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Sony quickly ended speculation about whether the new 24mp sensor would show up in the yet to be officially named “flagship” dSLR. Soon after Sony announced the full frame sensor, several high-profile Sony doubters expressed their opinion that Sony would never use the sensor in their own cameras, because after all “Sony would never dare to challenge Nikon and Canon in the pro arena.”

Here is what technology site Gizmodo had to say when Sony took the wraps off the new sensor: “Sony isn’t about to pop it in one of its Alpha models, at least not as far as we can tell.” That idea was echoed by several other commentators.

That sound you hear is those same forecasters gnashing their teeth after Sony proclaimed that, yes indeed, the upcoming flagship will be equipped with the big full frame sensor. So much for the theory that Sony is afraid of competing in the professional category.

There is, however a minor mystery. The new full frame sensor is rated at 24.8 megapixels. The flagship, on the other hand, will boast 24.6mp. That unexplained 0.2mp difference has led to some interesting speculation.

Sony Alpha flagship will boast full frame sensor, 24+ megapixels

Some have suggested it is a completely different sensor. Sony however has indicated that the flagship will use the recently announced full frame sensor.

If you’ve been reading Alphatracks for any length of time, you know we have discussed at length the ramifications of installing a full frame sensor with in-body stabilzation.

Could that 0.2mp difference represent the crop factor needed to use the sensor with Super Steady Shot? If so, it isn’t much of a crop. If my math is correct, the sensor would be roughly 99.193548387096774193548387096774 percent of a full frame. That would be something like a 1.008 crop factor. In other words, no crop at all.

Of course Sony hasn’t said the missing 0.2 megapixel is related to the Super Steady Shot. Perhaps there is some other reason Sony trimmed that portion of a mp from the sensor. Since the flagship will use a CMOS sensor, it should be possible to “shut off” any unneeded pixels.

Sony has said the flagship will ship this year. Many observers are suggesting a Photokina timeframe. (September) Sony hasn’t confirmed that — in fact Sony hasn’t said that the dSLR will be known as the A900, although many people have already started calling it that. Sony has firmly said the dSLR will ship in 2008.

To me, it really doesn’t matter where that 0.2mp went. The flagship will be full frame and pack more that 24mp.

All of a sudden those Sony haters have started to get rather quiet.

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What a difference a year makes. At the 2007 PMA show Sony Alpha dSLR line was shunned by most of the press. There were no great announcements, although Sony did show off two mockups of yet unnamed dSLRs. The “Advanced Amateur” model eventually came to pass as the A700, while the tantalizing “flagship” is still waiting to be released. Other than the concept cameras, which Sony refused to elaborate on, there wasn’t much to see. The press lavished tons of coverage to other major and minor dSLR offerings, but except for the few A-mount sites and forums, Sony was just a postscript at PMA 2007.

Sony was not about to let that happen again. The 2008 PMA show was packed with Sony and Sony Alpha dLSR news. Of course everyone is still talking about the incredible 24mp, full-frame sensor that Sony announced, and the introduction of not one but two new live view dSLR bodies caught a lot of people by surprise. The A300 and A350 are a huge shot in the arm to the Alpha line, and should go a long way to convince potential customers that Sony is serious about playing in the dSLR arena.

In the excitement of the huge sensor and live-view SLR announcements, many observers may have overlooked Sony’s release of several new dSLR accessories.

Sony will add a new flash unit to their existing Alpha flashes.

The first totally new Sony Alpha Flash unit, the HVL-F42AM, will be available in the near future. The other Flashes in Sony’s line up appear to be re-badged versions of Minolta flash units. That isn’t a bad thing, Minolta’s wireless flash system was considered by many to be excellent.

The new HVL-F42AM might appear to be a middle of the road unit, filling the gap between the the HVL-F36AM (GN 36) and the big HVL-F56AM (GN 56). While the new flash’s guide number of 42 does place between the current two Sony shoe mount flash units, the HVL-F42AM has an zoom range of 24-105mm. You can cover up to a 16mm lens with wide angle adapter. The current flashes in the Sony catalog offer a range of 24-85mm and the adapter covers 17mm.

As usual, Mike Hohner seems to have an inside track on Sony’s latest products. Here is Hohner’s “Flash tech data for Sony Alpha HVL-F42AM” page.

There is also a Sony Europe press release covering the PMA announcement floating about. Here’s what the release has to say:

With wireless, ADI and manual modes, plus a full range of tilt and swivel possibilities, the new flash unit sounds like it might be an excellent addition to any A-mount user’s camera bag.

Then there are the lenses. Although technically not a PMA announced product, Sony’s latest two lenses were introduced on the eve of the show, so they might as well be considered new PM products. Both of the new lenses use SSM technology for quicker auto focusing.

