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  (Source: Sony)

  (Source: Sony)
Sony bumps up the megapixel count with its Alpha 900 D-SLR

Over the past few weeks, we've been treated to a number of new D-SLR announcements. In late August, Canon officially announced its 15.1MP EOS 50D D-SLR with a 3" Live View LCD, DIGIC 4 image processor, and 6.3 FPS continuous shooting capabilities.

Not long after Canon's announcement, Nikon jumped into the fray with an update to its popular D80: the D90. The D90 brought a 12.3MP image sensor backed with EXPEED image processing. Perhaps the most interesting feature of the camera, however, was its 720p HD movie mode.

Now that both Canon and Nikon have had their fun in the D-SLR spotlight, Sony is ready to officially pull the wraps off its 24.6MP Alpha 900 full-frame D-SLR. The Alpha 900 features a glass pentaprism, dual BIONZ image processors, 100% coverage viewfinder, SteadyShot INSIDE image stabilization, 9-point autofocus, HDMI output, and 5 FPS continuous shooting capabilities.

Other features include a 921,000-pixel 3.0” Xtra Fine LCD, "Quick Navi" mode for on-the-fly camera adjustments, and compatibility with the optional VG-C90AM Vertical Grip.

"The DSLR-A900 introduction solidifies Sony’s position as a leading camera manufacturer that can meet the demands of serious enthusiasts," said Sony's Phil Lubell. "It represents the best in sensor and image processing technologies and offers enhanced functions, performance and reliability so photographers can push their creativity to the limit."

Sony says that its latest D-SLR will be available in November at a price of $3,000.

For those that would like an early look at the Alpha 900, Digital Photography Review has posted a preview of the camera complete with sample shots.

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What?
By icanhascpu on 9/9/2008 5:58:20 PM , Rating: 1
"The DSLR-A900 introduction solidifies Sony’s position as a leading camera manufacturer that can meet the demands of serious enthusiasts," said Sony's Phil Lubell. "It represents the best in sensor and image processing technologies and offers enhanced functions, performance and reliability so photographers can push their creativity to the limit."

Haha. What now? They are 3rd place at best in terms of volume sales? "serious enthusiasts" care more about color accuricy, lens threads and CCD/CMOS size. All that other stuff is secondary.

Aside from the silly PR people, haveing near medium format resolution is great, but like the MHz wars, MP should never be a indication of resolved resolution. If this thing has a standard size CCD, then they are hardly useing the full potential of 25MP and like the days of scanning film useing a 10kdpi drum scanner, SnR falls through the floor and all you resolve is static.




RE: What?
By soydios on 9/9/2008 6:11:23 PM , Rating: 3
Sony has plenty of experience building digital sensors, and from the specs the A900 looks like a solid camera focused on getting out of the photographer's way. Plus another full-frame camera will only force competitive price drops to accelerate, bringing full-frame 35mm digital under $2k eventually.


RE: What?
By icanhascpu on 9/9/2008 6:52:15 PM , Rating: 1
Fantasizing about a <2k$ full frame camera is fine. Anyone in photography would. Pretending it will maintain quality, is another thing altogether. Nikon, and to more of an extant than Sony; Cannon, will not push sub 3k full frames as quality or 'pro' anything. Their quality lines for people actualy wanting quality photography put price as a secondary or further down importance. Its about the glass, the highlight and black detail, the color precision.

Im not saying this is a bad camera by a long strech, I appreciate what it is, but dont confuse it with quality. Its a brute force method to get Sony into the mid-range DSLR market.


RE: What?
By JAB on 9/9/2008 8:27:17 PM , Rating: 2
Did you look at the reviews? Ignore the name and the rated MP looking at reviews it does well against much more expensive cameras. Competition is always good.

I do wish they would stop trying to make meaningless increases in the megapixels it slows down real improvements in quality.


RE: What?
By ttowntom on 9/9/2008 11:50:25 PM , Rating: 5
Meaningless? I wish people would stop repeating meaningless mantras. Yeah, pixel counts are irrelevant for consumer cameras. But this isn't a consumer camera.

