Sony Alpha A900

	Controls Summary
• Standard auto and manual shooting modes supported • Three user-configurable custom settings available directly from mode dial • Intelligent Preview system innovative, but not enormously practical • Extensive, customizable selection of Creative Styles for tailoring image processing to shooting conditions • Dynamic range optimization system brings up shadow detail effectively, though noise increases
	Hardware	Page 10 of 18	Design & Handling

Shooting Modes (11.00)

The shooting mode selection is fairly stripped-down on the Sony A900, without any fancy choices meant to coddle newbies (or make it easier for you to hand your camera to a friend for the occasional snapshot). The Auto mode is a  bit unusual, since it provides a great deal of flexibility.

Shooting Modes
	Auto The camera sets shutter speed and aperture and sets other controls to their defaults, including single-shot mode, Auto ISO, Auto Flash, the Standard setting for Creative Style and D-Range Optimizer. The user isn't locked out of changing these settings, though: they are simply brought back to default values, and can be freely adjusted from there.
	Program Auto Exposure Mode Sets both shutter speed and aperture to create a balanced exposure. These values can be shifted in tandem by turning the front or rear control dial, maintaining the overall exposure setting while providing the flexibility of setting shutter speed or aperture for the desired photographic effect. Unlike Auto mode, user settings made in Program mode are retained from session to session, rather than returning to default values.
	Aperture-Priority Auto Exposure Mode The user sets the aperture value with the front or rear control dial, the camera sets a shutter speed to produce an acceptable exposure at the desired aperture. If there is no appropriate shutter speed to match the aperture setting, the shutter speed value flashes in the display.
	Shutter-Priority Auto Exposure Mode The user sets the desired shutter speed value using the front or rear control dial, the camera sets an appropriate aperture value to produce a well-exposed image. If no available aperture value will produce a proper exposure reading at the specified shutter speed, the shutter speed value blinks in the display.
	Manual Exposure Mode The user controls both shutter speed (front dial, by default) and aperture (rear dial). A meter display appears in the viewfinder and LCD panel to indicate the effect of changes to these settings. Manually set exposures can be shifted in tandem much like Program mode settings, in this case by holding the AEL button while rotating the front control dial.
	Manual with Bulb Unlimited exposures using the Bulb shutter speed selection are possible in Manual Exposure Mode, by rotating the front control dial until BULB is displayed in the viewfinder and on the LCD.
	Camera User Settings These three positions on the mode dial allow users to store favorite combinations of settings for quick access. These settings can include exposure mode, drive mode, ISO, white balance, exposure compensation, metering mode, focus mode, autofocus area selection and recording menu settings.

Live View (1.50)

Sony knows how to build SLRs with Live View — the company's A300 and A350 models have this feature — but it's notably Missing in Action on the A900. Frankly, we don't see this as an enormous problem. While we've found some situations where shooting with Live View is practical (particularly studio still life shots), we don't find ourselves using it very much in regular shooting situations.

However, Sony did strike out in a new direction with a feature called Intelligent Preview, which we haven't encountered before. The idea is that you capture a temporary image (it's a low-res RAW file) by pressing the Preview button located next to the lens, facing toward the grip. This image is then displayed on screen and you can make interactive adjustments  to the camera settings, including shtuter speed, aperture, exposure compensation, dynamic range optimization and white balance, previewing the effects of the changes on the LCD. In some ways this is kind of intriguing, particularly when it comes to the dynamic range features: we took a shot of a brightly lit computer screen against a dark curtain and saw the background detail suddenly emerge from complete obscurity when we changed the DR enhancement setting to its maximum level. The flip side, though, is that this on-screen tweaking is time-consuming, and the image you're fiddling with is a low-res preview that cannot be saved. For most adjustments, we'd just as soon take a lot of shots at a variety of settings and sort 'em out later. Given the fact that a 24.6-megapixel image shot with the A900 will take up over 20 megabytes in JPEG and a whopping 35 megabytes in RAW format, though, we can see where Intelligent Preview may have its place.

Scene Modes (0.00)

There are no scene modes on the Sony A900, in the traditional point-and-shoot sense, incorporating the full array of exposure and image style controls. Instead, there is a sophisticated Creative Styles function, which allows the shooter to choose from thirteen different image style combinations (incorporating color reproduction skew, contrast, saturation, sharpness and dynamic range enhancement), each of which is customizable. These settings are covered in depth in the Picture Effects section below.

Picture Effects (6.00)

The Creative Style system is Sony's way of creating packaged groups of settings to fit particular shooting conditions. The A900 is brimming with choices, 13 in all. Sony describes them as follows. Each is shown with a crop from our still life, shot in the specified mode, to show the real-world effect of the Creative Style.

Creative Styles
Standard For capturing various scenes with rich gradation and beautiful colors.	Vivid The saturation and contrast are heightened for capturing striking images of colorful scenes and subjects such as flowers, spring greenery, blue sky, or ocean views.	Neutral The saturation and sharpness are lowered for capturing images in a quiet tone. This is also suitable for capturing image material to be modified with a computer.
Clear For capturing images in a clear tone with limpid colors in the highlighted area, suitable for capturing radiant light.	Deep For capturing images with deep and dense color expressions, suited to capturing the solid presence of the subject.	Light For capturing images with bright and uncomplicated color expressions, suited to capturing refreshingly light ambience.
Portrait For capturing the skin color in a soft tone, ideally suited to capturing portraits.	Landscape The saturation, contrast and sharpness are heighted for capturing vivid and crisp scenery. Distant landscapes also stand out more.	Sunset For capturing the beautiful red of the setting sun.
Night View The contrast is accentuated for capturing a nightscape that is more faithful to the real view.	Autumn leaves For capturing autumn scenes, vividly highlighting the red and yellow of coloring leaves.	B/W For capturing black and white images.
	Sepia For capturing images in sepia monotone.