Say hello to the Carl Zeiss® 24-70mm f/2.8 lens

Coming this spring, the $1,700 Vario Sonnar T* 24-70mm f/2.8 ZA is a very-fast, wide to mid range zoom lens. According to the Sony release:

The second new lens, also available this spring, is the $800 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G-series zoom.

The SAL70300G lens incorporates the optical performance of Sony’s G series in a compact and flexible telephoto zoom lens ideal for sports and portrait photography. Constructed of 16 elements in 11 groups, with one extra-low dispersion element, this lens offers superb contrast and sharpness across its wide focal length range.

The use of extra-low dispersion glass compensates for chromatic aberrations which challenge long telephoto zoom lens design, maintaining excellent optical characteristics from center to periphery. Internal focus construction not only realizes compact size, but also a close focusing capability of just 47 inches (1.2m), unusual for a lens of this focal length range.

New 70-300 G-series SSM Alpha mount lens

Like the SAL2470Z, focus drive is provided by Sony’s Super Sonic wave Motor (SSM) technology. Silent and highly accurate, the SSM system is ideal for providing larger lenses with the speed and rotational precision often required by telephoto shooting. To match auto focus operation to the situation, a focus range limiter can be set to a minimum distance of three meters. A lens barrel mounted focus hold button locks focus if desired.

These lenses are good ammunition to use against those who imply that Sony doesn’t offer sufficient quality glass to complete against the “established camera makers.” We will have to wait to see how these lenses perform in the real world, but it sounds like they could hold their own against anything similar from other manufacturers.

Next up, the new vertical grip. Again this isn’t technically a PMA product, as it was announced along with the A200. The grip is available now at a lest price of $249.00 (less batteries). The PM news is that it is compatible with the A300 and the A350, as well as the original A200. This provides a great deal of flexibility if you trade up or add second body in the A200-A350 family. It does not fit the A700, which has it’s own specific vertical grip, and will not fit the A100 style bodies.

With the PMA announcements, Sony has taken a major step forward in it’s quest to become a major player in the dSLR realm. Many observers have relegated the Sony Alpha as niche product, offering some nice features but unable to compete against the big name dSLR makers. Sony continues to add luster to its brand, unhurriedly creating a dSLR system that can compete against the best of the best. As these products begin to gain momentum in the marketplace, watch for Sony to assume a dominate role as a dSLR maker.

Read the complete Sony Alpha Europe Press release

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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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Sony has just announced a 24.8MP full frame 35mm sensor targeted at digital SLRS. The new CMOS sensor is said to use advanced circuitry to overcome the limitations inherent in creating a full frame sensor.

The answer to a hard drive maker’s prayers: the Sony 24.81mp sensor.

The following is from the Sony press release:

This sounds pretty incredible. We’ve all heard the “too good to be true” rumors, now we have Sony’s announcement that they will offer a full frame, nearly 25mp sensor.

Two things are evident. This has to be the sensor Sony will use in the flagship/A900 dSLR. It has to be. Sony will undoubtedly offer to sell this sensor to other manufactures including Nikon and Pentax. But they can’t call their top-of-the-line camera the flagship unless it utilizes the best technology Sony has to offer. So unless Sony is developing something even more incredible, this has to be the heart of the flagship.

The other point is the press release says the sensor will be mass produced within this year. That tells me the flagship won’t be on sale any time soon. This year, maybe, but those hoping for a PMA announcement with the camera shipping soon afterwards are going to be disappointed. It is possible Sony could announce the flagship at the PMA show, but from the tone of the press release the top of the line Alpha won’t be on dealer shelves for some time.

Don’t worry too much about the A900. It seems that Sony has a whole box of new toys they are ready to announce at PMA. We are sure to see some new Sony dSLR hardware before the week is up.

If you still have your heart set on the flagship, look at it this way…you’ll have several months to stock up on terabyte hard drives to store all those images from that huge sensor

Watch this space for more Sony dSLR news in the coming days.

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Now that we can bask in the glow from two new Sony Alpha dSLR models announced in the last four months, it is time to step back and wonder about the original Alpha — the Sony A100.

Sony has finally admitted that the A100 has been discontinued, although many observers believe A100 production stopped months ago. That doesn’t mean here aren’t plenty A100 kits in the pipeline. If you want a new Alpha A100, you probably can find one easily. The question is; should you buy one and how much should you pay?

Long time readers of Alphatracks may feel I don’t really like the A100, as i seem to always be negatively comparing it to the A700. That isn’t true at all. The A100 is a nice enough piece of hardware, but it is totally outclassed by the features of the A700. The A700 is superior in every way to the A100. Then again, the A700 is selling for about twice the price, so it should be superior.

