Flagship medium-format digital rangefinder-style design revives classic Fujica handling
100MP 44x33mm sensor and fixed 35mm f/4 lens
4K movie capability, and less than £4,700
Anyone remember the Fujfilm GS645W, that robust go-anywhere 120 rollfilm leaf shutter viewfinder (focus by estimation) model with a 45mm f/5.6 wide-angle lens, or its electronic GA645W with faster AF f/4? Well, in a slightly different body form the medium format digital GFX series is revisiting this amazingly popular minority choice for landscape, travel and everyday use. This is the GFX100RF.
The GFX100RF is essentially unique on the market, but you may consider a Hasselblad X2D II 100C for the minimalist body, paired with either the 28mm or 45mm f/4 lightweight lenses. It will cost twice as much – albeit, with the benefit of in-body stabilisation and interchangeable lenses. That logic would also put Fuji’s own medium-format mirrorless system camera in the running – the GFX100S II with 35-70mm kit lens is around £600 more than the 100RF, but is a more conventional DSLR-style design and much larger, even with a compact prime.
Fujifilm GFX100RF specifications
102 megapixel 44 x 33mm CMOS sensor
Fixed 35mm f/4 Fujinon Super EBC Aspherical lens
Angle of view similar to 28mm on 35mm full frame
Mechanical leaf shutter 1 second to 1/4000s with physical top dial setting
Apertures down to f/22 set by physical aperture ring on lens with A setting for aperture priority auto
EV over-ride for auto metering or manual setting from +3 to -3 stops
Selectable format ratios 4:3, 2:3, 1:1, 16:9, 5:4, 7:6, 17:6 and 24:65
Digital converter by embedding metadata crop in raw file, cropping in-camera JPEG
Full range of Fujifilm film simulation looks and BW with filters
4K movie, Bluetooth GPS location data and Fujifilm X app compatible
Weight 735g, size 133 x 90mm
GFX100RF: handling and controls
If you like physical controls and the feel of fine engineering, you’ll fall in love with the fixed lens medium format Fujifilm GFX100RF. It looks, handles and performs unlike any other and my brief acquaintance with it only scratches the surface. That may not be the right term, as this camera has a ‘machined from solid’ aluminium housing with a surface treatment which should look as good in a decade as it does now.
It’s a pity our sample was missing its flash shoe cover as that completes the design. Every dial, wheel and roller is finely knurled. Below the shutter release is a roller you can turn, a cylindrical pillar with the on/off switch above and a left-right toggle below it. You can customise functions, but out of the box the roller scrolls through nine image ratios and the bottom toggle further changes the crop with four lens simulations.
There’s another toggle lever (with a red mark) to move between EVF and rear screen viewing. A smaller roller with pushbutton function falling under your thumb positions the AF area, a rear top plate mounted dial gives an alternative way to set the default format ratio on power up, and on the top in the usual position is a shutter speed dial with lift and drop ISO setting collar (80-8,000, expandable to 40-102,400).
Most of this could be accomplished using the screen or EVF and menu settings. Instead this camera reasserts Fujifilm’s affinity for real controls as found in other GFX, the X100 and X-Pro ranges.
It is most akin to the X100 models, including a choice of silver or black finish. It’s also not much bigger despite the 33 x 44mm sensor. The X100VI is larger than its APS-C sensor predecessors because of the sensor stabilisation, and the GFX100S II is fairly large for the same reason. IBIS adds about 1cm all round to a sensor assembly.
The GFX100RF has no form of stabilisation, optical or sensor based, except a digital type dependent on a crop which can be activated for shooting the 4K and lesser movie formats. I did not test movie shooting, and also didn’t experiment with the interesting multi-exposure function.
For me, this camera came as more of a digital reprise of the classic Fuji GA645 rollfilm autofocus camera. It also manages to cover the role played by the G690 and G670 ‘giant Leica’ models, and the G617 panoramic 120 rollfilm camera which shot a 55 x 165mm format using a 105mm lens.
Switch the GFX100RF to its 17:6 ratio, and the 35mm f/4 Fujinon Super EBC lens gives exactly the same panoramic view. The JPEGs produced are cropped, and the raw .RAF files get an embedded sidecar file which makes Lightroom, Bridge, Camera Raw and other software preview and open them using the crop seen in the viewfinder.
You can cancel this and access the entire 4:3 ratio image instead of the 17:6 – or the 65:24 (XPan), 16:9, 3:2, 5:4, 7:6 and 1:1 options as well as a vertical ‘half frame’ 3:4 ideal for portraits without holding the camera vertically. It’s still more than half the 102MP sensor! Eildon Hills and EV tricyclist in April.
With movie/audio functions similar to the X100VI, dual SD UHS-II card slots, CPU and screen/EVF similar to the GFX100S II I’ll refer readers back to reviews of these for other evaluation.
Part of the appeal of the GFX100RF is that it’s very familiar in detail and functions for any dedicated Fujifilm shooter. It offers all the same film simulations such as the ACROS+R red filtered BW, Velvia and Astia all of which I used at different times during this trial. However, to get the degree of control I wanted from each frame without diving into the detailed adjustments possible on the camera, I found Adobe’s Camera Matching ACROS+R combined with Strong curve and brightness increase more like the kind of print I’d aim for.
The Lindisfarne boat hut and chunky rope was taken at f/11 and there is enough depth of field for an A2 print with only the distant buildings slightly soft.
Fuji GFX100RF: the 35mm F4 lens
What’s very different is the 35mm f/4 fixed lens. It is not really comparable to the fixed 23mm f/2 of the X100 series, though some will claim f/2 on APS-C ‘equals’ f/4 on 33 x 44mm MF. That only holds true for depth of field, and then only for an identical pixel count determining the print or monitoring viewing conditions.
This lens is similar to a 26 to 28mm in field of view depending on whether you use the full 4:3 sensor ratio or crop to 3:2 35mm shape, where the X100 series lens is like a 35mm semi-wide on 35mm.
It’s a surprisingly simple 10-element 8-group inverted retrofocus with just two aspherical elements. In a similar fashion to lenses which pioneered this design in 1990s luxury compacts and later digital reprises, it uses a large element close to the sensor. It’s more or less a giant Ricoh GR despite Fujifilm pedigree. For calendar picture-postcard views the angle is perfect.
Jed Water running through Jedburgh.
