Sony released three new entry-level Alpha digital SLR models yesterday – the Alpha 230, Alpha 330 and Alpha 380!

This is the Alpha 230. Note the infrared sensor for the remote control – apparently, you can now use the RMT-DSLR1 accessory to trigger the Alphas remotely! Also, note the recessed command dial, and longer pop-up flash (unlike the shortened flash on the A200/A300/A350.)

The lens on it, the Sony SAM 30mm F2.8 DT Macro, is another interesting lens – I can’t tell from the picture but it probably can focus to 13 cm close! (This is measured from the sensor plane; the actual working distance between the front of the lens and subject is supposed to be 2cm!)

This is the Alpha 330, which can be identified by its cross-stitch rubber texture and silver top. Note that there is also a copper-topped version as shown here! Also note the new Sony SAM 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 DT (SAM stands for Smooth Autofocus Motor, to differentiate it from SSM which stands for Super Sonic Motor and allows full-time manual focus.)

An interesting thing about having a lens with less telephoto range, is that its minimum focus distance can get a lot closer:

The Sony SAM 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 DT focuses to 25cm close and gives 1:2.94x maximum magnification.
The Sony SAL 18-70mm F3.5-5.6 DT focuses to 38cm close and gives 1:4x maximum magnification.

This is the Alpha 380. It has a tilting screen to shoot tricky angles with Quick AF Live View (other brands have Live View but AF is horribly slow when in Live View!)

I like how they made the design very streamlined; the Drive and ISO buttons are gone, moved to the keypad; the AEL button is unfortunately gone (though very few understand it, and EV compensation works as well.) I suspect that the relatively “Slow Navi” of the A200/A300/A350 series has been replaced as the buttons have been reworked.

There are clear explanations on screen about what each mode does. Ah, built in help! And yes, you can choose background colors for the pink lover in you.

Interesting that there is a light meter on the right of the screen, to auto-adjust brightness in different conditions.

The frame rate for all three cameras are now 2.5 FPS and 2.0 FPS in Live View where applicable.

Three new lenses; from left to right:
1) Sony SAM 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 DT
2) Sony SAM 50mm F1.8 DT
3) Sony SAM 55-200mm F4-5.6 DT

What is very exciting about the SAM 50mm F1.8 DT, is that it can focus to 34cm close! This gives a decent 1:5x maximum magnification.

All other autofocus 50mm lenses that are brighter than F2.0, can only focus to 45cm close! This is a new record, which I am glad that Sony beat!

(There are, of course, manual focus Carl Zeiss/Pentacon 50mm F1.8 M42 lenses that go 33cm close, and the Olympus ZD 50mm F2.0 Macro which goes 20cm close, and the Sony 50mm F2.8 Macro which goes 20cm close.)

The 55-200mm seems unchanged with the previous SAL 55-200mm F4-5.6 DT, still focusing to 95cm close and giving a 1:3.45x maximum magnification.

Interestingly, the CF card slot has been removed, and in its place, a Memory Stick HG Duo slot and a SD/SDHC slot! There is also a USB Mini-B port, instead of the USB Micro-B port on all previous Alphas which was a lot rarer. There is also a HDMI port and a MS/SD switch.

I much appreciate the graphical DUH display (the new grip strap is pictured hooked onto the camera.)

Accessories! That’s a new bag in the top-left corner; the transforming, LCS-WR1AM wrapping cloth in the top-right corner, pouches for lens caps in the bottom-right corner, a magnifier loupe, the new NP-FH50 (shared with Handicams and the Sony Cybershot HX-1), a little pop-up screen protector good for viewing in sunlight, and of course the grip straps.

Yes, a funky wrapping cloth!

Oh, and of course this cute little thing, the Sony HVL-F20AM – a new tiny flash to complement the A900 which has no pop-up flash. In other words, a pop-up flash that can be removed, and can rotate upwards for bounce mode. Exactly what I wanted!

To add to that, when on the A900, it can be used as a wireless controller! That’s all Sony literature says – whether it will also work as a wireless controller on the KM5D/KM7D/A100/A200/A230/A300/A330/A350/A380/A700 is not known.

