Feature: Sony Alpha100 is putting pressure on Nikon and Canon top end SLR cameras
Motivation: Sony has set the price for $2-5,000 digital SLR capabilities at $1000

Sony has had a line of digital cameras that have garnered rave reviews. For awhile , Sony's Mavica was the major player in small to medium size digital cameras. But Nikon, Canon and others won the day with cheaper and faster storage using Flash memory cards and small but reasonably high quality 3 to 4x optical zoom lenses (the quality of pumped up digital zoom having been found wanting). And in the digital SLR field Canon own an over 50% market share with Nikon at 30% plus. So when Konica-Minolta exited from both the film and digital field an opportunity was presented.

Sony in the electronics marketplace is not only an innovator but also a persistent player. So when Konica Minolta signaled it wanted to exit from digital cameras, Sony seized the opportunity to buy the rights to the Konica Minolta Maxxum camera and lens lines. Astutely, Sony decided to use that already very good technology as a springboard for its new digital SLR cameras. And the benefits show.

Alpha Encounter

One of the advantages of covering the World Dragonboating Crew Championships in Toronto this past summer (see coverage at PixofCanada.com) was the fact that Sony was a major sponsor and had brought its electronic gear down to the Lakeshore allowing both dragonboaters and spectators to try out the new cameras. Given a few breaks in the competition, this reviewer took the opportunity to try out the new Alpha camera primarily because I was loaded with Canon and Nikon gear so I could readily compare the different cameras.

First impressions were light, learning, and works well. The Alpha weighs slightly more than 1 pound body alone. But even equipped with battery, micro-drive and the new Sony Alpha 18-70mm zoom lens, I was amazed how light the camera was. This is no small benefit to a sport photographer carrying 3-4 lenses and 2-3 bodies and 5-8 batteries. Also appreciated is the long-life Stamina battery - able to take 750 on a single charge. Typically that is a days work for which I carry 3 batteries right now. The Sony salesman insisted the battery had not been recharged all day.

Next when Sony claimed it had no limits on 10MPixel JPEG images taken at 3 frames per second - I was skeptical. But this would allow me to test two birds (battery life and real speed shooting capabilities)with one stone. So when offered I gave it a real stress test whirl. Pictures of the dragonboats going by at 3 frames per second. Several bursts of twenty seconds or more quickly had the 512MB card filled. So I erased the images and cut the image's recorded size by 4 =>down to small (1920 x 1280 pixels = 2.5Mpixels). 350 images later in about 10-15 minutes of shooting I had barely dented the Stamina battery's left-over power setting. Now the bracketed shots would start to tail off after 15-20 seconds of shooting. But when I looked at the images there was no perceptible change in quality and even the sequences at the end of the burst seemed to have the same interval as at the beginning.

So now the Sony Alpha had my attention. Unfortunately, I did not have the time as the Dragonboating Premier Open Finals were just about to commence. And kick myself in the ass, I did not get the images downloaded or transferred to my own compact flash card (saving weight I had not brought my portable hard disk that day). So all the rest of this review will involve the research work I have done in the interim to find out what's up with the Sony Alpha.

Sony Alpha Specs

The grabber specs on the Sony Alpha

The 3 Sleeper Features of the Alpha100

The EyeStart System pre-triggers the auto-focusing as soon as you bring your eye up to the view finder. What's the advantage ? It used to be the delay between clicking the shutter release and getting the camera ready to shoot. Now that delay is primarily due to the new auto-focusing features, so the Alpha has a proximity sensor in the viewfinder and it starts the autofocus as soon as your eye approaches the viewfinder. Net result - less delay in getting quick shots off.

I am not sure how well Alpha's Anti-dust system will work - using anti-static coating and actually shaking the sensor to clear off dust. But this photographer has had major problems with dust and lint despite extra precautions on lens changes with his Canon Rebel. The current blow away system works modestly well; but there has to be something better.

But I am sure how the Minolta and Carl Zeiss lenses that are being packaged with the Alpha100 will work very indeed. This will be a relief to some Minolta camera pros who were ready to swear at Minolta for the very first time. My one concern, will Sony earn enough market share to get third party lens makers like Tokina and Sigma ready to develop and ship offerings with the Minolta-Alpha mount.

Some Rough Edges

During my extended trial shooting session with the Alpha100 I was impressed with its light weight and good feel. But I did not like the internal clutter when looking through the viewfinder. The focus lines and cubes just seemed too dominant. And the layout of the control info was a bit confusing - chalk it up to lack of familiarity with Alpha's controls. But along with the LCD back I was fumbling to control some basic settings like white balance and even image size. You can see that this party does not enjoy the prospect of going through the digital camera operations learning curve again.

Another surprise was that the camera uses compact flash cards including type II to accommodate microdrives which is great. Sony does provide a compact flash adapter so its own memory stick can also be used. My concern is that on later Alpha models, Sony will convert to its own memory sticks and leave compact flash users out in the cold.

Summary

this is a preliminary evaluation, a lot of in hand details have yet to be covered. But I can testify to how impressed with all the features I have seen so far. I knew that Sony had borrowed from the Minolta product line; but I was surprised to see how intelligently Sony had integrated not only Minolta ideas and features but also Sony and other digital camera advancements. But most astonishing was the pricing - about $1000 with a 18–70mm f/3.5–5.6 wide-angle zoom.

Sony is usually the premium priced spread and there are many premium features some not even yet mentioned like Dynamic-Range Optimizer and BionZ image processor engine able to do so much for image processing. For Minolta and Konica camera users plus those going to digital SLRs for the first time with no lens investments, the Alpha is a no-brainer. For Canon and Nikon users - take a look, Sony is offering a $500-1000 discount on their premium digital SLRs.