Despite the EBC coating, which I first encountered creating unrivalled flare-freedom in a 1975 55mm f/2.2 EBC Fujinon which used only five elements, the internal leaf shutter and iris combine with the lens design and probably also the sensor to produce some distinct flare patterns when shooting with a light source in the frame. These become dramatic from f/11 to f/22, resembling a diffraction grating or special effect rainbow star filter as below taken at f/22.
Fortunately the lens performance at f/4 is impeccable and using wider apertures can kill this flare, with the benefit of a 4X ND filter option inside the lens and the 1/4,000s fast leaf shutter speed or the electronic extreme of 1/16,000s. Flash sync works up to 1/2,000s or 1/4,000s depending on aperture.There’s no PC sync terminal, the flash shoe is your only connection. But flare is not inevitable, the shot below is at f/14.
Putting all this together with finely engineered focus and aperture rings (to 20cm, and third stop soft detents) we get a masterpiece of compact lens design on this larger format. Unscrew a front trim, fit the supplied 49mm filter on the bayonet lens hood adaptor and the camera becomes weather-sealed. Add the machined rectangular lens hood with its deep matt black inner and aluminium outer skins, and a supplied slide-on front cap completes the rig. The slide-on design could very easily be used to make a dedicated filter holder for grads or effects (hint to Fujifilm).
Generous use of Adobe Camera Raw ‘Shadow’ control put noise-free detail into the shaded parts of the foreground. 1/80s at f/9, ISO 200. Location – Smailholm Tower.
It’s difficult to fault the lens when you see in-camera JPEGs. The Super Fine option is so good, and the exposure so accurate, you might never need to shoot raw. At ISO 200, the deepest shadow detail on a JPEG can be pulled up with extreme levels adjustment in Photoshop and show no excessive noise or tone breaks. An underexposed JPEG from this sensor is almost as good as .RAF for post-processing.
It’s just as well that using the two cards to record the raw and JPEG gives you the best backup, film simulations (with EVF/screen preview) and cropped results. You can set the digital zoom to 35mm, 45mm, 50mm or 80mm in addition to those format ratios. If raw is recorded, in-camera processing allows application of all these settings later on. Sit down with the camera and a coffee, use the 5.7 million pixel EVF to view the results, and save a new JPEG.
Cropping, whether in-camera or later, provides great scope despite the fixed wide-angle lens. The 45mm digital onverter setting crops to exactly 35mm full frame bar the 4:3 ratio, and at 62MP closely matches the Sony A7RV with a 35mm lens. The 63mm crop gives a 50mm view with 31MP file and the 80mm a 20MP file with 63mm view. For best quality, an A4 print needs a 10MP+ image. One ninth of the full GFX picture is good enough for this, an effective 3X ‘converter’ giving a 105mm view though you must do this in post, there’s no camera setting.
When using the digital converter, the entire EVF or screen is filled by the cropped image. This leads on to the issue of ergonomics and those wonderfully engineered controls.
Check your change
After a few sorties out with the GFX I noticed that the digital converter and the format ratio had a tendency to be wrongly set. The greyed out non-image areas of the finder view meant accidental nudging of the ratio was not a huge problem, but changing the crop and the angle of view was.
When picking up the camera whether turning it on or just lifting it to the eye from neck-strap hanging, I was all too often touching the front roller and the digital converter (crop) toggle switch because both fall naturally under the right hand fingers. It’s an issue a long-term owner would learn to live with, avoided by turning the camera on only after lifting it to the eye, or by customising functions.
The interior of a Lindisfarne church, showing the 28mm angle of view.
The most common thing was to think – “that’s not a 28mm view!” after moving to the intended shooting position. Church on Lindisfarne, above, is the full 28mm angle with a slight crop to a 35mm shape. The camera was often set by accident to a 35mm view, the first change when moving the toggle switch. Sometimes I failed to realise and took a perfectly good 62MP or 31MP shot, and in a few cases like the house shown in the example dealing with lens distortion and profile I intended a 35mm view (no drainpipe) but used the full 28mm angle when processing from raw. Nothing was ever lost, except perhaps some resolution in a JPEG which I probably did not need.
This example uses Adobe Camera Raw to put a profile-corrected conversion, with straightening and converging vertical correction added, into a larger canvas where the degree of distortion present in the lens can be seen.This is the final crop. Ideally less haze on the sun would have improved this.
GFX100RF: power and storage management
Since startup is not instant, you may leave the camera switched on – but this doesn’t make a huge difference. To wake it up, first pressure on the shutter button is needed, the wake-up time is no faster than switching on from cold. It’s also very easy to take an accidental frame – I got more than a few.
I often found that picking the camera up by its right hand end in my right hand turned it on anyway as that switch also tends to get caught.
There is another point Fujifilm could address – the question of M and S size true raw files. Sony offers this with 26 and 15MP alternatives to 60MP. I don’t often use these, because tests have shown little or no benefit when it might be expected at high ISO settings. Sony raw files are big enough at around 80Mb. However with the 102MP GFX, raw files are over 200Mb and even the Super Fine JPEGs come in around 60Mb, with cropped ratio or digital converter use greatly reducing this, while always leaving raws full size.
If you shoot raw, Bridge/LR will mark frames cropped and/or digitally converted with a symbol identical to the one seen after processing. Only after previewing can you revert to see the whole raw frame and re-crop.
Shake down
The shutter has so little vibration that shots taken at speeds like 1/60s were critically sharp every time (bar subject movement) and those in the 1/8s-1/30s almost always as good. For me the watershed seemed to be anything longer than 1/8s. But ISO 8000 as used below to ensure a shutter speed of 1/50s does not mean high noise, and full aperture doesn’t mean loss of sharpness.
It’s a camera for extremes, with f/22 plus 4XND entering f/64 territory. The sensor doesn’t suffer badly from diffraction loss as it has no AA filter. It can shoot at 6fps (3fps only on electronic shutter) for a burst of nearly 300 JPEGs.
As for the battery life, it’s good that it is over 800 raw captures, twice as many as most full frame high res competitors. I charged in camera as no charger was provided, and never needed to change the battery mid-day. I used the latest Lexar Armor SDXC UHS-II card in slot 1, and a provided standard Lexar in slot 2. Reviewing, deleting, formatting and in-camera operations were fast, as was transferring small JPEGs to my iPhone. Using a new Fujifilm App, geolocation was recorded from the phone reliably with the camera connection renewed.
