Alphatracks

Simple things like a battery organizer, can make a huge difference when you need to reload flash batteries in a hurry.

My latest piece of photo equipment cost me less than five bucks. It isn’t a lens, a flash or a custom filter. To tell the truth it isn’t exactly a piece of photo gear at all. Yet, my photography will be the better because of it.

You might not think a battery organizer is a very exciting item, but it eliminates the hassle of keeping AA batteries in order. Any time I can streamline my photography assignments, I get excited.

AA batteries are a photographic necessary if you shoot with electronic flash. I use rechargeable NIMH batteries and I always try to have several freshly charged sets in my camera bag. I’ve tried numerous methods to keep my AA batteries ready for use, but I’ve never been very satisfied with any of them. Until now.

I found some nice nylon plastic battery cases on ebay. These cases hold four AA cells, each battery separated from its neighbor by a nylon partition. I got six of them for under five dollars including shipping. That is sufficient storage for 24 batteries.

I like these cases for several reasons.

It is easy to tell charged and discharged batteries apart

Whenever I charge a set of batteries, I place them into a plastic case. Whenever the batteries in one of my flash units become exhausted, I drop them loose into a pocket on my camera bag. By maintaining this routine, I always know that the batteries in the plastic cases are charged and ready to use. And when I return from an assignment, I know that the loose batteries need to go on the charger. It is also easy to glance through my bag and determine how many charged battery sets I have available.

Batteries in a case don’t get lost

Since I only keep charged batteries in cases, I know immediately which batteries are ready to use.

When I am shooting an event, there are times when I need to change batteries quickly. Seconds count if the batteries the my flash start to fail during the middle of the action. If batteries are loose in the bag, I find myself wasting precious seconds rooting around trying to find enough fresh batteries to power the flash. Often I can only find three and have to dig through various filters, sync cords, tripod plates and cleaning brushes to unearth a fourth cell. This doesn’t happen with batteries in cases. The cases are much easier to locate in my my bag, and when I fish a case out I know there is an entire set of four batteries inside.

I can quickly move spare batteries when I swap equipment between bags

Tucked in a pocket of my camera bag, nylon battery cases are a snap to locate.

I use several different camera bags, depending on how much equipment I need for a particular assignment. Moving lenses and camera bodies between bags is a simple matter, but I take extra care to make sure I don’t forget any important accessories. Storing batteries in cases simplifies the process of making sure that all the batteries get transferred between bags.

Don’t underestimate the little things. A battery case might seem insignificant. If, however, it makes the difference between capturing or missing an important shot, a simple cell case could be one of the most important things in your gadget bag.

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New Sony A450 will join the Alpha fleet in February.

Remember the time when some people said Sony wasn’t serious about the dSLR market because it took the company 18 months to release another camera after the initial A100 came on scene? Now we know what the Sony Engineers were doing during those 18 months; they were busy creating cameras to fit every conceivable dSLR niche. Not content with the six (or was it seven?) new Alpha models introduced in 2009, Sony is starting off 2010 with another entry in the crowded low-end of the market.

Introducing the new A450

The new entry, dubbed the A450, takes the highly regarded A550, ditches the Quick Live View and the tilt-out LCD but maintains the fast 7fps burst mode. In addition, Sony claims the NPH500 battery should give users over a 1000 pictures on a single charge.

The is also an auto HDR mode, and naturally the camera includes the popular Stay Shot image stabilization feature. Another new feature is the Manual Focus Check Live View, which can preview the image at 7x or 14x image previews.

A significant new dSLR

Some people have already started dismissing the new entry, since it lacks some of the more compelling features of the A550 and does not offer video. If Sony prices this A450 right, however, I think it will be a very significant entry in Sony’s dSLR arsenal.

Control layout of the A450 is similar to the A500 and A550.

Fist, as I already said, Sony’s selection of lower end dSLRs is getting quite crowded. I think Sony might start weeding out some of the A230, A330 and A30 models once the A450 is on the scene. The A450 can’t replace all of those models by itself, obviously. But since it is less full featured than the A550, Sony will have price the A450 much lower to make it attractive.

The 12mp A500 lists for $749, while the 14mp A550 is priced at $949. So where will the A450 come in?

There isn’t much room between the A380 and the A500 for the A450 to play in. If the A450 drops below the price of the A380, then buyers will have an interesting decision to make. Grab the A380 with the tilt-out Live View or go for the A450 with its 7fps shooting speed and nearly twice the battery life.

If Sony prices the A450  higher than the A500, the new camera might be hurt by the A500. Price the A450 under the A500 and you might just kill sales of the A500.

Sony hasn’t officially announced the A450 at this point, but the Sony press release is all over the internet. It is expected that the official announcement will come at the CES show this week. While the release doesn’t indicate a price, it does say the camera will be available in February, 2010.

You’ll find the Sony Global Alpha A450 presentation here. Sony has also made available a detailed A450 Spec Sheet in PDF format.

I’ll have more on the A450 as details emerge.

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