Sony A350: Full-Time Live View at 14.2MP
by Wesley Fink on April 3, 2008 3:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Digital Camera
The Sony Proprietary Battery
Visit any forum discussing photography and the Sony A700 and you will find complaints about Sony's proprietary NP-FM500H battery. Those discussions now apply to the entire Sony DSLR line since the A200, A350, and upcoming A300 all use the same proprietary battery. The problem is twofold. First Sony is the only source for the battery, even some six months after the A700 was introduced. Second, the new battery grips for the A200/A300/A350 and A700 can only use the new Sony batteries - there is no provision at all for the rechargeable AA batteries that have been the bread and butter of grip users for many years.
The problem is less that Sony is the only source or that the Sony NP-FM500H battery is the only battery usable battery in the grips than it is the price Sony has set for the new battery. List is $70, and the cheapest we have seen the battery is just over $50. This compares to generic high-capacity BP-511 rechargeable batteries for Canon cameras at less than $10. The same can be said for the Olympus BLM1 or the Pentax rechargeable Lithium that can use the drop-in and cheap NP400 generic or the current Nikon rechargeable packs. Sony is alone in using a battery you can only buy from Sony and that is priced at a very high $70.
Since Sony makes batteries it is easy to see the motivation, but most end-users do not appreciate this kind of heavy-handedness from any manufacturer. It is shocking that no OEM has produced generics for the new Sony battery, which perhaps means Sony has the design well locked up with patents. If so give us a better price and we won't scream so loudly. The good news is that with all the new Sony cameras now using the NP-FM500H there is a much larger potential market for any battery maker who wants to produce a generic NP-FM500H.
Consider yourself forewarned of this issue with all current Sony DSLR cameras. You can buy any other digital SLR and get reasonably priced high-capacity generic lithium rechargeable battery packs. This is not a current option with Sony digital SLRs. You also cannot use AA batteries in either Sony grip, making the bottom line cost of Sony grips much higher than battery grips from other camera manufacturers.
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steveChance - Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - link
[please disregard this post if this topic has been covered already in the readers' comments as I have not read all twelve pages of them]I find it odd that you would test cameras using printed matter as sample subject. Like digital images printed matter (esp. 4-color process) has its own errors that will (IMHO) negatively effect the photographic results.
Use a loupe to view at the actual item shown in the crops...
jcbenten - Friday, April 25, 2008 - link
Nice article. I presume I have come across this with all the corrections. I look forward to comparisons to the XSi, K200, and A300. I am "attempting" to purchase my first (D)SLR and I continue to out think myself. Your A350 crops came out much better than I anticipated. Maybe there is still life in the CCD.punchkin - Tuesday, April 8, 2008 - link
... before performing another "comparison".cputeq - Wednesday, April 9, 2008 - link
You should also consider the text of the review before making snide comments.The review indicated all camera white balance settings were set to Tungsten. If one camera or another has a warmer look than another, that's the "fault" of the camera.
The issue of the image comparisons was noise, not color accuracy.
Zak - Wednesday, April 9, 2008 - link
I'm not saying the review was bad or good, I can't care less for SONY's cameras, and I don't want to put down your efforts, but I think AnandTech is losing focus. Please return to your roots: computer stuff and leave the camera reviews to other established camera review sites that don't do computer stuff review;) When I come here I want to read about about computer stuff. If I want to read about cameras I go to DP Review, Steve's Cams, Digital Camera Resource, Fred Miranda, The Imaging Reource just to name a few. Honestly, I see at least 50% drop in number of interesting articles on AT. Oh, and the same goes for game reviews. XBox game reviews on AT? Please…Zak
MKFAGAN - Monday, April 7, 2008 - link
I was wondering why everyone is down playing the in camera zoom feature this is huge..The way I see it I have a 50mm 1.4 which is actually a 70mm with the 1.6 crop I press the button to get 1.4x zoom this gives me a 98 1.4 lens I press it again I get 2x zoom so I get a 140mm 1.4 thats huge It is like having 3 prime lenses in 1 so what if I lose a few MP This is big could you imagine a 135mm 2.8 with crop factor 216mm 2.8 press the button to 2x zoom I have a 432mm 2.8 this is a huge featureWesley Fink - Tuesday, April 8, 2008 - link
The auto-teleconverter is convenient, but it is really just a crop of the 14.2 megapixel image. You can do that by croppping images from any digital camera. I was also disappointed that the auto teleconverter does not work in Live View mode.In fact, there is no real zoom mode in Live View to assist in focusing, as I learned the hard way in trying to set critical focus for the resolution/noise crops. The tiny viewfinder and no zoom in LV made accurate manual focusing a real chore. While Sony's Live View is the fastest and most convenient LV we have tested, both the Pentax K20D and Olympus E-3 allow you to select an area to enlarge in LV and then magnify it (7X, 10X) for manual focusing - which does work real-time on both cameras. That made manual focusing MUCH easier for the test series on those two cameras.
haplo602 - Thursday, April 10, 2008 - link
Briliant Wesley ... THIS is that kind of information that should have been in the review !!!That's also what I meant in my earlier post. Camera handling and the little quirks that either get in the way or aid in actual shooting.
Maybe I missed the part in the review, but I do not recall you mentioning the auto-teleconverter. Also the LV limitation on focusing (coupled with the horrible viewfinder) are a critical point that should have been in the review.
retired hiker - Monday, April 7, 2008 - link
I have a problem with the title of your review. Tell me how I can Live View at 14.2MP. Certainly the tiny display on the camera can't give me that resolution.krakman - Saturday, April 5, 2008 - link
also they sell fer around 30$ on amazon.