August 5, 2006: Phil at DPR has a comprehensive review of the sexy Sony A100. Here’s some quotes from his conclusion; you can read the whole review here:

Sony’s entrance to the digital SLR market comes thanks to their finial association with and later purchase of Konica Minolta’s photo division. When you first use the A100 it clearly has more Konica Minolta DNA than Sony however their influence comes in the added features and image processing (the camera’s user interface and control systems are very similar to previous Konica Minolta digital SLR’s, and that’s no bad thing).

The A100 is aimed at the ’serious amateur’ market, however from a price point of view it doesn’t easily slot into one of the existing market segments. Depending on how you look at it the A100 is either an expensive entry-level digital SLR with an advanced set of features or a bargain in the higher segment (EOS 30D etc.), without a metal body and high speed shooting.

Super SteadyShot is an (according to Sony) improved version of Konica Minolta’s CCD stabilization Anti-Shake system. In our tests we observed a two stop shutter speed advantage using Super SteadyShot, which is good but not quite up to the 3.5 stops claimed. I’m also still not convinced that the ‘hit rate’ of sharp images is as good as a lens based optical stabilization system.

I personally experienced only one ‘issue’ which marred my use of the camera and that was the occasional under-exposed image when using multi-segment metering. This problem didn’t affect all shots, it required a certain set of circumstances, and could easily be corrected (although would need a second exposure once observed). As mentioned already you should also be aware of noise levels at ISO 800 and 1600, if you are likely to use these high sensitivities on a regular basis it may be worth also considering other cameras.

My final rating? For me it’s a fairly comfortable Highly Recommended, the A100 is a very capable camera with a wide feature set, a good range of manual controls and some unique developments.

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