A list of the ways pro/prosumers use those extra pixels:

a. Cropping. A steep crop can turn 25 million pixels into a third of that.

b. Digital zooming. Your 25MP camera with a 200mm lens can be a 6.25MP camera with a 400mm. The little extra you pay for the sensor is a lot less than buying the longer lens.

c. Blowups. Pros don't just shoot a 4x6s and the occasional 8x10. At 20x30 or bigger, 10MP just isn't cutting it. It works out to only about 130 dpi (PPI, actually). The human eye can see triple that.


RE: What?
By kelmon on 9/10/2008 6:17:27 AM , Rating: 2
Appreciated that higher pixel counts are useful but I'd take better high ISO performance over higher pixel counts. Shooting in low light is always a pain, particularly if your lens is not image stablised, so bumping up the ISO is the only way to get a sharp shot and I'd prefer to limit the noise as much as possible.


RE: What?
By robinthakur on 9/10/2008 7:27:09 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
This isn't a consumer camera


Is it a pro camera then? You must seriously be joking. The photographic community is one of the most technically conservative ones out there judging by how long digital took to take over in SLR land and the fact that Mac's are still the order of the day for most media companies I know. The number of "pros" willing to use this camera I can count on no fingers. Oh and his point about resolution not being the be all and end all still stands, there are far more important factors than resolution at work here even for large format work.


RE: What?
By ttowntom on 9/10/2008 11:22:49 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
Is it a pro camera then?
At $3,000, its the highest level of prosumer, or the lowest level of professional camera. Take your pick. But it AIN'T a consumer camera.

I shoot a D3 that only cost a couple grand more than this, and other than some little wavering concerns about body construction, this camera compares very favorably.

quote:
Oh and his point about resolution not being the be all and end all
That wasn't his point. What he said was 'resolution is meaningless'. Your statement is correct. His is flat out wrong.


RE: What?
By Oregonian2 on 9/9/2008 8:31:45 PM , Rating: 2
I think you're having a reflex action without actually reading what is being offered. Relax! Yes, they're a third place provider (being the combo of Sony and Konica/Minolta) of cameras, but they're one of the leading providers of image sensors to themselves and on an OEM basis to others.

Note that the article says that it's a FULL FRAME sensor. That means it has a MUCH MUCH larger area than others with APS-C sensors (which was the crowd I recall their previous cameras lived with). That said, it'll take some optical bench testing by review places to see how noise levels and the like are handled, etc. But just from what little is said in the brief description, it looks like a giant step up for Minolta... er... Sony. They're not going to take over the world with it but it should inch them up a bit. They next need to generate an array of suitable lenses for it, or make sure third party lens houses do so with their Minolta mount.

It's probably noticeably better than my P&S digital camera so if you gave me one I'd probably not trashcan it.

:-)


RE: What?
By masher2 (blog) on 9/10/2008 6:07:31 PM , Rating: 2
> "That said, it'll take some optical bench testing by review places to see how noise levels and the like are handled, etc."

There are more benefits to a full-frame sensor than just noise levels. You just really can't get decent bokah from a small sensor, even down in the f2.8 range.


RE: What?
By Oregonian2 on 9/10/2008 6:39:16 PM , Rating: 2
I thought "bokah" was more the ying/yang of the lens, or is that only for film cameras?


RE: What?
By Suntan on 9/10/2008 8:50:24 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
You just really can't get decent bokah from a small sensor, even down in the f2.8 range.


Boke, is the character of the out of focus rendering of a lens. It has nothing to do with the sensor size.

The depth of field is dependent on the sensor size (in addition to aperture, focal length, focus distance, ratio of subject to background distance, etc.) but to say that you can't get acceptably shallow dof from a crop sensor is not true.

Taken with a 1.5x crop sensor...
http://img114.imageshack.us/img114/6541/dsc4553iw4...

-Suntan


RE: What?
By Suntan on 9/10/2008 9:19:46 PM , Rating: 2
RE: What?
By NainoKami on 9/11/2008 11:41:17 AM , Rating: 2
Well, you can get a lot closer to your subject when using a full-frame camera at the same focal length. That equals stronger bokeh at smaller apertures. In bright conditions you might run into the problem of not getting enough bokeh because if you open your aperture all the way, you'll get too much light, and if you close it: not enough bokeh... That and the fact that f/4.5 is sharper than f/2.8 on pretty much all lenses, so being able to get closer to the subject at longer focal lengths gives you a better chance of getting a sharp image with nice bokeh.

