Camera Labs has posted a review of the new Sony Alpha A700 digital SLR. This camera gives you 12.2 megapixels on an APS-C sized sensor, in-camera image stablization (improved over what was in the Sony A100), a new high resolution (640×480) 3 inch LCD display, and HDMI output for viewing on high definition televisions.
In their outdoor image comparison test, the review shows the A700 giving pretty similar sharpness results as the Canon 40D:
It’s immediately clear from the crops below that using their default JPEG settings, the Canon EOS 40D is applying greater sharpening than the Sony A700. The Sony crops appear noticeably softer in comparison, but if you increase the in-camera sharpening or apply sharpening through software later, the results can look very similar. It’s interesting given Sony’s reputation for vibrant image processing to opt for a somewhat toned-down approach on the A700, perhaps targeting more serious photographers who expect to post-process.
As for actual detail captured, the Sony A700 enjoys a very slight edge here at its lowest sensitivity, but it makes very little difference in real-life situations like these.
In the studio image comparison, the A700 shows very good resolution, coming pretty close to what the Canon 5D achieves:
In our studio resolution tests, the Sony Alpha DSLR-A700 fitted with the Carl Zeiss 16-80mm delivered 2350 and 2400 lpph of horizontal and vertical resolution respectively. This places it ahead of every 10 Megapixel DSLR we’ve tested and roughly neck in neck with Canon’s EOS 5D — even when the 5D was tested with a prime lens.
We’d expect the A700 to resolve a similar amount of detail to the EOS 5D at its lowest sensitivities though as both share essentially the same resolution and at low ISOs, noise hasn’t yet come into play. However as you’ll see on our A700 noise results, the EOS 5D retains a comfortable edge at higher sensitivities.
Interestingly, their resolution chart test images had a surprising amount of moire artifacts when shot RAW and converted with the Sony Image Data Converter 2.0. The images looked much better when converted in Adobe Camera Raw, although they found that the Sony software gave better results on their outdoor image test. So complicated!
They go on to test the ISO noise and detail performance, and find that the Sony is pretty close to the Canon 40D and 5D at ISO 100, and reasonably close but not as good at higher ISO levels:
As with our first results page, the A700′s crops appear softer than those from the Canon bodies, although much of this is due to lower in-camera sharpening. If you increase the in-camera sharpening level or apply sharpening later, the A700′s results here at lower sensitivities can look remarkably close to those from the Canon bodies.
Of course sharpening can only work if there’s detail captured in the first place and as the sensitivity increases, the A700 gives you less to play with. Things look good up to 400 ISO, but at 800 and 1600 ISO, pixel peepers will notice a familiar Sony noise reduction strategy kicking-in, producing a slight water-colour effect on the finest detail. You can see this on the foliage and blossom areas which appear slightly smudged compared to the Canons.
This is serious pixel-peeing though and is unlikely to affect most people. Ultimately the A700 delivers good performance across its sensitivity range, although it’s clear the full-frame sensor of the Canon EOS 5D retains a comfortable edge at higher sensitivities. With both cameras set to 100 ISO and the sharpening of the A700 increased though, the results can be very close.
In the end, the reviewer doesn’t understand the lack of wifi and live view, and would have liked to have a second status LCD screen (although it seems like more and more manufacturers are leaving those off, sadly.) They also point out that while it is an excellent camera, there are some issues to consider about buying into Sony’s system:
Sony’s done a great job of launching Alpha with a decent array of rebadged and new lenses, but few focus as quickly or quietly as Canon’s USM or Nikon’s SWM models. Take a look at some of our video reviews of Canon, Nikon and Sony lenses and you’ll see and hear what we mean. Sony still claims its own quick and quiet SSM technology is only appropriate for high-end telephotos, but few would argue it wouldn’t also be desirable on their general-purpose models.
It’ll also be interesting to see how much of an advantage the A700’s built-in anti-shake will be for a target market with more to spend –– semi-pro photographers may not baulk at buying image stabilised lenses and may also prefer seeing their stabilising effect through the optical viewfinder.
They give the camera an 87% rating when compared to other mid-range DSLRs from 2007. Be sure to check out the original article for the full review, a video tour, and several sample photos (resized but with a few 100% crops of detail areas.)