Although it has been called a ‘compact’ and tipped for street shooting, it’s more of a travel and landscape choice. The level of detail revealed when you zoom in on a 100% view will have you magically erasing gum off paving, crisp bags from hedgerows and bad pointing on brickwork. Sure, it would not distract even on a 20 x 16″ print but this sensor is good for prints 40 x 30″ viewed with a magnifying glass.
If 100 megapixels on a 4:3 ratio format isn’t enough, it’s such a quick and easy camera to used and focus that two handheld shots in rapid succession, one at ISO 160 and the other at ISO 200 by accident, focused on the distant tree and the foreground flowers were easily merged into a slimmer format composite of aorund 140 megapixels! Regular multishot pans do require a good processor and free memory/disc space for Photoshop to handle them automatically. This was a manual composite, no automation involved.
The £4,700 SRP seems high but it’s the lowest cost way to get that 100 million 16-bit pixel look.
You can find the GFX100RF at Clifton Cameras with a 5-year extended warranty.
HD video at 60FPS, used prices around £100 to £175 (18-55 kit)
The Sony A3000 is an E-mount camera which looks like an SLR but takes all your E-mount lenses and has a pretty good 20 megapixel sensor. It even has a metal lens mount. In 2018 five-year old Sony A3000 bodies sold for as little as £100 – and 2026 suggests that they really couldn’t be any cheaper, with most resellers such as CeX asking £150-175 for 18-55mm kits.
So what has been cut back to let Sony sell this pioneering mirrorless system for less than £299 new in 2013? The saving is mainly in the expensive EVF innards – it uses a tiny 0.2″ display and a high power eyepiece, more like a consumer compact with a token EVF.
There’s not much really, in a difference of just three tenths of an inch. There’s even less when the inch isn’t a proper inch, but the sort of inch used to express the size of sensors or display chips. Except, that is, when the difference is between 0.5 inch and 0.2 inch and you’re comparing the electronic viewfinder of cameras like the A6000, NEX-6 or Alpha 77 with the EVF found in the entry-level Alpha 3000 (above and below, from both sides).
Here’s our 2013 review:
I’ve had the Alpha 3000 (ILCE-3000, Sony model reference number) now for a few weeks (writing in 2013), and used it as much as my eyesight and patience would permit, given a wide choice of other cameras to use instead during the same period. I can now say without fear of being shot down in flames that it has the most inadequate electronic viewfinder I can remember using, including finders on various bridge cameras of the distant past.
The viewfinder of the vintage Konica Minolta Dimage A2 used a 0.44 inch 922,000 pixel display chip with a generous eyepiece size and accommodation latitude. That is, anyone able to focus their eyes comfortably between 1m and 3m, with or without specs, would rarely need to touch the dioptre control.
The Alpha 55 used an 0.46 inch and the Alpha 77 (and accessory EVFs) 0.5 inch.
The A3000 eyepiece has a hard plastic surround and small, only slightly recessed ocular. The accessory shoe is over the eyepiece unit not over the camera body, and the eyepiece assembly sticks out well clear of the screen.
The Sony A3000’s EVF has 201,600 pixels, not even equal to one-quarter of the 2004 Dimage A2 bridge camera’s display. Because it is such a small chip – a mere 2.88 x 2.15mm which compares to a match-head or a grain of rice – the viewfinder eyepiece has to be a low powered microscope. Like any cheap microscope, it only looks sharp if your eye is precisely centered and the slightest nudge to the focus (dioptre) blurs the image. I found that the click-stops of the dioptre control on the A3000 were so crude it was possible to have a sharp image between them, yet uncomfortably unsharp when set to the clicked position either side. I can’t put a graphic of the actual size of the display chip here, because different screen resolutions would change its size.
To make it worse, the quality of the ocular lens is very poor, with distortion and smeary blurring together with considerable flare from the brightly illuminated display chip; it does not have the level of multicoating or internal light baffles to present a crisp clear view.
Since the main selling point of the A3000 over any comparable camera is that it has a built-in EVF, the extremely ‘stretched’ design parameters of this EVF will cost it sales in actual stores where it can be tried out.
The A3000 kit box. This unit is made for more than one country’s market.Inside there’s no software CD, and that super fat looking manual is actually a minimal introduction to the camera printed in 12 languages. It is the Rosetta Stone for a future alien civilisation discovering the remains of Earth!The bonus for buying a multi-zone package is that you get stubby cable UK and European mains leads. There is no battery charger, instead you get a 5v USB transformer (as with the RX100 and RX1 models) and a USB cable to charge the battery in-camera. The neckstrap is Sony’s standard chafing and scratching type.
Children, young women and most people under 40 in bright weather will find they can accommodate just enough to use the finder comfortably, though the vague smudge which represents the scene is only to be considered as a composition guide.
If you are male, over 40, have typical Western rather than Japanese eyesight age-related changes and try the camera out in a dimly-lit environment you’ll hand it back to the salesman and buy something which is easy to view through and shows a clear sharp image.
That said, the entire camera and its 18-55mm SEL black metal skinned E-mount lens costs a bit less than the accessory EVF for the RX1/100II. And you read that right, this is an Alpha (so are all NEX cameras, as anyone able to see the Greek letter on them will realise) but it’s not an Alpha A-mount. And though it looks like a DSLR or a DSLT, it is neither.
Sony A3000: great sensor, thick-skinned
The A3000 is nothing more than a rather appealing sensor upgrade to the NEX range, accidentally fitted into a NEX-3 body, dressed in a hollow plastic sumo suit. In Spain you can see parades with impressive giants, twice life size, concealing a very strong young man who can make them dance.
That’s rather what the A3000 is like.
On an iMac 27″ screen you will see the NEX-5n and A3000 precisely life size. The front face of the mounts has been aligned.
My photograph doesn’t just show the relative sizes of the 5-series NEX body and the A3000 together. I have positioned the front face of the lens mounts to coincide. This enables you to see how much space is wasted BEHIND the sensor in the A3000. There should be no cooling problems for extended video shooting with so much air circulation!
The A3000 has a focal plane index mark to show where the sensor actually sits inside the body (hard to see – right hand end above the strap fitting) but it’s ahead of the middle of the 38mm thick body, as the mount to sensor distance is 18mm leaving 20mm behind it.
The A3000 focal plane index mark is hard to see – it’s embossed rather than painted on the right hand grip, with the entire strap fitting comfortably in the space behind it.
