Sony Alpha DSLR- A850 Full Frame Digital SLR Camera

Comments about Sony Alpha DSLR- A850 Full Frame Digital SLR Camera:

Easy to use and results are fantastic.

Comments about Sony Alpha DSLR- A850 Full Frame Digital SLR Camera:

great ergonomics on control layout and one of the best viewfinders I've ever looked through. Amazing image quality especially at this price range.

Comments about Sony Alpha DSLR- A850 Full Frame Digital SLR Camera:

These are not cameras any more. They are image processing computers paired with specific optical sensors. The size of the sensor is by itself relevant, not just the number of megapixels. With the increased size of the sensor, the camera body and lens must increase as well. So this is an appropriately big and heavy camera. I chose the A850 with the ZEISS 24-70 lens for my venture into full size sensor digital photography. I think the layout of all the controls and menus is ideal for the size and features of this system. A tedious but thorough way to compare systems you are interested in is to go download the user manuals and review them as well as feedback like this. The features and specs and price of the Sony system fit my objectives best. The other positive reviews helped clinch the deal. Mostly I take indoor, controlled lighting shots using a tripod. I am delighted with what this body and lens can do. Software has replaced the darkroom so the other decision is if the included software fits your needs or will other programs be beneficial. I have a Transcend 32GB 400x CF and a 8GB MemoryStick Pro DUO. The CF is much faster transferring images to the computer and well worth it when dealing with 100 RAW image files at ~32MB each. Good luck deciding.

Comments about Sony Alpha DSLR- A850 Full Frame Digital SLR Camera:

I am an avid amateur photographer and take pictures from scenery, sunsets, people and family, theatre plays to baseball games. In other words about anything that comes along including taking photos of removal of orange trees to the planting of new ones.

Comments about Sony Alpha DSLR- A850 Full Frame Digital SLR Camera:

Based on test results at a number of online sites, I purchased the Sony Alpha 850 camera. And I have been extremely pleased with its resolution and correctly identifying white balance. The image stabilization is an added plus with all its acceptable lenses from Minolta. Most important for me are its Zeiss lenses. They are truly outstanding with this camera in detail and color.

Comments about Sony Alpha DSLR- A850 Full Frame Digital SLR Camera:

This is a very easy camera to use, even if you have never used a dslr it will not take long to start taking really good pictures with this camera. I switched from
the Sony a700, (this in my opinion is the replacement to the a700) this camera works almost just like the a700. I shoot mostly landscapes and portrait photos. I have read where if you do not have great glass it will show, will have G glass as well as normal Minolta lens and they all look good, yes my G lens do look better, but the other lens are also sharp and that is why you use a camera such as this is to do some in camera sharping for those lens that need a little help. The images that this camera can produce are simply stunning. With that said, I would not want to use this camera for sport photography or low light shooting. With only three frames a second, and without a really good noise reducing software program
higher iso values are noticeably grainy. If you are looking for a camera that will give you great depth of color, you cannot go wrong with this camera (this was why I chose Minolta back in the 80's) love those gold tones in my landscape shots, and warm tone in portraits.

Comments about Sony Alpha DSLR- A850 Full Frame Digital SLR Camera:

This is my third Sony DSLR. The resolution is incredible. Features like Advanced Dynamic Range with five levels, Dynamic Range bracketing, non-standard ISO settings (125, 160, 250, 320, 500, 640, etc.) and +/- five stop Exposure Compensation (with firmware vir. 2.0), provide great capability and flexibility under less than ideal conditions. My only gripe is that it came with a dirty sensor.

Comments about Sony Alpha DSLR- A850 Full Frame Digital SLR Camera:

Very good for 'traditional' photography, if you don't need bells and whistles like live view and video. Extremely sturdy construction. It's a shame the Sony Zeiss lenses aren't noted as dust and weather sealed to match the camera body. Using with Sony Zeiss 24-70mm and 85mm. Both are excellent. Fantastic color reproduction, very little to adjust when shooting RAW. Great image and exposure quality, and of course, resolution. Noisy at higher ISOs (have not tried 3200), but seems to clean up well in Lightroom 3. Image stabilization is a big plus over Canon 5D MKII and Nikon D700, and makes up a bit for noisiness at higher ISO, letting you shoot at a bit lower setting. Good physical controls (button, etc.) as well.

