12/5/10
Landscape and interior shooters, now is your time! For all you landscape/interior shooters that are on a tight budget, and looking for a high resolution, cost effective, great performing camera outfit to buy today, look no further than the Sony full-frame A850, which is priced to sell (for $1899-$1999) at all legit outfits including my favorite; B&H photo. If you’ve been thinking of jumping to a Sony full-frame, now is the time. Don’t wait for a 30+mp camera that’s still on the drawing board, and might (or might not) be available in a year or two; the Sony A900/850 will be considered high-tech and formidable for several more years. Whenever I get out my (now two year old) A900 for a shoot, I’m still amazed at the resolution and overall image quality, especially when using a really good lens. Don’t worry about trivial things like “better” high ISO noise reduction, movie mode, HDR or any number of other foolish gimmicks, if you want a straight-forward camera, with great image quality, at a great price, the Sony A900/850 full-frame cameras fill that niche perfectly.
Another morsel of truth; unfortunately most people don’t realize it, but the (over three year old) A700 is still a very good camera, offering professional features and build quality that even the latest and greatest Sony DSLRs don’t have, and is still superior to the new a33/55 translucent mirror cameras in image quality, I’ll prove that to you in a few days with a comparison page.
Sony A850, now $1899 at B&H Photo and other places.
Low cost, but great performing lenses for Sony full-frame:
Sony 20mm F/2.8 $600 Great super wide-angle, but trim your focus at small apertures for best results.
Minolta AF 28mm F/2 $450-550 used. Great in daylight stopped down, but has strong coma with a wide aperture.
Minolta AF 35mm F/2 $500-600 used. Has same qualities as the 28mm F/2.
Sony 50mm F/1.4 $370 Very sharp across the frame from F/8-11, strong coma wide open.
Sony 85mm F/2.8 SAM $225 Very sharp across the image frame at F/8, but color fringing along the sides.
The lenses above have high quality optics, and are exceptional performers stopped down. They’ll make a very good match for a 25mp sensor. All are relatively inexpensive, and the Sony 20mm and 50mm can be purchased used, with a Minolta name, at sometimes half the cost of a new Sony!
If you’re on an extremely tight budget, look carefully at the Sony A850 and excellent Tamron AF 28-75mm F/2.8 zoom lens, (check price here), get both for around $2400.