Sony’s consumer triplets–the A230, A330, and A380–all received notice of a new firmware today. It purportedly (that’s a good word, isn’t it? Purportedly. Makes me feel fancy.) fixes exposure lock on the focuses subject in center-weighted and spot metering modes. If that just made sense to you, you’ll appreciate this firmware.
For Windows here
For Mac here
Kicking off a veritable slew of Sony announcements today we have two new lenses. The first is their consumer-grade, and it specs out as a 30mm macro with a maximum aperture of f2.8. It’s “SAM”, which means it has the ‘smooth action motor’. In real-people terms, it means it uses a built-in ring-type motor for faster and quiet auto-focus over the older SAL designated lenses. I’m pretty sure the “DT” designation on this means that it’s for crop-frame sensors (A100, A200, A230, A300, A330, A350, A380, A500, A550, A700).
The other, and arguably more exciting, lens is the new 28-75mm f2.8 constant full-frame lens, adding to their full-frame line-up (as well as the other item announced today that I’ll be covering). This lens is also a SAM, so there we go. Things are indicating it will be available in November, should you desire to pre-order one just give us a call at 1-800-726-5544 and you can be right up there on our waitlist.
Is that… why yes, yes it is Mr. Nick Henry ramblingly more-or-less coherently for 2 and a half minutes about 2 out of 3 of Sony’s newest DSLRs. The video is, as ever, uncut, unprocessed, raw action the way John Logie Baird intended it. Or maybe not.
Anyway, Alphas A230 and A330 there. Small. CHEAP. Awfully cheap. So cheap the two lens kit for each is well worth the look.
Whew. It’s the end of the day. For some reason, naturally, the audio on the EP-1 video once uploaded sounds rather similar to the Mothman communicating in morse code. The Sony Alpha 230 video (and we threw in the Alpha A330, too, and shot it with an E-P1 for even more fun) is uploading, and you’ll be able to check that on our YouTube in a moment, and I’ll post it here tomorrow morning.ew
The new Sony digital camera models are now in stock. The Sony A330 and A230 are now available for purchase. The Sony A380 will be coming in soon.
There are some major overhauls to the new models. They all shoot to both SD memory cards and to Sony Memory Sticks. They all have mini HDMI video outputs that can support HD playback of images in 1080i. They are all substantially smaller models because of the smaller card slots. Overall, the layout of the controls are much more refined and easier to use. The LCD monitors give speed and aperture setting info in very easy to understand graphics. They also seem to focus a bit faster than their predecessors with the new Sony lenses that ship with the camera kits.
As with the previous models, Sony has the live view figured out like no other manufacturer at this point. The nine point auto focus system is prominently displayed so you can easily see the focus lock in live view. They loose very little speed when in live view mode.
Some nice improvements to an already impressive lineup!
Sony, Sony, Sony. I gotta say, whatever animosity I hold against Sony after their RIAA-inspired DRM nonsense and their dissolution of Aiwa right before the sexiest executive bookshelf stereo ever was going to come out, well, it’s mostly all forgiven with their DSLR line.
A330
While I was lounging around my apartment this weekend with the girlfriend they were busy announcing three new consumer DSLRs, doing an across-the-board upgrade to their consumer line (kinda the opposite of the ‘last-years-top-is-this-year’s-bottom approach Canon has traditionally taken in this segment). So, out go the A200, A300, and A350. In come the A230, A330, and A380. All three seem to slot in the same way as their predecessors” The A230 is lower rez and lacks live view, the A330 is similar but adds live view, and the A380 takes all that and jacks the rez up to boot. The upgrades are pretty benign, almost painfully incremental, and you can read about them best over at DCResource, so I’ll skip them for now and talk about the truly exciting bits.
One: Sony’s recent announcement about regretting a closed system in their music market seems to be splashing over to other divisions as well, as these new Sony’s embrace the increasingly ubiquitous SD format. OK, they still take their proprietary MemoryStick format, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. But, SD is a good move. Good for them! Hey Oly, I love you, but nudge nudge already.
Two: Sony appears to be on a mission to find the bottom of the market. The new A230? Reportedly MSRP will be about $550 with a lens. Now that’s cheap. Real cheap. Like the budgie cheap. And, all three are available with a second lens for a clean 200 buck upgrade. Not bad.
