Photography by Walt Sorensen

Recent News from the Walt Sorensen Photography Team

Sony has at last released their "Flagship" camera called the A900. Sorry, no review of the camera right now, I'm waiting for official Lightroom and Photoshop support before testing out the camera. In the mean time I will pass along my first impressions, and some of the specifications for the camera.

No surprise the A900 is a 35mm full frame DSLR camera boasting a powerful 24.6MP Exmor™ CMOS image sensor. This puts the camera in the same shooting gallery as Canon's announced 5D mark II which weights in at 21.1MP, and Nikon's new D700 pulling the bottom end at 12.1MP.

Sporting not one, but two, Image processors the A900 pumps out 5fps, smoking Canon's announced 5D mark II which gets only a meager 3.1fps and tied with Nikon's new D700.

As expected this "Flagship" camera is built around a more rugged magnesium frame and is environmentally sealed to protect the camera from all those "out and about" places we all like to roam to.

The shutter is rated at a meager 100,000 frames falling behind Canon's 5D mark II said to live to a ripe age of 150,000 frames .

The autofocus system in the A900 has improved focus precision when using lenses faster than F2.8 due to it's new highly accurate F2.8 autofocus sensor.

Like Nikon's new D700, the A900 can capture in the APS-C Size allowing for lenses designed for APS-C Sized sensors to be use. Canon's 5D mark II missed this APS-C Size shooting mark.

Sony creams Nikon and Canon with the continued SteadyShot INSIDE™ in-camera image stabilization, Every for Sony lens can be a stabilized lens. Good bye special image stabilization lenses. This is great for wide angle or macro lenses, thanks to in-camera image stabilization those lenses can be stabilized; Sorry Nikon and Canon you just don't have special image stabilization wide-angle or macro lenses.

Iso is disappointing on the A900, only up to 3200 and capping out at 6400 with expanded ISO this camera falls short to Nikon and Canon's competition which sport 6400 and two levels of expanded ISO topping off at 25600.

Sony now offers a hotshoe adapter for the A900 to allow use of third party flashes and wireless flash triggers. It's a necessary $130 accessory to bring the camera in line with other professional cameras.

Over all my conclusion is this is will be a great camera well adapted to professional needs with only 2 downsides, the ISO is not fast enough (a carry over complaint from the A100) and the required hotshoe adapter for use with wireless flash triggers.

I'm looking forward to getting my hands on one in early November 2008

Sony Flagship announced

It finally happened, Sony announced their Pro Camera is coming this year. I've been waiting for this for 2+ years.

Here is a quick rundown of the specs. shown off at the 2008 PMA photographic conference in Las Vegas

Full-Frame 24.81MP Exmor CMOS Chip
6.3-fps
in-camera image stabilisation otherwise known as Super Steady Shot
3.5-inch LCD screen on the back with 1MP of resolution
It will be available by the end of this year

The one Big Lack in Sony's line up will be Tilt-Shift lenses and the special Flash mount is a draw back. Once Sony gets Tilt-Shift lenses I will have to compare the system to Nikon and Canon more closely. As of yet I'll stick to Sony for straight shooting and Canon for all special shoots needing fast ISO or Tilt-Shift lenses.

Here is the press release from Sony about the chip

http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/200801/08-010E/index.html

more about the camera at dpreview

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0801/08013109sonypma.asp

Brolly Arts 07

Walt Sorensen was a contributing Artist at the 2007 Brolly Arts "Legend of Hidden Hollow" in Sugar House, Utah.

Walt Put together a unique outdoor installation of photography that combined sculpture and photography. Walt called the 27 piece instillation "Landscapes Including the Hand of Man." The sculptures were made from Paper lanterns of varying size with color or black and white photographs.

Images to come soon

Sony Pro Camera announced at PMA '07

Sony Recently Announced in March at the PMA show

Two new additions to the Sony Alpha line. These Two new Cameras are more advanced versions of the Alpha 100. One of the two cameras is called the Sony Flagship; from the tag in the glass case the camera was in we have these details about the flagship:

Flagship model

highest end product class A100 for professional users
high-level total picture quality achieved by newly developed image sensor and bionz processor
supersteady shot in-Camera stabilization
meets the demanding performance and and specification requirements of even professional photographers

From the Images we see the Alpha Flagship Model from Sony Will have a rear control dial and a PC sync. Two of the Biggest issues I have had with the old Alpha 100. Other Features, or the lack there of, include button controls to replace half of the dial controls, no pop-up flash (we hope they will release a wireless flash adaptor since the Alpha 100 uses the flash to control wireless flash) and a small front dial that appears to control Manual or programed modes.

the other camera is for "High-Amateurs" a Camera designed to give better performance then the Alpha 100, and targeted to advanced users.

Model for High Amateurs

targeted to a higher level of performance then A100 for advanced users
high-level total picture quality achieved by newly developed image sensor and bionz processor
supersteady shot in-Camera stabilization
meets the demanding performance and and specification requirements for high Amateur photographers

Both cameras were shown with attached vertical hand grips.

Little or no information came from Sony's Alpha Product Manager Mark Weir. Weir did comment that one of the two cameras will be released by the end of the year, but no word on which one.

There is no word about the release dates or additional details about the camera. http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/sony-alpha?view=full

see more pictures http://thephotostation.net/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/18952/cat/9757

Photoshop Hot-keys

To be faster you need to learn the shortcuts called hot-keys. These little gems allow you to move quickly from one tool or action to the next; without hunting for them in menus. The following is a short list of tool hot-key shortcuts in a ruff order of importance to learn.
Read more...

Sony Alpha 100

As some of you may know in my major 35mm film days I was a Minolta shooter. To this day I'm still shoot a 4x5 view camera or a Minolta 9xi when I shoot film. With my 20mm 2.8 and 50mm 2.8 macro as lenses of choice along with a sweet wireless flash setup with the best flashes Minolta made. The idea for using my old and well loved gear was something I've been looking at since last year when Sony got Konica/Minolta's camera line.

In August I randomly did a test of the camera while one of our other photographers tested the Nikon d200. (note these cameras are rumored to have the same 10.2MP Sony sensor) the tests we did in August left me a little disappointed with the bionz processing as we shot everything on the large Jpeg setting. Our conclusions at that time was; The Sony images showed more noise then the Nikon but was as sharp. I later ran the images through neat image, a Photoshop plug-in, the does a great job removing noise. The images were then as good as the Nikon images. But, why would I choose to get a camera the would require double processing? Simple; gear.

For the past year and a half I have been shooting a Canon 20D and have had mixed feelings about it. At the time I bought the camera I didn't buy an equivalent set of equipment to replace my full set of Minolta gear (that was a big mistake). When I Got the camera I was new to digital and bought only what I would need to do the most basic of jobs; relying on my film cameras for everything else. With in a year I had come to rely more and more on the digital cameras for speed, ease of use, and processing control.

I now commence with my opinions about the Sony Alpha 100 camera.