By: Erik Vlietinck
Fri, May 09, 2008 - 8:22:00

This article is meant to show you how a Sony ALpha 700 digital SLR camera can be used effectively in a cross-media publishing environment to create images for the web and for print. The assumption we made is that a small publisher uses a semi-professional photographer / employee for shooting images of objects or doing basic photo journalism in-house. The Sony Alpha 700 was chosen for a reason.

There are plenty dSLRs in the market, and some of them have an established name --Canon and Nikon come to mind. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t any cameras out there that can’t compete with these two best-known brands. While most photographers will agree the quality of both Canon and Nikon lenses depend on the range you are buying --only their expensive range is good enough for professional work-- not all commercial photographers will agree on whether the quality of those lenses is really good. Most photographers, however, will agree that Zeiss lenses are excellent.

Zeiss lenses comes for camera such as Sinar large format cameras and Hasselblad medium-format bodies. Except for the Minolta and Sony lenses the Alpha 700 can accept, the Sony Alpha range of cameras is the only dSLR range of cameras that accepts Zeiss lenses especially made for them. The lens is only one aspect of integrating a dSLR in a publishing workflow.

Robust Body, First-grade Lenses

For the use we are contemplating, the camera body should be robust enough to handle a normal usage pattern with occasional “bursts” of intensive work. Our workflow set-up doesn’t require the robustness a professional commercial or reporting photographer could need. And even then, the Sony Alpha 700 has a magnesium body with aluminium alloy chassis and controls sealed against dust and moisture. Some criticism has it that the camera looks like it’s all made of plastic, but the reality is metal alloy.

The build of the body of the Alpha 700 makes this camera sturdy enough for the purposes of our test set-up, while the lenses are among the best available in the market. This article does not take into account personal preferences, evangelism, or even taste, because those “qualities” cannot be discussed; they’re strictly personal.

The Alpha 700 with SAL-2470Z 24-70mm F2.8 ZA SSM Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* zoom lens is used in my “model” for quickly creating a photo reportage or object shots that can be use as mock-up images. Some small publishers in Europe actually work this way, so it’s not as esoteric as you would be inclined to think.

The cost of an Alpha 700 body is about 1,250.00 EUR. The Sony SAL-2470Z 24-70mm F2.8 ZA SSM Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* zoom lens costs some 1,640.00 EUR.

This camera system would be more costly than a Canon EOS 40D with an average lens, but less expensive than a the same Canon with a top-of-the-range lens. 

Benefits for the user would be that he can use the Alpha 700 in tethered mode, so photos would be downloaded into his Mac directly and immediately. Another advantage --especially if most images would be under light-controlled circumstances (such as a studio)-- is that there are three custom white balance settings you can save in the Alpha 700’s memory and three pre-defined settings that are accessible from the Program button.

The Alpha 700 has even more flexibility than this. If required, it can be operated from a remote distance using the included infrared remote control. But there’s more. At special events, the camera can be used to display images taken in real-time on a HD television with a HDMI port. This can also be useful with presentations.

In short, the Alpha 700 can be effectively used in a small publishing company for image creation both for print and web.