Sony Alpha DSLR-A100 Review
Sony is getting some rave reviews on their new Alpha DSLR-A100 camera, and Digital Photography Review is not one to be left out on commenting on the camera. They took a detailed look at the A100, and not only talk about the camera, but its history.
In July 2005 Konica Minolta and Sony made an announcement that they were to jointly develop digital SLR cameras. This agreement hinted at shared technology between the two companies such as auto focus, metering and Anti-Shake coming from Konica Minolta and sensors, electronics and batteries from Sony. Some six months later Konica Minolta dropped a bomb on the camera market by announcing that they were withdrawing from the camera business and had transferred certain camera assets including the Maxxum/Dynax lens mount and related SLR technologies to Sony.
Almost a year on since that first announcement we have the new Sony Alpha DSLR-A100, a compact, ten megapixel (CCD) digital SLR with a (Konica) Minolta lens mount, Anti-Shake (now Super SteadyShot) and a definite cross-breed appearance.
Overall it gets a highly recommended rating, as its lowest mark in their rating system is an eight out of ten for a few things.
Sony Alpha DSLR-A100 Review
The Alpha DSLR-A100 is Sony’s first attempt at entering the digital SLR marketplace, and it is the launching item for their new Alpha brand. Camera Labs recently reviewed the A100, and had a lot to say on their first attempt.
Any new arrival in the highly competitive budget digital SLR market needs to be an impressive proposition, and on paper at least, the Sony Alpha DSLR A100 certainly delivers the goods. Sony’s sensibly taken the best aspects of Konica Minolta’s technology including the built-in Anti-Shake mechanism, lens mount, exposure system, and user interface, and added it’s own expertise in CCD sensors, image processing and LCD screens.
The result is a 10.2 Megapixel compact digital SLR with built-in anti shake capabilities which work with every lens you attach, an anti-dust system, long life battery, advanced image processing and a nice large LCD monitor. That’s a pretty impressive spec, considering the kit with 18-70mm lens has an RRP of UK £699 or US $999. Lets put it this way, it’s much more than a Konica Minolta 5D with a new CCD sensor, and already a serious challenge to Canon’s market-leading EOS-350D.
In the end they give the Sony Alpha DSLR-A100 an overall rating of 85%. Its highest mark being value at 19 out of 20. What they did not like about the A100, is that it is relatively noise at 800 ISO and above, and that it really just feels like an enhancement on previous cameras, and not a new digital SLR.
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W70 Review
A 7.2 megapixel compact digital camera, the W70 from Sony was recently reviewed by Imaging Resource. This new Sony Cyber-shot camera has some pretty interesting features, like 58 megabytes of internal memory, and a nice 2.5 inch LCD among other things.
The DSC-W70’s performance ranges from quite fast to just average [speed], depending on the task at hand. It starts up fairly quickly, and has a very fast shutter response when the lens is set to wide angle, dropping to merely fast at telephoto. If you “prefocus” the camera by half-pressing and holding down the shutter button before the final exposure, it’s blazingly fast, with a shutter delay of only 0.011 second, currently among the fastest on the market. Shot to shot cycle times are good, at about 1.27 seconds for large/fine JPEGs, and it can capture 20 shots or more this quickly without having to slow down and wait for the memory card to catch up.
In its category, it manages to earn itself into the Dave’s pick category, meaning it’s worth considering to buy, as they liked its shutter response, and shot to shot speed, as well as the W70’s color accuracy, movie mode, usable in bright light LCD, and battery life.
Sony DSC W70 Review
Cameras.co.uk has reviewed the Sony DSC W70, a recent release from Sony that is small, and yet still has a seven megapixel sensor. Will the size effect image quality?
Here is what the review says:
The quality of the photos taken with the DSC W70 was very impressive. My general findings were that the photos were sharp and the colours strong. The camera coped well with both lowlight situations and also sunny settings.
The sharpness of the photos remains up to the edges. Detail is brought out in the darker areas of the photos too. All in all the outdoor scenic shots are very good.
Other than it not being the greatest with red eye, like most compact digital cameras, the Sony DSC W70 comes out being a great little compact thanks to its image quality and ease of use.
Sony Alpha DSLR-A100 Released
Sony has entered the digital SLR market with a bang, introducing its new α (Alpha) DSLR-A100 system yesterday. The Alpha DSLR-A100 system has a 10.2 megapixel APS CCD image sensor, and will be introduced with 19 high quality interchangable Sony lenses and a wide variety of accessories as well. The camera also features ISO ratings as high as 1600, and an image stabilization system called Super SteadyShot.
“Our system will be attractive to people who are ready for something beyond what’s available in D-SLR cameras today,” said James Neal, director of marketing for digital imaging products at Sony Electronics. “Sony enthusiasts who want to upgrade from point-and-shoot cameras, as well as former Konica-Minolta digital and film SLR camera users who have already made substantial investments in lenses, will welcome this initiative.”
