Sony A900 Full-Frame: Hands-On Preview
by Wesley Fink on September 12, 2008 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Digital Camera
A900 Praise
When a camera and company truly break new ground, as the A900 does, there is plenty to like. The A900 also exhibits quite a few market firsts:
The blue bars are the 9 AF sensors and the green bars are the 10 hidden AF assist points.
The outer lines are used to compose 16:9 HD format, and the etched corners are APS-C mode.
The outer lines are used to compose 16:9 HD format, and the etched corners are APS-C mode.
- The Most Amazing Viewfinder - If the reason for an SLR is the through-the-lens view, and it certainly is in the opinion of most, then the A900 wins in spades with the brightest, sharpest viewfinder seen in any SLR in a long time - perhaps ever. Sony and the Minolta engineering staff they bought have lavished attention on the prism and 100% view and it clearly shows. The only complaint is that eye-relief, while excellent, could be even better. It will be difficult for some eyeglass wearers to see the whole viewfinder and displays without moving their eye a bit. The view is so beautiful and clear you will definitely want to see it all.
- A 24.6MP CMOS Sensor - Some will complain that noise is not as low as the Nikon D3 at high ISOs, and the answer is so what? The A900 is the highest resolution full-frame you can buy and twice the resolution of the D3. If you think that doesn't matter ask a working professional who is trying to supply images to his ad agency. Image buyers are demanding larger and larger files from photographers and the Sony delivers.
- Body-Integrated Image Stabilization - Calling it SteadyShot Inside instead of Super SteadyShot is just a marketing decision. The technology is still "Super SteadyShot" and Sony had to beef up the drive motors by 50% just to keep up with the added motion of a full-frame. Industry observers marveled when Minolta made the APS-C sensor Image Stabilized, because it was so much harder than stabilizing the tiny P&S sensors. We should all stand in awe that Sony accomplished body IS in a full-frame sensor.
- Image Stabilization with Any Lens - With body IS any lens you can mount can be an IS lens. This is particularly welcomed in very large aperture lenses, which are often prohibitively expensive for optical IS since such huge elements have to be compensated. Sony has taken advantage of this with a growing collection of fast, but very expensive, Zeiss lenses.
- Rugged Magnesium Alloy Body with Complete Weather Sealing - Sony passed around the alloy shell of the A900 at the A900 introduction. It is amazing how light the structure actually is considering the incredible strength of the assembled shell. We also saw full seals and gaskets for all buttons and openings and the rubber gaskets for ports seal effectively but are still easy to remove and reseal.
- Very Decent High ISO Noise - Compared to its real competition, which is the Canon 1Ds Mark III, the Sony sensor is amazingly low noise. According to pro photographers we talked with who have been shooting the A900 for several weeks the A900 is cleaner at ISO 800 and 1600 than the Mark III and just as clean at ISO 400. If this proves to be true in test comparisons this should certainly be considered a Sony success. The Canon 5D replacement may write a new chapter in this comparison, but only if it destroys the 1Ds Mark III performance. The A900 is not a D3 or D700 as it only goes to ISO 6400 and shooting at 3200 and 6400 is a when needed option - not something you want to do routinely. However, the A900 is also twice the resolution of the D3 and D700.
- 126 MB per Second - the Dual BIONZ processors in the A900 move 126MB/sec at the 5 fps shooting speed - faster even than the Canon 1Ds III. That's pretty good performance for a camera that will sell for $3k instead of the $8K for the Canon.
- Flash that Makes L Brackets Obsolete - Fortunes have been made with L brackets for pro cameras that enable shooting flash vertical with the flash also rotated 90 degrees. When you see the new Sony HVL-F58AM flash, you'll wonder why Sony - or you, or anyone else - didn't think of it sooner. The flash head turns smoothly in a 90 degree arc as one of its movements - aligning the flash perfectly for portrait mode. Goodbye L bracket.
- Sony PhotoHD output to Bravia TV - The support for direct tethered output via HDMI to Sony's Photo HD on a Sony Bravia TV is no passing feature. The performance and results seen at the Toronto hands-on were stunning. Output from the A900 model shoot and the studio shoot with fishing lures and flies was direct to huge Sony HD Bravia displays.
- Complete Familiarity - Users of the Sony A700 will have no learning curve at all, which is always a good thing. The layout of the A700 and A900 and grips are exactly the same, making for instant familiarity.
- True RAW Files - The Sony A700 has been criticized by some sites for not providing true RAW images, as even the Sony RAW had some noise-reduction applied with questionable success. The A900 finally has the RAW option of "No Noise Reduction". Sony will also provide this option to A700 owners in the upcoming firmware version 4.
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roweraay - Saturday, September 13, 2008 - link
Obviously, an APS-C 100% viewfinder is only 42% of the size of a Full-frame viewfinder at equivalent magnification. That is a point one has to really keep in mind.Note that the 100% viewfinder at 0.74x magnification, is larger than the viewfinders in the Nikon D3 or the Nikon D700 or the Canon 1DSMKII or the Canon 5D.
In fact, the Sony A900's viewfinder is the 2nd largest Viewfinder EVER, in any DSLR, with the $8000 Canon 1DSMKIII slightly edging it out in size. Note that the precision assembly required and the tighter manufacturing tolerances in a 100% viewfinder, makes it head-and-shoulders above even a 95% viewfinder.