I am already looking forward to putting this on the A900 as a main bounce light, with my F58 and F42 making two hair lights.

I really don’t need that much power when using this flash in social events and clubs. (Though I am wary of clubs now boohoo.)

The flash turns on when you pull it up, and turns off when you push it down.

Unfortunately though, this uses 2 AAA batteries instead. Fortunately the batteries I got for my Sunpak PF20XD are still full of charge!

Finally, some lens pr0n. These are all the 21 Sony full-frame lenses, apparently; from left to right, top to bottom:
Sony 2x APO teleconverter, Sony 50mm F1.4, Sony 70-200mm F2.8G SSM, Sony 300mm F2.8G SSM
Sony 1.4x APO teleconverter, Sony 70-300mm F4.5-5.6G SSM, Sony 35mm F1.4G, Sony 24-105mmm F3.5-4.5, Sony 75-300mm F4.5-5.6
Sony 50mm F2.8 Macro, Sony 20mm F2.8, Sony Carl Zeiss Planar T* 85mm F1.4 ZA, Sony 70-400mm F4-5.6G SSM
Sony 100mm F2.8 Macro, Sony Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm F1.8 ZA, Sony Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar 16-35mm F2.8 ZA SSM, Sony Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar 24-70mm F2.8 ZA SSM
Sony 500mm F8 Reflex, Sony 16mm F2.8 diagonal fisheye, Sony 135mm F2.8/T4.5 Smooth Transition Focus, Sony 28mm F2.8

And this is a whole family lineup. Interestingly, the Sony 24-105mm F3.5-4.5 is omitted from this lineup! So we don’t know if it’s discontinued or not. The Sony 16-105mm F3.5-5.6 DT only sits on the A700 instead of standing by itself. The original Sony 55-200mm F4-5.6 DT seems to be omitted as well, although the old Sony 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 DT is still in the picture!

Now here’s the Japanese lineup – it comes with a ladies’ bag! Yes, Sony sells a bag to go with your camera!

(This also shows how big a Sony 300mm F2.8G SSM really is… honestly, ladies’ bags are huge.)

Pictures are all taken from Imaging Resource, Sony’s virtual press kit, DC Watch and DPReview.

Guests!

I absolutely loved that everywhere I pointed had bright, strong colors!

I was tempted to ask them to gather around and take another picture, arranged in color! (I’ll make a mental note to do so.)

Funny aunty. At 24mm F5.0 on the Minolta 24-105mm F3.5-4.5(D) it had a very pleasant vignetting, enhanced by wide-angle and close focus.

I also brought my Minolta 70-210mm F4.0 beercan, and used it to shoot the hantaran at an orthogonal-like projection.

Liyana and cousin.

“Ah finally, we can sit!”

Bila muda lagi mesti gian bergambar!

More cousins! I should’ve removed the flash gel for this. I tried exporting 2 JPEGs from the RAW, one corrected for tungsten the other daylight and merging it, but it did not look as catchy as this tungsten-WB version.

Family, shot at 26mm. Note the distance was over 1.5 meters and nobody was near the edges of the photo, to prevent distortion.

Aunties. Well that is a nice baju where did you get it from?

The 24.6 megapixels of the Sony Alpha 900 resolve an amazing amount of detail – this is a 100% crop which shows you where she got it from!

Part Two here.
Part One here.

Here’s how you do it with a blower:

I would not recommend using any cleaner that touches the sensor unless you are very sure of what you are doing, and you are sure that you are using the right chemicals specific to the sensor.

Wingz invited me for a photo shoot with the skirt flipper and here we go!

All pictures can be clicked on, for larger versions, unless otherwise specified.

135mm F2.2. Jess insists that she is not your typical flower-sniffing model!

I really like that she has all the poses up her sleeve; in a way, I felt kind of spoiled because I didn’t have to tell her how to pose, and she always seems to know which camera to look at! Well trained, Jess! *pat*

Bukit Jalil Park is very photogenic, with lots of interesting backgrounds and themes to choose from. I used a +2 EV exposure from RAW to get her exposed properly while overlaying it on the 0 EV shot.

Also 135mm F2.2 for you bokeh lovers out there.

