Sony Alpha DSLR-A100 Review

Review based on a production DSLR-A100

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. It's fair to say that while this camera may share some components with previous Konica Minolta digital SLR's Sony's involvement has brought external styling, build quality and finish up to a higher standard. The lens mount is to be called the 'Alpha mount' and Sony has announced no less than 19 lenses which will carry the Sony Alpha branding (although many are based on existing Minolta lenses).

Key features and technologies

Sony Alpha lens mountIdentical to the Minolta A-type bayonet mount, enabling the use of a large back catalogue of existing Minolta and third party lenses as well as avoiding the development of a whole new system.  Interestingly only four of the new lenses introduced are designed for an APS imaging circle.	10 megapixel APS-C CCD Interestingly Sony has gone for CCD rather than CMOS with this camera, so it's not the same sensor as used in the DSC-R1. We've no official confirmation but it seems likely that this is the same 23.6 x 15.8 mm CCD used in the Nikon D200.
Anti-BlurSony has renamed Minolta's CCD shift Anti-Shake system as 'Super SteadyShot', but the principal is the same. However we have it on good authority that Sony's engineers have made some significant improvements to the system and now claim shutter speeds 3.5 stops slower can be used with Super SteadyShot enabled. The second part of the Anti-Blur story is the availability of high sensitivities of up to ISO 1600.	Anti-DustThe 'dust' issue has been around since the beginning of digital SLR photography and it affects different cameras to different degrees. Olympus took the advantage with their SSWF filter, Sony appear to be keen to capitalize on this. Firstly a special anti-static coating (Indium Tin Oxide) on the low-pass filter in front of the CCD ensures no build up of dust due to static electricity. Secondly an 'Anti-Dust vibration' using the cameras CCD shift system, but instead of introducing a delay at startup this occurs at power off.
Bionz Image ProcessorCanon can be thanked for the trend of branding the image processor used in the camera, Sony clearly realize the value of this but unfortunately haven't exactly picked a very dynamic name. Their new 'Bionz' image processor is said to be a significant improvement over anything used in previous KM digital SLR's, it also enables one of the A100's unique features; Dynamic Range Optimization. Sony claim this will be the fastest such system as it is designed in at a hardware level.	Eye Start AF Eye Start AF isn't anything new to previous Minolta SLR owners but Sony are obviously keen to continue its use. On the A100 Eye Start AF does exactly what it says, when the sensor detects the proximity of your eye to the eyepiece it begins to auto focus and remains in 'continuous' auto focus until the shutter release is half-pressed or you put the camera down. In reality this means that the camera is likely to have an approximate focus on the subject before shutter release.
Continuous shooting until media full We have seen this on a couple of other digital SLRs but the A100 allows you to shoot continuously at three frames per second at any image quality setting (apart from RAW) until the storage card is full (with a reasonably good performance Compact Flash card).	40 segment honeycomb pattern metering The Konica Minolta 7D and 5D both featured 14 segment honeycomb pattern metering sensors, the A100 advances this with its 40 segment sensor.
2.5" 230,000 pixel 'Clear Photo LCD Plus' monitor The large high resolution LCD monitor appears to provide a very good image and has good viewing angles (better from above, left and right than from below).	Lithium-Ion battery The A100 takes a new NP-FM55H battery which while not carrying the InfoLithium name is apparently compatible with any other Sony DSC which used the NP-FM50, however the A100 doesn't have the InfoLithium readout. You can't use standard NP-FM50 batteries in the A100.

Review: Pentax K-30

We’ve shown initial sample photos from the Pentax K-30 (K30) and we’ve also run the darned thing under a faucet. After about a month of use, constant communication with the company, and even calling in other products, the K30 is perhaps the most impressive entry level DSLR camera that we’ve seen. I’m not just saying that from my point of view, but this also applies to at least half the staff (who reside here in NYC) who have tried it out and also tried out other competing DSLR cameras.

In a nutshell: the Pentax K30 wins our Editor’s Choice, but it comes with its quirks.