I'm a BIG fan of shooting with a full frame. I shoot both, by the way...!


RE: What?
By Suntan on 9/11/2008 12:54:42 PM , Rating: 2
Once again, boke is the *quality* of the rendering of the oof parts of the picture not the amount of subject isolation.

Or put another way, just because a picture has a lot of "blurry" in the background,does not mean it has *more* or *less* boke. Boke is often qualified by *good* or *bad* not quantified by *more* or *less*

-Suntan


RE: What?
By mmcdonalataocdotgov on 9/12/2008 8:30:59 AM , Rating: 2
f2.8 for bokeh? I am down in the f1.4 range for this effect. I think you have some slow glass there, so not a sensor problem.


5-Point AF?
By Goty on 9/9/2008 6:30:24 PM , Rating: 2
Doesn't 5-Point AF sound a little lackluster on what I expect is being marketed as a professional camera?




RE: 5-Point AF?
By Kensei on 9/9/2008 6:44:49 PM , Rating: 2
Let's try 9-point. See below.

quote:
The Alpha 900 features a glass pentaprism, dual BIONZ image processors, 100% coverage viewfinder, SteadyShot INSIDE image stabilization, 9-point autofocus, HDMI output, and 5 FPS continuous shooting capabilities.


RE: 5-Point AF?
By Diosjenin on 9/9/2008 6:49:05 PM , Rating: 2
I noticed the 9-point AF correctly, and I personally think even that's a little low. From a 24.6MP camera that costs $3K, I'd expect 13-point AF at a minimum.


RE: 5-Point AF?
By Justin Case on 9/9/2008 9:24:28 PM , Rating: 2
Lots of sensors are useful mainly when you're trying to shoot something like sports and want to make sure that you get something in focus, but there's always a big chance it'll be the wrong thing.

Anyone who wants control over the result will tend to use only the center point (aim, focus, reframe, shoot). And stuff like face / smile recognition is based on the CCD / CMOS so it probably uses contrast focus, not the sensors.

Okay, sometimes you may want to use a single non-central point to track a moving subject in servo mode (which the CCD / CMOS can't really do), but come on, who bothers to do that? At 24 MP just use the center sensor and then crop.

The problem with Sony cameras is the lens selection. I'd rather wait for a Nikon using the same sensor (which shouldn't take long). It'll be slightly better to begin with and will have a lot more lenses to choose from. Only problem is it'll probably cost 30-50% more.


RE: 5-Point AF?
By xsilver on 9/10/2008 10:10:08 AM , Rating: 2
That is definitley the major killer - few full frame lenses = bad.
I guess in that respect, canon/nikon the only choices.

And no mention of pentax/samsung probably going to crowd the FF market to with their inevitable release (and ultimatley having the same problems as sony)


RE: 5-Point AF?
By Samus on 9/10/2008 5:36:28 PM , Rating: 2
Pentax has some remarkable full frame lenses as well.


RE: 5-Point AF?
By Justin Case on 10/17/2008 8:31:27 PM , Rating: 2
Pentax has some really good large format lenses and some pretty good 35mm primes. All their zooms suck, though.


RE: 5-Point AF?
By clangclangMinolta on 9/18/2008 1:26:43 PM , Rating: 2
Can someone explain to me how they don't have enough lenses? Is there a single "mm" that's not covered by their lens range? And then there's already a ton of Minolta lenses out there designed for full frame, all of which are sharp and render beautiful bokeh. I have a pile of Minolta film cameras, including a Maxxum 7, and a Sony A100 DSLR. With the A700's shortcomings, I've been eagerly awaiting the A900. With my 50mm 1.4, 50mm 2.8 Macro, 70-210 F4 Beercan, and my 28-135 4-4.5 all out-resolving the 10megapixel sensor (as well as my outstanding results from slide film), I have no doubt that the existing G series and Carl Zeiss lenses are fully capable of bringing out 26 megapixels of detail.

This is for those of you who don't seem to understand bokeh and can't spell it... from www.dictionary.com

Main Entry: bokeh Part of Speech: noun

Definition: a Japanese term for the subjective aesthetic quality of out-of-focus areas of a photographic image

Example: The bokeh, or quality of the blurred image in the photograph, was described and discussed.


