Sony Alpha 800, why not?

Yves Roumazeilles — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:11:32 +0000

For sure, we heard a lot of rumours more or less tolerable, but here is one that does not seem to have a lot more ground than the wishes of some Sony customers afraid of discovering too high a price for the upcoming Sony Alpha 900. Guess what? 24 millions pixels could ask for a steep price, nearer to 3000€ or 4000$ than the target of 2000$ that you could maintain if you are ready to purchase a bargain end-of-life Canon EOS 5D (nearing official retirement but not dead yet, for sure).

The arrival of the Nikon D700 with a Full Frame sensor of a lower resolution than the high-end cameras like the Nikon D3 (or the Sony Alpha 900) had people murmuring that maybe (and I have to heavily insist on this maybe word) Nikon and Sony would share a 12-16 million-pixel Full Frame sensor. Nikon would launch a Nikon D700 and Sony would launch a similar Sony Alpha 800 sometimes nicknamed “flagcheap” (“flagship” designating the top-of-the-line Sony, the Alpha 900, “flag-cheap” is a word game on “cheap” for a cheaper camera).

It is impossible to tell if there is any truth to it. Assuredly, the lack of recent information about the Sony Alpha 900 (and most importantly its price target) had heads spinning and marketing laws or logic law being what they are, plugging a price hole in the Sony SLR camera range may become an urgent necessity. Sony could fill it with the Alpha 800. And it previously occured that Sony hid some products behind the visibility of another camera (see the example of the Alpha 300/350).

Sony Alpha 200, to replace ageing Alpha 100

Yves Roumazeilles — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 22:09:38 +0000

During quite some time people have been speaking of Sony Alpha 200 as the name of the new high-level prosumer digital SLR camera. But when Sony presented it, the name was Sony Alpha 700. We should have been listening a little more to the rumour. The Alpha 200 name was actually real, but it was describing the new replacement for the entry level.

The Alpha 100 is dead, long live the Alpha 200!

Technical charactéristics:

10.2 Mega-Pixel APS-C sensor (x1.5 coefficient)
100 – 3200 ISO sensitivity
9 sensor AF. The central one is a cross (more precise), 1.7 faster than Alpha 100
3 frames per sec (on 6 images)
Image recording: Raw and JPEG
2.7″ LCD screen of 230000 pixels
Sensor cleaning by vibration & antistatic treatment of the reflex chamber
Memory cards: Compact Flash type I/II (with optional MemoryStick Duo adapter)
131 x 98.5 x 71 mm
532g
Kit 18-70 mm f3.5-5.6 for 700 US$
Kit 18-70 mm f3.5-5.6 + 75-300 mm f4.5-5.6 for 900 US$

This is not Earth-shattering, but the camera will be a strong technical contender with a really nice price. It should be able to set the pace for the competition. The Alpha 200 will replace usefully the Alpha 100 which was still a good camera but was perceived as a bit old now.

Current owners of the Alpha 100 will not run to buy the new Sony Alpha 200 (except if they spotted the increased sensitivity ISO range), but this is a camera which will strengthen the market share of Sony just where most buyers are.

Alpha – Roumazeilles.net

Sony Alpha 800, why not?

Sony Alpha 200, to replace ageing Alpha 100