Alpha 350

[rongarrett]

I was just notified that the A350 I have had on order has shipped. Should be here maybe on Thursday. I will post when it arrives and first impressions. I'm really not qualified for a review, but have promised John my opinion on this camera as soon as I can get a little shutter time.

[rongarrett]

I've only had five minutes shutter time with the A350. My first impression when unpacking the camera was that is was very plasticky. Thump it and get that hollow plastic sound. Second impression: this is a small camera. People with small hands will love it. Third impression was how thick it was for the small size, Ala H5. I might reassess my opinion that it is too small for my hand when I get the battery pack. I have big hands {can reach all the way accross a typewriter keyboard with one hand.}. I got the kit lens until I make up my mind to keep the camera, {right now I'm impressed, read more}.

I had planned to get the Carl Zeiss 24 - 70 F/2.8 lens for it. Without the battery grip that lens will overpower this camera. I may go with the smaller 16 - 20 Zeiss lens. I want to reassess this comment once I get the battery grip. With a 50mm F/1.4 lens I could almost envision putting this camera in a large coat pocket. I surely would not mind walking around all day with it.

Took some pictures with it. boy was I surprised. Those images did not look like they came from a placticy camera. One was particularly eye popping. The late evening sun was coming in betwen the tree branches and alighting on the front of the studio. I don't know if I have ever taken such a "perfect" image before. Yeah, I won't mind walking around with this camera.

Surpriseingly, the images looked exceptionally clean. No noise visable what-so-ever even though it was getting late. Also took a picture inside under flourescent lights that showed no noise. If the Carl Zeiss lens improves things, {and I bet it will}, I have my flower / landscape / walk around camera.

Menu is simple, simple, simple. Each button brings up several different functions on the rear lcd. Click the one you want, set it, and you're done. It will take fine j-pegs until the card fills up. The shutter is loud though.

View finder looks bigger than I thought it would. Haven't done any testing there though.

I'll have more later. This is not intended as a review, but just my reaction to the way I use a camera.

I do not use in camera flash hardly ever, so that will be the last thing I comment on.

For sure, Sony has a winner here.

[rongarrett]

Almost forgot. Focus surprised me. It is almost as fast with the kit lens as most of my Nikon AFS lenses. The Zeiss 24 - 70 F2.8 is a SS lens. If it it much faster than the lowly kit lens, I will be in hog heaven.

[rongarrett]

Update: I have added to the Alpha 350. I have very large hands. The 350 just felt too small and light from what I am used to. I added the battery grip which holds two batteries, {and doubles number of shots}. Very impressed with the battery grip. It actually has more of the quality rubber material than the camera. The shape of the grip when in portrait mode is, in my opinion, better designed than when turned to landscape mode. The camera now feels right and has some heft, which adds to ones ability to hold the camera still.

I also added the Carl Zeiss 16-80 F3.5-4.5 lens. I have only taken a couple of images with it, but I am also impressed with this lens. The 16-80 took a lot of flak from various sources on the internet when it first came out. A few had nothing but praises for it. So far I am one that is singing the praises. It is two or three steps above the kit lens. I have many pro lenses of different brands, but none of them give any better results , {except that pro lenses are usually faster than the 16-20. It is not a SSM lens. This does not bother me for the intended use. The zoom is a little stiff, but I prefer that also on a non SSM lens. No zoom creep at all so far. Resolution is just short of spectacular on the A350. This lens does the 14.2 mp justice. IQ is very high. I have not noticed any color fringing at all.

All in all, I have found my landscape, carry around, general purpose outfit, {kit if you are from England}. If this is any sign of things to come, Canon and Nikon better watch out.

[rongarrett]

Tried the battery grip in portrait mode this morning. Worked flawlessly. Info in viewfinder does not flip with the change to portrait.

Live view works as advertised. No slow down or blackout. It was nice to take a picture of something close to the ground without having to lay on my belly. How in the world did all the other camera mfg miss how simply this works? At 6' 4" the live view will be welcome to keep me from bending over so far while using a tripod.

I have a trip to Callaway Gardens planned for next month when the flowers start coming in. It being only 15 miles from me is convienient. I plan to give this camera a real workout then.

[rongarrett]

Update 4/11/08: {just after Callaway Gardens trip}.
I did not do any scientific side by side tests, but I get the definite feeling that DRO {dynamic range optomizer} does not work as well on the Alpha 350 as on the Nikon D300, {I shot both on this trip}. I am going to try center weighted metering and meter off the highlights and see if things improve. The Sony wasn't bad, just not as good as the D300, which is also better than my D2x. I use spot metering most of the time on the D2x. The weather man called for rain, which is my favorite to photograph flowers in. I just wait for a lull, and then shoot away. What I got was a hot, bright, windy day which made things tough.

