Sony A100 - shortcomings
While of course glad that the camera is in the birthing process and that
it is somewhat up to date in sensor pixel count, I can't help but see
what's missing from it: (Please correct any errors I may have made).
Lacks:
-Dedicated shutter speed and aperture wheels (only
has one wheel)
-Dedicated exposure compensation and flash compensation wheels
-Exp comp is still limited to two stops
-no dedicated meter control switch
-no dedicated ISO control button
-no dedicated WB/Kelvin switch
-no dedicated shutter button mode switch
-reduction in AF modes (or buried the modes in menus)
(I'm mainly a MF shooter, but ...)
-Flash sync terminal
-Flash sync is limited to 1/160 s (1/120 with A/S activated)
-Shutter delay not spec'd, but probably as slow as the 7D/5D
(Note, on Maxxum 7/9, shutter dealy is on the order of 50-60ms,
whereas on the 7D it is an abysmal 150 - 200 ms making
sports and action shooting esp. difficult).
-fastest ISO is 1600 (no really big deal)
-Some will note the lack of a really fast frame rate, but
this, to me, would only matter to a very few shooters.
-Composition Priority (TM)
KUDOS: (in no particular order)
-flash mount (Minolta)
-Dust "shaker" a la Olympus (not sure if it is the same
technology or something different.
-Compact Flash as primary (not Memory stick)
-Menus are basically the Minolta menus which are reasonably
well designed.
-DOF preview
-VF Diopter control
-40 segment spot meter. (14 was "fine enough", will
40 be better?)
-2.5" 230,000 pixel display (similar to the 7D 207k-pix)
-Carl Zeiss lens designs to follow.
85mm and 135mm sound delicious; 16-80 sounds suspicious.
(probably fab'ed by Sony on CZ design)
Uncertainties: I've seen one claim it's "plastic" and one claim it's
plastic over a metal body frame.
The lack of external controls reveals my worst nightmare: they've buried
everything in menus. What made cameras like the Maxxum 9 and 7 great
has been totally erased from the A100. I hope this is due to the use of
the Maxxum 5 "template" they appear to have settled on and that it is
not indicative of their future bodies.
In summary it appears to me that the camera is engineered for a price
point aimed at amateurs meant to increase sales volume and margins. IOW
a pure business decision approach rather than a photography approach
(which is what they're trying to push on the alpha website).
Cheers,
Alan.
--
-- r.p.e.35mm user resource: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpe35mmur.htm
-- r.p.d.slr-systems: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpdslrsysur.htm
-- [SI] gallery & rulz: http://www.pbase.com/shootin
-- e-meil: Remove FreeLunch.
--
-- r.p.e.35mm user resource: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpe35mmur.htm
-- r.p.d.slr-systems: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpdslrsysur.htm
-- [SI] gallery & rulz: http://www.pbase.com/shootin
-- e-meil: Remove FreeLunch.
Alan Browne
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