shutter speeds with the lens stopped down. However, I was concerned that this would increase noise, which might obscure some of the fine details on the models. So I tried a variety of shooting techniques. I scrapped many of the captures because they didn’t work out. But I got a few I really liked, and there were enough interesting ones to create a nice magazine or newspaper spread.

Take a look over the gallery and tell me what you think. After shooting the layout with the Sony A350, it is hard to imagine photographing this kind of subject with any camera that doesn’t offer a tilt out LCD.

Check out the model train image gallery to see how the A350 performed.

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I’m back….

I haven’t abandoned Alphatracks…although it probably seemed like I had.

In actuality, I have been wrapped up finishing the Sony Alpha DSLR-A300/A350 Digital Field Guide
 for Wiley Press. It was a lot of work, with many late nights and more than a few weekends spent rewriting text and editing images. I really enjoyed the process, however, and I am happy to say the completed manuscript is the printer and the book should be shipping by early December. My only regret is that I had to neglect this blog for so long. I hope to make up for lost time in the coming months.

The new book is part of the Wiley Digital Field Guide series, each of which focuses on a specific dSLR camera. As you may have inferred from the title, this particular book is for users of the Alpha A300 and Alpha A350 dSLRs. I found the A350 a truly fun camera to work with, and I attempted to convey that in the book.

Following the patten of all Wiley Field Guides, this book includes a full description of the A300 series, exploring the menus, controls and features of both cameras. The A300 and the A350 are nearly identical, the only difference being the A300 has a 10.2mp sensor, while the A350 utilizes a 14.2mp chip. Because files from the A300 are smaller, the Alpha 300 offers a slightly faster continuous frame rate, while the A350 cranks out massive 4592 x 3056 pixel images. Otherwise, the controls and operation of both cameras are the same, so this book covers both cameras in depth.

There are chapters on compatible lenses and flash units, including a look at compatible Minolta AF lenses. There are also chapters on basic photography, lighting, camera troubleshooting and image editing workflows. All the Digital Field Guides include a large section comprised of photo exercises designed to elevate your skills in a wide variety of photographic pursuits; including sports, travel, event photography, animal photography, portraiture and many other specialty disciplines.

My goal for the book to create a resource that can be tossed into your camera bag to provide help, instruction and inspiration when you are shooting in the field. That is the field guide portion of the book. At the same time, I hope readers might find it useful to curl up with these pages on a rainy day and immerse themselves in the operation of the Sony A300 and A350.

Sorry if this sounds like a commercial, but I have been living with this book for the last several months, so I have to talk about it here.

One final thing. The book won’t be available until December. It is however, available for pre-order on Amazon now. If you buy it in advance, Amazon will knock $6.40 off the list price, so you can get it for $13.59. That represents a 32% savings. After the book is published, Amazon will raise the price back to $19.99.  So, if you’re interested, you can save almost a third by buying in advance. The book qualifies for free shipping from Amazon, however there is a $25 minimum, so you will have to combine the order with something else to qualify.

If you’re interested, there is an Amazon link on the sidebar that will take you directly to the book’s Amazon page. It is also available through must online sellers; Books-A-Million, Barnes and Noble, Borders, etc. Once it is in print, you should be able to find it at most brick and mortar bookstores as well.

Although this book is aimed at the A300 series, Alphatracks will continue to look at all the full range of Sony Alpha and Minolta SLRs. If your camera uses A-mount lenses, you’re always welcome here!

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Sony has started shipping the Alpha A350. I took delivery of one of the big orange boxes last week and have started putting the A350 through it’s paces. So far, I am fairly pleased with the 14m dSLR — I will post a review with samples shortly.

I had hoped to update my copy of Adobe Lightroom to version 1.4, which is required to read the RAW files from the Sony Alpha A350, A300 and the A200 as well as several other new cameras. Unfortunately, Adobe posted the update for only a few hours. If you click on the link to update to 1.4, you get the message:

Adobe hasn’t said when the revised 1.4 updater will be available, but until they get their act together, I won’t be able to process my A350 RAW files in Lightroom. This limitation also applies to Adobe Camera Raw, meaning at this point there is no way to edit A350 RAW files with an Adobe product.