Sony Alpha A100 — still a good, solid dSLR

Viewed on it’s own merits, however, the A100 is still a solid dSLR. It lacks many of the features available on pro and semi-pro dSLRs, but then so does the Nikon D40 and the Canon Digital Rebel. You get what you pay for, and if you don’t need those high-end features the A100 could serve you very well.

The Sony A200 carries a list price of $699, ships in February.

Photo: Sony Corp, used with permission

The big question is how will the announcement of the all new Sony Alpha A200 affect to the price tag on the remaining A100 kits? The A200 is much closer in specification to the A100, so comparing the two cameras is easier. Once again, the A100 lags behind the newer model, but the differences aren’t as great. The two cameras boast the same pixel count and feature set. The new A200 offers faster auto focus, a larger LCD screen, faster burst shooting and several minor improvements. The A200 will accept a Sony made vertical grip and Sony claims the high ISO performance has been tuned to dramatically reduce noise.

About the only area where the A100 can claim to be better than the A200 is the controls, as the A100 is quipped with two top panel knobs, while the new model has been reduced to a single adjustment knob. It is a nice feature, but i doubt many photographers would choose the A100 over the A200 because of this solitary advantage.

In the market for an A200? Would a great deal sway you toward the A100?

Here is the thing. When the A100 was introduced in June 2006, it was the first 10mp dSLR to break the thousand dollar price threshold for body and lens. Originally priced at $999.00 ($899 body only) Sony gradually reduced the list price to accommodate the changing marketplace.

Sony Alpha A100 is still available in many places. How much would you pay for one?

Photo: Sony Corp, used with permission

During the 2007 Christmas shopping season, I spotted the A100 at several of the local outlets — Best Buy, Circuit City, Office Max and HH Gregg. All four stores were advertising a price of 695.00 for the camera and kit lens — two hundred dollars less than the original 2006 sticker price.

Not too bad. But wait. Sony is taking pre-orders for the A200 at $699 — about five dollars more than I can buy an Alpha 100 locally. Online, the A100 is all over the map. If you eliminate the dealers advertising the A100 for a ridiculously low prices (trust me, the unbelievable online prices are almost always scams), you find legitimate dealers like B & H Photo selling the A100 kit for $649 — a mere $50 bucks less than I could order the A200 for. Amazon is even worse — they are actually offering the A100 (through a third party) for $727.00 — almost $30.00 more than a pre-ordered A200.

Sony still has A100 kits in stock — the body only package is listed as sold out, but you can still order the A100 with the 18-70mm Lens for $799 or you can splurge and get the A100 with the SAL-18200 Lens for 1099.95.

Can you say yikes? Obviously these prices won’t hold. The A200 isn’t available as yet, but Sony claims it will ship in February. Unless you absolutely have to have a camera now, it seems to be a no brainer to wait and get the better model. Otherwise you would be paying more for a lesser featured camera.

Caution. Falling prices ahead!

So what so you think the price of the A100 should be? If I were in the market for a dSLR in the A100/A200 class, it would take a substantial price cut to get me interested in the A100. If the difference was only $50.00, I would definitely spend the extra cash and get the better A200. I think the improved features of the A200 are easily worth more than a hundred bucks, so I would need to see prices fall well south of $600 before I would consider a new A100 over a new A200.

So far, we have been discussing brand new, full-warranty cameras. What about used models of the A100? If you are hoping to sell your A100 in the near future, you are probably going to have a hard time getting what you think it is worth. I don’t know how many A100s are still on dealer shelves, but I expect to see some fire sales as dealers clear the old stock to make room for the new hardware. How much would you pay for a used dSLR when you can buy something brand new for less than $600?

Of course there may be suckers who aren’t willing to do their homework before trading their cash for a shinny dSLR. When Minolta exited the camera businesses there were plenty of brand new Maxxum 7d camera kits in the warehouse. I saw several reputable outlets — places you know would stand behind their merchandise — selling brand new 7ds with warranties for less than $650.00. At the very same time, I saw numerous 7d auctions on eBay where the uninformed bid over $900 for a used model.

Back to the subject of pricing on the A100, I think we are going to see some interesting times in the months ahead. There are still many A100 hold outs who have decided to pass on the A700 and wait for the A900 (or whatever Sony ends up calling the flagship model). When the A900 is released, there will undoubtedly be a flock of used A100s on the market. If the dealers still have new A100 kits to rid themselves of, we may see some unheard of bargains for A-mount digital SLRs.

Let the price slashing begin!

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Sony quietly announced a new dSLR model Sunday, January 6. The new Alpha A200 dSLR is positioned as a replacement for the now discontinued A100 dSLR. The Alpha 200 will anchor the Alpha line as Sony’s starter SLR model, providing a low cost point of entry for those unable or unwilling to spend the cash needed to acquire an A700.