Tech Specs

Specs taken from the B&H Photo listing of the item

Imaging
Camera Type	Digital SLR with Interchangeable lenses
Lens Mount	Pentax K
Camera Format	APS-C / (1.5x Crop Factor)
Resolution	Effective Pixels: 16.3 Megapixels Max Resolution: 16 MP: 4928 x 3264
Aspect Ratio	3:2, 16:9
Sensor Type / Size	CMOS, 23.7 x 15.7 mm
File Formats	Still Images: JPEG, RAW Movies: AVI, MJPEG, MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, MOV
Bit Depth	12-bit
Noise Reduction	Not Specified By Manufacturer
Memory Card Type	SD SDHC SDXC
Image Stabilization	Optical

Focus Control
Focus Type	Auto
Focus Mode	Single-servo AF (S), Continuous-servo AF (C), Manual Focus (M)
Autofocus Points	11

Viewfinder/Display
Viewfinder Type	Pentaprism
Viewfinder Coverage	100%
Viewfinder Magnification	Approx. 0.92x
Diopter Adjustment	- 2.5 to +1.5 m
Display Screen	3.0″ Rear Screen  Live Preview LCD (921000)
Screen Coverage	100%
Live View	Yes

Exposure Control
ISO Sensitivity	Auto, 100-12800 (Extended Mode: 100-25600)
Shutter	Type: Electronic Speed: 30 – 1/6000 sec
Remote Control	Optional
Mirror Lock-Up	No
Metering Method	Spot metering, Center-weighted average metering, Multi-zone metering
Exposure Modes	Modes: Aperture Priority, Auto, Manual, Program, Shutter Priority Compensation: -5 EV to +5 EV (in 0.3 EV steps)
White Balance Modes	Auto, Cloudy, Custom, Daylight, Flash, Fluorescent, Fluorescent (Day White), Fluorescent (Natural White), Fluorescent (White), Shade, Tungsten

Flash
Built-in Flash	Yes: Flash On, Red-eye Reduction, Second-curtain Sync, Slow Sync, Slow Sync./Red-eye Reduction
Effective Flash Range	Not Specified By Manufacturer
Max Sync Speed	1 / 180 sec
Continuous Shooting	Up to 9 fps
Dedicated Flash System	eTTL Remote Firing
External Flash Connection	Hot Shoe, Wireless

AV Recording
Video Recording	Yes
Audio Recording	With Video, Mono

Performance
In-Camera Image Editing	Filter Effects, Miniature Effect, Monochrome, Red-eye Correction
Start-up Time	Not Specified By Manufacturer
Shutter Lag	Not Specified By Manufacturer
Self Timer	2 sec, 12 sec 1
Interval Recording	Yes
Date & Time Stamp	Yes
Connectivity	1x AV Output, USB 2.0
Wi-Fi Capable (With Optional Transmitter)	No
Software Requirements	Not Specified By Manufacturer

Power
Battery	1x PEDLI109  Replaceable Lithium-ion Battery, 7.4VDC, 1050mAh
AC Power Adapter	PEACAOK (Optional)
Operating/Storage Temperature	Operating 14 to 104 °F (-10 to 40 °C)

Physical
Dimensions (WxHxD)	4.8 x 3.1 x 2.3″ / 12.19 x 7.87 x 5.84 cm
Weight	20.7 oz / 587  g No battery or memory card

Ergonomics

The Pentax K30 is an extremely beefy DSLR for the price point and for the audience it is targeted towards. Most prominently, I’d emphasize just how comfortable the grip on the camera is. On said grip, what you’ll also notice is an infrared trigger light there as well. That is also where the on/off switch, shutter release button and the program exposure and exposure compensation button are located.

Around here is also the first of two control dials as well. Yes, Pentax put two dials for exposure on the K30, and it is a godsend in terms of ergonomic comfort and control.

On top of the camera is the mode dial: which also includes some Pentax custom modes that are assigned to specific dials as it is. Plus there is a textured thumb grip area that adds to the overall comfort of the camera.

The back of the camera is characterized by quite a brilliant LCD screen and the viewfinder above that. To the right of all this are the main controls. To the top left is the Live View/Delete button. Honestly, I wish this were on the right side as well. It would just make more sense in real life use.

