Tag Archives: Sony

Canon, Nikon Lens Image Stabilization

By DSLRBlog Editors | Published September 4, 2006

PhotographyJam has picked up from a Canon white-paper their rationale for not going the Sony “in-camera” image stabilisation route

Some of Canon’s competitors have chosen to use in-body image stabilization. The technique involves moving the image sensor in a controlled fashion, based on signals from movement detecting sensors in the camera body. The obvious advantage of this system is that users have some sort of stabilization available with almost any lens they connect to the body. Short focal length lenses require smaller sensor deflections; 24 or 28 mm lenses might need only 1 mm or so. Longer lenses necessitate much greater movement; 300 mm lenses would have to move the sensor about 5.5 mm (nearly 1/4”) to achieve the correction Canon gets with its IS system at the same focal length. This degree of sensor movement is beyond the range of current technology. Short and “normal” focal length lenses need stabilization much less often than long lenses, so the lenses that need the most help get the least.

There is probably equal amounts of truth and spin going on here, I imagine Sony’s system for some scenarios works better and for others Canons provides the best results. It seems though Canon and Nikon are going to provide the greater quality where it counts for me. I see no great need for image stabilisation for normal shots outside of long focal lengths. Perhaps macro photography would benefit, I don’t do much of that. Low light/long exposure photographs suffer as much from motion blur than camera shake in my experience.

I actually believe in future we will see software playing a much greater part with algorithms able to remove camera shake and perhaps even motion blur if required.

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Sony Alpha DSLR Sales Cut Into Canon, Nikon

By DSLRBlog Editors | Published August 31, 2006

StudioLighting reports that the Sony Alpha 100 DSLR launch was better than anticipated, slicing 21.6% out of the total DSLR sales in Japan for the month of July.

Canon still holds on to the top spot but only barely beating Nikon into second place. Should be real interesting to see these giants jostle for position once all three consumer-level cameras are out in the marketplace.

Vendor July June
Canon 33.3% 51.6%
Nikon 27.4% 32.6%
Sony 21.6% 2.3%
Pentax 14.0% 7.6%
Olympus 2.8% 4.8%
Matsushita 0.8% 0.1%

Data from Bloomberg.com.

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Carl Zeiss Lenses for Sony Alpha

By DSLRBlog Editors | Published June 6, 2006

One thing I had missed yesterday when discussing the new Sony Alpha announcement was the fact in the official line-up there are Carl Zeiss lenses. It’s not as impressive as it sounds, not all the range is Carl Zeiss. Other sites seem to be buzzing with this news, for example The Online Photographer.

There is an official list of lenses, specifications and prices here in their accessories pages if you are interested, and you can check out what DPReview have to say.

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Sony Announce α (alpha) A100 DSLR and 18-70mm Lens

By DSLRBlog Editors | Published June 5, 2006

News just in from Sony, their much anticipated first DSLR offspring from their Sony-Konica-Minolta mashup, the Sony Alpha A100 DSLR plus 18-70mm lens kit. Judging from the pictures it looks pretty nice, pretty much standard DSLR fare. Only practical hands on experience would tell if it is usable and comfortable.

DSLRA100KDSLRA100KDSLRA100K
10mp puts it in competition, in purely sensor terms, with Nikon D200, D2X, Canon 5D, etc, although it is very strange the ISO starts at a wopping 160 – where is the ISO 50 and 100? It goes up to 1600 maximum. Not a huge problem but not a competitor to pro-level cameras that currently have greater range and also steps in between. Remains to be seen what the noise is like, presumably it is so good at 200 they do not see the need to go any further but as a ISO 100 user on a camera with great noise control I think they have missed a trick. The sensor is a 1.5x crop, like Nikon.

The kit lens is a pretty standard walk-around zoom, pretty bog standard. I don’t expect anyone to be jumping for joy but neither will too many people be disappointed, it would have been nice for them to come out with a real knock-out lens to get people talking.

