Review of A2, what you want to see?

[forbytes]

Dear readers,

Just managed to get a complete set of A2. Now in the midst of writing a review for publication in digital and hard format. Just a quick question to find out what you people want to know so that I can plan it in the review. Be specific with the questions in doubt.

Also IT Show coming this thursday to sunday. If you need a review to justify your buying decision please let me know.

I am in no way affiliated KM, or a super-die hard Minolta supporter. I sometimes also recommend Canon and Nikon digital camera/film scanner to people.


Regards.

 

[deslim27]

Wah.. you really managed to get a set from KM to review?

I don't intend to buy one now, but if convenient I would like to see..

1) Sample pictures! Indoor, Outdoor especially under afternoon sun like dcresouce done for Pro1 etc, best with different ISO from 64 to 800

2) Your opinion of the super fine EVF compare to others and also the usefulness of DOF preview in A2.

3) Continuous AF effectiveness for moving subjects like car?

4) AS effectiveness in slow shutterspeed and panning shoots.

Like tat can huh? :embrass:

 

[chew]

Hi,

If possible, care to share "draft" review as this is one of the choice cam to look during this IT show ... thanks.

 

[TME]

The zoom mechanism of the A2. It's a ring zoom right? How well does it fare against SLR type lens? Speed of AF, shutter lag? Low light AF? Quality of lens optics - aka the purple fringing issue? For me these are most important.

 

[forbytes]

If the review is gonna make a difference, I will be glad to provide as much info to the points you guys have highlighted. But be careful that all the sample shots you people suggest are quite many and make take a bit of time for normal user (no broadband dudes) to download picture. But nevertheless, I try.

 

[TME]

If the review is gonna make a difference, I will be glad to provide as much info to the points you guys have highlighted. But be careful that all the sample shots you people suggest are quite many and make take a bit of time for normal user (no broadband dudes) to download picture. But nevertheless, I try.

Maybe u could downsize the res or the colour depth? We only want to see a sample, no need to be very high res lor..... can leave the high res to the websites like DPreview... thanks a lot!

 

[forbytes]

Maybe u could downsize the res or the colour depth? We only want to see a sample, no need to be very high res lor..... can leave the high res to the websites like DPreview... thanks a lot!

Tonight I work a bit late so late reply to this thread.

I have just completed the noise test with A1 and A2. It can be found in here . Hope this clear some doubts on the improvement of A2 over A1. A2 certainly able to control the noise issue better than A1. I wonder how did other come to the conclusion that even at ISO 64, the image is still noisy. Let me think harder why is that so. :think: :think: :think: Ahhh, maybe I am more tolerant. Give me another camera to review to compare leh. :mad2:

Deslim27, you are also quite active in DPReview correct. Feel free to put the link on other forum as well.

Please feel free to give me pointers on how to improve the write up and presentation. But please bear with me for the time being as I am concurrently dealing with my work and interest. More things will be added to complete the review. Stay tuned.

 

[deslim27]

Deslim27, you are also quite active in DPReview correct. Feel free to put the link on other forum as well.

Sure! I'm sure folks there will be most happy to see the good news you got for them..

Edit : Forbytes, the color of A1 and A2 looks different on your chart. Which is more accurate?

Wah liao, your noise testing tempt me to A2 again.. :lovegrin:

 

[TME]

I dun know much about noise and how to read those pics but I can certainyl tell that the A2 has better control of noise as the pics for the A2 looks less patchy at every ISO setting. Maybe can compare with a cam like a DSLR with the same sensor size? Thanks!

 

[forbytes]

Edit : Forbytes, the color of A1 and A2 looks different on your chart. Which is more accurate?

Wah liao, your noise testing tempt me to A2 again.. :lovegrin:

I have to standardise test procedures. Those shots were taken using AWB. To my surprise, both camera register different temperature and megenta value. The colours can be adjusted so that both camera have the same tone. But that does not affect the noise level too much.

Base on the AWB on both camera, I say A1 is more accurate. I have just got back a calibrated light box of 5000k. It is suppose to be white right. The difference in percentage of colour temperature is more in A2 than A1. The magenta value was almost doubled for A2 compared to A1. The higher the value the more prone to colour shift to the red side which explain the difference in red tone for the picture I have posted.