I shot with the saturation at 3, contrast at 2 for awhile. Colors were over saturated sometimes, so I dropped back to 2 and 1 with very pleasing results. {Vivid mode}

The 16 - 80 Zeiss is almost a macro lens. I took some very satisfying closeup images of flowers with it.

[rongarrett]

UPDATE: 4/28/08................. Battery life
As stated in above post, I use a battery grip with this camera. Just got back from the NHRA Southern Nationals. I took 1600 images while shooting continiously for seven hours. Four hunderd of those images were taken with the A350. The battery meter showed 28% charge left in the camera. That would put it far short of the 1500 or so I expected. The camera was not turned off during this seven hour time period. I was shooting with two other cameras and picked up the one I wanted to use for each class of racing. Things went very fast, with only very short breaks once in a while,so none of the cameras was turned off during this shoot. It would seem that only half capacity or so would be realized in this circumstance.

I was shooting in shutter priority at 1600 to stop the action. The Zeiss 16-80 F3.5 - 4.5 was the lens of choice. This camera is slow by sports requirements at 2.5 FPS. Even so, I was very pleased with the results. Only a few of the images recorded were not in focus. It stood up well under the demands I put it through.

[rongarrett]

UPDATE #2 4/28/08 : If you can use live view, and............... you find yourself a little short on lens, and.............. you can accept a 7mp image, then just push the zoom button and the camera instantly crops the sensor so that the same effect as adding a 1.4 tele converter is supplied, {not the same as digital zoom in point and shoots where blurring takes place}. With the second push of the zoom switch, a 4mp image same as using a 2x tele converter is realized. The third push takes you back to uncropped and 14mp. Brilliant!
UPDATE #3 4/28/08 : There are three focus area choices, "wide", "spot", and "local". If choosing "local" the four way switch controls the focus area. It stays this way anytime you are shooting. Gave me fits before I realized this as my hands are big and I kept bumping the four way switch, which made the focus area change, {left, right}, {up, down}. I usually use spot anyway, {except for action shooting}. So if you are a clutz like me, use "wide" or "spot".

[rongarrett]

Ron's first tip of the day:

I lost the lens cap to my Zeiss 16 - 80 lens at the event I just shot. Couldn't find where to order it on the "Sony Style" site. Took two days for Customer Service to get back to me and inform me they could not find it either, but to contact their parts dept. Parts dept got back to me same day. It took about 2 minutes for me to complete the order. New lens cap on the way!

[rongarrett]

ACCOLADES TO SONY: I just received the replacement lens cap. Outstanding service! I really don't like going around with no lens cap. Four day turnaround that included customer service with two of those days in simply awesome. I just got thru waiting four months for a Nikon part.

After 1000 images on the A350, I have concluded it over exposes a mite. I lowered the exposure 2/3 stop and started seeing just how good that Zeiss lens is.

Used the flash for fill in today on some flower shots. The flash cycles as fast as I could pull the trigger, {single shot mode}. That be outstanding too.

[WingShooterz]

How about posting some pictures taken with the 350

[rongarrett]

My first promise to my customers is that they will never see one of my images floating around on the web. Image piracy has become almost uncontrollable on the internet. I deal in low volume large format images, usually pre mounted and framed. I do sell CD'S that are made with a program that is almost impossible to be copied.

I am also working on a book on the wildlife at a nearby reservoir. Only way to view these images is to buy the book.

Therefore I must decline to post images.

Maybe someone who does not operate under these restrictions with an A350 will oblige?

I will be glad to share what meager knowledge I have with anyone needing assistance.

[Canuck935]

Understandable, but there are ways to share without too much worry. I don't have clients as you do and I certainly don't have anything published, but I pretty much had the same policy about putting photo's on the net. Then I found flickr. In the account settings you can restrict who can copy or download your images. It even blocks right click -> save as with a blank gif. Now you can share your images without worry!

It doesn't work though if you link to your flickr image, so if you posted one directly into the forum it would be copyable. Though you don't have to post full res images or anything. 500 pixels on the long side is fine, and makes the photo pretty much useless to anyone who wants to copy. Plus if you really wanted you could watermark the snot out of it too.

Anywho... It has been nice to read about your experience with the a350. Thanks!

[rongarrett]

I have an associate that had a watermarked image copied and showed up on someone elses blog, watermark and all. Same goes on Flikr, some have lost images there too, although I am not familar with exact details.

I use Pro Show Producer for my CD'S. They use I think three different safeguards to make it very very difficult for the images to be copied. I might note here that there is NO sure fire way to keep DVD'S from offering up free copies. Except.......................... by subscribing to a service that costs thousands to access, {used on movie DVD'S}. However, protected CD'S will not work on most DVD players. The only way I sell DVD'S to unknown markets is for them to buy the picture package where they purchase the images, but in digital form.

Copyright issues are a much debated issue, and one that is ongoing. Another subject for another day.