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Sony Alpha A100K Digital SLR Camera (Twin Lens Kit)
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Sony A100 has everything you could need
(5 out of 5) by Mr. J. Brown on Jul 28, 2006 (Hampshire, UK)The Sony A100 is the first in the new line of "a" series (pronounced Alpha) cameras from Sony. The A100 comes in various forms including body only, single lens (18-70mm) and twin lens (18-70mm and 70-300mm) set. The body of the camera is available in all black, or a mixture of Black and Silver.
I purchase the twin lens set in all black. In the bright metallic box, you get the Camera body, the twin lenses, a memory stick duo to Compact flash converter to put in the camera, camera strap, Battery, battery charger (charging is off camera), USB to computer lead, USB to tv lead (to show the pictures on the TV), software disk (containing a USB driver, RAW file editor and basic file viewer), a user guide (black and white, fairly cheap paper manual about 90 pages), and several brochures on lenses and other products, and then the product guarantee.
The cameras headline features are the 10.2 megapixel sensor, the new anti-shake (now called super shake) system, vibrating image screen to remove dust, and fast image processor. Beyond this, it has all the features you could possibly want from a digital camera.
The battery is charged off camera, and you get a UK 3 pin plug. The camera can charge the battery though a power port directly into the camera body, but the cable for this is an optional extra. If you are travelling abroad, different plugs are also optional extras. Charging the battery takes about 2 hours, and gives you power for around 750 shots (assuming flash on 1/3 of shots).
Photos are captured onto a memory card, which can either be a CompactFlash or a Memory Stick Due. A dummy CompactFlash comes with the camera that acts as a converter inside the camera for the Memory stick Duo. You cannot use full size Sony Memory sticks in the camera. No memory comes with the camera, so you will need to purchase one to take pictures. I went for a 4Gb card, which will store 982 full size, hi-res photos in JPEG format, or 292 RAW photos.
The camera has a very sharp and bright picture display on the back. This is used for the control of the camera settings and viewing previous pictures. However, when taking a picture, the current view cannot be shown on this screen (for say, taking shots over the heads of a crowd). Instead, you need to use the viewfinder. When you put your eye to the view finder, the main display goes off saving battery life. In both the viewfinder and the main picture display, all the information is show including memory status, speed, aperture, histogram of picture, index of pictures, settings of camera (colour settings, exposure etc). The menu and controls are access via two control wheels, a spin controller and a menu direction control. I found the controls and menu options very easy to use.
At the top of the camera, the two wheels control different functions. On the left, settings are available for settings ISO levels, colour controls, system overrides, advanced controls etc. The wheel on the right controls the picture modes (landscape, portrait, macro, night, sunrise/sunset, sports), speed/aperture priority etc. The control wheel sits in front of the shutter trigger, and is perfectly placed for changing the settings whilst looking through the view finder.
Taking pictures is a joy, and the results are stunning. However, the movement of the mirror inside the camera is fairly loud (there is a clunk when you take the picture). I have a small worry that taking pictures in quite places (churches etc) may cause a few heads to turn in my direction. If anything, the clunk is the only downside of the camera. Lens focusing is very quick, reasonably quiet, and works well on both lens sets. The lenses that come in the pack are both Sony, and to be honest, are not that impressive to look at (no nice guide windows), but they do the job, feel robust and take nice pictures.
The camera sits nicely in the hand, and isn't too heavy. My hands are fairly large, but the buttons seem to be in the right place. The only button I had a problem in finding is the focus preview button which is located at the front of camera below the lens. I scrabbled around to find this, but should not be so much of a problem once I get used to it. The build quality of the camera feels good, at least as good as the Dynax range I have previously. The top of the camera has a strange mottled look which is a bit odd.
One thing that I found most impressive is the bracketing and multi-shot options. Pressing the multi-shot button allows 10 or so picture options including single shot, multi shot, bracket, multi-shot bracket, self time (2 seconds), self time (10 seconds), remote etc. Because of the new image processor chip, the multi-shot is very very fast - I kept my finger on the shutter release and it took 3-4 shots a second, and produced 2 bracket shots per shot, which resulted in around 12 shots being stored per second without delay or pause. I tried to see if the memory in the camera would cause the multi-shot to fill up and stop, but it kept on shooting the pics - very nice.
As I say, all the options are here including; Setting resolution sizes (smell, medium, large and fine), output format (JPEG, RAW or both), colour levels, balance levels, exposure settings, manual control, auto control, flash options (fill, red eye, back flash, forward flash, sync etc).
All in all, very happy with my purchase.
I purchase the twin lens set in all black. In the bright metallic box, you get the Camera body, the twin lenses, a memory stick duo to Compact flash converter to put in the camera, camera strap, Battery, battery charger (charging is off camera), USB to computer lead, USB to tv lead (to show the pictures on the TV), software disk (containing a USB driver, RAW file editor and basic file viewer), a user guide (black and white, fairly cheap paper manual about 90 pages), and several brochures on lenses and other products, and then the product guarantee.