The whole body, though it can claim to be small by SLR standards and therefore get a ‘smallest lightest’ accolade, is just a big plastic skin inside which the intestines of a much smaller NEX have been concealed. You get the same 3-inch rear screen, though without any kind of articulation or touch function and only 230,000 pixels like much earlier generation cameras.
You get a genuine metal lens bayonet mount not a cheap plastic version like the A-mount Alpha 58, presumably because the entire NEX system has always been of much higher overall precision than the A-mount range (just as the 1990s Vectis APS cameras were built to finer tolerances).
You also get a metal tripod bush, though this is in an odd position for panorama fans, located close to the focal plane but well centered on the lens axis; a really well-shaped right hand grip taking advantage of the larger body size.
It uses NEX-3 style controls lacking any front or rear wheels and just using the back mounted dial-rocker and unmarked soft-function buttons.
There is a super-simple interface on the left end of the camera with a single SD/MSPro card slot and a versatile USB connector which is remote release compatible.
The big bonus is on the camera’s fake prism top (which does have a GN4 flash, unable to control wireless flash, but giving excellent exposure and coverage with the 18-55mm). Here you find the Sony Multi Function Accessory Shoe, reassuringly metal and hiding an array of contacts under its forward edge.
The A3000 has no HDMI port, no microphone input despite pretty good built-in stereo mics, no remote release socket, no wifi, no GPS, no wireless flash, no studio flash sync socket. It can or will have all of these through the Multi Function shoe.
I have not been able to check whether it can also support one of the superior EVFs which would fit (I do know that the Alpha 99, for example, does not support an RX1 EVF mounted in its similar shoe). Perhaps Sony’s expectation is to sell barrowloads of these extremely cheap (£299/$399) entry level interchangeable lens cameras and see the new owners buy two or three lenses, flash, microphones and more.
It’s about time they actually launched the GPS module which this shoe is contact-pinned to accept.
Sony A3000 20.1MP sensor performance
Against all the minimal feature set and basic menu-driven user interface must be set one of the best sensors around, the 20 megapixel APS-C seen earlier in the Alpha 58. It is not a stunning sensor, in that some noise can be seen even at minimum ISO, but that may be because it’s got a very weak AA filter (helps with contrast detect focusing) and decent colour discrimination.
With 2012 processing tools, applying just a little raw conversion NR keeps the images clean up to 1600 and allows usable (professional, on-line library etc) ISO 3200. It can go beyond this right up to 16,000 but if you need this sensitivity, you’ll find the EVF so noisy and dark it’s hard to see anything at all.
In 2026, updated camera profiles and powerful post-processing algorithms can get even better results from the A3000.
At ISO 800 (click these sample images for the full size file) you can see the general focus accuracy and sharpness of the 18-55mm used wide open, f/5.6 at 55mm, and also the quality of the flash for shots like this.This is an ISO 12,800 in-camera JPEG at default settings.This is the same shot carefully processed using Adobe Camera Raw Photoshop CC.Here’s a shot at f/8 and 18mm, at ISO 100 (minimum) processed without any NR or sharpening from raw. The sky blue does show some noise even at this low setting. The sharpness of the focused zone (to the left side) is excellent.Inside the Castle Restaurant, Edinburgh, the light is natural window-light, looking good but fairly low. This is 1/30th at f/9 with ISO 3200, processed from raw with some sharpening and some NR. I’d say nice colour and tones, a little soft because of limited depth of field, but sharp where it can be expected to be.This one is also ISO 3200, but it’s been put through Photoshop CC Noise Reduction filter (NIK Dfine 2.0 looked superficially better but created artificial looking tone breaks) and then downsized to 3600 x 2400 pixels.
There is no phase detect focus on this sensor, and the only focus method is contrast detection, as on earlier NEX models. It carries this out quickly and extremely accurately. Anyone used to the vague calibration of traditional DSLRs will be amazed by the lens quality the A3000 can reveal just through its pinpoint focus ability. No doubt this is helped by the rigid mounting of the sensor, which has no SteadyShot stabilisation and no vibration to clean off dust. The only self-cleaning is an anti static cover glass. A rigidly mounted sensor requires none of the complex carriage supports and adjustments found in Alpha DSLRs and DSLTs right from the Konica Minolta Dynax 7D onwards. It is probably more accurately parallel to the lens mount than an Alpha 900 or 99, let alone any of the lesser models.
Since the camera has an electronic first curtain focal plane shutter speeded 30 seconds to 1/4,000th and full PASM controls (with a little difficulty) with fully auto mode, scene modes and respectable plus-minus override and bracketing/HDR functions there is nothing an Alpha 99 or 77, NEX-7 or any other high end model can do to exceed its abilities except in some cases achieve a 1/8,000th top speed and shoot burst sequences faster and longer.
Contrast and dynamic range from raw as exposed without any adjustment in raw processing.With adjustments for black, highlights, shadows, exposure the sensor shows that it has recorded plenty of detail in all zones.
Used for single exposures, it’s just as much a professional tool as a Nikon D4 even though it might not last a week in the hands of a pressman.
For £299 perhaps that pressman might consider buying a couple of these just to get into the next urban war zone street demonstration, or to cover a Spanish tomato fight. The pictures will probably be just as good and if the camera gets kicked into touch, the light plastic half empty body skin could well survive better than a crackable alloy jam-packed top model NEX.
Without accurate focusing and exposure, the 20 megapixel sensor would be of little value. Since both focus and exposure are read directly from the sensor, they are about as accurate as you can get. The raw files also show a very good dynamic range and as expected it’s just a little better in ISO performance and DR than the Alpha 58, because there is no SLT mirror in the way.
Sony A3000 advanced custom functions
Again, despite being an entry-level camera probably designed for a huge Chinese and Indian potential market but sold worldwide to ensure it’s taken seriously, the A3000 has vital functions which Sony could have omitted in a purely consumer model.
It has a setting for shutter release without lens, which makes it suitable for use with the vast range adaptors and third party lenses for the E-mount (almost every lens ever made for any format larger than half-frame, whether rangefinder or SLR).
Will A3000 buyers want to spend as much again on Novoflex, Kipon or Metabones adaptors and legacy lenses? Maybe not, but they can, and they will work well on this body.
It has a ‘Setting Effect Off’ option – that is for the LCD screen and the EVF, disabling the accurate simulation of exposure/contrast/colour, and permitting use with modelling lights and studio flash. It’s got AF Calibration, usable with the LA-EA2 phase detect Alpha lens adaptor, and the contrast-detect AF is compatible with many SSM and SAM focus motor lenses used on the LA-EA1.