Sony will ship the A200, a new low cost dSLR, in February.

Photo: Sony Corp, used with permission

The new 10mp dSLR offers a number of improvements over the A100. Sony says the new camera is faster, lighter and easier to use. Two of the obvious enhancements include a larger 2.7 inch LCD screen and the availability of a vertical battery grip. Sony also claims the new camera offers reduced image noise and uses the same auto-focus system as the Alpha A700, which is said to be 1.7 times as fast as the A100.

The new dSLR includes the usual Sony/Minolta touches; Super Steady Shot, Sony’s DRO image optimizer, BIONZ processing engine and the anti-dust vibration system on the CCD sensor. Naturally the A200 accepts all of the A-mount lenses available for the A100 and A700. Sony and Minolta flash units compatible with the A100 will also work on the A200.

Those disappointed that the A700 did not carry on the legacy of the Maxxum 7D controls, will not find anything to cheer about on the A200, either. Sony reduced the control knobs to one and adopted a menu control to replace the missing dial.

The Sony press release doesn’t mention a PC Sync port (say it isn’t so!), so, like the A100, it is possible that the A200 will lack the ability to work with studio flash unless you use a hot shoe adapter. There is also no mention of tethered shooting, so you may need the more fully capable A700 if you want to shoot tethered to your computer. I hope I’m wrong about this and Sony just failed to mention it in the press release. But I’m not holding my breath.

I haven’t seen a picture of the new grip for the A200, but Sony identifies it as the VG-B30AM ergonomic vertical grip, so it is not the same grip used on the A700. Like the A700’s grip, however, the VG-B30AM will provide space for two InfoLITHIUM® batteries.

Now the real interesting part: the price. Sony says the A200 equipped with the DT 18-70mm f3.5-5.6 3.9x zoom lens will list for about $700 and will be available in February. They don’t quote a body only price, but as a benchmark, you saved about $100 when you purchased the A100 without the kit lens.

The A200 should provide Sony with traction in an area where they dearly need it — the low-end, starter SLR market. Priced at roughly half the price of the A700, the new camera should go a long way toward building Sony’s market share and greatly expand the ranks of A-mount shooters.

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Sony has released another firmware update for the Sony Alpha A700, which will update the camera’s firmware to Version 3.

Sony says the new firmware will fix several issues with the A700. Sony discovered that occasionally an Alpha A700 SLR would stop responding with the Access lamp lit after capturing several images in quick succession. It was also discovered that turning the A700 off in the “MR” mode could cause some settings to carry over to other modes.

The new firmware resolves both of these issues, as well as

• Sharper images for pictures taken under low contrast conditions
• Reduced noise for pictures taken at ISO 3200
• Improved flash control for objects closer than 1 meter with non ADI controlled lenses

Sony suggests all Alpha A700 camera owners upgrade their camera if the firmware version is less than 3.

The serial numbers of the applicable A700 dSLR models follows:

• DSLR-A700 (body) with serial numbers 0500001 - 0508500
• DSLR-A700P (body bundled with 16-105 lens) with serial numbers 800001 - 800200
• DSLR-A700K (body bundled with 18-70 lens) with serial numbers 1100001 - 1105600

Unfortunately, Mac and Linux users need not apply. The upgrade utility is supplied as a Windows .EXE file, so you will need a Windows box (or an Intel Mac running Bootcamp) to prepare the upgrade.

I’m rather disappointed in this, as it appears the only thing the EXE file does is extract the upgrade application. I could be wrong, possibly it needs some system resources. But it seems you run the EXE file and it extracts a file called DSCA700.APP, which you then copy to a Memory Card. The actual upgrade occurs when you insert the Memory Card into the camera and follow a sequence of steps to upgrade the camera from the card. (There is also a provision to upgrade through a USB cable if you simply can’t afford a $7.99 card reader to upgrade your $1500 camera.)

Since the camera doesn’t need to be connected to a computer during the upgrade, I don’t understand why Sony needed to use an EXE file for this — couldn’t they simply have used WinZip or something similar? That way any computer capable of unzipping the file (which would include Mac and Linux boxes) could transfer the application to a Compact Flash card or Memory Stick and proceed to upgrade their camera. As long as you can extract DSCA700.APP, you’re in business. Why select an extraction model that will only run under Windows?

Hopefully, Sony will realize that a large number of professional photographers use a strictly Mac workflow. They aren’t going to be happy if they are forced to scrounge up a Windows machine every time they have to upgrade their camera’s firmware. Just put all the resources in the upgrade app, zip it up and provide it to the users.

You can find the Alpha A700 version 3 update at the Sony support site.

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