The cameras headline features are the 10.2 megapixel sensor, the new anti-shake (now called super shake) system, vibrating image screen to remove dust, and fast image processor. Beyond this, it has all the features you could possibly want from a digital camera.
The battery is charged off camera, and you get a UK 3 pin plug. The camera can charge the battery though a power port directly into the camera body, but the cable for this is an optional extra. If you are travelling abroad, different plugs are also optional extras. Charging the battery takes about 2 hours, and gives you power for around 750 shots (assuming flash on 1/3 of shots).
Photos are captured onto a memory card, which can either be a CompactFlash or a Memory Stick Due. A dummy CompactFlash comes with the camera that acts as a converter inside the camera for the Memory stick Duo. You cannot use full size Sony Memory sticks in the camera. No memory comes with the camera, so you will need to purchase one to take pictures. I went for a 4Gb card, which will store 982 full size, hi-res photos in JPEG format, or 292 RAW photos.
The camera has a very sharp and bright picture display on the back. This is used for the control of the camera settings and viewing previous pictures. However, when taking a picture, the current view cannot be shown on this screen (for say, taking shots over the heads of a crowd). Instead, you need to use the viewfinder. When you put your eye to the view finder, the main display goes off saving battery life. In both the viewfinder and the main picture display, all the information is show including memory status, speed, aperture, histogram of picture, index of pictures, settings of camera (colour settings, exposure etc). The menu and controls are access via two control wheels, a spin controller and a menu direction control. I found the controls and menu options very easy to use.
At the top of the camera, the two wheels control different functions. On the left, settings are available for settings ISO levels, colour controls, system overrides, advanced controls etc. The wheel on the right controls the picture modes (landscape, portrait, macro, night, sunrise/sunset, sports), speed/aperture priority etc. The control wheel sits in front of the shutter trigger, and is perfectly placed for changing the settings whilst looking through the view finder.
Taking pictures is a joy, and the results are stunning. However, the movement of the mirror inside the camera is fairly loud (there is a clunk when you take the picture). I have a small worry that taking pictures in quite places (churches etc) may cause a few heads to turn in my direction. If anything, the clunk is the only downside of the camera. Lens focusing is very quick, reasonably quiet, and works well on both lens sets. The lenses that come in the pack are both Sony, and to be honest, are not that impressive to look at (no nice guide windows), but they do the job, feel robust and take nice pictures.
The camera sits nicely in the hand, and isn't too heavy. My hands are fairly large, but the buttons seem to be in the right place. The only button I had a problem in finding is the focus preview button which is located at the front of camera below the lens. I scrabbled around to find this, but should not be so much of a problem once I get used to it. The build quality of the camera feels good, at least as good as the Dynax range I have previously. The top of the camera has a strange mottled look which is a bit odd.
One thing that I found most impressive is the bracketing and multi-shot options. Pressing the multi-shot button allows 10 or so picture options including single shot, multi shot, bracket, multi-shot bracket, self time (2 seconds), self time (10 seconds), remote etc. Because of the new image processor chip, the multi-shot is very very fast - I kept my finger on the shutter release and it took 3-4 shots a second, and produced 2 bracket shots per shot, which resulted in around 12 shots being stored per second without delay or pause. I tried to see if the memory in the camera would cause the multi-shot to fill up and stop, but it kept on shooting the pics - very nice.
As I say, all the options are here including; Setting resolution sizes (smell, medium, large and fine), output format (JPEG, RAW or both), colour levels, balance levels, exposure settings, manual control, auto control, flash options (fill, red eye, back flash, forward flash, sync etc).
All in all, very happy with my purchase.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
A best of both worlds camera
(5 out of 5) by P. Davenport on Jul 19, 2007 (Canterbury, England)Having used several digital cameras over the last few year now, I have always found after the initial excitement of it all a rather nagging doubt that I still preferred my old canon A1. The simple action of pressing a button and capturing an image instantaneously seemed consigned to the history books- then I bought this Sony!
It is every bit as good as its reviews, even Sony's! It is light (well apart from when the 75-300 lens is loaded), the optics and ergonomics are excellent, and the controls are intuative. Even the manual is easy going, and you have the comfort of knowing not much of your money went into buying the paper it is printed on.
Now the acid test how quick does that shutter close! Well having just come back from a trip to the Azores taking pictures of dolphins I can say the only people on the boat with images to take home were the video camera group and the lucky individual with a Sony a100, and my shot of a dolphin in the air was in 10mega pixel quality!
It is every bit as good as its reviews, even Sony's! It is light (well apart from when the 75-300 lens is loaded), the optics and ergonomics are excellent, and the controls are intuative. Even the manual is easy going, and you have the comfort of knowing not much of your money went into buying the paper it is printed on.
Now the acid test how quick does that shutter close! Well having just come back from a trip to the Azores taking pictures of dolphins I can say the only people on the boat with images to take home were the video camera group and the lucky individual with a Sony a100, and my shot of a dolphin in the air was in 10mega pixel quality!