Review Sony Alpha 700 - features review and test photos made with the A700. The Sony Alpha 700 is a fine camera for true demanding professional photography with all adjustments at a fingertip.

My new Sony Alpha 700 is a replacement for my previous Alpha 100 that had a sudden defect in the CCD Sensor showing a dark spot of some 50px diameter.

White Stargazer flower - Photo Sony Alpha 700

Since I am more than happy with Sony digital cameras since 1998 and even more satisfied with the new generation of DSLR cameras, my choice was to upgrade to the high end - hence I got the alpha 700. The price is of no concern, the camera in the Philippines was some 2100 US$ - my Carl Zeiss lenses are far more expensive than the camera. The only criteria is and remains quality of images produced by a professional level DSLR camera.

My first impression after some 3000 pictures taken during the Flower Festival Baguio City 2008 is shown in hundreds of published photos. Here below a few links to photos taken with the A700:

1. Flower festival
2. Tropical garden photos - below in THIS article you find an example of white balancing effects needed for this album.
3. Street dancing - flower girls - action photos
4. Flower festival - Grand parade action photos - a display of the much faster picture capability by the A700 vs the earlier A100 !

Here in this brief article I may emphasize on a few very personal testimonies for the handling and some technical features new to the Alpha 700 vs the earlier A100.

• The A700 is much faster than any previous model - enabling excellent action photography. Continuous shooting allows up to 5 images per second in fine mode - a little less in my preferred extra fine mode!
• Many more features helpful in professional photography
• Larger and easier to overview menu for all standard settings
• In addition to the permanent settings adjusted in the camera menu - you have at a true fingertip within easy range of index finger and thumb a full instant control and adjustment option for temporary camera setting changes. Small buttons allow easy ON/OFF or modifications of menu settings. A feature I highly appreciated for my first 3 weeks of flower festival photography !!
• Higher resolution of the now 12 Megapixel resulting in finer details of pictures taken
• The 3000 test photos I made were in most difficult light conditions: Heavy clouds most of the time, some photos taken under plastic roof distorting natural color and light temperature. High altitude with different light temperature than sea level. White balance was utmost welcome to safe my photo sessions! See below examples.
• The A700 focuses before touching the shutter release - making picture taking / preparation much faster than before. Actually the camera always is instantly ready to shoot when ever you keep aiming the lense toward the object. I love that additional time gain - specially for action photos!

These above are my most important improvements noticed, there definitely may be many more depending on the type of photography made. I love the easy access of all temporary settings by push buttons. For each major menu setting is a button within truly easy range of either index finger or thumb without losing hold of the camera itself! The settings then are changed by the small "joystick" up / down - left / right. All in a matter of a second or 2 when ever needed by a special light condition!

The 12 Megapixel of course results in a much larger file size than the 10 Megapixel of the A100. My average photos by the A100 have been in the range of 3-4 MB. The Alpha 700 pictures usually have a file size in JPG format of approximately 8-13 MB and in raw format some 18MB.

As a result of much increased file size for my preferred JPG file format I immediately purchased the camera with 2 ( TWO ) 8 GB Sony memory sticks and of course a second rechargeable battery pack. With this combination I get power for 800-1000 photos on saved on both memory sticks together - i.e. approx 400 pictures maximum per 8 GB memory stick. Of course the number of pictures per 8GB memory varies with the colors of photos taken. If you prefer raw file format or the combination of raw format PLUS JPG format, then you may need much more memory than a.m. In my many years photo experience 800-1000 photos per day may require a lot of concentration and be enough in most cases.

However - during the flower festival parade I used most of the time continuous shooting - mode and made some 4-6 photos at a time for each scenery. In action photography, sports, recreation or animal photography using continuous shooting may very fast fill your 8 GB memory stick in far less than an hour. If such kind of photography is your specialty, then you may need several fast 8GB Sony memory sticks and several battery packs according to your action sceneries you love to photograph.

My initial experience with the Sony A700 was mostly done under very difficult light conditions. Baguio City is in the Philippine mountains at an altitude of some 1600 mtrs above sea level. Hence naturally the light temperature in degree Kelvin is different in tropical altitude than in non-tropical latitudes or at sea level. Even worst, most of the days have been dark cloudy. Even worst the garden exhibit for my Tropical flower garden photos has been covered with an undefined, weird and dirty looking plastic roof without proper optical light characteristics in mind. The light under that plastic roof was weird to say the least. Here the original photo of the winning garden as taken by the A700 without additional light correction.

Auto white balance

Flower garden photo auto white balance - Sony A700

Manual white balance

Flower garden photo manual white balance - S. Alpha 700

White balance may be needed to compensate for:

1. Artificial light
2. Light conditions under artificial roofs absorbing part of the natural light and thus distorting the colors
3. High altitude photography or noon time photography as well as photography in tropical latitudes
4. To create special color effects

Typical day time light temperature is in the range of 5400 degree Kelvin. Sunset / sunrise may be in the range of 2000 degree Kelvin and high altitude, tropical noon time or artificial light conditions such as in my tropical flower garden situation may have a light temperature of 10'000 degrees or higher.

The human eye has a "memory" of how things need to look. Just like in Under Water photography where colors appear more and more bluish on film but the SCUBA diver still seems to see all true colors, the situation under this plastic roof was comparable. To human eye all colors appeared brilliant. The camera however sees all very technically as shown in the first example of above auto white balance. Colors at higher light temperature appear more and more cold, hard, bluish - colors at lower light ( color ) temperatures appear softer, warmer. For nicest colors in nature photography in tropical islands I always prefer the time from 8-10AM morning and 1500-1700 hrs afternoon.

If you have no choice and no control over the existing light during the time of photography, then white balance helps you to re-adjust available light to normal human perception. This will store a color temperature in your camera that comes closest to normal human eye perception of a scenery.

I enjoy my new camera all over - and thus found nothing negative to state. While I still have plenty of pictures from my A100 to process and publish, all newest pictures now will be made by the A700 in combination with my Carl Zeiss lenses.

Enjoy

Love and bliss

hans