Sony Alpha DSLR-A100 Review

Hi-Breed Sony Alpha DSLR-A100 Camera

Two Shots One Target Two Companies, One Product, One Shot the Sony Alpha DSLR-A100. In 2005 Minolta and Sony jointly develop the SLR cameras series. This obviously shares each other’s technologies, such as Focusing and Anti-Shake of Minolta and advance Sony Electronics like those of Sensors and Battery. But during the development just after 6 months in joint production, Minolta Konica announce that they will withdraw from making camera, ending its 78 year career as a camera manufacturer.

Minolta has now transferred its camera technology to Sony, together with its Maxxum and Dynax Lenses tech which directly assimilated to the DSLR series and the Sony Alpha DSLR-A100 respectively. After almost a year since the joint venture has been publicize, Sony now reveals its new DSLR series the new Sony Alpha DSLR-A100 camera. This camera has the best of both worlds, with advance electronics and sensor with a powerful Lens and Anti-Shake technology, which Sony dubbed “Super Steady Shot”.

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Like any Cross-Breed, the DSLR-A100 appears to have both DNA of its parents. The Sony Alpha DSLR-A100 has a striking resemblance of the old Konica and the modern high standard finish of Sony’s Digital camera. The Sony DSLR-A100 will use the Konica Minolta Lenses, which will be based on the existing lenses. Sony also stated that there will be about 19 lenses available that will carry the Alpha brand, which also known as the “Alpha Mount”.

Features and Tech

Features at a glance

The Sony Alpha DSLR-A100 shares a familiar frame as the old Konica SLR series. The grip had the comfortable ergonomic design, making every shot picturesque. The grip seems to be made out of synthetic rubber preventing your hands from slipping even with sweaty hands. The Alpha DSLR-A100 Flash pops up when taking a picture and can be fitted with bigger Flash when need be. The lens mount has been reinforced with a metal ring screwed into it. This is one of Sony’s modification from the old Konica KM-5D based model. The Sony Alpha DSLR-A100 can now accept larger lenses for better picture quality.

Alpha Lens Mount

As said before, the Sony Alpha DSLR-A100’s lens mount has been updated to fit a lager lenses. This also has a backward compatibility to all existing Konica Minolta and a third party lens manufacturers. This avoids developing new system for the camera and only four new lenses are specifically design for the APS.

Picture Resolution

The DSLR-A100 can render magnificent resolution output from its CCD 10.20 Megapixels or 3,872 x 2,592 pixels. Sony interestingly goes for a CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) rather than the standard CMOS (Complementary Metal–Oxide–Semiconductor).

Blurs off

The Sony Alpha DSLR-A100 has inherited the Anti-Shake Technology from Konica Minolta, now called the “Super Steady Shot”. Sony has also made some improvements in shutter speed, claiming that it can now use the Super Steady Shot in 3.5 stop speed.

Anti-Dust

Dust has been a nuisance ever since electronics have been discovered. The Sony Alpha DSLR-A100 is coated with an anti-static agent (Indium Tin Oxide) to prevent dust attractions. A low pass filter is installed in front of the CCD to prevent any dust to accumulate. The 2^nd defense against dust is the “Anti-Dust Vibration” which occurs during shut down.

Bionz Image Processor

A powerful processor and branded by Cannon. This processor is equipped with the entire Sony Alpha DSLR-A100 models. This enables the DSLR unique feature such as the Dynamic Range Optimization and speeds up the overall system performance of the camera.

Eye Start AF

This features belongs to the original SLR Minolta and it is now been integrated with the Sony Alpha DSLR-A100. This features auto focus when your eye is in close proximity to the eye piece. This holds the focus continuously until the shutter is release or half pressed.

Rapid Fire

This acts like a machine gun, it can shoot up to three frames per second with equally quality as the first one or at any image settings. This feature can do continuous shooting until the storage card is full.

Honeycomb Pattern

The Sony Alpha DSLR-A100 features a “40 Segment Honeycomb Pattern Metering”. This is tech also came from 7D and the 5D of Konica Minolta but it only featured 14 segments. Sony upgraded it to 40 segments.

LCD Display

The Sony Alpha DSLR-A100 has a 2.5 inch or 230,000 pixels which generates a large and clear display screen. This provides accurate images and has nice viewing angles.

Battery

Powering the Sony Alpha DSLR-A100 is the new NP-FM55H Lithium-Ion battery. Sadly the standard NP-FM50 use in the entire Sony product won’t work here.

Pro Vs Con

For:

High resolution lots of detail

Crisp imaging and no sharpening artifacts

Accurate color presentation

Good image quality and well build design

Powerful hardware and applications

Superb menu interface

Rapid fire high resolution images

Eye Start function for faster tracking

Mirror Lock up

Backward compatibility with Minolta Konica Lenses

Super fast file download

Compensates for over flash exposure

Long exposure about 15 to 30 seconds

Against

Random exposure probably with a kit lenses

Thiers a image noise in the ISO 800 and the 1600

Artifact appear in using the noise reduction system for long exposures

Noisy mechanical system like those of mirror slap

External flash are hard to find because it needs a special mount to fit it. The stock flash gets in the way

Unavailable X-sync terminal

Significant ISO noise in water color effect

The anti glare coating is easily smeared off, making more difficult to view the screen

Lacks separate battery grip

No wireless remote

Final Word

The joint ventures between Sony and Konica Minolta have paid off. Successful integrations of both technologies and aesthetic appeal have made the Sony Alpha DSLR-A100 one of the best camera in the market today. The DSLR-A100 is a very well made product combining both technology to create one and purposeful device.