New Sony FF A850 coming

[Heidfirst]

http://www.photoclubalpha.com/...ixel-3fps-in-900-body/

 

[jpeyton]

Damn, I think Sony is poised to shake up the industry again. They were the first 20MP+ full-frame DSLR under $3000, and now I *hope* they are shooting for the first 20MP+ full-frame DSLR for under $2000?

 

[randomlinh]

under $2k seems crazy... if they pull it off, oh man would that be nice for competition

 

[jpeyton]

Under $2k is inevitable. Heck I only paid $2250 for my D700 brand new back in January when they were running some instant rebates.

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: jpeyton
Under $2k is inevitable. Heck I only paid $2250 for my D700 brand new back in January when they were running some instant rebates.

inevitable, yes, but I was thinking another generation. then again, if this is only going to be 3FPS, I may have to still wait one more. but it's damn good start, sooner the better, heh.

 

[jpeyton]

I think landscape and portrait photographers will be more than content with 3FPS. More importantly, if they can deliver the A850 for ~$2000, that frees up some money for some Zeiss glass.

I wish Zeiss would make some autofocus lenses for Nikon.

 

[Deadtrees]

I see it as the Best thing since Canon 5D.
I hope A850 does well considering how Sony's been selling A900 cheaper than their initial cost.

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: jpeyton
I think landscape and portrait photographers will be more than content with 3FPS. More importantly, if they can deliver the A850 for ~$2000, that frees up some money for some Zeiss glass.

I wish Zeiss would make some autofocus lenses for Nikon.

oh yeah, definitely. I just like to do burst shooting sometimes, and it's helpful for trying to catch a moment.

any notion on when sony might actually officially announce it? I'm guessing soon if the manual has been pushed out.

 

[magomago]

wow this would be interesting. Puts it in the league of the 5D right there (on the basis of specs...). If I ever had to leave Pentax, it would be to Sony. Too bad it was marred by TOO m uch noise reduction - A700 was supposed to be fixed and produce wonderful results, but it seems that the impression of many people by then had already damaged the cams reputation.

If they came in under 2k that would really force Nikon and Canon...

 

[jpeyton]

That's something I don't understand; Sony should be doing better in the NR department.

But the A900 actually isn't bad up to ISO3200. Above that is where things start to fall apart. That's about 1 stop worse than the D3x; 1.5+ stops worse than the D700.

 

[Heidfirst]

Originally posted by: jpeyton

But the A900 actually isn't bad up to ISO3200. Above that is where things start to fall apart. That's about 1 stop worse than the D3x; 1.5+ stops worse than the D700.

$3000 buys you some fancier electronics ... still, what if a firmware upgrade moved the A900 nearer (or as speculated in that link the A850 has a new, better board)?
& of course the D3/D700 sensor doesn't have the pixel density which helps.

 

[soydios]

The faster the price of full frame drops to the $1k mark, the happier I'll be; used is fine. The only DX lens I have is the 18-200mm VR; my 24-85mm f/2.8-4.0, 50mm f/1.8, 35mm f/2.0, and 80-200mm f/2.8 are all full-frame.

Originally posted by: jpeyton
That's something I don't understand; Sony should be doing better in the NR department.

But the A900 actually isn't bad up to ISO3200. Above that is where things start to fall apart. That's about 1 stop worse than the D3x; 1.5+ stops worse than the D700.

Is that JPEG or raw? The D3X and A900 sensors do have different ADCs I think, because the D3X supports Live View. But comparing JPEG engines is beside the point if you're after the best possible image quality, IMHO.

 

[Madwand1]

Sony's going to have some product announcements on Sept. 2nd.

http://presscentre.sony.eu/Con...aseID=385&NewsAreaID=2

Sony will [attend] this year's Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA), the world's largest Consumer Electronics trade show, from 4th to 9th September in Berlin.
...
Further details, including the latest product and technology announcements, will be unveiled at the Sony press conference on the Sony booth on 2nd September at 17:00h.

Sony's had more time to scope out and respond to the competition in this round, so I'd be hopeful about better high ISO noise performance, but that remains to be seen.

 

[Heidfirst]

they've just announced a couple of compacts using back illuminated sensors so perhaps something similar will appear in an Alpha (or 2)?
Personally I'm happy with Sony tending to weigh the balance more towards higher detail & truer colour at the expense of slightly worse high ISO noise but I realise that others may have different priorities.

 

[soydios]

Originally posted by: Heidfirst
Personally I'm happy with Sony tending to weigh the balance more towards higher detail & truer colour at the expense of slightly worse high ISO noise but I realise that others may have different priorities.

Erm...Sony and Canon tend to apply luminance noise reduction and leave all the ugly color/chroma noise in. Nikon is the opposite, using a light touch on luminance noise reduction to keep detail but cutting the color/chroma noise. If you want film grain in the digital era, get a D2H.

 

[Heidfirst]

but both Canon & Nikon seem to apply more smoothing in their NR than Sony.
As you know it's all a balancing act/trade-off between sensitivity, dynamic range etc. etc. & what I'm saying is that for my needs (& I realise that other people need the high ISO ability) I'm happier with the balance tilted towards providing more detail at low ISO rather than the ability to go to a higher ISO. If you look at a shot of a field of grass for example usually on a Minolta/Sony you can clearly see blades where both Canon & Nikon often seem to descend into a mush.