This problem of magenta shift should be a fix error and can be bypass if shoot in raw, oops. Will try and let you know. :sweat: The new sensor by Sony should be the new RGBE (same with F828) instead of the RGBG.

1 GB CF can store 85 and 135 RAW files for A2 and A1 respectively.

Buy A2 lor, Join the Dark Side.

 

[forbytes]

I dun know much about noise and how to read those pics but I can certainyl tell that the A2 has better control of noise as the pics for the A2 looks less patchy at every ISO setting. Maybe can compare with a cam like a DSLR with the same sensor size? Thanks!

I will be please to do it if some one pass me a DSLR of any make.

 

[deslim27]

Buy A2 lor, Join the Dark Side.

LOL! Then I've to postpone 7D to next year liao. Cannot justify 2 thousands dollar toy within 12 months or less period..

BTW, will you be posting more review soon?

 

[deslim27]

I will be please to do it if some one pass me a DSLR of any make.

I don't think there is a DSLR with the same sensor size of A2, nobody will want to buy at this noise level. :bsmilie:

 

[TME]

I don't think there is a DSLR with the same sensor size of A2, nobody will want to buy at this noise level. :bsmilie:

A2 is like what 5MP? The 300D is 6MP? Won't the sensor size be like quite close? Unless the 5MP for the A2 is squeezed onto a very small piece of silicon? Am I getting something wrong here?

 

[Dennis]

A2 is like what 5MP? The 300D is 6MP? Won't the sensor size be like quite close? Unless the 5MP for the A2 is squeezed onto a very small piece of silicon? Am I getting something wrong here?

Yes the 8mp is actually squeezed onto a very small area, in fact the sensor is the same size as the A1 at 5mp. 300D sensor is much bigger. In digital camera mp is not all that matters.

 

[TME]

Yes the 8mp is actually squeezed onto a very small area, in fact the sensor is the same size as the A1 at 5mp. 300D sensor is much bigger. In digital camera mp is not all that matters.

I see...... sorry forbytes, to borrow your thread..... dennis, if the physical size of the CCD is larger, does it mean then that the ability of the CCD to resolve detail is better?

 

[deslim27]

I see...... sorry forbytes, to borrow your thread..... dennis, if the physical size of the CCD is larger, does it mean then that the ability of the CCD to resolve detail is better?

TME,

This is the size comparison from photozone.de owned by Klaus.

http://www.photozone.de/7Digital/digital.htm

As you can see the DSLR like 10D, D100, *ist D are using APS-C size sensor, while A1/A2/Pro1/8700 etc are all using 2/3" size sensor, they are smaller than the DSLR version.

The noise level is affected by mainly by sensor size (some physical/engineering here lah :dunno: ), that why DSLR produce better cleaner picture than prosumer.

 

[SianZronG]

yup engineering! every if you take 6 million photo diodes and put them on a single area, for the DSLR it's much bigger giving it more space therefore giving each diode more capacity because it's bigger, there fore the bigger dynamic range the the higher changer tolerance.

That's my understanding in general. but i dnu produce CCD's so sorrie if there's anything which is not correct.

TME,

This is the size comparison from photozone.de owned by Klaus.

http://www.photozone.de/7Digital/digital.htm

As you can see the DSLR like 10D, D100, *ist D are using APS-C size sensor, while A1/A2/Pro1/8700 etc are all using 2/3" size sensor, they are smaller than the DSLR version.

The noise level is affected by mainly by sensor size (some physical/engineering here lah :dunno: ), that why DSLR produce better cleaner picture than prosumer.

 

[forbytes]

Yes the 8mp is actually squeezed onto a very small area, in fact the sensor is the same size as the A1 at 5mp. 300D sensor is much bigger. In digital camera mp is not all that matters.

Totally agreed :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

In fact, it is the pitch size that matters primarily followed by mega pixel secondarily. A2/F828/Pro 1s have a pitch size of 2.7 micron. DSLR like S2Pro,D100, 10D have pitch size 7.6 to 7.9 micron. The dynamic range does improve with larger pitch size. However, less chips can be produced on the same wafer. Problem in QC is an issue for producing such chips as they are more prone to error (from what I talk to semi-con people).

Imagine this, number are purely for example sake, I can have 1000 pitch size 2.7 micron sensor with 1% defect or I can have 300 pitch size 7.9 sensor with 5-10% defect. Quite painful on the economic side.

 

[TME]

Thanks, the web link was instructive!