Sony a (alpha) DSLR-A100W

...decision to go for the Sony A100 Alpha and the following is my review and recommendation.

Please note that my review is an overall purchasing and general review rather than a full blown technical evaluation, this is because I am not a photography expert and there are numerous web reviews that go into the minute details of all of the technicalities of the product. I still hope this review is useful.


COMPACT, BRIDGE ...
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WHY THE SONY ALPHA? AND WHY NOW?

The Sony Alpha A100 was originally released in about June 2006. Often in the electronics market place you can expect updated products to be released about once a year, I am not certain that this will happen with the A100 but I wouldn’t be too surprised, but then comes the difficulty, like buying any piece of electronics. Do I wait until the next thing comes along or do I find the best possible ... more

OVERVIEW

I have always been interested in video editing and photography since I find that I can use these hobbies in combination with my other interests. I’ve always strived for the best quality, but, that usually comes with expense.

The digital camera market is quite a complex one, because there are literally hundreds of cameras available across a huge range of prices. I have been using digital cameras for a number of years now, and in May 2007, I decided to take the plunge and get a Digital SLR camera. I took the decision to go for the Sony A100 Alpha and the following is my review and recommendation.

Please note that my review is an overall purchasing and general review rather than a full blown technical evaluation, this is because I am not a photography expert and there are numerous web reviews that go into the minute details of all of the technicalities of the product. I still hope this review is useful.

COMPACT, BRIDGE OR SLR?

I am the sort of person that feels that a good photograph is something that is very subjective, we all have our own thoughts and feelings about what an image looks like, what the subject matter is, how it is lit, what is in the composition etc. I think a lot of that is down to luck, but also having a good eye for what might make a good photo helps.

If you ever read any of the photographic magazines for tips or reviews, it astounds me just how snobbish the whole business is, it all seems to be about spending as much money as possible and going on courses or studying photography. Ok, to some extent that is true and you get what you pay for, and you need to learn about how to use the cameras etc, but I also think it begins to take away the hobby element, and the fun of photography.

My first digital camera was a compact, an Olympus C50Z, which I still have, and I still use. It has 5 megapixels and 3 x Optical zoom, the LCD screen may be small by today’s standards, but it is a solid little camera and extremely portable. I then upgraded to a bridge camera, the Panasonic FZ7 with a 12 x optical zoom and many more manual features. The bridge camera is the middle ground between a point and click compact and a Digital SLR with interchangeable lenses. You have more manual controls, a view-finder and other features like rapid fire pictures. However the camera is smaller and lighter than a DSLR.

I have to say that I found the Panasonic FZ7 a great camera for learning about shutter speeds, aperture settings, and macro photography. I also found the long zoom and steady shot really useful as well. However, I began to find after about a year or so that I was left wanting. When I viewed the pictures on the PC, they often looked good, but if I wanted to crop the image, (zoom in further) I found that the pixilation began to get worse. This is because a bridge camera, like a compact, only has one relatively small sensor. Although you should buy a camera with as many Pixels as possible, the size of the sensor is also very important because it helps determine the quality of the picture and how much detail is captured. Don’t get me wrong, the FZ7 is great, and I would definitely recommend it, especially for learning about the more advanced features that you find on a DSLR. It’s a much better option in my opinion to learn in this way, because you may find that a bridge camera meets everything you are looking for at a relatively cheap price compared to shelling out hundreds on a DSLR which you might not use.

I still think that compact and bridge cameras generally offer excellent results and a much easier to carry about, however I photograph a lot of aircraft and nature, and for both of those, I not only want the zoom capabilities but also the manual focus, the shutter speeds and the ability to crop images. This year we had blue tits nesting in the back garden, I got some pretty nice pictures with my FZ7, but the conditions had to be just right, i.e great lighting and I still found I couldn’t crop the images as much as I wanted without some loss in quality. Now, a blue tit is one of the smallest British birds so I am asking quite a lot from the camera, but it was this, that made me buy a DSLR.

WHY THE SONY ALPHA? AND WHY NOW?

The Sony Alpha A100 was originally released in about June 2006. Often in the electronics market place you can expect updated products to be released about once a year, I am not certain that this will happen with the A100 but I wouldn’t be too surprised, but then comes the difficulty, like buying any piece of electronics. Do I wait until the next thing comes along or do I find the best possible deal now and enjoy the product straight away, after all something better is always going to be on the horizon.

Well I decided to buy straight away. As with anything electrical I did the online checks first I used the price comparison websites, searched for money off voucher codes but I was surprised that none of them could match a high street store. I thought this was quite unusual. On the weekend I made the purchase, Currys were doing a Digital SLR promotion and their leaflet in one of the Sunday papers promoted their package deal whereby you got two lenses, carry case, camera body and memory card. However, despite several attempts I could not get the price quoted on their leaflet to match the online quote. So I went to Jessop’s instead.

At the time, Jessops had a promotion whereby if you spent over £500 on a camera you got a £50 voucher to spend instore, that was handy for getting prints done. I found a voucher code online that gave me an immediate £30 discount under the “Madness30” promotion. Also, by ordering via Cashback rewards website, I got cash back for making the online purchase. In total, less the £30 immediate discount the package cost £628.97, but remember I still had the £50 voucher to come and cashback rewards.
IN THE BOX
The kit box I got is called DSLR-A100W

• The camera body, strap, battery, software, leaflets, instruction manual, battery charger, USB lead
• Kit lens 35mm-75mm – ok for everyday pictures, e.g family, friends, macro
• Telephoto lens 75mm-300mm – for getting close to the action I think this is about equivalent to 13-14 x optical zoom when I compare to my Panasonic Fz7.
• Sandisk 2GB Memory Stick Duo card
• Lowpro case

FEATURES AND USAGE.