The viewfinder sizes are as below:
Nikon D3: 100% VF with 0.7x magnification
Nikon D700: 95% VF with 0.72X magnification
Canon 5D: 96% VF with 0.71x magnification
Canon 1DSMKII: 100% with 0.7x magnification
Canon 1DSMKIII: 100% VF with 0.76x magnification
Kudos to Sony for getting this in at such a price and specification. Coupled with the fact that only the Sony Full-frame will have stabilized 35mm primes, 50mm primes, 85mm primes, 135mm primes, along with a stabilized 16-35 f/2.8, a stabilized 24-70 f/2.8 etc., makes this a VERY appealing product.
I personally DEFINITELY intend to "vote" for this with my money.
roweraay - Saturday, September 13, 2008 - link
Also note that the Sony Full-RAW files are around 40MB in size, per file, when it comes to the A900.So when shooting RAW at 5FPS, that is around 200MB of image data PER second.
When shooting RAW+JPEG at 5FPS, we need to add another 100MB to the above number, thus taking us to 300MB of data PER SECOND.
What the above means is that the data pipeline architecture needed to support 24.6MP of resolution at 5FPS, is literally equivalent to the data pipeline architecture of MUCH pricier products like the 1DSMKIII and the Nikon D3. This is WAY superior to the architecture in products like the Nikon D700 or the Canon 5D (current version).
Also, dpreview tests show that the A700 is WRITING to the CF-card at around 37MB/Sec, when tested with a 40MB/Sec Sandisk Extreme IV card (max speed: 40MB/Sec). In other words, the A700 is WRITING to the card at almost the full speed of a 266x 40MB/Sec UDMA card. I would assume that with a 300x 45MB/Sec card, it very well might have broken the 40MB/Sec write-to-card speed barrier.
When mentioning the above write-to-card speeds, I need to point out that the above speeds are faster than any other dSLR, regardless of cost. It is faster than the Canon 1DSMKIII, 1DMKIII, Nikon D3, Nikon D300, Nikon D700 etc. Only the Nikon D3/D300 come relatively close to the A700's write-to-CF-card speed.
I would not be surprised if the A900 is even faster, if we employ a 45MB/SEC 300X card to test its write-to-card speed.
I would venture that Sony is employing the full power of its electronics expertise in their high-end pro/semi-pro level cameras.
chiew - Sunday, September 14, 2008 - link
wow...it can beat a three year old camera in write speed. kudos, sony!roweraay - Sunday, September 14, 2008 - link
Maybe you did not read it well enough. ;)The one-year-old Sony A700, is beating every single DSLR *ever* made, regardless of pricepoint, in the write-to-card speed.
The A900 could match it or maybe be even faster !
chiew - Sunday, September 14, 2008 - link
how much does write speed really matter, though?is there any data on 1D mkIII write speeds? because based on more important things, like frames per second, color depth, etc, cameras like the 1d mkIII and nikon d3 have to write pretty damn fast. . i know write speed to card is part of the pipeline, but as long as the camera writes fast enough to keep up with its rated specs, i don't see why write speed is such a huge deal
a700: 5 frames per second, 12 bit, 12 mp
40d: 6.5 fps, 14 bit, 10 mp
1d mkIII: 10 fps, 14 bit, 10 mp
one example of a camera that doesnt keep up is the d300, which when switched into 14 bit mode, cannot keep up with its 6 fps.
Wesley Fink - Saturday, September 13, 2008 - link
A catalog photographer at the Sony presentation has been shooting with the A900 for several weeks. He was a Canon 1Ds Mark III user He also was a user for many years of Hasselblads with Zeiss glass and digital backs. The Zeiss lenses were a big part of his move to Sony.This same photographer quoted the largest capture file size as 68MB, but your 40MB is much closer to the published specs in the A900 brochure. Those charts show a 4GB card can capture 105 full RAW files or 157 cRAW.
I suspect the PRO was referring to the file size of a finished TIFF saved from processing a RAW image since he mentioned he used Capture One for most of his PP. Frankly I didn't know Capture One supported the A700 until he assured us he had used it for his PP with the A700. Capture One will also apparently support the A900 by the time it is shipping. Since the program is widely used by Pros that will be important to many.
roweraay - Sunday, September 14, 2008 - link
The biggest draw for me are the Zeiss AF lenses in the Sony range, too. Specifically the CZ 85mm f/1.4 Planar, the CZ 135mm f/1.8 Sonnar, the CZ 24-70 f/2.8 SSM Vario-Sonnar and the 16-35 f/2.8 SSM Vario-Sonnar. I already have the 85mm and the 24-70 f/2.8 with me and will add the 135 (shortly) and the 16-35 f/2.8 when it becomes available.There were some rumors that there is also an upcoming Carl Zeiss 70-200 f/2.8 SSM Vario-Sonnar, which if true, would provide f/2.8 from 16mm to 200mm. This lens is rumored to replace the current 70-200 f/2.8G SSM (from the Konica-Minolta era).
Wesley Fink - Saturday, September 13, 2008 - link
D3 and not D4. I wish I really had a D4 but it was just a slip of the finger.Rashkae - Saturday, September 13, 2008 - link
Sony does not target this at Pros. It's officially semi-pro, and they said "it's a camera that even pros might want to use".And have you held it? Used it? I have. It's build is so seriously solid it impressed a die-hard D3 user. Don't dismiss the ruggedness of this body, when even the lower-spec A700 survived in conditions the Canon 1Ds-MkIII died in.
melgross - Wednesday, September 17, 2008 - link
They are calling it a pro body here. That's what I'm talking about.And thats pure BS about the A700 vs the 1Ds. I've used the 1Ds and you could use it as a hammer to smash the A700 to a pancake, then go out to shoot some sports.