This is the Malaysia house. For some reason, I really really like the wooden overhanging motif.

Waiting for her lover across the bridge. 2 exposures from one RAW file merged.

Again, 2 exposures from one RAW – unless otherwise specified the JPG versions were used!

I saw this angle and I knew I had to have it! Unfortunately I forgot to include the little arch in the back in later pictures…

Flash from front left, with her head tilted back enough to let some sunlight make her hair glow.

135mm F5.6, with flashes coming from left and right.

Again, left-and-right flash – thanks Kenny for being our voice-activated light stand!

Jess, you should’ve joined us for a hearty, filling lunch…

Here is the difference between a long-range shot at 135mm F7.1…

…and a shot at 35mm 7.1. You can tell where the flash is!

A merge of two pictures to show before-falsies and after-falsies! (No large version of this.)

135mm F1.8 with an APS-C sized crop.

Cloned out a tree in the top-left for this one.

The Peleng 8mm F3.5 circular fisheye makes itself convenient for group pictures. Shot at F16, with 2 exposures from one RAW.

Left to right: JasonMumbles, The Wonder, Wingz, Kenny and Jess!

MMM chicken! Another colleague series, this time at Souled Out!

Yvonne our very pleasant secretary.

Lean on me!

Abang Best! Muzzamil was supposed to be a Youtube superstar but I don’t know how that worked out.

Joshua and Pei Feng, both successful inductees into the land of the tilting-screen Sony Alpha 300 dSLR.

smashpOp/Jason shows us how to camwhore. Do note the orientation of the flash head, it is very important!

Farewell Claire!

Cheers mate!

And then on to another farewell, this time to The Apartment at The Curve.

Life gave Emilie a lemon so she decided to fly on a jetplane.

KJ is lemon-eyed!

All pictures above used a full Color Temperature Orange (CTO) gel with a slower shutter speed to bring in plenty of ambient light, and a colder color temperature (about 2700 Kelvin if I remember correctly.)

Moving on to TGI Friday’s in One Utama (nice place, never been there before). Shukri ponders.

This time farewell to Angie but not Faraa in the back (who is always generous with the snacks, too bad I don’t sit in the same office with her anymore.)

The lamps at TGI Friday’s were nice – we could actually touch them and nudge them to cast light on photographed people! Like our own hanging studio lamps!

Shot at 17mm F5.6 on the full-frame Sony Alpha 900. Ultra-wide angles should give sufficient depth of field, yes?

Apparently not, says this 50% crop. Then again, focusing somewhere deeper into the crowd would’ve helped a bit. I used F5.6 to allow some ambient light in since the flash would not evenly light the scene otherwise (unless I bothered to place a wireless flash at the back…)

Let’s get drunk on iced lemon tea!

Ross Hadi, a light (and easy) voice.

Kok Way, who sat himself in between two lights, getting very nice light. Busy dude as all system engineers are.

Having spotted this, Rames sat in the exact same spot.

Amazing finds of the century at YL Camera, Pudu Plaza! Left is the rare Minolta 80-200mm F2.8G HS APO, right is the Sony 70-300mm F4.5-5.6G SSM, both amazingly fast-focusing lenses! (Bottom-right corner shows the Minolta’s blemished hood; the Sony doesn’t even come with a hood which might explain the price.)

Minolta 80-200mm F2.8G HS APO at 200mm F2.8.

Sony 70-300mm F4.5-5.6G SSM at 150mm F5.6.

I’d have to say it’s a fair tie in image quality. Other factors like practicality start to take precedence – the Minolta is nearly twice the weight of the Sony, and has a poor minimum focus distance of 1.8 meters. The Sony does 1.2 meters close no matter what. Of course, the Minolta can do F2.8 at all focal lengths.

And then I went to Sony Style KLCC to find out if the Sony 135mm F2.8/T4.5 Smooth Transition Focus was affected in image quality by the Sony 2x APO Teleconverter.

