By: Erik Vlietinck
Mon, November 05, 2007 - 7:47:00

http://www.sony.co.uk/view/ShowProductCategory.action?site=odw_en_GB&category=DSS+Digital+SLR
Score:

I have been the proud and enthusiastic owner of a Sony Alpha 700 --at least for two weeks. This new digital SLR camera by Sony is a 12.2 megapixel dSLR which has the power, quality of build, and feature set, to compete with the Canon EOS 30D heads-on. The Sony Alpha 700 is somewhat bigger in size than its predecessor, and a good deal heavier, but those are good things. The camera feels more stable, more robust, and is all those things. The only downside I could find: less battery stamina.

The first thing that you will notice about the Alpha 700 is the size. It’s a tad smaller than a Canon EOS 5D. The second thing that you’ll notice is weight. With its magnesium body, the Sony Alpha 700 doesn’t weigh too much, but it does feel a lot sturdier than the Alpha 100. As you start using the Alpha 700, other things become apparent: the LCD screen is exceptionally bright and sharp.

It is much sharper than that of the Alpha 100 and can actually be used to determine whether a shot was successful or not. The LCD’s high resolution also allows you to see three separate histograms and still get a good idea of what the photo looks like. 

What's on the Menu?

The Menu system is the next big improvement. Usually, I find menus on electronic devices all but efficient. The Sony Alpha 700 is an exception to this rule. The LCD is so clear, bright and detailed, the menu system didn’t require me to wear my reading spectacles when I had to set the camera to my liking.

Buttons --and there are lots of them, now-- are all where they are supposed to be, and they don’t get in your way no matter what sort of images you take. Optionally there is a vertical hand grip with extra battery power, and buttons that are repeated so you can easily manipulate this camera under all circumstances.

I tested the Sony Alpha 700 with in the back of my mind a commercial photographer and a photo reporter. Commercial work often requires the camera to be used in tethered mode and with remote control capabilities. Out of the box, the Sony Alpha 700 comes with both functionalities present. The remote control --that will operate the camera in “showing” mode when it’s connected to a TV-- has a shutter button, and the USB cable allows you to control the Alpha 700 right from the desktop.

I expected Sony’s software to be Leopard incompatible, and was happily surprised to find that the software suite worked like a charm on Leopard. The software is just enough for photographers who haven’t worked digitally before. Most Alpha 700 buyers will have something more high-end, I suppose. The Remote Control software is required, however, when you want to use the camera tethered.

The previous test that I did of Sony camera equipment, was a review of two of Sony’s Zeiss lenses. I tested both the zoom lens and the 85 mm portrait lens. I found both of them to be extraordinary value for the money, although they weren’t exactly cheap. But the depth of field control I was able to get from the Zeiss 85 mm was nothing less than mind boggling.

The downside of the extremely large aperture the Zeiss allows you to use, was a bit of lens vignetting, but I’ve seen that even on Hasselblad lenses. The Alpha 700 came with Sony’s new zoom lens, a 16-105 mm lens with apertures from 3.5 to 5.6. I was very curious to see how this lens would perform. And I was surprised to see that in terms of clarity, sharpness and colour accuracy, the new lens is almost as good as the Zeiss. The only thing that’s less is the depth of field, because the Zeiss was capable of f1.8!

The Sony Alpha 700 comes with two adjustment wheels, which you can set up as you like. I set up my test unit so that in Manual mode the top wheel would adjust aperture and the horizontal wheel would adjust shutter speed. The wheels are but one example of the ergonomic advances Sony has made with this camera model.

Speaking of shutter speeds: the shutter that has been certified for up to 100,000 shots if I’m not mistaken, has a nice fastest speed of 1/8000 of a second. That’s really fast and it is great if you’re into action photographing. The ISO setting allowed me to set the Alpha 700 to up to 6400 ISO (not 3200 as it was mentioned before). The screenshots show you the quality difference between various settings, but we will surely all agree that ISO 800 really is the upper limit for the camera.