sony

Sony A99: One of a Journey into Still Photography

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For some reason Sony seems to me rather the excellent video camera brand than a still photography brand, although more and more of my photo course safari guests have Sony cameras and I get to use them in order to help and explain. Somehow they don’t feel “ripe” yet and functionality, menu and displays seem influenced by video cameras. But maybe that is something one got to get used to, I don’t know.

Well, there is the new Sony A99 and when I read the review from
Phoblographer I get the impression that they had a bit the same feeling about it. Please read yourself and experience the camera yourself, if you can. They are doing great work and who knows, maybe one day they will overtake the Nikons and Canons.

Lets see how it goes.


Ute Sonnenberg for
www.rohoyachui.com

The Megapixel Race: Sony's 50 Megapixel Sensor

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We are all anxious to finally see what Canon is coming up with towards the end of this month and if it’s true that it will be a 46 Megapixel camera as rumors saying. But there is a new rumor and this time from Sony. sonyalpharumors writes that a 50 Megapixel sensor is in the make and will be released sometime between May and June 2013:

“The camera will be more “
photographer” oriented. There are currently a couple of different prototypes. One we heard of has a 36 Megapixel sensor (same as Nikon D800) and built-in vertical grip. Priced well above the current Sony A99. A second prototype has a new 50 Megapixel sensor which goal is to go as close as possible to a “medium format” quality.”

So first it was
Nikon with the D800 and 36 Megapixel, then probably the Canon with 46 Megapixel and now Sony with 50 Megapixel. Where is this going? What do they think to achieve with this Megapixel race?

All contemplation on this matter might be just as speculating as the megapixel numbers. Lets see what is actually really coming and what it adds to photography.

Ute Sonnenberg for
www.rohoyachui.com

121 Autofocus Points from Sony vs. High-MP from Canon

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The numbers get higher and we tend to thing that the higher the numbers the more we get for our money. And yes, we get more megapixels and more autofocus points, but does that also mean we really need it?

The Canon High-MP rumors persist and new information has just been posted on
Canon Rumors that says it would be the Canon EOS-1S with a price of about USD 9,000. A specific number of megapixel was not mentioned.

As said in earlier blog posts on this subject, a decision on purchasing the high megapixel Canon needs some contemplation. What are you doing in photography and how do you use your images? Do you want to crop a fly out of an image of a building or will your images be printed in billboard size? Do you need speed when photographing; are you photographing moving objects? Think about it and definitely when the expected price is right, a wrong decision can be painful.


Sony’s A99 SLT offers 19+102 autofocus points, in total 121 and at first sight that appeals more to me than the probably 46MP. Especially when capturing moving objects the high number of autofocus points is very helpful and every wildlife and sports photographer would love to have them, but unfortunately until now there is a downside to it. According to The Phoblographer you can use the feature so far only with 6 lenses, which hopefully will change soon. Yet it is a great feature and probably with more broad use than an extremely high number of megapixel.

Well, it’s always a personal decision depending on the photographic purpose one is pursuing and sometimes its just too tempting.


Ute Sonnenberg for
www.rohoyachui.com