Photo gallery: Sony Alpha DSLR-A100With the A100, Sony aims to bring digital SLR photography into the mainstream, targeting families, first-time dSLR buyers and existing Konica Minolta SLR users wishing to switch to digital.
The first camera produced by the Konica Minolta partnership has been branded by Sony as Alpha. The A100's casing is based on the Konica Minolta Dynax 5D and borrows some of its features.
Upside
Weighing in at 545 grams, the plastic contoured body of the 10-megapixel A100 is a far cry from Sony's Cybershot snapshots. As mentioned, the design is almost identical to that of Konica Minolta's 5D, although it's attractively branded with the burnt orange Alpha logo. A matching coloured button releases the lens when you wish to make a change, and there's a helpful orange dot on the inside of the lens to line it up correctly on the camera body.
A 2.5-inch LCD fits nicely on the back of the unit, the same 230K display found on the Cybershot DSC-T9. The anti-reflection screen is designed for reduced glare and is supposed to accommodate a wide range of views making high and low angles easier to shoot.
Also borrowed from Konica Minolta is the EyeStart AF System (Auto Focusing) which activates as soon as you look through the viewfinder. Sony's SuperSteadyShot-inside is an image stabilisation mechanism that moves in the body of the camera to compensate for hand shake. By making this feature hardware-based as opposed to software or lens-based, Sony has ensured that all compatible lenses can offer the same antishake performance. The D-Range Optimizer analyses the pixel information of an image and determines the shooting scene mode immediately. Advanced mode adjusts lighting and shadow without affecting areas that don't need any improvement.
High speed continuous shooting, and high speed image processing and writing are enabled using DDR-SDRAM and its continuous burst mode is limited only by the size of the memory card in use. Sony has made memory options more flexible than with previous cameras by allowing CompactFlash Type I and II cards and including an adaptor for Sony loyalists who already own MemoryStick Duo cards.
The A100 also boasts long lasting battery stamina thanks to an Info Lithium ion 1600mAh battery that can shoot up to 750 shots at full capacity with 50% flash.
One impressive feature of the Alpha A100 is the Anti-dust system that consists of a static-free coating on an optical-low-pass filter and a vibration mechanism that shakes the CCD to "wipe off" particles that may come in contact with the sensor.
The accessories line up looks to be huge, with 21 lenses set to be release between July 2006 and March 2007. Sony will also offer battery and power adaptor options, flash lights, and a Remote Commander remote control, as well as a variety of cases, lens straps, eye piece correctors and additional items.
All lenses are compatible with existing Konica Minolta Dynax bodies.
Downside
The A100 forces you to use the optical viewfinder for setting up your compositions, restricting you from using the 2.5-inch LCD for anything but playback and changing settings within the menu. This could take a bit of adjustment for those used to snapshooters that often don't have an optical viewfinder. It does help conserve the battery life however.
Sony has also chosen to use a CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) sensor instead of a CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) like most digital SLR cameras. The main difference between the two is how they deal with "noise" in images, though Sony's Bionz image processor claims improved low-light performance and less noise. CCD sensors also generally consume more power.
The A100 is not exactly cheap, especially for first-time buyers as the AU$1,499 base price does not include lenses. Those starting from scratch will have to fork out at least AU$1,749 for the single lens kit that includes an 18-70mm zoom lens.
Though users now have two memory card options with the addition of CompactFlash support, no card is supplied with the unit.
Outlook
Combining Konica Minolta's body design and auto focus system with Sony's SuperSteadyShot-inside image stabilisation and Anti-dust static free coating, the A100 looks pretty promising.
Due to ship in July, the A100 will be available in three configurations -- the A100B which consists of the camera body only (AU$1,499), the A100KB -- a single lens kit that includes the SAL1870 18-70mm lens (AU$1,749), and the A100WB twin lens kit that includes the SAL1870 and SAL75300 75-300mm lenses (AU$1,999).
Editor's note: Pricing correct at time of writing.
Though certainly not cheap, the below AU$1,500 price point (body only) is an affordable investment for budding digital SLR users.
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