Sony has started shipping the A350 model, with the similar A300 to come shortly. Don’t expect to edit RAW files in Lightroom/ACR until Adobe perfects the latest update to ACR.

My fall back has been Sony’s Image Data Converter and Lightbox SR which shipped with the A350. The two programs do a credible job, but I know exactly what to expect from LR. It will take some time to become comfortable with editing in with the Sony software. In addition, the Sony software does not recognize my older Minolta RAW files, so I require two different sets of software to work with my image collection. Grrr. I hope Adobe fixes the bugs in 1.4 soon.

Of course there is another solution: Apples’ Aperture. Frequent Alphatracks contributor Bert Pasquale has been playing with Aperture 2.0 and he seems more than happy with it. He writes:

Let me think about this. Aperture and iPhoto are more or less niche products in Apple’s product line. They help with the bottom line, of course, but they are far from Apple’s main bread and butter. On the other hand, Photoshop is Adobe’s crown jewel. They make a lot of cash from other sources, but Photoshop is their premier product.

So how is it that Apple appears to effortlessly produce an update that supports the latest cameras well in advance of their release date, while Adobe’s can’t ship it’s famed Camera Raw software until after the new models hit the street? For that matter, why did Adobe release an ACR/Lightroom update that was so filled with bugs that almost a week afterwards they still haven’t been able to fix it?

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Another week, a couple more new Sony Alpha dSLRs…

Sony has officially announced two new dSLRs, both featuring Sony’s new Quick AF Live View system. This brings the Sony dSLR model lineup to five, provided you include the original A100, which is no longer in production but still available in many outlets.

Only about four months ago, the A100 was Sony’s only dSLR and had been for eighteen months. To many observers, it seemed Sony had lost their direction and might even abandon the dSLR market.

Tilting live view LCD appears on new Alpha dSLRs.

Sony has effectively shut down the naysayers by releasing the A700 in September of 2007, then unleashing the A200, A300 and A350 in January 2008.

The A200 was announced at the CES show, and only a few weeks later, Sony sends word that the A300 and A350 will ship in March and April.

The A300 specs seem similar to the A200 with the same 10.2mp sensor. The A350 ups the ante with a new 14.2mp CCD sensor.

The feature that sets the two “main-stream” dSLRs apart is the Live View system. The tilt out 2.7” LCD panel allows the user to compose and shoot from a variety of angles. The Quick View system uses a second sensor to continuously monitor the scene:

Here is what the Sony press release has to say:

Although I am not particularly interested in Live View, on paper it appears the Sony system is one of the best implementations of Live View yet.

Alpha 350 boasts 14.2mp (CCD).

After an incredible drought, A-mount shooters suddenly have wide selection of dSLRs to choose from. And yesterday’s huge announcement of the 24mp full-frame sensor is a reminder that the A900/flagship model is yet to come.

All of a sudden, it is a great time to be an Alpha Mount shooter!

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Ok, the Sony A200 dSLR hasn’t even started shipping yet, but already the rumor mill is racheting up into a fever pitch. The majority of the rumors are claiming Sony will introduce at least one or perhaps two new dSLRs slotted between the A200 and the A700. The new cameras, which the rumor sites have started identifying as the Alpha A300 and A500 models, are supposedly designed to provide Sony with a full range of dSLRs and offer Alpha-mount users a series of competitive price points.

Of course, Sony hasn’t even told us that the flagship SLR will be called the A900, although most camera pundits are already calling it by that name. They haven’t said that there will be an A300 or an A500 or any camera between the A200 and the A700. Then again, Sony didn’t tell us much about the A700 before it’s release and they certainly didn’t tell us anything about the A200 before the announcement. In this matter, it seems Sony is patterning itself after Apple, Inc. Apple’s Steve Jobs is famous for keeping an extremely tight lid on future products and the Mac rumor sites drive their readers crazy trying to guess what Apple’s next move will be. It isn’t difficult to draw a parallel to Sony’s dSLR camera division, which seems more secretive than the other top-ranked digital SLR camera makers.