RE: 5-Point AF?
By Justin Case on 10/17/2008 8:43:27 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Can someone explain to me how they don't have enough lenses? Is there a single "mm" that's not covered by their lens range?


You might as well say that a Silvertone electric guitar should cover anyone's needs because it "can play all notes". But your opinion would probably change after you'd spent some time playing a Fender or Les Paul.

Take Canon's MP-E 65 and EF 70-200 2.8L IS, for example. There is simply no lens with a Sony mount that can do what those can.

As to your lenses "out-resolving a 10MP sensor"... well, I advise you to look at the amount of blur, distortion and chromatic aberration that those lenses have near the edges and corners, even on a small-sensor camera.


RE: 5-Point AF?
By KorruptioN on 9/9/2008 11:35:51 PM , Rating: 2
It technically has 19 AF points. 9 "primary" with 10 "secondary" assist points.


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By foxtrot9 on 9/9/2008 5:24:56 PM , Rating: 1
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RE: -----
By codeThug on 9/9/2008 5:33:06 PM , Rating: 3


access denied


RE: -----
By Solema on 9/9/08, Rating: 0
RE: -----
By quickk on 9/10/2008 12:31:00 AM , Rating: 2
You do know that when you post a comment your votes get removed, right?


RE: -----
By MrPoletski on 9/10/08, Rating: 0
RE: -----
By quickk on 9/10/2008 1:32:51 PM , Rating: 2
That's just the way the comments are set up. I think the idea is that if you are voting on which posts are good or bad, you should be an impartial observer.


RE: -----
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RE: -----
By Lord 666 on 9/9/2008 7:23:51 PM , Rating: 2
You'll have to wait in line behind those other guys wearing the paint in the picture.


RE: -----
By feraltoad on 9/9/2008 9:03:28 PM , Rating: 2
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RE: -----
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RE: -----
By ttowntom on 9/9/2008 11:41:54 PM , Rating: 2
With pickup lines like that, I bet you get lots of dates.


RE: -----
By Samus on 9/10/08, Rating: -1
RE: -----
By foxtrot9 on 9/10/2008 3:15:24 PM , Rating: 1
There must be a lot of prudes on here to keep voting everyone down


24MP
By Bekali on 9/10/2008 1:20:28 AM , Rating: 2
It is a very large number, i wonder if a zoom lens like 24-70/2.8 is capable of solving the 24MP sensor, or only a fixed lens will be good for that sensor.
At DPreview in sample section it´s working only one photo, and the lens used is not declared, and even at centre of image the sharpness of image is not enough.




RE: 24MP
By Heidfirst on 9/10/2008 5:18:48 AM , Rating: 2
"i wonder if a zoom lens like 24-70/2.8 is capable of solving the 24MP sensor"
The Zeiss is the best 24-70 going so if any can then it will.

Remember that DPReview etc. are working with preproduction cameras without finalised firmware (& the new A700 firmware is a big jump forward in IQ).

So
it's got possibly the best optical viewfinder going
excellent ergonomics
good build quality
$3000 list price
IQ tbc (but Imaging Resource say that as it is it runs a 1DS MkIII very close)
at the market that it's aimed at (e.g. landscape, studio rather than sports/tele) Sony (not to mention Sigma & Tamron) already have a pretty competent range of lenses & more are being added all the time

& Sony have said all along that whilst this is a camera capable of being used by a pro they don't consider it a pro camera ...

At the very least it will keep Canon & Nikon honest, more & more reports suggest that Sony are making inroads into Canon & Nikon's DSLR market share, at least in volume.


what size are the image files?
By marvdmartian on 9/10/2008 10:28:49 AM , Rating: 2
I've got to wonder what size the image files are, with such a high MP??

"Yeah, this is a great camera! See the usb port? That's where I hook up my 250GB external hard drive, so I can hold more than the 5 photos an 8GB memory card would hold!!" LOL




Noise
By Proxes on 9/10/2008 4:54:34 PM , Rating: 2
dpreview.com did a preview of this camera (using a pre-production unit) and if you look at the sample pictures the noise at ISO 1600+ is very bad. You might think a production version probably would do better. If it does it won't be much. And for a FF camera they need to make a heck of an improvement just to be par for the course.




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