11/2/08
Looks like I’ve wrapped up work on the A900 review. Check out the latest entry, which is a comparison of results between Sony’s Image data converter SR 3, and Adobe’s Lightroom 2.1 with ACR 4.6. I will say that Lightroom is light years ahead of Sony when it comes to RAW processing. Check out the last comparison on the page and see how a JPEG with a little negative exposure compensation looks better than a RAW conversion using IDC. Go to the bottom of the page to check out all this and more. The page is long and may take awhile to load, so dial-up users please be patient.
Thoughts about the Sony A900. My sensor is already dirty, time for a cleaning. No dust reduction on the A900, though it didn’t seem to work on my A700. Funny, but I’ve never looked at the top mounted LCD, not even once while out shooting! Could it go the way of the eye start auto-focus?
Initially, I thought I’d be using the A700 for most normal work, and the A900 for real important stuff. That’s changed now. The A900 focuses more accurately, but not by much, and the weight and size differences are negligible. I also like the fact that I have plenty of room for cropping an image, though file sizes are awfully large. The differences between telephoto and macro shots are slim, (see review) so why be concerned with two cameras? The viewfinder is great, it’s also slightly brighter than my Maxxum 7000, probably due to the focus screen. You don’t notice just how great it is until you go back and look through your APS-C model!
Obviously, I’m still using the A700 for lens reviews, and I have a load of reviews coming up which will include the full frame results.