{"id":1450,"date":"2010-09-04T06:22:24","date_gmt":"2010-09-04T06:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/?p=1450"},"modified":"2010-09-04T06:22:24","modified_gmt":"2010-09-04T06:22:24","slug":"more-than-meets-d-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/?p=1450","title":{"rendered":"More Than Meets D.I."},"content":{"rendered":"

I went for the Sony Power of Digital Imaging<\/b> launch at Pullman Putrajaya Lakeside Hotel on the 2nd of September 2010, where they launched a few products simultaneously. Of course, I really was there for the A55. And the NEX-VG10. And the Zeiss 24mm F2.0.<\/p>\n

None of these shots were with the A55 – some of them will have EXIF data. I’ll post the A55 shots in the next round.<\/p>\n


\nSony NEX-VG10 with Sony E 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 Active OSS.<\/p>\n


\nWith the Sony E 16mm F2.8 pancake, it looks like a regular Handycam with an undetachable mike.<\/p>\n


\nI have to say, I am not sure exactly which market this is for – the Handycam market, or the pro market? Videographers were gushing over the quad spatial mikes, but I’m not too sure they are excited about the video spec.<\/p>\n

And yes, you can control aperture, shutter and gain (in steps of 3 decibels) in video.<\/p>\n

The Sony E 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 Active OSS is fantastic! The Active OSS makes it much like the Handycams. The Sony NEX-VG10, because it has the same sensor as the NEX-5, also exhibits very little rolling shutter.<\/p>\n


\nHere’s the SLT-A55V with Sony Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 24mm F2.0 ZA SSM. This is the exact combination I want to get! The 24mm is light and balances well, and the A55 grip is good in my hands.<\/p>\n

The A55, however, had very obvious rolling shutter. Also, the RGB tearing is obvious in the EVF when you’re pointing at a high contrast scene (people standing against pier) and you’re panning.<\/p>\n


\nA55 with Zeiss 24mm F2.0 with the Sony A900 with Minolta 24-105mm F3.5-4.5(D) on the right.<\/p>\n


\nIn sunny Putrajaya, the event organizers were chilling in front of the fan.<\/p>\n


\nMalaysia notably did not launch the A560 and A580. I was looking forward to seeing it do contrast detect AF!<\/p>\n

The A560\/A580 bring back the depth of field preview button, mirror lock up with 2-second timer and shutter release without lens. Oh and video, which the A550 does not have, and 3D Sweep Panorama, Sweep Panorama, 6 EV Auto HDR, Multi-frame NR, Hand-held Twilight, 15 AF points (with 3 cross-type), losing only the Smart Teleconverter button.<\/p>\n


\nThe lakeside was chosen to show the A55’s AF tracking capabilities with sports. A55 and A33 bodies were chained to a table, equipped with the 70-200mm F2.8G SSM, 70-300mm F4.5-5.6G SSM and 70-400mm F4-5.6G SSM.<\/p>\n

However, this was shot with the A900 and screw-driven Zeiss 135mm F1.8, which was more than able to track with the center point. It is not even a 100% crop!<\/p>\n


\nThe Sony Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 24mm F2.0 ZA SSM is everything I ever wanted – an extremely close-range focusing wide-angle lens with Zeiss sharpness and contrast, wide open! This was shot with the A900 and the subject is an A55 with Zeiss 135mm F1.8.<\/p>\n


\nThe A55 does<\/b> have Release w\/o Lens<\/b> so you can use your unchipped adapted lenses (e.g. M42 mount) in Aperture Priority mode. Thank you Sony for reintroducing this in the NEX-3\/NEX-5\/NEX-VG10\/A33\/A55\/A560\/A580!<\/p>\n


\nA cutaway of the A55 (or was it the A33, since there was no GPS label on the left?) How does the mirror look like?<\/p>\n


\nLet’s enhance!<\/p>\n

What happens to translucent mirrors that get touched? They get donated to science. Yep, it does appear to be a thin membrane.<\/p>\n


\nAnother shot. It does not appear to be completely flat (but it could have lost tension or could be a prototype.)<\/p>\n

Now I have no idea how you’d fix backfocus\/frontfocus if it happens…<\/p>\n


\nThe electronic viewfinder. Note that the flash pops up in front of the hotshoe.<\/p>\n


\nThe TX9 with 3D Sweep Multi Angle, which works as advertised! You do a normal 3D Sweep Panorama – but when you view the picture you can tilt the camera to simulate you moving around the subject.<\/p>\n

However your sweep should not be at a complex angle or it will have a warped tilt. I totally forgot to try Background Defocus mode, though!<\/p>\n


\nYes, people at Sony do read DPReview!<\/p>\n

Later, at the media question-and-answer session, I asked:<\/p>\n

“Will the future advanced models have translucent technology?<\/i>”<\/p>\n

Naoi Sudo<\/b>, Managing Director of Sony Malaysia, said:<\/p>\n

“Once it is well accepted in the market, why not, we will definitely continue. This is a first step for us. But we cannot promise all the models will be like this in the future. <\/p>\n

We are expecting that this will be one of the most important technology in the future.<\/i>”<\/p>\n


\nThe S-Frame launched that day also plays AVCHD videos! So it’s like… an iPad without the apps and phone. It uses batteries instead of being connected to a wall socket all the time.<\/p>\n


\nOf course, Sony also makes bigger wall-socketed photo frames…<\/p>\n


\nIn the distance, I spotted something not many paid attention to.<\/p>\n


\nThe Sony 35mm F1.8 DT SAM! This was shot on the A33 at F1.8, which was on -2 EV ISO200 JPG only and I forgot to check. So I brought it back up in Photoshop.<\/p>\n


\n100% crop. Effectively, bringing up the -2 EV shot made it ISO800. This was a JPG. Go easy, pixel-peepers!<\/p>\n


\nThe 35mm at close focus.<\/p>\n

There was also the Sony 85mm F2.8 SAM, but unfortunately they had locked it in the glass display case so I didn’t get to try it.<\/p>\n

I tried to record a video with the 35mm F1.8 DT SAM but the A33 wouldn’t let me – probably because I was running out of space. So I couldn’t find out if the SAM motor is quieter, and whether the SAM mechanism in manual focus makes a gear-ish sound. (My friend wants a 50mm F1.4 because manual focusing a Sony 50mm F1.8 DT SAM is audible on the NEX.)<\/p>\n

On the A55, I tried the 10 FPS mode with my Zeiss 135mm F1.8 – no problems tracking a walking subject and no dropped frames. However it loses steam after 28 frames and starts writing. If you burst just 5 frames and stop, it will start writing also. So it is critical that you know when to start.<\/p>\n

I don’t remember setting Focus Priority or Release Priority, but it seems that 10 FPS works in Release Priority. Then again I was testing it on a wakeboarder and 70-400mm F4-5.6G SSM – so the waves will register as ‘in focus’ and the camera will fire anyway.<\/p>\n

More to be posted soon!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I went for the Sony Power of Digital Imaging launch at Pullman Putrajaya Lakeside Hotel on the 2nd of September 2010, where they launched a few products simultaneously. Of course, I really was there for the A55. And the NEX-VG10. And the Zeiss 24mm F2.0. None of these shots were with the A55 – some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geek","category-pictures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}