It has focus peaking for manual focus, with magnification, but the low resolution of both the EVF and the rear screen render this less functional than it is in some other models.
A criticism has been made of a very faint click generated, apparently through the audio speaker, when the shutter is pressed. I thought this was a mechanical or electrical relay click connected to the operation of the E-mount aperture, but someone has determined that if the circuit to the speaker is cut (beep off does not work) the click disappears.
Actually, the click indicates the moment of capture for brief exposures and the start of exposure for longer ones (like 1/15th). The first shutter curtain on this camera makes no noise, so you would press the shutter and hear nothing at all. Even ‘silent’ cameras like the RX1 and RX100 do make some noise from leaf shutters. This click is similar in volume or less.
To me this indicates proper concern for the user in a camera where there may be no image displayed on the rear screen and the eye may be away from the viewfinder. You can tell when the exposure is made because the finder blacks out, but if you are not studying the finder, you would have no idea. The shutter button does not have a very obvious point of resistance after first pressure for focusing and you do not have to jab it down. Very gentle pressure will take the shot.
Electronic first curtain shutters are slightly confusing because all the mechanical shutter sound you hear happens AFTER the shot is taken. It is valuable to have this tiny audible clue, which no subject is likely to hear, that you have timed the shot as intended.
Using the Sony A3000
The practical side of the A3000 includes a weight so minimal (281g body only) you can take it on a Thomson package deal flight and still carry your wallet and toothbrush as well. The bulk means you are unlikely to mistake it for your iPhone, and the shape means that some people will take your seriously as a photographer while others who would have ignored a NEX will shy away or physically assault you. However, if you hold it out and use the rear screen to compose, no-one will do either as they will assume you are a beginner and ignore you.
To do this, you must press a button on the top. The camera has no eye sensors (it does not even have a rubber eyepiece surround and its 21mm eyepoint just helps to avoid the regularly clattering on spectacle lenses against hard plastic). This means that you can lift the camera to do a rear screen frame-up and the screen is, of course, dead. You get used to it.
The mode dial appears to be metallic and has raised markings. Note the Finder/LCD manual switching button and the safe position of the Movie button away from accidental pressure (it can also be disabled completely).
The camera lacks any kind of finger or thumb wheel so the adjustments are all made after the fashion of the most basic NEX (3 or 5 series models). This is only a bit of a nuisance when setting shutter speed and aperture manually. It does have a lockout for the movie button, a lesson learned from the notoriously free triggering of video shooting by the badly placed red button on countless previous Sony models. The button is actually placed where you wouldn’t hit it by mistake anyway – belt and braces.
The 3 inch rear screen seems to have a very good quality finish – a better acrylic, or might it even be glass? Mine seems to be remaining unscratched to the same degree as Gorilla Glass protectors do.
The EVF is only just acceptable in bright sunshine, when it is also most useful as the rear screen may become unusable. It does not really show the tones of the scene (take a shot and play it back and the difference is obvious) and it shows very little detail. You can make out all the larger shapes in a composition. In some ways it probably encourages good composition. You can’t really tell if the focus is sharp but green confirmation rectangles or a wide zone will activate, with beep if requested, and the shutter release won’t operate until focus is OK. It has optional grid line display and 25 focus points so the little display can get pretty busy.
I have no interest in medium rate burst sequences personally as there’s hardly any action or subject where I do not prefer to time individual shots. A modest 2.5fps is no different to 3.5fps or even 5fps or 1.5fps for me. Really fast stuff like 8 or 10fps or Nikon’s incredible 60fps on the 1 V2 and AW1 has some appeal as this does give you a chance of optimum timing for sports and general action. The A3000 doesn’t. OK, photograph your toddler stumbling towards the camera, just don’t try to advertise the kid on Facebook. Try eBay instead, it’s a far surer way to get rid of them before they become too much trouble.
The worst experience I’ve had with the A3000 has been EVF use in extremely dim indoor conditions, with or without flash, regardless of ISO set and lens used. The rear screen performs much better so it is not just a matter of the sensor’s live view feed. However, in typical well-lit interiors its only failing is that Auto White Balance doesn’t seem to work even if Setting Effect is enabled – it will look brighter than an optical finder, and reasonably clean and clear, but often show a strong colour cast which is not present in the final shot.
I’ve shot a few video clips with acoustic performers and found the sound to be good but very prone to auto gain ducking and boosting. To make decent videos with sound, you have to buy the shoe fitting accessory microphone or audio preamp unit. This is no great surprise as to date only the Alpha 99 has the right functions to control levels and use a conventional plug-in condensor mic directly.
And back to those small differences
I started out by observing the miniscule size of the EVF display chip. I’m going to end with something unexpected. Snapsort.com’s camera comparer states that the A3000 has a larger than normal APS-C sensor, 25.1 x 16.7mm instead of the normal 23.5 x 15.6mm. If this was the case, the camera would gain a huge bonus point, as 1.6mm in 23.5mm would ‘turn’ your Sigma 8-16mm zoom into 7.5mm-15mm.
But the handbook clearly states the A3000 actually has a smaller than normal sensor, 23.2 x 15.4mm. The Sony website says that it has a 23.5 x 15.6mm sensor. Amazon incorrectly lists the size of the original APS-C film format.
The handbook also claims that the EVF is 0.7X when Snapsort comparison specifications gives 0.49X – without knowing where this figure comes from, I can only confirm that the EVF is visually a fraction smaller than a typical 0.72X APS-C like the Alpha 580 (this is easily established by holding two cameras, one to the left and one to the right eye, and seeing how the finder windows compare). So don’t believe everything you read about the A3000. The 0.70X is true. The specs also show an extreme dioptre range (-4.0 to +3.5) for the eyepiece, which is necessary given the critical viewing conditions produced by such a high powered ocular and small display chip.
Actually the Snapsort comparator is very badly written, as it also claims a normal Sony Alpha body is 3.5 inches deep (it’s actually 2.55, 65mm mount to back, compared to the A3000’s 38mm) and that the A3000 is 4.7X smaller than an Alpha 57. This is based on measuring the A57 including prism and grip, and the A3000 on mount to back body thickness only. The A3000 is volumetrically 1.35X smaller including all external air space – the ‘box’ it can fit in – and in linear terms it’s only about 4mm less tall and 102mm long as opposed to 132mm. It’s small but there is a fair amount of bad measurement and worse measurement floating around the net.