The Sony Alpha A100 has a 10.2 Megapixel CCD, which is the same as the Canon EOS 400D, Olympus E410 and others. This model, like the others listed is an entry level Digital SLR, but that shouldn’t be viewed negatively.

The lenses are easy to change, and come with caps to protect them from dust and scratching. They simply screw on and lock into place, or by pressing a little release button, they unscrew accordingly.

There is a built in flash which pops up when required.

The LCD screen is 2.5” in size and is very clear, you can use the various buttons on the camera to review pictures and zoom in to check the detail, whilst that is not the same as looking on a PC screen it does give you a good idea what the picture is like whilst out in the field.

Interestingly, anyone upgrading from, or getting an additional camera to their compact or bridge camera should realise that the LCD screen does not offer a live view, that means that to take a photo and focus is, you must use the view-finder, you cannot use the LCD screen. As far as I know the only DSLR you can presently do that on is the Olympus E410. I must admit that it takes a little getting used to, but in many respects, for example taking action pictures or fast moving objects or trying to get the detail in a macro shot, I personally prefer the viewfinder. The viewfinder is like looking at a perfect pure image, it’s not one of the electronic ones you find on some other cameras.

To reduce dust, the camera has a built in anti-dust system that shakes the sensor. One of the reasons that I held off from getting a DSLR for so long was the pain of having to clean the lens and sensors all the time. I recently got dust on the CCD of the camera, I’ve no idea how, but this was easily removed using a blow of air, which is the safest method so as not to damage the sensor.

When you have the capability of zooming in on a subject, the more you do that, the more any hand shake will be exaggerated, and that immediately renders most pictures out of focus. However, like most other cameras in it’s class, the A100 has an anti shake system, called Super Steady Shot. That should be familiar to anyone that has had previous or other Sony products. It’s effective too, even at full zoom using the 75mm-300mm lens, it corrects a huge amount of the camera shake.

I find the camera is comfortable to hold, with a nice grip.

In terms of the Automatic modes, then the camera is well catered for, with all manner of auto white balance, ISO, aperture, focus methods. In fact auto focus on this camera really amazed me the first few times that I used it because as soon as you start to lift the camera to your eye it begins to focus. I was photographing birds in a tree and moving from one branch to another, literally within a split second, the blink of an eye, the camera had focused. It was amazingly fast. I generally use a mixture of manual focus and auto depending on the subject and conditions.

If you want to sound like a professional photographer, you can’t go wrong with this camera because it has the proper click shutter sound. It’s reasonably loud, and annoyingly I don’t think it can be turned off. That is a disappointment because I think it limits where you can use the camera.

The menu system is incredibly straightforward to understand, and there is a small joystick style set of buttons on the back of the camera. There are two dials as well which cuts down the need for too many menu options. Therefore you can set white balance using one of the dials or change the setting using the other dial. You can select rapid continuous shooting by pressing one of the buttons on the body of the camera also. I think it just makes for easier operation if you can change settings without fiddling through menus, however again the menu is very well laid out. Changing white balance and shutter speed, aperture settings and ISO is all relatively straight-forward but I am still getting used to those things myself.

The camera isn’t overly heavy either, for example with the battery in, and the telephoto lens on, it’s probably about the same as a bottle of wine! The build quality is extremely high, the body is plastic but it feels good quality not cheap at all.

You have to make sure that you buy a memory card for the camera as they don’t provide one, which is pretty stingy when you are spending so much money. Luckily I got one as part of the package deal. The camera takes SD cards and Memory Stick.

The camera takes pictures in the universal JPEG format at a variety of sizes and resolutions, obviously the higher the resolution and larger the size the fewer pictures a memory card will hold, but my 2GB card easily holds 200+ at highest resolution. JPEG by its nature is a compressed file format, that means some quality is lost, probably unnoticeable, but for anyone looking at professional photography there is the ability to take pictures in RAW format. The continuous shooting mode allows you to take pictures as fast as the camera writes them to the card, therefore it’s worth spending a bit of money on a fast read/write memory card.

CONCLUSION

I always find reviewing things like this extremely difficult, because I know that some people will want a few technical analysis and more detail on the various settings capabilities, how the camera performs in certain light conditions etc. This review has been written with the view that anyone seriously looking at a DSLR would have already done some research prior to this, and therefore would have read the full technical analysis and comparisons with other cameras in it’s class. If not, I would suggest looking at dpreview.com or perhaps some of the other reviews in Ciao. I wanted this review to encompass the overall technology of the camera, the buying experience and to reflect my usage of it.

With that in mind, it’s still early days for me and I am still getting used to the camera, a few more sunny days may help me get out and use it even more, however to date, I have been incredibly impressed by the detail and clarity of the pictures I have taken so far, both of nature and aircraft.

I would seriously recommend this camera to anyone wanting to get a DSLR. It is competitively priced, but not the cheapest, but it feels nice, has excellent build quality, has features comparable or better than the competition and I believe that it is value for money.

I would also urge people to get to know the features of a DSLR by using a bridge type camera first as many of the settings can be quite complex, and the instruction manual provided is very poor and basic. I dislike the noisy shutter sound and inability to turn it off, but those are small quibbles with an otherwise excellent product.

Please note that pricing is hugely competitive and changes daily so the price I paid is likely to be less now. I was a little disappointed with the speed of delivery from Jessops as the camera took 14 days to arrive, in fact I had to chase it. I think they are now quoting up to 28 days for delivery. 

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