Specifications
Imaging Device: 10.2 (effective) APC CCD Sensor; 23.6 x 15.8 mm; RGB primary color filter
Chipset: Bionz™ Processor LSI with Dynamic Range Optimizer (DRO/DRO+)
Recording Media:
Memory Stick® Duo/Memory Stick PRO™ Duo media (via MSAC-MCF1N adaptor);
CompactFlash™ Type I/ CompactFlash Type II / Microdrive™ media
Shutter Speed: 30 ~ 1/4000 sec, with Bulb
Exposure: Manual Exposure: Yes, w/EV indicator
EV Compensation: ±2.0 EV, 1/3 EV Steps
ISO: Auto/160/200/400/800/1600
LCD: 2.5-inch (measured diagonally) TFT (230k pixels) LCD with Clear Photo ™ design; Eye-start Auto-focus sensor
Display: Histogram: Yes, Live, RGB Playback
Microphone/Speaker: No/ No
Red-Eye Reduction: Yes: On/ Off
White Balance: Auto, Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Flash ( with custom White Balance color temperature adjustments)
Burst Mode: Continuous burst mode at 3 FPS to limit of media; Up to 6 RAW images in burst.
Color Mode(s): Black & White, Standard, Vivid, Adobe RGB (Except for Adobe RGB, all other color modes use the sRGB color space)
Scene Modes: Portrait, Landscape, Sunset, Night View/Night Portrait
Self Timer: Yes (10 seconds, 2 seconds, Off)
Still Image Mode(s): Normal (JPEG Fine/Standard), High-speed Burst (JPEG, RAW, RAW + JPEG), RAW (.ARW)
Memory Stick PRO™ Media Compatibility: Tested to support up to 4GB media capacity; does not support Access Control security function
Flash Modes: Manual Pop-up: Auto, Fill-flash, Rear flash sync, Wireless off camera flash (with Flash HVL-F56AM, F36AM)
Flash Effective Range: GN12 at ISO 100 (39 feet/ 12 meters)
Output(s): Video: Yes, NTSC/PAL Selectable
USB Port(s): Yes, Supports USB 2.0 Hi-speed
Battery Type: NP-FM55 Lithium-ion rechargeable battery (
Battery Capacity: 7.2V, 1600 mAh; CIPA standard: approx. 750 pictures3
Supplied Software: Picture Motion Browser for Sony v1.1 (Windows), Image Data Converter SR Ver. 1.1 (Windows & Macintosh), USB Driver
Operating System Compatibility: Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Professional, ME, XP Home and Professional; Macintosh®
OS X (v 10.3 or later). OS must be installed at the factory.
Limited Warranty: 1 Year Parts & Labor
Weight: 1 lb., 3 oz (545 g) body, not including battery, lens and media
Dimensions (WHD): (WHD) 5 1/4″ x 3 3/4″ x 2 7/8″ (133 x 95 x 71 mm)
SAL1870 DT18-70mm F3.5-5.6 Lens Specifications:
DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 Standard Zoom
DT Lens Design for optimum DSLR performance
Superb wide-angle to mid-range telephoto shots
Aspherical Lens Elements for wide-angle accuracy
ED Glass for telephoto shots with well defined colors
Circular Aperture for pleasing defocused effects
Focal Length – 35mm Equivalent: 18-70 mm
Focal Length – APS: 27-105 mm
Angle of View – 35mm Equivalent: N/A
Angle of View – APS: 76ﾟ- 23ﾟ
Min Focus Distance: 1’ 2.4″ (38 cm)
Aperture – Maximum: f3.5-5.6
Aperture – Minimum: f22-36
Maximum Magnification: 0.25X
Lens Construction: 11 elements in 9 groups with 7 aperture blades
Filter Diameter: 55 mm
Dimensions: 2-5/8 x 3-1/8” (66 x 77 mm)
Weight: 8.3 oz (235 g)
Supplied Accessories: Front and rear lens cap, SH0006 lens hood
Supplied Accessories:
NP-FM55 Lithium-Ion Battery
BC-VM10 Battery Charger
Video Cable
USB Cable
Sony Picture Package software
Sony Image Data Converter .SRF software
Shoulder strap with eyepiece cap and Remote Commander clip
MSAC-MCF1N MS-Duo to CF Adaptor
Body cap
Accessory shoe cap
Image Data Converter SR Ver.1.1/Picture Motion Browser Ver.1.1 CD-ROMs
NOTE: No Memory Stick media or adapters are included.

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Sony Serious About DSLR

By DSLRBlog Editors | Published May 12, 2006

Sony have been talking about their plans for their newly named Alpha range of Digital SLR Cameras. These plans include releasing 20 new lenses this year and have underlined they are committed to this market for the long term. While they have some heritage with their Konica Minolta partnership they have a heck of a lot of ground to make up outside of the consumer market.

“Our goal is to become the shin’uchi, or headline performer, of digital SLR cameras. In the traditional Japanese art of rakugo storytelling, the shin’uchi is the performer recognized by everyone as the undisputed master of his craft.”

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Sony Targets DSLR Market

By DSLRBlog Editors | Published January 20, 2006

Watch out Canon and Nikon, Sony are after you!

Could be good news for the price-sensitive “pro-sumer” market as they are planning on attacking the field using lower cost mass-market products.

I for one welcome Sony into the market, a bit of healthy competition could drive down prices and encourage innovation. It also confirms what we have been hearing about the Konica news. Apparently Konica have sold 16 million lenses over the years, that ought to be a good head start for Sonys new product. With their electronics and manufacturing capability, marketing expertise and healthy bank balance they should be a force to be reckoned with.

Sony eyes big push into high-end digital cameras – Yahoo! News

Sony Corp. said on Friday it would aim for a quarter of the digital single lens reflex (SLR) camera market after acquiring assets for a push into that market from Konica Minolta Holdings Inc.

Sony is the world’s No. 2 digital camera maker behind Canon Inc. but it currently has no presence in the potentially lucrative digital SLR market.

Canon and Nikon Corp. control the lion’s share of the digital SLR market, but Pentax Corp  and Olympus Corp. have recently formed alliances with electronics makers in a bid to boost their sales.

Yutaka Nakagawa, president of Sony’s digital imaging business group, told reporters the company would aim for 20-25 percent of the fast-growing digital SLR market by focusing on relatively inexpensive models that could achieve mass-market appeal.

“But because there are few players in this market, I would like to grab an even bigger share than that,” he said.

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