Three: In a refreshing move, Sony hasn’t complied with the “Black! Make it black! It must be black all other colors are cheap!” chant you hear on the forums, and these cameras have a nice, techy two-tone look, like that gunmetal and carbon-fiber look of the A330 there. And I’ve seen pictures of it in eye-rending bronze, too. But, they aren’t your norm, and I applaud that. Go on, buck the system, Sony. And keep doing it, I’m behind you if nothing else.
Oh yeah, there some lenses and a flashannounced to. One of them is a 50mm f1.8 prime, for you prime fanatics out there (and there do seem to be more and more of you these days). More on those as I get it myself, but they look to be all in the lower-end of the line-up.
OK, so, we’ve got some local classes and events here in the Indianapolis area coming up that I need to let you all know about so you can come out here for them:
First off, those of you looking to get into working with compact strobes and who happen also to be Canonistas are in luck, we have Mary Mannix coming out to Carmel on May 8th to give a lecture on Canon Speedlites. Actually, since a lot of the modern flash technology is similar for every system, even you Nikonians and weirdos like Nick and I could walk away with some useful info that’s readily applied to our systems. Sony people, I’m sorry, I’m not familiar enough with your flash system to know if this also holds true for you. I’ll brush up on that today, I don’t like slighting any system like that. (Cost for this class is 10 bucks a person)
Speak of you Sony people, if any of you have recently purchased an Alpha 200, 300, or 350 (like this sweet bundle here), or intend to before May 16, then you get to come to our introductory class for that series of cameras free. If you didn’t get your Alpha from us, come on out anyway, $25 reserves you a seat and we’ll be covering the basics of how to set the camera up and what the controls are for. This is just a gear class, though, so we won’t be priming you any on exposure and what-not.
Learn more about all our classes and upcoming events at the links below:
A350 Bundle
So, here’s a great idea. Take a solid offering, such as, oh, the A350 from Sony, and then make it a whole, complete, no headches package for the beginner by throwing in the two standard zooms, and to finish the deal, they throw in the vertical grip (harken back to here).
I want more gestures like this. I liked Olympus’ E-3 bundle with the 12-60mm and the essentially free flash. I like this. Barring a bag and a spare battery, this is the quintessential jump-start kit for someone looking to gear up in nothing flat. And, while the A350′s control scheme isn’t my favorite (am I the only one who was sad wehn Sony dropped the dual command dial approach they used on the A100?), it’s definitely hard to argue with the picture quality it spits out. And, if you’re coming from a point-and-shoot, the A350 will have the most satisfying live view for you (although for you studio pros you might find it a little defecient, tricky thing that line companies are walking on how liveview should work.)
Anyway, you get the idea. Convenient bundles = good, gimme more, help us out and buy some of this one. I think that covers it all.
As a soon to be proud owner of my third Olympus digital camera, I would say I am a fan of their products (I’m no Derek Martin, but who is). I have on order an Olympus E-420, the updated version of the E-410′s which we still have in stock. Here is what’s next.
Yesterday David Linsell our regional Olympus digital camera representative was in the store with one of the newest Olympus offerings. The E30 is a really cool camera, far more advanced than my soon to be model. The E-30 has some very cool Art mode settings, and still features one of the most comprehensive LCD information screens in the industry. Of the many other advances and upgrades the E-30 offers are some cool ones that are fairly unique. The E-30 will allow in camera multiple exposures of at least 4 images that you can compose right on the LCD in the Live View Mode!
If I had to do some quick digital camera comparisons I would say that Olympus has the best live view, the Alpha line of Sony digital cameras are very close, and then everybody else falls a little short. The Nikon digital SLR cameras “that have live view” are slowed down considerably when it is in use as are the Pentax and Canon digital SLR cameras, and then there are focusing issues with the last three on my list. The Sony and Olympus cameras still focus quickly and accurately in live view, a real plus that makes live view fun and practical instead of just a “need to” option. A few models of Olympus and Sony digital SLR’s (Sony’s Alpha 300 and Alpha 350, Oly’s E-30) have pivoting or even rotating and swiveling LCD screens.
Another Olympus plus is memory card versatility, Olympus digital SLR cameras, even the baby DSLR the 410-420 take both the Olympus style xD cards, and compact flash cards, and you can select between the cards at will.
Who knows maybe my next Olympus digital camera will be a E-30. Heck maybe that will be your next Olympus Digital Camera too.
