Sony Alpha 900

photo credit: Javier Paredes

You have to admit that you would like to know if the first Sony SLR camera supposed to be a pro photo camera, the Sony Alpha 900, is really up to the real-life constraints of a pro camera. Some people would really test it: Michael Reichmann from Luminous Landscape, simply took a Sony Alpha 900, a Sony 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G tele-zoom and 5 other lenses, for two weeks of photo travel in the Southernmost countries of this world. Result: A rather positive opinion, no real issue after submitting the photo camera to low temperatures and high humidity that were out of its normal operating range.

He also noted the incidents other cameras suffered around him (no less than 77 other photographers!). For example, the Canon EOS 5D MkII which did not survive in cold rain.

The Sony A900 test in Antartica.

We are waiting impatiently for the launch of new SLR photo cameras from Sony, but here is the weirdest rumour seen in China about this.

Improbable : Sony Alpha 707 & Sony Alpha 900SH

A Sony Alpha 707 with HD video capture and ISO 12.800 sensitivity and a Sony Alpha 900SH with HD video.

Seriously! I can’t believe it for a moment… It’s so strange that I will not even create the Sony Alpha 7007 and Sony Alpha 900SH categories for the YLovePhoto menus.

Thanks to Mash for the link to PR. These guys are ready for any kind of rumour…

Gizmodo, the gadget blog, sometimes has a few interesting posts about digital photography. Today, this is the case with their “Canon 5D Mark II vs. Nikon D700 Review Shoot-Out” which turned out to face the two digital cameras in real-life conditions of night photo (of course, they wanted to compare high-ISO pictures and noise).

I am quite impressed, I keep receiving more and more reviews for the Full Frame SLR cameras of this winter. It seems that the interest is very high. Currently:

• Nikon D3x: 15 reviews
• Canon EOS 5D Mk II: 21 reviews
• Sony Alpha 900: 21 reviews
• Nikon D700: 16 reviews

A lot of reading for those who are either ready to shell several grands on a Full Frame SLR camera or are still waiting to get a new camera in a few years from now.

With the arrival of all these new digital photo cameras with a large sensor (Full Frame) in 2008, like the Sony Alpha 900 or the Canon EOS 5D MkII, it became difficult to find your own path. The more because their main advantage of these is photo cameras is to offer images of ultra-high quality at very high sensitivity. But how do you want to know this? The best is probably to compare. Many web sites published such comparisons, let’s try to find the best ones:

Master Chong presents a direct comparison of these two recent cameras, with 100% cropped images.

dPhotoExpert makes something similar, but much simpler, with a single comparison at 1600 ISO.

Unfortunately, there is no information about which software/firmware version is used (I expect that the results may change with future upgrades).

Sony Alpha 900

Comparing two SLR cameras with very very different prices is realy a tough task. So tough that it is often useless. In the Online Photographer, Michael Johnston still tries this daunting task of comparing the Sony Alpha 900 and the Nikon D3.

These are two cameras that are mostly linked by the fact that they have a 35mm Full Frame sensor. Their prices are not even in the same ballpark and the Sony is brand new, while the Nikon is on the market for more than a year now. However, I think that the comparison is quite interesting. To the point, that I invite you to read it from top to bottom.

There is no mere conclusion, but interesting comments that could be summarized by a few items:

1. The D3 is much faster in nearly all aspects; It’s also bigger and heavier.
2. Michael Johnston prefers the digital noise quality of higher ISOs from the Sony (but I think this is very subjective).
3. From the photos shown, I would say that the Sony Alpha 900 is helped by a better dynamic lighting optimization, but the added pixels are helping a lot images that need to be enlarged (or cropped) somewhat. Photoshop and DxO and other Raw file developers may compensate this, but shooting nearly right from the beginning is important.

Nikon D700

This kind of comparison is also quite interesting because it emphasizes the important differences that we can find between high-pixel count Full Frame cameras and high-ISO (low-pixel count) Full Frame cameras. If you stay at relatively small images sizes (or printouts up to A4/Letter size) the Nikon D3 and its sibbling Nikon D700 are very powerful beasts that will run to the darkest place a camera can shoot. And this can be amazingly dark.

But if you start shooting large images (or print more than A4/Letter-size, or intend to significantly crop your images; like for large panoramic photos), a larger pixel-count may become quite critical. Then, you start looking at the Sony Alpha 900 or the Canon EOS 5D MkII. It really depends on the kind of use you have.

The comments from Michael Johnston about the “shoot-to-carry ratio” (ratio between shooting time and effort, and carrying time and stress) are also quite interesting and a very urgent reminder for all people who may be tempted to follow the Full Frame madness. If you go from a relatively light-weight camera to one of the heavier models, you should really think about the impact on your photographic behaviour. If you keep the camera to the eye and/or shoot a lot, a heavy camera is not a critical issue (that’s for pros), but if you carry the camera around and shoot only sparsely the mere weight may become a burden (that’s for many amateurs, even enthusiasts).

Digital noise, this eternal ennemy of the photographer, is going to find a real opponent at its level: The 35mm Full Frame sensors of the new FF dSLR that just arrived on the market (or were there for a relatively longer time):

• Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III
• Canon EOS 5D
• Canon EOS 5D MkII
• Nikon D3
• Nikon D700
• Sony Alpha 900

As a matter of fact, this is a considerable advantage of the big/large sensors which can make use of pixels whose size is proportionnelly bigger and so apter to capture light without using the ammplification devices (usually generating or increasing noise image defects).

This is a good reason to find it interesting to go and check the images présented by DPreview in its Sony Alpha 900 test. They compare some of these cameras at sensitivity settings between 50 and 6400 ISO.

Think about what any other SLR camera would do at the same settings (ISO 3200, no less!): More or less colored blurred blotches.

Sony Alpha 900

If you want to get the user manual of the Sony Alpha 900, you just have to look here:

• In English
• En français

When a dSLR is presented as if it was a Hollywood movie.

You wanted to see it under all angles, you’ll be satisfied: Photography Bay made a post with all the photos they could find of the Sony Alpha 900. The only thing better than that would be to have it in hand.

Thanks to Roumazeilles.net presentation of the Sony Alpha 900.

Sony Alpha 900 - viewfinder

Sony Alpha-900 in China

This can be translated into roughly $2900.