Don’t tell me stabilisation would not be a bonus even for the 16mm. If not, why did they make the 10-18m an OSS lens?The 16mm chrome lens looks rather odd on this body.
Snapsort also lists the lack of in-body stabilisation as an advantage compared to the Alpha 57 because apparently in-lens stabilisation gives ‘less risk of blur’. In my experience the two methods are equally effective and our many Alpha bodies offer the choice between using IBIS and lens IS. The A3000 with IBIS (SS) would have been a great companion for the 16mm, new 20mm f/2.8, Zeiss 24mm f/1.8, SEL 30mm Macro, SEL 35mm f/1.8 and the Zeiss TOUIT 12mm f/2.8 and 32mm f/1.8 – not to mention the Sigma 19mm f/2.8, 30mm f/2.8 and 60mm f/2.8. All these excellent lenses currently must survive with no stabilisation other than pixel-shift electronic processing for video work on some cameras.
The A3000 is very small, but the saving is mostly on width left to right, and on the thickness of the body disregarding the ‘prism’ overhang and the right hand grip. The grip extends nearly as far as any other Alpha, meaning that you actually get a much deeper inside surface so your fingers wrap right round.
It gives the A3000 the most secure right hand grip of any E-mount camera I know, almost 30mm of sculptured rubber-skinned moulding. Like the rear of the body, this appears to be completely empty. It’s just a moulded grip with a few connections in the top for the shutter button and on-off switch. It does not even house the battery (NEX type) which sits well behind it.
Sony A3000 kit lens – 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 SEL OSS
The cheapest kit for the camera includes a black 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 SEL OSS. Well, I might as well admit I sold the black 18-55mm which came with my original NEX-7 for £200. Previous 18-55mms were chrome, I bought a Tamron VC DiIII 18-200mm, and the black lenses were in high demand. Now, I get one again, but in with an A300 body and the brand new price was only £349 – one month later, cut to £299. So does that mean I really only paid £99 for this body?
I was not over-impressed by the performance of the 18-55mm on NEX-7. Now I find this latest 18-55mm seems much better. It is made in Thailand, not Japan or China, just like the camera body. Sony must have opened a new plant or recovered the factory which was swamped by two metres of floodwater a couple of years ago. Whatever the case, the Thai contractors (whose story started with the Nikon Pronea APS SLR) have a highly skilled workforce now with almost two decades of experience.
The A3000 looks great with the 18-200mm, whether Sony or Tamron branded.
This lens is so good it compares with the Fujinon 16-50mm I was using recently, and Fuji’s lenses are generally a level above Sony in quality as well as cost. I have found the A3000 body to be a great companion for my 18-200mm as well. It just looks much better on this body, handles better with the right-hand grip, and focuses better than on my NEX-5n. The EVF with the VC stabilisation is better to use than any rear LCD screen when a lens can be extended to 200mm on this format.
The final dilemma
As you will gather, I have big problems with the very poor EVF of this camera. I don’t really have any issue with the relatively low resolution rear LCD. The only other thing which causes me any problems is that I’ve been using Olympus OM-D E-M5 for a while alongside my Sony kit, and I have come to value its in-body stabilisation. I felt able to buy a Sigma 60mm f/2.8 for the Olympus – this is a truly wonderful lens, equivalent to a 120mm on the MicroFourThirds format. I don’t feel able to buy one for the NEX as I know the combination of a 90mm equivalent lens and no stabilisation at all will result in poor sharpness from a super-sharp optic, in many of the conditions I like to use such a lens.
Had Sony decided to put SteadyShot into this body, I think it would have made a great difference. The NEX mount market is just waiting for a stabilised-sensor body able to guarantee the best results from the hundreds of adapted lenses around (Olympus, of course, has a menu to let you enter the focal length of any adapted lens and thus ensure correct IS). But the price point would then have been missed and the precision of the assembly might have been compromised without even greater expense in manufacturing.
I have been using the OM-D more often; its 12-50mm standard zoom is a very good lens, I have a 45mm f/1.8 portrait lens and now the Sigma 60mm which is semi-macro with a great working distance for flowers and fungi. The 5-axis stabilisation works well. I have a drawer full of legacy lenses, adaptors and accessories for NEX but all of them are let down by the lack in sensor stabilisation. The only thing stopping me from ditching NEX and shifting to MicroFourThirds is the lack of a decent wide-angle within that system. I have access to 12mm (16mm+ converter) or 8mm (Sigma zoom with LA-EA1) but for the Olympus I really would need a 6mm lens and no such thing is made.
So, do I sell the A3000? I like to buy rather than beg and borrow cameras for test purposes. Borrowed cameras are OK when it’s not possible – there’s a Canon EOS 70D kit about to land for a couple of weeks – but bought cameras don’t half focus the keyboard fingers. It is easy to be too kind to a camera lent to you for a couple of weeks. It is not so easy to be kind to one you have paid for, unless you are dishonest and think that writing it up favourably will make a camera you don’t like easier to sell on!
Take the Nikon D600. We couldn’t lie about the showers of stuff deposited on the sensor by the shutter. We had bought a full kit. My reviews didn’t hestitate to mention the shutter issue. Nikon replaced the shutter in the camera under warranty and we immediately sold it, the buyer getting a considerable bargain (effectively, a 28-300mm Nikon lens, a GPS unit and a Sigma 17-35mm of proven performance thrown in free with a body that included a transferrable warranty). The buyer also knew who was selling it and could read the reviews.
Soon after, the Nikon D610 launched with an entirely new shutter mechanism, though Nikon has never once admitted the problem with the original D600. Reviewers and critics and technicians, 1, Nikon 0. Reviewer’s bank balance, -1.
My inclination is to keep this camera despite no GPS and a poor EVF. It’s so cheap that it is really only a swap for the NEX-3 kit I sold this year. I’ve written one paid review which writes off part of the cost of the camera (we make nothing from this website now unless visitors decide to subscribe to Cameracraft magazine which is not all that directly related).
I can use it alongside my NEX-5n which is so much better with the 16mm f/2.8 – that lens just looks silly on the A3000. I can maybe even fit my optical finder to the 5n for the 16mm now. I have recently bought some extension tubes.
The A3000 has all the contacts – but are they all wired?
