Yes, the Sony Alpha 200 has been announced, as the successor to the A100.
Differences:
- 2.7″ screen (A100 had a 2.5″)
- ergonomics and more relevant buttons like the return of the ISO button, and something like Quick Navi on the A700. No more dialling with the A100!
- improved noise control with ISO3200 maximum (to be found out, despite it using a 10.2 megapixel CCD sensor)
- AF is 1.7x faster than the A100, with better AF tracking
- quieter shutter sound (the A100 shutter sounded manly but loud, which some people may like)
- auto pop-up flash (I don’t like it as I find this very annoying and n00bish, if I want flash I’ll pull it up myself. Fortunately it doesn’t in PASM modes)
- battery indicator in percentage (A100 has 4 bars ala Nokia phones)
I love the top view design.
Personally, I prefer its design to the A100. There is a more streamlined design especially on the top, where it takes on the handlebar-shape of the A700. There’s no more silly A100 dial on the left; the ISO button returns, and you can see a silver O-ring like the A700 for future weather-sealed lenses.
The only thing I find kinda tacky is how they wrapped “10.2 megapixels” along the AF/MF switch.
You can try the A200 and A700 at the Sony Alpha Roadshow!
When: 10.00AM – 10.00PM, 9th – 13th January 2008
Where: Centre Concourse, Mid Valley Megamall
There’s also the Sony 300mm F2.8G SSM, which isn’t spotted in shops anywhere!
There are also contests – Alpha owners can enter a competition and win the Sony 16-105mm F3.5-5.6 DT, while those without can win a Sony H3.
Also up and coming is the Sony Carl Zeiss 24-70mm F2.8 ZA with T* coating and Super Sonic Motor! This will be the Sony A900’s standard lens (or whatever they want to call their full-frame camera). To get this range on APS-C you’d need a 16-45mm F2.8.
There’s also a leaked picture of a possible Live View swivel-screen Sony. The Fn button, directional keypad and vertical grip match those seen on the A200. There’s also a Live View button on the top-right corner! The vertical grip on the A200 is called the VG-B30AM (and not the VG-B20AM… which hints that the vertical grip was meant for something called an A300.)
Thus, we can guess that there will be a Live View swivel-screen Sony A300. It’s not using the A700’s VG-C70AM vertical grip so it has less buttons and thus, is less advanced than the A700.
Also, check out this video – Santana Featuring Chad Kroeger – Into The Night.
An unidentified camera, which seems to have the A100’s interface, may be another new development from Sony – it can trigger a flash without the pop-up flash being raised!
You can spot the camera at 1:46-1:56. It fires flashes magically! AMAZING!
I don’t quite like Chad Kroeger, or any of Santana’s rather bland recent stuff, but I felt a glimmer of hope when he did a rock-and-roll solo at 2:11. Though, sadly, that’s just rock-and-roll, nothing… Santana.
And now for some sad news.
Herbert Keppler, the former publisher of Modern Photography and Popular Photography (as well as being on the Minolta team when they developed the quick-release iTTL hotshoe) passed away on the 4th of January.
In Memoriam: Herbert Keppler, 1925-2008
His column, Speaking Frankly, is one of the very few that I subscribe to on Firefox. The moment I found it, I traversed the archives and learnt a lot more about camera and lens history.
yeah I was kinda shock to hear that Keppler had passed away, I would regular read his column in pop photo magazine (I buy every month) and read his blog.
I also read all his entries when I found his blog. I was really looking forward to reading another of his technical articles.
Also, I love Santana! That link with Chad Kroeger AKA Nickelback Sounds like a match made in heaven!
BTW I use fujifilm so I don’t know much about the Sony DSLR but it looks so awesome!
I love international magazines, they are aware of other brands unlike those Malaysian magazines (and uh, Malaysians). I loved his expose on Cosina or what you call it.
The Fujifilm S5 is awesome, too! I’ve heard raves about its white balance. A food photographer I met says there is no equal.
Yeah was sad to hear about Keppler this morning.
Well the S5 pro is quite good, though it needs some good glass in order to bring out the full potential
oOooooooooooo sqweetttt 24-70mm! nice.. nice nice.. wonder how much would that be..
ShaolinTiger: Yeah man, may he be up in that great white studio in the sky.
KJ: We’ll see, we’ll see… with Sony’s recent competitive pricing it may be a decent price.
Nicholas.C: Yeah – the Nikon D50 and Konica Minolta 5D started killing battery grips. Not sure what it’s like on the Pentax and Olympus front, though.
Battery grip for entry level SLRs seems to be the trend these days doesn;t it? 😛
Yeah I’d hate that since it rhymes with Sammy. That would be uncool.
Better – we went loofah shopping!
I’ll email you the pictures later as I’m at work now, trying to maintain a Clark Kent demure facade.
Why don’t u have a Cbox? Nvm, I’ll leave my messages here 😀
Albie!!! (I bet you hate that, don’t you.)
Did you actually ask Cheesie what a loofah is or did she post something about loofahs before??
I want your nice nice photos taken at the Bloggers convention thing. Esp the kissing photo 😛
You say wan ah! My email is samanthalimxh@hotmail.com btw… 🙂 I wanna post more pics up of the event on me blog!
Oh, I see where this is heading.
It’s cool to have a name that rhymes with mine. But you can’t have that because it’s not cool to have a name that rhymes with yours.
You got mail!
Fine! So I can’t even call myself ‘Sambert’? Thought it’d make u happy!