The camera is able to burst mode capture upwards of 3 frames per second continuously at the full 10.2 megapixel rating and the finest JPEG compression. The camera is said to have a long battery life as well, as the supplied litium ion is rated at up to 750 shots per charge. You can also expect it to support JPEG and RAW file formats, and for holding the pictures you take it has a slot for CompactFlash Type I/II and Microdrive media cards. The camera also accepts Memory Stick PRO and Memory Stick PRO Duo cards through a supplied adaptor.
You can expect to get the DSLR-A100 camera body for around $900 USD, and the DSLR-A100K kit, which includes the body and a 18-70mm zoom lense for around $1,000USD. Both ship in July and will be available at SonyStyle.com or Sony Style retail stores.
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T30 Review
Imaging Resource recently reviewed the Sony Cyber-shot T30, an ultra-compact 7.2 megapixel digital camera.
The T9 was the first Sony camera to feature an image-stabilized lens branded with the famous Carl Zeiss name, and the T30 shared that same lens. The T30 couples this with a new 7.2 effective megapixel CCD imager, with a higher maximum ISO sensitivity of 1000. There’s also a larger 3.0″ LCD display versus the 2.5″ type in the six-megapixel T9, and a new NP-FR1 InfoLithium battery that should offer almost double the battery life of that camera (420 shots instead of 240).
In the end they seemed to really like the camera, though they were worried about dropping it due to its small size and odd shape that does not really fit your hand, but instead expects your hand to fit to it.
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T30 Review
Sony has always tried to give off the appearance of high quality with their products, as well as trying to push the envelope sometimes in features and design. The Cyber-shot T30 takes what they did with the T9 and cranks it up a few notches.
Digital Camera Resource Page has a review of the compact digital camera.
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T30 takes everything that was great about its predecessor (the DSC-T9) and makes them bigger. You get more pixels, a bigger screen, and almost double the battery life. The camera does get a bit larger to accommodate some of these features, but it’s still a very compact (not to mention stylish) camera. While it’s not for everybody, the DSC-T30 is a camera that I can easily recommend to most folks.
Some of what they liked include the stylish body, the image stabilizer, photo quality, and performance. Some negatives with the T30 include its redeye problem, lack of manual controls, and lack of optical viewfinder.
Sony DSC W30 Review
Cameras.co.uk reviews the Sony DSC-W30, a six megapixel compact digital camera, that is really just the cheaper version of the W50 with a smaller LCD.
Sony have made the DSC W30 easy to use and it should not take you long to get up and running with this camera.
In terms of price it is very competitive with other digital cameras with a similar specification. Therefore I can see this camera appealing to more or less anyone who is looking for a straightforward camera that they can take anywhere with them and not have to break the bank to buy.
In the end they give the camera an 81 out of 100, saying that if you are looking for image quality, this would be a camera to buy, as it outperforms the image quality on much more expensive cameras.
Sony DSC-W30 Review
Imaging Resource has a review up on the Sony DSC-W30, a point and shoot compact digital camera launched just two months ago.
Thin and ultra-compact, the new Sony DSC-W30 digital camera (and its cousins the W40 and W50 models) updates the Cyber-shot line with convenient portability and fully automatic exposure control in a compact, rugged metal case. The W30 offers the excellent resolution of a 6.0-megapixel CCD and 32 megabytes of internal memory, as well as a large 2.0-inch color LCD monitor and useful range of preset exposure modes. Though the Sony W30 doesn’t offer any direct manual exposure control, the camera’s extensive LCD menu system does offer quite a bit of creative control with image contrast, sharpness, and color options. The 3x optical zoom lens zooms across a range equivalent to 38-114mm on a 35mm camera, and the camera’s Macro focus mode gets exceptionally close at just two centimeters.
In the end they say that the W-50 is a better camera at only around $30 more at retail. They also suggest that you ignore the higher ISO 800 and ISO 1000 settings on the camera as the image quality just isn’t there, but otherwise it makes it in as a strong Dave’s Pick.
Sony Recalled 6 Digital Cameras in China
CIO has an article up where they note that Sony has had a few digital camera models recalled in China. No word on if similar problems exist in the models released to the rest of the world.
The recall, which involved Sony offering to refund the purchase price of the cameras to any consumers who wished to return them, was revealed as Sony detailed its financial performance for the fourth quarter on Thursday last week. Sony wouldn’t comment on how many cameras it bought back from consumers or how much money it spent in the process.
“This has been settled and is behind us,” said Takao Yuhara, senior vice president of Sony, at a Tokyo news conference.
The administration specified six Sony Cybershot models that it said did not meet certain specifications. It didn’t name the other seven cameras. The Sony cameras named were the DSC-H1, DSC-L1, DSC-P200, DSC-W7, DSC-W5 and DSC-S90, all of which were made in China. The cameras were faulted for problems with white balance, image uniformity, automatic exposure and liquid crystal display brightness.
One thing I find amazing is the amount of problems that plague digital cameras versus traditional film cameras. I am not sure if there were as many problems with film cameras, but I never really heard of any. Sometimes technological advancements can be nothing more than headaches.
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