If only the A3000 had a tilting rear screen…or the NEX-6 had the 20 megapixel sensor… or the NEX-7 had the new hot shoe… if any one of the them had on-board GPS like my A55, A77 and A99… if the GPS module for the new hot shoe existed…
What a mess! Sony does not offer choice. It offers buyers’ dilemmas and buyers’ remorse, as in ‘did I buy the right model?’ or ‘did I pick the wrong system?’. Sony is doing just the same with the Alpha A-mount system. You have to pick a sensor you trust over a viewfinder which is great or a format and lens kit change or controllable audio input or having GPS or missing your built-in flash. No way can you have it all in one body.
(below – my conclusion written in October 2013 – we now know of course what was launched, and also that there will be an A5000)
Sony must surely follow this up with an A5000, or whatever, adding a few missing refinements to the camera and making it a £499 kit. That is what I would really like. But for the moment, the results from this cheap entry-level ILC are so good I have not touched the NEX-5n or the Alpha 77 since it arrived. And that is maybe the last word.
Except for the full-frame NEX or the interchangeable lens RX1 or the NEX fitted with Olympus-derived 5-axis IBIS – or whatever mid-October brings.
(added below – a comment at the end of 2013)
The A3000 is now sold for as little as £220 including in the UK (£185 before tax) and for $300 US. It is also sold with incentive deals for the 55-210mm E OSS lens, an excellent telephoto option, in addition to the 18-55mm. Am I upset that my camera’s value has been reduced? Well, I often sell cameras I buy to review, eventually.
This one I decided to keep. It’s got the best imaging quality of ALL my APS-C cameras and so far, the 20 megapixel sensor responsible for this has not appeared in anything else except the plastic-bayonet A58. It’s a remarkable bargain now and it’s almost being given away.
(added below – a comment in September 2018)
I’m struck by how Canon’s way of making the new EOS R full frame mirrorless system look rather DSLR-like resembles what Sony did in the A3000!
At photokina 2010, Paul Genge from Sony pretty much told me that Sony’s future lay in the EVF (translucent mirror or otherwise, Electronic View Finder) models. He was not able to say anything firm. Since then, I’ve spoken to him on several occasions and he has repeated that Sony left all options open but the EVF design was likely to be the way ahead. What he has not said directly to me is that conventional SLR design – Optical View Finder – was off the roadmap.
EVF does away with the need for the finder to be positioned anywhere near the optical axis. Noses can safely hit thin air not a rear screen. Unless you are left eyed. NEX-7 with ocular surround fitted.
Although Sony did not attend Focus on Imaging 2012, the UK website TechRadar secured an interview statement during Focus week, in which Paul appears to have confirmed without ambiguity that the future was EVF-only, and that the forthcoming full frame successor to the Alpha 900 would be an SLT-EVF design. At the same time, we learn that the 70-200mm SSM G and 70–400mm SSM G lens are to be revised for 2013.
We know, from several sources, that Sony is not currently making all its lenses – even the high end ones – in one facility, or in its own workshops. I believe the 70-400mm SSM G is a contracted-out design and that the 70-300mm SSM G has always been made by a third party lensmaker. This is nothing new; the Minolta 100-400mm APO was patented by Tokina and sold to Minolta as an exclusive (no-one else got the lens) and the same company made some if not all the 100-300mm APO lenses. Using different sources means that various types of coating are appearing; traditional Minolta style – the multi achromatic coating, Carl Zeiss T*, Tamron’s BBAR-derived coatings, some Sony multicoatings of unknown pedigree on Chinese SAM lenses, and a new water and oil resistant coating due to be used for the revised 70-200mm and 70-400mm.
This coating is nearly always combined with weather or splash proof design, and companies which have the ability to apply it include Hoya (Tokina, Kenko, Marumi, Pentax), Olympus, Canon, Nikon, and Sigma. Sigma is very significant as they have installed new coating lines recently and they are going through a bit of a subcontracting boom. Their facilities are all in Japan, they are on high ground and were slightly affected by the earthquake but not by the tsunami. They have a long history of building lenses and cameras for Leica, Carl Zeiss, Panasonic, Olympus, Canon/Kodak and interchangeable lenses for nearly all the major names.
If the high end tele zooms are to be revised, weatherproofing and the new coating will certainly arrive along with a synchronisation of lens appearance and finish. But I’m willing to bet something else is involved. The SSM focus system is only partially suitable for contrast-detect operation. It works, on static subjects, but unless some major advance is made in CD-AF it’s lacking the refinement and speed of the AF found in SEL (native Sony NEX) lenses. I’ve tested the 70-400mm on the LA-EA1 with NEX-7, I can work with the lens comfortably on most subjects and the camera is very good at refusing to take the shot until focus is 100% locked.
All that just to get 2X the magnification – NEX-7 with LA-EA1 and 70-400mm SSM G (an operational kit, if not fast) compared to Tamron 18-200mm NEX lens with the correct type of contrast-detection friendly focus motor and protocols.
What Sony must surely want to do is dispose of the SLT (‘translucent’) pellicle mirror and the Phase Detection AF module. It makes most sense to focus, meter, view and expose from one single sensor. In order to do so, lens focus motors need a slightly different control protocol. SSM lenses are already CD-AF compatible, as are SAM onboard focus motor lenses, but they don’t match the NEX system SEL lenses. Sigma HSM and Tamron USD Alpha mount lenses are not CD-AF compatible and do not work correctly on the LA-EA1 adaptor. Upgrading matters most with tele lenses, and they are also most likely to be used in adverse weather for wildlife, news or sports. So my guess is that the upgrade to these lenses will be comprehensive and that it will look forward to possible Sony Alpha bodies with either no SLT mirror, or a movable SLT mirror and choice between PD-AF and CD-AF.
As for the EVF itself, it’s one stage away from being better than a very good optical finder on balance of qualities. Unlike optical finders, the EVF is not susceptible to user eyesight error (incorrect dioptre correction, combined with eye focusing accommodation) and presents the user with a low resolution but otherwise very accurate view of the image focused on the sensor. It can do this at light levels where optical finders become difficult to use, while also presenting a review of the captured image if desired – ‘shot success’ confirmation.
Differences between the ‘identical’ EVF of the NEX-5n accessory finder FDA-EV1S and the NEX-7 fixed built-in version are mostly down to the difference between the 16 megapixel generation 2 sensor, and the 24 megapixel. Response speed, low light noise, quality of colour and contrast are all influenced more by the two very different sensors. User observations that one is better or worse than the other will nearly always be down to this, and variations in settings between the two cameras compared.