Comments about Sony Alpha DSLR- A850 Full Frame Digital SLR Camera:

Back in "the day" the camera was, with few exceptions, little more than a film holder. All the work was done by the lens and the person focusing the lens and setting up the camera. This educated image creating person was, in the language of the day, referred to as a "photographer" (or "light painter" for those overachievers who have the need to further define definitions). Then auto-focus and matrix metering and digital capture etc. came into the picture and anyone with enough money could claim artistic status getting an in focus, light balanced shot by turning a dial to "A". And from there things really got crazy. Cameras now will take photos, videos, capture sound, show a digital "live-view", use multiple formats, meter and focus off hundreds of tiny little viewfinder specs, remove devil eyes from family reunion group shots and, if you really read into the newest Canon manual, make a perfect grilled swiss cheese sandwich.

However, there is a market of people who know what they're doing, who prefer cheddar, and don't want a million bells and whistles, just a reliable camera that takes the image they see when they push the button at the highest possible quality.

Enter the a850. It even looks like a real camera with its old-school pentaprism housing. Admitted, it does have some features, but mostly, it just does what you ask it to and does it very simply. It's a real pro's camera because you still have to have an idea of what you want before you take the picture to get the best product out of it.

What's great about it? Well, it puts out resolution superior to any 35mm film I know of at a reasonable price, so any hold outs, now's a good time to switch. No one wants to go backwards in quality, but people did it in droves grabbing up 10mp slr's that give worse shots than drum scanned fuji Reala. In that case, I just stuck with my print and slide films. But this thing is great. I've blown up a shot as large as 4x6 ft. and it looks beautiful. That right there, for me, says it all.

I use this camera for everything except weddings because I got tired of shooting weddings, but not because it couldn't do the job. I bump it around on things all the time, it still looks new. The weather sealing is decent, not as great as canikons, but I've had no issues in light rain or blowing desert dust. It costs 1/4 of what the other guys cost. I shoot mainly below 400 speed, probably just out of habit- not sure if any of you ever used 800 or 1600 speed film, but it wasn't that great. With the fast lenses and shake reduction and a trained hand on the ol' tripod, I've never had an issue with not enough light.

As for the downsides, I suppose if you think of it as a digital camera vs just a camera, then you may expect faster ISO's to be equally clear as lower ones. Well they aren't, though up to 800 looks pretty darn great to me, and under that looks pristine. Also, along those lines, this camera's "live view" is the ACTUAL LIVE VIEW, as in reflected light through the viewfinder and that's it. No digital lit up, out of wack, battery killing version on your lcd. Also no built in junk flash (put one of the big zeiss on an a200 and it will flash vignette anyway). And it's noisy. That big mirror gives an audible high five on the way up, and a "down low" at the bottom. For some, that's a turn off. For me, it even sounds like the old F3's or Canon F1N's. Bottom line is you and everyone around you will know that you just took a picture better than theirs.

There's a great and growing selection of lenses. The zeiss 16-35 is amazing and the 24-70 is one of the sharpest lenses in the world. Also, if you don't know that you can get other companies' manual focus lenses and have them modified to work perfectly on your Sony shake reduction and all, well you didn't hear it from me.

If there was one thing I could change, I'd make the weather sealing better on the camera and lenses.

Comments about Sony Alpha DSLR- A850 Full Frame Digital SLR Camera:

Awesome performer! I had the Sony A350 and upgraded to this full frame 24.6 mp camera and the resolution on these images is impressive! I´m a commercial photographer specializing in food shots and stock photography and this new camera is definitely a very valuable asset for my business. I had three gigs last week: one product shot (chocolate box) session with macro and strobes, then a shoot at a pediatrician office also with strobe light and the last one at an auditorium with available light and the results are very satisfactory.
So far, I've used it for a week now and the investment it's worth every penny!

Comments about Sony Alpha DSLR- A850 Full Frame Digital SLR Camera:

I love this thing so far. pics look great. Easy to use, especially if you are coming from another Sony camera. Menu's and functions are arranged logically. Common buttons are on the top so you don't need to go through menus. Not lightweight, but that wasn't expected. Build is high quality. No video, but I wasn't interested in that. Live view would have been nice, but intelligent preview fills in fairly well.