Autofocus

I need to get this part out of the way, and unfortunately it is probably the camera’s biggest pitfall. The autofocus on the Pentax K30 isn’t exactly the greatest and in fact it was sometimes extremely frustrating. While on a shoot with a model, I didn’t always have time to pixel-peep my images to ensure that I had absolute focus. Plus, the LCD screen was just so sharp that I honestly thought that I did. But utilizing the outer focusing points caused some major problems.

First off, when you’re trying to take portraits, you have a couple of choices:

- Set the camera to automatically choose from 11 autofocus points (a fairly viable option)

- Set the camera to automatically choose from 5 (not so much that viable when it comes to portraiture)

- Manually select one of 5 points (therefore disabling the ability to use all of the other settings assigned to the hot keys such as wireless flash control fine tuning, ISO control, etc.)

- Manually select one of 11 focusing points (the most viable option but with the drawbacks of the previous fact.)

In a case like the photo to the left, I needed to use one of the outer focusing points and hitting Jamie’s eye wasn’t exactly the simplest thing to do. My original vision was to have the lens wide open and only have a bit of fill flash coming in using the AF-540Z in a Photogenic SB2432 with a Chimera Speedlite Speedring. Instead, I needed to stop down and blast Jamie with light.

So why do I need to use the outer focusing points to begin with? Why couldn’t I focus and recompose? Because then I’d throw off the plane of focus. It would be nice if Pentax utilized something like Hasslebald’s TruFocus system that was designed for those types of photographers.

When the focusing was spot on though, it nailed some extremely nice images and the potential of the K30′s sensor combined with the very good 16-50mm f2.8 DA * was fully realized.

Something else that must be praised was the fact that the image stabilization system built into the sensor seemed to rival Olympus’s. And that’s a bold statement.

Here are some other images from that shoot:

See how the focus is right behind Jamie? I was aiming for her eye.

Something else that also must be stated is that Pentax’s P-TTL system seemed to work best when the flash was in the hot shoe and not in a modifier. These images in the bedroom were all taken by bouncing the flash off of the wall.

Ease of Use

Sans the autofocusing issues that I encountered, the Pentax K30 was extremely simple and straightforward to use, for stills that is. When it came to video, I encountered a problem that hopefully Pentax will fix with a future firmware update (from the time of publishing this piece). In video mode, a true videographer would want to shoot in manual video mode. When doing this, only the shutter speed and ISO can be adjusted: not the aperture. That’s a big problem; and instead I would probably opt for third party glass in this case.

The biggest joy though probably came from the fact that I was able to go out and shoot in the absolute pouring rain with no issues at all. The camera was drenched but survived it all like a champ.

Indeed, Dumbo in Brooklyn became so flooded that boats were ready just in case of anything since it is right by the water.

Image Quality

The overall image quality from the camera was exceptional, though at times I wished that the colors out of the camera were a bit more saturated than they were and that the green color depth could have been a tad bit deeper. Here are some images not only showing off the image quality, but also the versatility of the files when put to the test in Adobe Lightroom 4.

For more, you can check out our initial sample images.

High ISOs

Overall, I did see a little bit of smudging of details at the higher ISOs. However, the noise levels were nearly negligible and it required only moving the slider around one or two places in Lightroom 4 to correct it.

What must be said though is the fact that the camera white balances and captures some really, really wonderful colors at night and at higher ISO settings. Pentax did an excellent job with this.

Metering

Pentax is spot on with the metering. During my excursion with the rest of the NYC Press, I did formal Sunny 16 tests and the camera’s meter worked perfectly with the logic.

With that said, I would not be afraid to use it with manual flashes and studio strobes like anything from Profotoor Elinchrom.

Conclusions

For the audience that this camera is targeted towards, Pentax has given them quite a bit of power. Due to the ergonomics and including two dials, the user can grow significantly with this camera. When you reach a certain point, you often don’t want to have to press the exposure button in order to switch the aperture and shutter speed. To boot, this camera has a great sensor, is weather sealed, and is still fairly light though beefy feeling at the same time.

My only problem was the autofocus system, which I truthfully consider to be a tad bit worse than the Canon 5D Mk II’s. I know that Pentax fans will try to rip us apart for that, but our tests showed otherwise.

If you can get over the autofocus system, I highly encourage you to spring for the Pentax K-30 and enjoy their line of limited prime lenses and their constant aperture zooms.

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