What’s next for Sony’s Alpha dSLR lineup?

So the rumors could have at least a grain of truth to them. There are even “leaked” photos of the supposed middle of the road cameras. You can see one set of leaked A300 photos at Photogrqphy Bay. Slash Gear offers the same tilt out, LCD Live View Alpha A300 photos.

Of course, in the days we find ourself in, photos are hardly overwhelming evidence. You can create some very convincing fakes in Photoshop, especially if you mix parts of various existing cameras. In the Apple Inc. rumor scenarios I mentioned, there have always been dozens of very well done, fake images floating around, especially before an upcoming product launch. Even some big name media outlets have published these fake photos as the “real thing,” then they had to swiftly backpedal when the actual Apple announcement was made.

So I am not going to speculate too deeply about the supposed new models, other than to wonder if there is a valid reason for Sony to offer any models between the A200 and the A700.

On the face of it, I don’t understand why Sony would need a fist full of camera models. To my mind, the A200, A700, A900 lineup seems to cover most dSLR users. If anything, I think Sony could use a stripped down dSLR model priced beneath the A200 that would coax more point and shoot users to move into a dSLR. At the same time. however, I am perfectly willing to concede that Sony has their own strategy for the Alpha line and they are more qualified then I am to plan their future dSLR offerings.

Minolta, of course, offered a plethora of models once they started to flesh out the A-mount line. If you check out Mike Hohner’s great Sony/Minolta Auto Focus body list, you will see that Minolta sold models to fit every possible need and price range. Did consumers really demand that many different SLR bodies? Apparently Minolta thought they did.

Details are sketchy, but the supposed leaked images show a camera similar to the A200 with a tilt out LCD screen. The implication is that the new model(s), if they are real and not some Photoshop wizard’s fantasy, will have Live View.

Now remember these are rumors we are talking about here — not confirmed facts. Shortly before the A700 was launched thee were some very respectable camera writers suggesting that the Advanced Amateur dSLR (which was released as the A700) would have 14mp and feature a 1.25 crop sensor. Neither came to pass, the A700 uses a very respectable 12mp, APS-C sensor. But many enthusiasts were disappointed that the camera did not live up to the rumors. If you are going to play the rumor game, you have to accept that fact that some, if not most, of the information will be inaccurate. That’s just the way it is.

Having said that, a lot of Alpha enthusiasts are speculating that Sony will release a new dSLR model priced around $1,000 US — smack in between the A200 and the A700.

Hmm… That places the mystical A300/A500 about $300 or so more than the A200. It could happen…but what exactly could Sony tack on to the A200 to make it worth three hundred more than the A200?

Live View? Maybe that is worth three bills to some people — it certainly isn’t to me. There are a few legitimate uses for Live View, but I would guess I would use Live View for less than 5% of my shooting. Is that worth $300 to you?

The other laughable suggestion is that Sony will equip the fictional $1,000 camera with a larger sensor…maybe the same 12.7MP sensor the A700 uses.

I ask you, if Sony suddenly unleashed a 12mp dSLR priced at a grand (list), what role would the A700 play in the Alpha line up? If you had the chance to buy an A200 style body with the sensor from the A700 at $1,000, would you ante up the extra $500 or so for an A700? Maybe some would, because the A700 is definitely a superior camera. For most users, however, the thousand buck 12mp dSLR would do nicely, effectively cannibalizing sales of the A700.

There are, of course, some limitations to the A200. AFAIK, there is no PC sync port and it doesn’t offer provision to tether the camera to a computer. I could be wrong on both counts, because the Sony A200 press release doesn’t address these issues. But I don’t see evidence of a PC port in the advance photos and the Alpha A100 lacked these features, so I am assuming the replacement will as well.

Would an 10mp A-mount SLR with Live View, PC sync and tethered shooting be worth $300 more than the A200? I’m not sure, but it would definitely be a step in the right direction. What’s your take on the A300/A500 rumors?

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