Sony's New Digital SLR: The Total Package?Writen by Chris Roberts
What do you do when you're the latecomer to a very exclusive party?
You've got one of two options:
- Dress up like everyone else and blend in with the crowd
- Make a huge entrance wearing an outfit that's louder than a Rolling Stones concert
Sony has chosen the latter when it comes to their new digital SLR camera.
The Feature Fight
A year ago, there were five dominant players in the digital SLR camera business: Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax and Konica Minolta.
Canon and Nikon duked it out for the attention and admiration of professional photographers, while Olympus, Pentax and Minolta preferred to target the consumer market.
With the megapixel race pretty much over, these three companies gained consumer attention with their own proprietary features.
Olympus developed the Supersonic Wave Filter, a device that scrubs the camera's electronic sensor, removing tiny particles of dust.
Pentax made their cameras small and light, some of the most portable digital SLRs on the market.
Konica Minolta beat everyone else to the anti-shake arena, and made it an integral part of their cameras. The built-in anti-shake reduced camera vibrations for clearer hand-held shots, and it worked with every compatible Minolta lens.
But here's the key: since all of these technologies were proprietary, there was no one SLR that had them all.
Until now.
The Sony DSLR-A100
Sony claims that their new digital SLR camera has all of these features and more.
It includes a dust-repellent sensor (like Olympus), built-in anti-shake (like Konica Minolta) and a compact frame that mimics the size of the Pentax digital SLRs.
Then Sony takes it one step further.
The A100 has one feature not available in any camera from Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax or Minolta. In fact, only two lesser-know cameras made by Fuji have something similar: extended dynamic range.
The human eye has exceptional dynamic range, and can perceive a lot of detail from shadow to light. Cameras can't.
A digital SLR will either lose detail in the shadows and correctly expose highlights, or will blow out the highlights when exposure is set for the shadows. A camera with extended dynamic range is better equipped to capture detail from dark to light, even when there is a lot of contrast in the scene.
In addition to the extended dynamic range, the DSLR-A100 also has an autofocus feature which activates when you bring the camera up to your eye, 10.2 megapixels for huge 16x20 inch prints and all the other goodies you'd expect on a high-end digital SLR.
What the Future Holds
Only time will tell how well Sony competes with the established digital SLR companies. Even though Sony is late to the SLR party, they are prepared to make a big entrance.
If they continue to release feature-rich cameras like the DLSR-A100, Canon and Co. will have to watch their backs.
Chris Roberts dispenses practical plain-English advice and information about digital SLR cameras at the Digital SLR Guide. His 5-week ecourse in digital SLR technique helps beginners get the most out of their digital SLR cameras.