Added dynamic range analysis from ACR 4.6 beta processed RAW file to Imatest Results. The Sony A900 did exceptionally well!
Update 12/11/08: Added RAW crops/files with no NR to Hi ISO NR page. You can also download the ISO 1600-6400 Still Life RAW files with NR turned Off from the thumbnails page.
The Sony A900 has to rank among the most anticipated digital SLRs in recent memory. The company first showed an early version of its upcoming flagship design at the Photo Marketing Association tradeshow in the spring of 2007, and at the following year's show Sony revealed a few more details about the image sensor and stabilization mechanism it would use. With the Alpha A900 featuring a full 35mm frame-sized image sensor, Sony has joined a rather exclusive club. To date only four companies have offered full-frame digital SLRs. Of these, two - Contax and Kodak - have since left the digital SLR market altogether.
That leaves Sony in a head-to-head battle with the two giants of the photographic industry - Canon and Nikon. Each rival offers two full-frame digital SLRs - a mid-range model at around $3000 MSRP, and a pro model for double to triple as much. Sony looks to have rather stirred up the status quo by pricing its flagship at around the same as its competitors' mid-range models, but offering a specification that seems to lie somewhere in between the competing mid-range and pro models -- and in some cases such as sensor resolution, actually leads the field. The Sony Alpha A900 has a whopping 24.6-megapixel resolution from its full-frame Exmor CMOS image sensor -- the highest sensor resolution of any 35mm digital SLR yet announced. To handle all the data produced by the high-resolution imager, the Sony DSLR-A900 uses dual Bionz image processors, and this allows for five frames-per-second shooting for up to 11 JPEG or 13 RAW frames.
The sensor is mounted on a moving platter that allows for in-camera image stabilization, branded as SteadyShot Inside. That's another world's first for a full-frame digital SLR, and it's no mean feat when you consider that the sensor shift mechanism has to deal with the extra weight of a full-frame sensor. The various DSLRs seen to date that feature sensor shift stabilization all have significantly smaller 1.6x crop sensors. Sony rose to the challenge by designing a new more powerful sensor shift mechanism, and rates the Alpha DSLR-A900 as good for a 2.5 to 4-stop improvement.
The Sony DSLR-A900's body is constructed from five main magnesium alloy sections, and includes sealing to reduce ingress of moisture between the body panels, as well as at the various control dials and buttons. The Sony A900 has a Sony Alpha lens mount that also accepts Konica and Konica Minolta glass. A large pentaprism sits above the lens mount, both dictating the camera body's workmanlike visual aesthetic, and providing a very large and bright TTL optical viewfinder with 0.74x magnification. The rear panel features a large 3-inch LCD display with 921,600 dot resolution, equating to VGA (640 x 480) pixel with three R, G and B dots per pixel. This is used solely for reviewing of images, as well as for menus and status display; the Sony Alpha DSLR-A900 doesn't offer live view capability. There's also a small top-panel status LCD which indicates remaining shots and battery life, as well as the basic exposure variables.
The Sony Alpha A900 offers ISO sensitivity from 200 to 3,200 equivalent, but is expandable to ISO 100 to 6,400 equivalent. Shutter speeds range from 30 to 1/8000 second, plus a bulb setting, and x-sync is 1/250 second (or 1/200 second when SteadyShot is enabled). Metering is achieved by a 40-segment honeycomb sensor, and you can also choose from center-weighted or spot metering modes. Focusing is achieved courtesy of a a nine-point phase detection autofocus system with f/2.8 dual center cross sensor, and there are also ten supplemental AF-assist points arranged adjacent to the main AF points. There's no built-in flash in the Sony A900, with the design instead offering a hot shoe and PC flash sync terminal to cater for external flash strobes and lighting setups.
The Sony Alpha DSLR-A900 has dual flash card slots, and hence can store images on either CompactFlash Type-I or Type-II cards (including Microdrives), or on Memory Stick Duo cards. The Sony A900 draws its power from a proprietary NP-FM500H InfoLithium rechargeable battery that's rated for about 880 shots per charge, to CIPA testing standards. Connectivity options include both USB 2.0 High Speed for computer connection, and both standard and high definition video. For standard-def, there's NTSC / PAL switchable composite video output, while high-def is achieved via an HDMI connection.
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