Sony alpha DSLR-A900 Review

[NiteHawk]

Full Frame 24.6 Mega Pixel




DSLR-A900 Review

[Maxxwire]

NiteHawk- With the release of the Alpha 900 and its 24.6 MP CMOS Sensor it certainly looks like Sony has its sights set squarely on the Professional Photography market in that it would take a Professional Printer for example like the Epson Stylus Pro 11880 which is capable of doing full justice to the 6048 x 4032 pixel format of the Alpha 900 in glorious full scale prints up to 64".




For someone with a high quality consumer grade small format printer who simply wants to do prints up to 10" X 12" at home or use the photo uploader here at Agoraquest where there is a 1200 X 750 pixel 0.6 MP limitation although I'm sure that the Alpha 900 takes great pictures it would still be a pitiful waste of the Professional grade 6048 x4032 pixel 24.6 MP capabilities of this $3,000 SOTA DSLR camera.

~Maxx~


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A Satisfied Sony Fan Since 1974!

Quick Link to MaxxPix

[Toli]

I just read the review on the DSLR-A900. Wow, awsome camera for the price! Anything close to this camera seems to cost alot more. My experience with DSLRs is limited to this point, so I would say this camera is out of my league at this time. But I would still like to have one if anybody is feeling especially generous this Christmas!   

TIA,

Toli

[Maxxwire]

On 2008-12-18 16:20, Toli wrote:
My experience with DSLRs is limited to this point, so I would say this camera is out of my league at this time.

Toli

Toli- The Alpha 900 is out of my league also as the largest printer I have access to is my Dad's Epson Pro 4000 which prints a maximum of 17" which is less than 1/4 the size that the Alpha 900 shoots and to resize a 24.6 MP photo down to <0.6 MP to post here at Agoraquest would just be an insult to a fine camera like the Alpha 900 which Sony made for much, much bigger venues.




I've used a lot of cameras over the years including the renown German Leica and a camera like a Musical instrument functions no better than the person using it. Your A-100 at 10 MP is certainly all the camera that you or anyone but a Pro photographer would need to take excellent pictures that can be printed or Posted on line. The Alpha 900 does have some additional functions and features, but like I said unless someone has a Professional Print Shop they will never be able to be fullly used and that is why we will most likely never see anyone around here spend $3,000 on one of these Pro cameras and to us photographers without professional facilities it will just remain a very expensive statement piece just like Sony Reference Audio gear or the Qualia line of Sony Video gear which would be great to own, but we seem to do very fine without.

From the Digital Trends Review...

Conclusion

The Sony alpha DLSR-A900 is a terrific camera. It’s clearly for serious photographers who want excellent quality and are interested in making large prints. It’s easy to recommend, but alas, not so easy to pay for, since you’ll want a super-quality lens—and don’t forget the flash.


Pros:

• Beautiful 24.6MP stills
• Outstanding viewfinder
• Built-in image stabilization
• Intelligent Preview very helpful
• Easy to operate

Cons:

• It’s still 3 grand; for serious photographers only
• Limited “cheat” modes
• Not weatherized like other uber D-SLRs
• Heavy and bulky

What a great summary of the Alpha 900. After adding a "super-quality lens" and a flash for its hot shoe a serious photographer would be out far in excess of $5,000 for a camera that in all practicality can not render a more useful image than your A-100 is capable of unless of course you have a $15,000 60" printer in storage that you want to start making use of.

My Dad once told me that on many occasions he was able to take better pictures with his $15 Argus camera than he did with the much more expensive Leica camera that he bought years later (for reference the 1997 Leica reissue sold for $5,500) and he attributed this to the fact that he was forced to put more effort into getting high quality pictures from the ultra basic feature challenged Argus and it showed up in the prints. Learning the Art of Photography will improve the quality of the pictures you take far and away more than owning a more expensive camera ever will.

~Maxx~

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A Satisfied Sony Fan Since 1974!

Quick Link to MaxxPix

[NiteHawk]

Learning the Art of Photography has always been the key to taking better pictures.  Some of my best pictures where taken with this basic 35mm rangefinder camera.  Those where the days when you had to put forth an effort to take a decent shot with the sun in the background.       

[Maxxwire]

NiteHawk I couldn't agree with you more! I took some terrific pictures when I was using a fully manual Leica L-3A 35mm film camera with a Leitz lens back in the '60's...




Making sure to carefully take precise readings for each shot with a Light Meter...




Then it was off to the Photo Lab to develop the film, place it in the overhead and spend the rest of the day doing composition and making prints.

Those certainly were the days of having to put forth a great effort to come up with a decent picture weren't they!

These days I prefer to use modern technology to free myself from all of the time I had to take paying close attention to all of the technical aspects of photography and focus my efforts more towards applying the Art Of Photography to the pictures I'm taking while I am taking them rather than fiddling with gear.



I would like to talk more on the subject, but we are experiencing the biggest snowstorm in over a decade and I just stepped in to warm up and get a fresh battery after taking 368 pictures with my Sony DSC H-9 when I noticed your post. We'll talk later as today I would like to get at least 700 shots of the effects of this freakishly rare weather ocurance before it gets dark.


~Maxx~

PS- It started to snow vigorosly when I went out again so I was only able to get 527 photos today, but here is one of them-



PPS- I have not been able to get the Agoraquest photo uploader to work today so the photos in this post are hosted on my Photobucket account. I will replace these pictures with the much higher resolution Agoraquest photo uploader renderings as soon as opportunity affords.  



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A Satisfied Sony Fan Since 1974!

Quick Link to MaxxPix

[NiteHawk]

Let's see, 700 photo's equals about 19 rolls of 36 exposure film @ $5.99 per roll to develop.   You see where I'm going with this.  No developement cost was the biggest draw for me going digital.  Instead of paying for bad photo's, I just delete them in camera or on the computer.

Nice framing.  I see your theme for the day is round shape objects.  The port hole shot is interesting.  Foreground and background is in focus, meaning you are using a small f-stop.  All you need is the Pacific blue spraying in your face instead of being watched by the video camera.

The above photo's were taken this morning from inside (18 degrees outside) looking out towards my backyard and into my neighbors.  These pictures where taken with a 4-megapixel Canon PowerShot G3 with a 4X optical zoom.  You can see the extent of the zoom in the two pictures.  I'm using a new program to downsize my photo's so that they can be uploaded to this site.

I'm also re-learning The Art of Photography, getting back to basics.  Started to go crazy shooting hundreds of pictures and trying to photoshop every last one.  If you take a decent photo to begin with, you will not need to photoshop it.       

[Toli]

On 2008-12-22 10:52, NiteHawk wrote:

I'm using a new program to downsize my photo's so that they can be uploaded to this site.

NiteHawk,

Which program are you using? I was looking for one, but then started using the picture resizer in the Windows Power Toys. It is free and has worked well for me so far.

Toli

[NiteHawk]

I was using Adobe Photoshop for my resizing.  Pretty sure it was something I was doing wrong because I could not upload anything greater than 50 kb.  The above photo's are 225 kb.  I used a Google photo program called Picasa.  Should be able to upload .6 megs pictures, acording to Maxxwire.       

[Toli]

NiteHawk,

I took a brief look at it and it looks cool. How many steps to resize a picture? I already have a photo program (Roxio Premier) as well as a DVD and movie creator (Sony Movie Studio). But I want something that resizes pictures more easily, for posting here at Agoraquest. What I am using is really easy and simple, one step. I still may give Picasa a try since it's free! :-)

Toli


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