Top-left: Sony Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm F1.8 ZA at 135mm F1.8 1/200s ISO320
Top-right: Sony Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm F1.8 ZA through a Kenko 2x MC4 teleconverter at 280mm F3.5 1/125s ISO800 (minor swirliness at the bottom, not always obvious)
Bottom-left: Sony 135mm F2.8/T4.5 Smooth Transition Focus at 135mm F2.8 (transmission factor T4.5) 1/125s ISO800
Bottom-right: Sony 135mm F2.8/T4.5 Smooth Transition Focus through a Sony 2x APO Teleconverter at 280mm F5.6 (transmission factor T9.0) 1/80s ISO3200

Yes, the Sony counts 135mm with a 2x TC as 280mm instead of 270mm for some weird reason, but I’ll refer to it as 280mm anyway for the rest of this entry.

So, I could conclude that the Sony 2x APO Teleconverter does not degrade the bokeh of the STF lens.

Does it degrade sharpness? Not by much of a noticeable bit for me. 100% crop of the 280mm T9.0 1/80s ISO3200 shot.

However, it does bring out some chromatic aberration. 100% crop of the 280mm T9.0 1/80s ISO3200 shot.

I shot X-Fine Large JPG which isn’t the best way to bring out the image quality of the A900 but this was a quick snap, all other factors the same.

Left: Sony 135mm F2.8/T4.5 Smooth Transition Focus with a Sony 2x APO Teleconverter
Right: Sony Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm F1.8 ZA with a Kenko 2x MC4 teleconverter

Height comparison to my Minolta 50mm F1.4 Original.

Physically though, the Sony 2x APO Teleconverter has its front element sticking out further nearer to the mount, while my Kenko 2x MC4 is quite deep inside.

The Sony is fussy – you just cannot physically mount most lenses in front of it because of the front element. On the plus side, it’s optically better because of this.

It fits all the non-black Sony lenses, with the exception being the STF. So that means the white Sony 70-200mm F2.8G SSM, Sony 300mm F2.8G SSM, Sony 70-400mm F4-5.6G SSM and Sony 135mm F2.8/T4.5 Smooth Transition Focus.

My Kenko, meanwhile, accepts any lens or teleconverter. So I could stack it!

So does that mean I can stack the teleconverters? Of course, though only in a certain order.

So here’s the result, 560mm F18 1/40s ISO1600.

Stacking order: Sony 135mm F2.8/T4.5 Smooth Transition Focus – Sony 2x APO Teleconverter – Kenko 2x MC4 teleconverter – Sony A900

Also at 560mm F18 1/40s ISO1600. The STF gives 1:4x magnification, and putting a 2x teleconverter doubles the magnification. Obviously then, putting two 2x teleconverters quadruples the magnification to give 1:1x life-size magnification!

Okay, so shooting macro with a full-frame isn’t all that great.

However, you might not want to use the STF with a 2x teleconverter, because:

– the STF is manual focus only, without a focus confirmation light (refer to my findings here why it just cannot detect focus)
– the light transmission ends up being T9.0 which is quite dark
– on an APS-C body, 280mm gives the equivalent of 420mm which is long and hard to use. Already the STF without teleconvters is hard to use on APS-C for portraits due to the length.

On a side note, how do you secure your camera from flying paintballs? Using a thick plastic bag!

Left: Put the hood in the corner. Right: Carve out a hole using a knife or a pen.

Finally, tape it to the hood! Here’s my Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 with my Minolta Dynax 7, all inside a Borders plastic bag! Not rain-proof completely as the back is still exposed, but it is covered enough for splashes and paintballs!

Oh come on, cover me with your green blobs of coverage already!

Yes, it’s one of the rare nights that I can connect to Streamyx. The phone line dies completely whenever it rains so I’m glad it didn’t rain in the evening so here I am, online!

Epic fail, is what I think David Kilpatrick really meant to say about the Nikon D5000, when you put it on a tripod here.

Don’t get what he means?

So, I Photoshopped in my own tripod to see what it would look like:

That said, it’s half as exciting as the D90 (12.3 megapixel CMOS, 720p 24 FPS HD video, 11-point-AF, Kelvin WB) and half as handicapped as the D60 (requires AF-S/AF-I, few buttons, low-res screen, pentamirror, lowest viewfinder magnification of 0.78x, no Creative Lighting System support.)