I’ve been pleased with the traffic to the site — and now that I’m seeing traffic, I thought a weekly poll would be a good way to see how the readership thinks. As long as the readership shows interest, I intend to add a new poll each week.
The question for this week is a natural for this site — do you intend to buy a Sony A100? The Alpha 100 is just starting to ship, so I think it will be interesting to see what everyone’s plans are for the new pice of hardware.
The poll will appear in the sidebar, and you can see immediately how everyone is voting. I’m using the Democracy WordPress plugin by Jalenack and they say it checks IP addresses to prevent users from voting more than once. No stuffing the ballot box at Alphatracks!
So let’s here what your intentions are. Are you waiting switching or pre-ordering? If you want to share more than a simple vote, go ahead and post your ballot, then leave a comment as to why you are or are not considering an A100. If you are buying an A100 — tell us why. If you won’t be buying an A100 we would like to know that as well.
I’ll continue my story about how I got started shooting with Minolta in the next post. Until then, stay focused!
— Tom
Mine’s on preorder. Hoping it ships soon!
I’ve been looking to move up to a digital SLR for some time now, and the Sony looks to have the best price-to-features ratio. Checking it out at the SonyStyle store last week solidified my decision, and I’m really looking forward to using it.
Thanks for the comment, Pat. Hope you get it soon. I’m thinking about adding a reader’s gallery — so check back and submit some pics.
— Tom
Thanks Tom!
My first test pics with my new Alpha are here:
http://www.patweitzel.com/gallery/v/alphatest/
Just got it today! I’m thrilled…
Great to see you got your Alpha already, Pat!
Some nice depth of field on some of the flower shots. Where they taken hand-held? Was the SSS (Anti-Shake) enabled?
From your blog, I assume you are in Cleveland. Did you preorder direct from Sony or another outlet?
Thanks for sharing! — Tom
Had my Sony A100 since 7/18 (Direct from SonyStyle). Have been VERY DISAPPOINTED by pictures compared to my Maxxum 5D. Noise in ISO 400+ (ISO 400 = ISO 1600 on the Maxxum 5d). Exposures have been 50/50, about the same as the 5D. Dusk and low-light pictures are SUPERIOR on the 5D….anyone else having this problem?
Maybe I have a defect….bummed out…was first to order/receive. 🙁
David —
Sorry to hear about your disappointment with the A100. Is there any way you could post some of your shots so we can look at them? If you don’t have anywhere you can post the full resolution images, e-mail me and I’ll figure out a way to post them on Alphatracks. It would be really good to compare some of your 5D shots to images from the Alpha.
Many of the reviews I have read have indicated that noise in the higher ISO settings is noticiable with the Alpha. Most seemed to feel it was an acceptable amount of noise. It is also a given that a 10MP camera will probably exhibit more noise than a 6MP at higher ISO settings. That doesn’t excuse the Alpha — there are other 10MP dSLRs that offer quite acceptable noise at high ISO. That’s why I would like to see samples of your images, so we can judge just how bad the noise is from your camera.
— Tom
My A100 is due the 30th of August from Sony style. I would not purchase iit without Sony’s NO QUESTIOND ASKED 30 DAY RETURN POLICY. As soon as I get it I am comparing it to my Konica Minolta 7D using the same lenses, and CF media. I am going with the A100 instead of the NIKON D80 since I have a number of lenses that fit Minolta. I know a real no-brainer. I am dissapointed inthe 7D underexposure problem. I have heard the Alpha may have the same issue. I hope not. I will post the results og my tests when I get the A100. FYI I have a mate in New Zealand who takes his A100 to bed with him every night he likes it so much. His Mrs is a photographer also and the has the 8MP Canon Rebel. She indicates her Rebel images pale in comparisnon to common images with the A100.