Sony Alpha 100 June 2006 launch report

To be continued

The Alpha 100 is an important camera for all Minolta system owners, because its success will determine the development of future lenses and accessories and their availability.

As 7D and 5D owners, we have the usual problem; we were happy with the quality from these cameras. Why upgrade? Answer – once you see the quality from the Alpha 100, especially if you have over 70 shots taken with it, a nagging dissatisfaction with the sharpness of 7D and 5D shots begins to set in. The 6 megapixel cameras produce a file 2000 x 3008 pixels yet this looks much less sharp at 100 per cent than a typical Alpha 100 shot 2595 x 3872 pixels at 100 per cent. It’s not just better at getting the shot in pinpoint focus, and correctly exposed, it processes the image for a more detailed result and the file is substantially larger.

A picture taken using the 28mm f/2 – see details earlier

The overall effect is a bit like moving up from 35mm to 6 x 4.5cm in terms of perceived overall image quality, provided your lenses are up to it. I used my 28mm f/2, 100mm f/2.8 SF, 24-105mm (D), 100-300mm APO (D) and 11-18mm plus the Sony 18-70mm and 75-300mm kit lenses. Every single lens performed well and my view of the 11-18mm as not being especially sharp was demolished – it may not be that sharp on the 7D, with the ultra-fine image detail a wide-angle naturally produces, but it was stunning on the Alpha 100.

I ordered my own Alpha 100 body only from Calumet the moment they listed their price (£585 inc VAT at the time). As most of you will know, I prefer to own my cameras and not to try to borrow them permanently from the distributors, despite running a magazine or two. I won’t turn down an official test camera and lenses, and hopefully will have two Alpha 100s to test simultaneously. This will help establish consistency (Editor’s note – all journalists attending the Morocco launch from the UK were told they would be sent an Alpha 100 kit to keep and use permanently, not just a loan camera. Most magazines do not own Alpha mount equipment and only have Canon and Nikon ‘house’ cameras or personal cameras. Whether other magazines received such a kit or not, I don’t know; we never did. Or a loan camera).

So, this is to be revisited. By the time we publish our Autumn edition – post-photokina, which means in October – more news of Alpha system developments should be available. We will have had time to examine and assess the Alpha 100 properly in direct comparison with the 7D and 5D. Like all 7D users, I am fully aware that it comes nowhere near matching the professional user interface of the 7D but in the end it’s image quality which counts for me. Moreover, I can not imagine a situation where Shirley and I are shooting and I’m using a camera which creates larger, sharper images than hers. What if she gets a shot which is definitely the best of a set? It happens now! If the Alpha 100 performs as I think it will, that’s two bodies to buy.

(Editor’s note added three years later – we continued with the 5D until July 2007, and then bought a second Alpha 100; the price had fallen to the extent that even with a new model about to appear, a spare body seemed a very sensible idea. The cost of upgrading, after selling the 5D kit, was about £150 in real terms. A month later the Alpha 700 appeared, and we got one. Then in February the Alpha 200 came out, and Shirley moved up to that. Then in May the Alpha 350 arrived, but she didn’t like the live view or smaller finder. Finally in September 2008 the Alpha 900 was launched, so I got one, and Shirley got the Alpha 700. She did not want the bulk of the full frame camera or the loss of her all-round superzoom 18-250mm).

–  David Kilpatrick