There are more functions in the camera than I'll use. In the custom section you can adjust for contrast, color, ect., but I think I'll leave that to post processing when I can really see the picture.

Rated for 3 FPS and although I have not timed it, it sure seems I'm getting more than that. Focus is faster than my A350 by a lot.

Firmware version 2.0 has been out for a little while now and I was a little surprised this came with version 1.0. Upgrade was easy and quick. I did it right away, so I can't really say how much of a difference it made.

Not sure about battery life though. I've read 880 shots, but I'm not sure it's going to do that much.

Worth the cost for sure.

Comments about Sony Alpha DSLR- A850 Full Frame Digital SLR Camera:

I purchased this to do some professional quality photography and I have not been disappointed

Comments about Sony Alpha DSLR- A850 Full Frame Digital SLR Camera:

What a solid piece of equipment & with the recent purchase of the Sony Carl Zeiss 24-70 lens, [...]

Comments about Sony Alpha DSLR- A850 Full Frame Digital SLR Camera:

I used to use valvia 50 slide film with a Maxxum 9000 camera from Minolta. I bought this A850 so I can still use my old auto focus lenses and remote control. Also I purchased a Sony 28-70 F2.8 SAM lens with this camera. Although I expected my old equipment should work with this camera, when I see they work together flawlessly, I was still surprised and very pleased.

I took a few test shots and save all pictures in RAW format. On a 24" monitor, the pictures look very sharp. Further enlarge the pictures, the pictures remain sharp enough when picture size reach to 28"x36". Further checked the difference between these image quality settings such as standard, fine, extra fine, JPEG and RAW, on my 24" monitor, the difference to naked eyes is hard to detect, the file sizes are significantly different though.

I have a little doubt on its image stabilization. Took a few pictures in the speed of 1/20" or slower, some fine details are not very clear. On a bright day(8 am in January), I placed the camera on a tripod, still the shake warning is on when I push the zoom to 200mm.

Another thing I don't like is its USB port on the camera. The shape is not very clear on how the cable should be plugged.

Comments about Sony Alpha DSLR- A850 Full Frame Digital SLR Camera:

I bought this camera for faster shutter flash sync speed and lower iso 100 setting to use with really fast glass wide open outdoors. iso 200 on crop sensor requires really small apertures (F8-16) with studio strobes which gives too much depth of field, this FF model solves this.
High ISO RAWs (1600 and above) are well controlled in lightroom 3 and the noise turns into very fine smooth grain or vanishes if some external lighting is used with such settings, like some on or off camera flash.
Just finished shooting a full day wedding with 1100 images in Raw. The battery lasted for about 650 frames in RAW capture and lots of LCD use (still learning the beast) before i switched to another battery.
This camera should only be used to capture RAW - they are breath taking: detail, color, dynamic range.
AF works super fast and reliable with Firm ware 2, used with CZ 24-70 didn't miss a single shot due to AF including in low light at F2.8-4
View finder is super bright - no problem checking focus in dim light.
Handles rapid shooting wonderfully, the new AF update really shines.
All in all a wonderful choice for Weddings and Portrait work both outdoors and in studio.
Good to excellent glass is a MUST!!!

Comments about Sony Alpha DSLR- A850 Full Frame Digital SLR Camera:

Brings back the pleasure of shooting pictures: great handling, direct access via buttons for key settings, easy/fast menus, awesome viewfinder. Rich tonalities, amazing resolution.

Comments about Sony Alpha DSLR- A850 Full Frame Digital SLR Camera:

Use this camera when I want high resolution images for fine detail and / or large prints.

I have been looking for a full frame camera for a while, debating between the 5D2, D700 and A850. in the end, I got the A850 because:

-- i do not shoot video. when i want to take a quick movie of the kids, I can use my point and shoot cameras.
-- i do not shoot in dark locations such as night weddings, clubs, concerts, or night street shots, or need high ISO for action / sports shots.
-- i want a camera that does one thing well (that would be either D700 for high ISO, or A850 for maximum resolution). i did not want a compromise camera (5D2)

I got the A850 and have no regrets. the resolution and detail this camera can capture is amazing!

this camera is not for everyone. it does not shoot video. although "poor high ISO performance" claims are exaggerated, I would not go above 1600 for large prints. 1600 and below are definitely ok. due to the high resolution, with some tweaking in post-processing, you won't really notice the noise at normal print sizes up to 16x20.