There are things you can do on an EVF, such as magnifying a focus point well away from the centre, which simply can’t be done at all with an optical finder and may not always be convenient to do on a rear screen. The fact that EVFs permit eye-level video shooting, and that video is now a permanent feature of the Alpha class of camera from entry to semiprofessional, makes the EVF design change more inevitable.
Paul Genge had a short exchange of information with me when I was considering selling my Alpha 900 and all my frame Alpha lenses (after starting to use the A77). He said I’d regret selling my good full frame lenses when I replaced my Alpha 900 with a full frame model I would just not believe. His message was ‘you wait – you’ll not regret it’. So, I sold my old Minolta-era full frame lenses and bought myself a brand new 28-75mm f/2.8 SAM, Sony 50mm f/1.4 (replacing Minolta vintage), a 24mm f/2 Carl Zeiss SSM, and a 70-400mm SSM G. I kept the Alpha 900 and a few lenses I like which are unique in their function, such as the Samyang 85mm f/1.4 manual, the Sigma 70mm f/2.8 Macro, the Sigma 12-24mm and an old 16mm f/2.8 full frame fisheye. Instead of getting out of full frame, I re-invested in it.
I’m expecting the Alpha 900 replacement to be either an SLT design like a scaled-up A77 with 36 megapixels, or a second generation hybrid SLT design with a mirror you can raise to use CD-AF or manual live focusing. I’m hoping that it will appear with a new 28-75mm, 24-70mm or better midrange f/2.8 with improved SSM, weatherproofing and new coatings like the 16-50mm f/2.8 DT.
With the latest Alpha 77, Sony has introduced SLT version II, the new upgraded ‘Translucent’ mirror. This is in an attempt to reduce the ghosting effects created by having an angled mirror between the lens and sensor, the image forming rays passing through a semi-silvered (pellicle) surface, through a thickness of polymer film, and then to the sensor. Having tried it out (update, September 8th) we can confirm that it works. You honestly would never know there was anything between the lens and the sensor.
But Sony, like all makers, has continued to think in terms of SLR design and the old world of film negatives and slides, where the image always had to be a certain way up on the film, or it would end up being printed and projected reversed left to right.
In the past a simple reflex mirror for a TLR viewing screen – like the Rolleiflex – did a useful job of turning an inverted image the right way up for viewing. On film at the back of the camera, the image was both inverted and left-to-right. But that did not matter, as the film was viewed through its reverse (back) side to see or print the image.
Somehow, this old design has been continued to new cameras – but today we use digital sensors. The upside-down or left-to-rightness of the image does not matter as we view the image on a screen or using an EVF. No matter how the image ends up on the sensor, it can always be the right way up and the right way round for us to view.
So, Sony, when you make you that full-frame Alpha 99 camera change the entire approach. Position the SLT mirror so it reflects the image sideways, upways or downways! And put the SENSOR where it receives the image from the REFLECTED lightpath. Make the mirror reflect 70% of the light and transmit 30%, instead of the other way round.
There will be no double imaging, no flare patches, no ghosting and not even an extra substrate or layer for the image forming rays to pass through, if the sensor receives the reflected image not the transmitted one. The AF sensor, in the meantime, can be positioned in direct line to the lens where the imaging sensor has been in the past, measuring the image through the SLT mirror.
But – would it? Slight lack of plane perfection in the SLT mirror used to transmit the image-forming light, and reflect the AF-measuring light, does not have much effect on the image. Anything less than an optically perfect mirror would fail to create a quality image. It would be like sticking a cheap filter on your lens, or worse. And of course it would never fit into a normally shaped camera body with a full frame sensor and shutter.
Solid solution
Ah – the AF sensor, unlike the imaging sensor, does not need cleaning to remove dust spots. So the mirror would not have to be movable. Actually, it would not have to be a pellicle mirror. It could be a lovely big lump of pure glass prism moulded straight on to the AF module itself, even including the condensor-collimator lenses of the AF system. It could be solid glass all the way from mirror surface to AF receptor, and the 45° front face could be to the same optical perfection as the best Sony G lens. Or even the best Carl Zeiss lens. Hell, it could be a Carl Zeiss prism and then the camera could have the CZ logo!
Design? Rollei 6000 all the way! A professional, Hasselbox-shaped thingy to cradle in your hand. With a rotating 24 x 36mm sensor too, so that you change the format aspect by pressing a button not maneouvring the camera body. A 3 inch square OLED on the top like a giant waist-level finder, showing the image vertically or horizontally as you turn the sensor. A waist-level viewing hood for a giant magnified view. Maybe even a monster top prism for the biggest EVF you could imagine!
Mor realistically, an eye-level EVF in addition to a top plate OLED or LCD panel designed to be hinged up/rotated/twisted – rather like the LCD of the Sony Cyber-Shot DCS R-1, one of the best ever ‘waist level finder’ options fitted to a digital camera to date. In fact something like s giant updated R-1 full framer might do well.
As for the image sensor, that could be in the well of the camera (mirror aiming down) but maybe having it in the top of the camera, below the viewing screen (mirror facing up) would help gravity reduce the dust issue.
The point is – it does not matter where the image sensor is placed, it does not have be where the film once was. It does not matter whether the image reaching it is inverted or reflected, as unlike film it does not have an emulsion side or a film-base side, the electronic viewfinder is independent of the orientation of the optical image.
Future ‘SLT’ EVF cameras – especially a future Alpha 900 replacement – do not need even to resemble today’s DSLRs and can be made better by abandoning ideas fixed in designers’ minds since the era of film cameras.
– DK
Technical note: angled partial mirrors, whether prism surface or semi silvered, create polarisation effects, colour shifts and a varying efficiency of reflection depending on the angle of incidence of the ray. This is one barrier to the use of pellicle mirror design for a full-frame model, as the back focus or telecentricity of lenses relative to the format would mean a greater range of incident angles across the mirror surface. Sony appears to have overcome any such problems in the existing APS-C SLT design, and the slightly forward tilt of the mirror (not a true 45°) helps in this respect. I propose the above design in full awareness of related optical and technical issues. I’m not assuming they do not exist – they would need solving.
Press release from Sony, March 3rd 2009 – important bits highlighted in bold, uncalled-for comments in italics:
The Cyber-shot HX1 by Sony, teams stunning picture quality, lightning-fast shooting and powerful creative features in a stylish, supremely easy to use camera. The new flagship of the Cyber-shot range showcases a range of sophisticated image sensing, optical and processing technologies that offer unrivalled creative possibilities. (more…)
