Digital SLR Blog

Apart from updating their Alpha line up, Sony also announced the HVL-F20AM flash unit. Foldable, the HVL-F20AM pivots upwards for bounce flash shooting. The Sony HVL-F20AM Flash Unit will retail for $130.

[Via DCI]
 

The Sony A230 (right), A330 and A380 are the newest Alpha DSLR’s from the company. All three come equipped with a 2.7-inch 230,000-dot LCD, 9-point autofocus system and the SteadyShot in-camera image stabilization. The A230 and A330 have a 10.2-megapixel sensor and the latter also features Live View capability. Where as the A380 has a 14.2 megapixel sensor and will retail for $850 with a single lens.

[Via DCI]

The professional finalists and amateur winners of the 2009 Sony World Photography Awards have been announced. The photographers will be honoured at the Sony World Photography Awards ceremony at the prestigious Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France, on Thursday 16 April. The winning amateur photographer, selected from the eight category finalists, will receive a $5,000 cash prize and Sony camera equipment.

Sony will soon update their DSLR portfolio by releasing six new lenses this year. The lenses in question are:A Super telephoto lens, 28-75mm f/2.8 (both for full-frame), a 55-200mm f/4-5.6 DT, a 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 DT and a 50mm f/1.8 DT and 30mm f/2.8 DT. No further details were available as of now.


[Via Photography Blog ]

The newly announced  Sony Cyber-shot H20 totes a 10-megapixel resolution and comes equipped with a Carl Zeiss 10x optical zoom lens. One will also come across now mandatory Sony features like Optical SteadyShot image stabilization and Smile Shutter technology. The prosumer camera also features wide and full-screen 720p movie recording at 30 frames per second in fine, standard and VGA recording modes.


[Via DCI ]

Linda Barger, a spokesperson for Sony told online magazine PDN that the imaging giants have no plans to release a dSLR prior to or during the PMA show in Las Vegas in March. Barger also revealed that Sony would be "following up with digital SLRs," this summer.

The newly announced Sony GPS-CS3KA GPS image tracker supports all the major Cyber-shot® digital still cameras and Handycam® camcorders. The GPS device lets one record the time, date and location of each image taken and the Picture Motion Browser software also comes bundled with it.

The 2009 Sony Campaign Award is a new photography based competition where the theme is “football”. The closing date for the Sony Campaign Award is 28th February 2009 and prizes include a Sony α900 DSLR camera,  tickets to 2010 World Cup game  and unique chance to be a Sony photographer.

Further information about the Sony World Photography Awards can be found at http://www.worldphotographyawards.org

At CES one got to witness Sony’s attempt to cash into the social networking trend. The imaging giants unveiled MHS-CM1 and MHS-PM1 Webbie HD™ cameras that aim to capture daily events in high definition video (1440x1080/30p) and 5-megapixel still photos. The portable digicams come in funky colors like eggplant, orange and silver and will be sold at Sony Style retail stores, and through authorized dealers nationwide.The MHS-CM1 camera is now retailing for about $200 and the MHS-PM1 model will be available in April for about $170.

The Sony A300, which is an entry-level DSLR, was reviewed by the folks over at Photography Blog. The camera impresses with its advanced feature set and its great image performance. Using the Live View feature was easy, the build quality was solid and the Manual Exposure Shift feature was a complete winner. All and all the camera comes recommended.

The Sony A900 DSLR was recently reviewed by Dpexpert who liked the camera for its overall image quality. The DSLR comes with a good quality kit lens and the image stabilization was found to be effective as well.However images taken at higher ISOs were found to be slightly noisy especially when compared to Nikon and Canon DSLRs.

Sony has commercialized its "1/2.5 CMOS image sensor "Exmor™" for use in cameraphones. IMX060PQ will make it possible for cameraphones to achieve image quality equivalent to  digital still cameras. Sony also announced the launch of "IMX046PQ", a type 1/3.2 CMOS image sensor "Exmor™" with 8.11 effective megapixel resolution, and "IMX045PQ", a type 1/4 "Exmor™" CMOS image sensor featuring 5.15 effective megapixel.

June 19, 2008 - Sony today announced a new flagship flash unit, the HVL-F58AM, compatible with all Sony DSLRs past, present, and future. Replacing the earlier HVL-F56AM, it features a "Quick Shift Bounce System" that allows the flash to pivot 90 degrees to the left and right for more flexibility when shooting. The HVL-F58AM will retail for about $500 when it ships in September.

The Quick Shift Bounce allows the camera and flash to have the same orientation, regardless of whether portrait or landscape images are being shot, enhancing creative lighting flexibility.

The HVL-F58M reportedly recharges in as little as 5 seconds, which is 53 percent faster than the earlier model. In addition, a quieter recycle time means less distraction from the annnoying whine of the flash recharging. A larger LCD screen displays flash functions and control settings.

The flash can be removed from the camera and wirelessly controlled with up to two other flash units, making it simple to set up multiple lights coming from different angles (it comes with a mini-stand for use when using the unit wirelessly), In addition, an automatic zoom control reduces light "fall-off" at the edges of images by optimizing illumination angles based on the size of the camera sensor (APS-C or 35mm full-frame). It also features a white balance compensation system that reads color temperature information within the flash itself, providing greater accuracy when shooting in auto white balance mode.

The Sony Alpha 350 was put on the spot by the folks over at Popular Photography and thinks its ideal for Prosumers. The camera may not be targeted at the professional photographer however the 350 does include a number of advance features. Image quality was found to be excellent from ISO 100 to 800 but according to the Pop Photo Lab tests, the 350 delivered less detail (average 2150 lines of resolution at ISO 100-800) than the 12.2MP Sony A700 (2280 lines). That is indeed food for thought.

 
“The A350 is aimed at those moving up from a compact or for those who want (and can afford) more from an entry-level DSLR than Sony is offering in its new A300 ($600, estimated street, with 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 lens), Nikon in its new D60 ($630, street, body only), or Olympus in its new E-420 ($500, estimated street, body only). For such photographers, the A350's increased image quality and overall performance will be amazing, and the extra features -- especially live view -- will be reassuringly familiar.”