The in-body stabilization is a huge bonus. the simple user interface is fantastic. it lets you just take photos, which, in the end, is what a camera is all about.

Comments about Sony Alpha DSLR- A850 Full Frame Digital SLR Camera:

What a surprise. I picked A850 over A900 after some debate and now I see that A850 handles rapid shooting very well. Firmware update v.2 definitely made things snappier in the AF department. I don't use continuous advance in my style but I do fire away 2 to 3 frames in a sequence to catch that special expression or moment and A850 does it without hesitation.
The body is clean and simple to understand and use, VERY solid and fits like a glove.
High ISO issues have been resolved with the latest LR3, DXO and Capture One software, shoot RAW and see for yourself. iso 2500 (i didn't feel the need to go over this setting) delivered noise free, detailed shot with little fine film like grain - awesome performance in low light! when scaled to match nikon D700 res the files are indistinguishable noise wise.
The dynamic range in RAW is phenomenal - clean, detailed, vibrant files.
Stabilized is every lens you put on it - priceless.
Very happy with this purchase, thank you Sony!

Comments about Sony Alpha DSLR- A850 Full Frame Digital SLR Camera:

i have done plenty of reading and research before buying this camera, and have actually tried these models out in the Sony Style store first. Then I found a site that sold this A850 for [...]. It's a price point that is just untouchable to the competition. The Canon 5DmII and Nikon D700 are all priced around the Sony A900 at about $2500+. That's a huge difference in price. As you will find out, the sensors and image quality of the Sony A850 and A900 are identical, only differences are non-image-quality related.Lens I have with my A850 are: 1.) Carl Zeiss Distagon f2/24mm wide2.) Carl Zeiss Planar f1.4/85mm3.) Sony Smooth Transition Focus T4.5/135mm (king of bokeh!)Gotta love the quality of the prime lens over zoom lens!Another major point that had me sold on the camera was the Image stabilization feature in case I want to take pictures while walking around. And autofocus makes this camera extremely easy to use. Once you are comfortable enough, you can move to manual mode for total control! The learning curve is so easy that I am now moving to the manual focus only 135mm STF lens.In regards to the Canon 5dmarkII, Shooting video is not a concern, since the logic is that dslr cameras only have a lifetime of 100,000 actuations. by shooting video, the sensors are continuously in usage and will shorten the lifetime of the sensors. Just get a second camera for video, like the Sony A55, since it has incredibly high autofocus speeds.The biggest complaint I found was that the A850 has a lot of noise, and can not handle high ISO's. But the noise can be "totally eliminated" in Adobe Lightroom 3. I liked Lightroom 3 so much , I also bought the NikSoftware Complete Collection plugin for Lightroom 3, which includes ColorEfex and SilverEfex! I purchased the cheaper priced academic versions LR3 and the plugins and had my college sister register both for me, saved 70% over retail.Battery life is a non-concern since I always buy 3 generic battery replacements.Memory card speeds do matter to the camera's burst and continuous shooting speeds, and if you only shoot in RAW mode! Make sure u buy a UDMA type Compactflash card. Mine is a 16gb 400x speed card.I have a Canon Pro9000mII printer, and only print pictures at 13x19inches. Using Lightroom3 to remove all noise, and the high resolution RAW images are silky smooth! I am quickly regretting this printer purchase as 13x19 just cannot fully utilize the high image quality this camera produces. I will soon get a refurbished Epson 3880 printer for $899.95 which will print at 17x30.5inches. Cant Wait!!!

Comments about Sony Alpha DSLR- A850 Full Frame Digital SLR Camera:

Camera controls are easy and QUICK to use. The menus allow many tweaks to make the camera do what you want it to do or just shoot auto if you wish. Third Sony camera after 3 Minolta's in the family and all have performed flawlesly! I would consider myself an advanced camera user who uses the camera to get photos I want. The A850 is a bargain and performs well in every way possible. The only problem I have seen in reviews hasn't developed yet; No problems with low light, high ISO exposures yet, though I don't expect to try and take photos in the dark and have them appear daytime.