Digital SLR alpha 100 Sony Camera

[Andy]

Is this any good? One of my friends just bought this camera. I haven't seen it yet but he says it has a zoom lense and 10.2 mega pixels. Normally he does video with Sony equipment so I guess he's a fan of Sony.

[Menard]

Things are looking pretty promising: http://www.popphoto.com/cameras/2417/hands-on-sony-alpha-100-dslr.html

Advantages would be the acquisition of Konica-Minolta by Sony (I did not know that myself). Combine and experienced camera manufacturer (Konica is one of the oldest camera companies still around), with an innovative electronics giant (Sony produced the first commercially available video still camera, the Mavica, in 1981: http://aninstantintime.com/articles/evolution.html ) and you have some promising potential.

The 10.2 MP is pro-grade (pros like to claim that it is better than 35mm, but 10.2 MP would be about the megapixel equivalent of 35mm film). The APS sized sensor is also a plus as it is getting closer to a full-frame 35mm sensor and, despite MP designations, a physically larger sensor does seem to have some advantages over a physically smaller sensor with the same MP rating.

Looks like it will be one to watch.

[Andy]

Thanks for the response 

I am going for a run alongside the river tomorrow morning with this guy and there is a Geisha festival taking place over the weekend so I may be able to borrow it and take some snaps to show people  I did some photos of the same festival last year which I probably posted here before.

Taking pictures without flash in low light conditions using the octopus grip method:


Subject:

[SensoVision]

I've just checked review of this camera and sample photos look really nice to my eye. Although it's based on Konica-Minolta's Dynax camera it's quality improved a lot. Although noise reduction seems to be a bit too strong.
Camera looking promising to me and I'm even considering about adding it to my wishlist.

Advantages would be the acquisition of Konica-Minolta by Sony (I did not know that myself).

Bob, are you sure about this? As it was you who warned me that buying KM cameras isn't good idea as they probably loose their business soon. Few months after this KM sold it's camera business to Sony.

[Menard]

Bob, are you sure about this? As it was you who warned me that buying KM cameras isn't good idea as they probably loose their business soon. Few months after this KM sold it's camera business to Sony.

 

Uh...it wasn't me; not that I can recall anyway.

I could have suggested staying away from Minolta as they gave up on the idea of innovation years ago. Their new slogan: 'From the Sleeping Mind of Minolta'.

Minolta has been the butt of many jokes of mine over the years.

One photographer asked me if I had his SLR. I asked him what make it was. When he replied "Minolta", I responded with "I wouldn't do that to my camera bag".

[SensoVision]

Uh...it wasn't me; not that I can recall anyway.

I'm almost sure it was you, we had long discussion on forum phpBB forum which was hosted for free somwhere and was closed for unknown reason.

One photographer asked me if I had his SLR. I asked him what make it was. When he replied "Minolta", I responded with "I wouldn't do that to my camera bag".

you're cruel

BTW maybe it's offtopic but I wonder why Minolta never got big brand as e.g. Nikon or why you don't like it personally?

[Menard]

Minolta had some nice rangefinder models in the Himatics (I have one myself) and TLRs in the Autocords. They used to be a strong company, and were quite innovative in the early 80s with the push for autofocus SLRs (when they coined the slogan 'From the Mind of Minolta').

Although they never acheived a Canon or Nikon status, they were still successful, but in the consumer market only, and that's what hurt them, IMO.

Canon and Nikon were the two primary rivals for pro 35mm SLRs. Minolta, and eventually Pentax, got squeezed out of that niche due to lack of competitive models. Though Pentax had the advantage of a universally used lens mount, making their cameras and lenses interchangeable with others, Minolta never took off in that field, though they tried, and was limited in the options they offered.

Minolta last gasp, though successful to a degree, was brought to its knees by the influx of digital imaging. Their last gasp was their all-in-one SLRs that featured built-in zooms, flashes, motors, etc. As digital cameras increased in popularity, demand for such a consumer oriented film camera decreased, and, as they had vested their interests in this endeavor, it was hard to recover and reorient their line; IMO.

I have never been particularly fond of Minolta for a few reasons:

1) They never went beyond a 1/60 sec flash synch speed in their SLRs. My Practica MTL3 from the early 70s had a 1/125 flash synch and Minolta was about the last holdout on using the outdated cloth, horizontal travel, focal plane shutter.

2) As I mentioned when comparing Minolta to Pentax, they never really had much of a lens line. With Pentax, I could use their lenses, Ricoh bodies and lenses, Chinon, and many other brands to have a great diversity of options. Canon and Nikon both had extensive lines of lenses with Nikon holding the tilte due to maintaning their lens mount (unlike Canon) so that even autofocus models would accept manual focus lenses.

3) Considering the above limitation, I could not recommend Minolta for anyone but a casual shooter, as I did not see much groth potential if someone wanted to expand, without getting into another system.


There was a time when Minolta was competitive and innovative, but that passed, with a wimper.

[SensoVision]

thanks for story, I didn't know that background about Minolta, as if I knew this before I would think twice before becoming excited about their cameras.
Actually I've followed with P&S Minolta cameras because F200 have one of the lowest noise ratio in it's price range and have full manual controls which was must have feature for me(in times I was choosing it there was not much cameras with full manual controls). Previously I've owned Minolta X21 but if say truth I didn't have experience in dealing with cameras and our digital market was very limited so I've pick model with best picture quality and lowest price.

Anyway my current camera (KM z3) just today start to break, probably, one switch stop function completely, I can live without it but it's bad sign, hope it will be alive till the time when prices to cameras fall considerably, and maybe Sony dSLR would help in this too..