Each of these Creative Styles can be adjusted with the following five settings:

Creative Style Settings
	Contrast Raise or lower the difference between light and shadow, adjustable in 7 steps
	Saturation Colors become more vivid with higher values, adjustable in 7 steps
	Sharpness Make edges harder or softer, adjustable in 7 steps
	Brightness Lightens or darkens the image, adjustable in 7 steps
	Zone Higher values prevent overexposure of bright areas, lower values prevent underexposure of dark areas. Adjustable in 5 steps. Cannot be combined with contrast adjustment.

It's simple enough to change these parameters for the 13 included Creative Styles; the options are clearly labeled on the LCD display, and settings can be adjusted using either the joystick or the control wheels. What's oddly missing is the option to create your own mix of settings and save them as a custom Creative Style.

Focus (14.25)

The Sony A900 autofocus system uses 9 primary, user-selectable focus points plus 10 supplmentary ranging points. Autofocus sensitivity ranges from 0 to 18 EV (at ISO 100). An autofocus illuminator is positioned between the grip and the camera lens. According to Sony, its working range is approximately 3.3 to 23 feet (1 to 7m).

Focus Modes
	Single-shot Autofocus Camera focuses on a subject when shutter is depressed halfway
	Continuous Autofocus Camera continues to adjust focus on moving subject as long as the shutter button is held halfway down
	Automatic Autofocus The camera automatically sets itself to single-shot mode if the subject is still and continuous mode if the subject moves
	Manual Focus Unlike most SLRs, the manual focus selection is made using the focus mode switch instead of a a lens-barrel toggle.With the shutter button depressed halfway, the focus lock indicator in the viewfinder illuminates when focus is achieved, a useful confirmation even if you're going it alone

There are three choices when selecting a focus area:

Focus Areas
	Wide Uses all nine main autofocus points plus the ten supplementary points
	Spot Uses only the single central autofocus point
	Local User manually selects autofocus point from nine available using the joystick.

Exposure (6.00)

The Sony A900 provides a single Auto exposure mode, which unlike some cameras does not lock out most settings adjustments, but instead returns them to default values and lets the user change them if desired. Program, aperture-priority, shutter-priority and full manual modes are also supported.

Exposure compensation is available in a ±3 EV range; the default increment is 1/3 EV, which can be changed to 1/2 EV through the Recording menu.
Exposure bracketing can be set for continuous shooting , where all three or five shots you request are taken with a single shutter press, or single shooting, where each shutter press takes another shot in the bracketed sequence.

The A900 offers an impressive dynamic range optimization capability to maintain detail in overly bright or deeply shadowed areas. The D-Range Optimizer system can be set to Standard, which attempts to compensate for over- and under-exposure across the image as a whole or Advanced Auto, which divides the image into sections to determine the range between subject and background to create a dynamic range adjustment. It is also possible to set the level manually, with five incremental settings available, or to turn the function off entirely. As seen below, we found the D-Range Optimizer did a nice job, particularly in enhancing shadowed areas, and while this inevitably comes with a significant increase in image noise, this won't be terribly noticeable if the final image will be used at a reasonable size.

D-Range Optimizer Examples
D-R Off	Level 3	Level 5

Depth of Field Preview (1.50)

The Preview button located below the camera lens has two functions. Optical preview is the standard depth of field preview function, stopping down the aperture to show the actual focal range under the current settings. The alternative function for this button is Intelligent preview, as described in the Live View section above, which takes a photo and saves it in a temporary low-res RAW, then interactively reflects the effects of settings adjustments on screen.

Metering (7.50)

The Sony A900 uses a 39-segment honeycomb metering pattern plus one element covering the remaining area.

The 40-segment metering pattern

Three metering modes are supported:

Metering Modes
	Multi-segment Reads the entire screen and attempts to achieve an overall balanced exposure setting
	Center weighted Emphasizes the middle of the screen, but factors in data from the entire screen
	Spot Uses only those metering sensors within the spot metering circle, which is visible in the viewfinder

Exposure compensation is supported in a ±3 EV range, in 1/3 EV steps by default, with the option to select 1/2 EV increments in the recording menu.

Shutter Speed (11.00)

Shutter speeds range from 1/8000 second to 30 seconds, plus Bulb for extended exposures

Self-Timer (2.00)

The Sony A900 offers basic self-timer functionality:

Self-Timer Modes
	Ten Second The red indicator light blinks, the audio signal bleeps and, after ten seconds, a single shot is taken.
	Two Second You press the shutter and, for some odd reason, no blinking or bleeping occurs, though the shutter does release 2 seconds later.

The handheld Remote Commander wireless control also includes a 2-second self-timer release button.

Hardware	Page 10 of 18		Design & Handling
Sony A900 Digital Camera Review Navigation
Intro	Product Tour	Color	Noise
Resolution	White Balance	Sample Photos	Playback
Hardware	Controls	Design & Handling	Speed & Timing
Canon 5D Mark II Comp	Canon 50D Comparison	Nikon D90 Comparison	Nikon D700 Comparison
Conclusion	Specs & Ratings