Sony α 850 with α system flash
In the photo business Sony is one of the newer players. It entered the photography market in the age of digital photography. Having been active in the home video business since 1965, it started in the market more experienced with electronic cameras than some of the traditional camera makers. Its first Mavica (Magnetic Video Camera) way back in 1981 stored 570x490 pixel frames from an SLR "TV camera" on 2" magnetic floppy discs called Mavipaks.[1] Mass market items from the Mavica range were a spectacular commercial success since they utilized the convenience of 3.5" floppy disks as the digital photography boom began in earnest. These were later followed by the Mavica CD models, which used CD-Rs as the storage medium. These oddly-shaped formats necessarily made the cameras rather unwieldly, so moves towards smaller memory cards were undertaken, as digital cameras became even more compact than their film-based ancestors.
Sony relies very much on the German optics designer Carl Zeiss. It was June 6th 2006 when it released the first of its DSLR cameras for Minolta's Alpha mount lenses, the Sony Alpha SLRs. This camera succeeded Konica Minolta's digital SLR series Alpha/Maxxum/Dynax and surpassed the predecessors concerning reliability. In autumn 2007 a new model, the DSLR-A700, was introduced in Italy. In 2008 the company offered DSLRs for beginners (Alpha 200) as well as for advanced to professional photographers (Alpha 900). The Alpha 900 has an image sensor with 35.9×24mm frame format (equivalent to 35mm film format), making it interesting to use it with the finest old Minolta A-mount lenses. Nevertheless some new Sony- and Zeiss lenses are available for the Sony α system. In 2009 the highly light-sensitive cameras DSLR-A500 and DSLR-A550 were added.
Sony α system cameras and lenses[]
Type names Sony Alpha DSLR-A... are also known and marketed as Sony α... - for example the Sony Alpha DSLR-A290 as Sony α 290
α-bayonet[]
very alpha models[]
- Sony Alpha DSLR-A100
- Sony Alpha DSLR-A200
- Sony Alpha DSLR-A230
- Sony Alpha DSLR-A290
α 700 with small α system flash,
image by Makbet666
- Sony Alpha DSLR-A300
- Sony Alpha DSLR-A330
- Sony Alpha DSLR-A350
- Sony Alpha DSLR-A380
- Sony Alpha DSLR-A390
advanced models[]
- Sony Alpha DSLR-A450
- Sony Alpha DSLR-A500
- Sony Alpha DSLR-A550
- Sony Alpha DSLR-A560
- Sony Alpha DSLR-A580
- Sony Alpha DSLR-A700
flagship models, bigger sensor (24×36mm)[]
- Sony Alpha DSLR-A850
- Sony Alpha DSLR-A900
SLTs (=single lens "translucent mirror" system cameras)[]
- Sony α33
- Sony α35
- Sony α37
- Sony α55
- Sony α57
- Sony α58
- Sony α65
- Sony α68
- Sony α77
- Sony α77 ii
- Sony α99
- Sony α99 ii
lenses[]
|
| Sony 4/500 G |
- Sony 18-70 mm F3.5-5.6 DT
- Sony 18-55 mm F3.5-5.6 DT SAM
- Sony 55-200 mm F4.5-5.6 DT SAM
- Sony 50 mm F1.8 DT SAM
- Sony 35 mm F1.8 DT SAM
- Sony 30 mm F2.8 DT SAM macro
- Sony 35mm F1.4
- Sony 85mm F2.8 SAM
- Sony 300mm F2.8 G
E-bayonet[]
Camera
- Sony NEX (compact system camera)
other cameras
- Sony NEX-VG10E (camcorder)
Alphabetical List of Sony's other digital cameras[]
DSC-F717, by M. Taylor
|
|
|
|
References[]
Links[]
- Sony's first home video system of 1965 at Southwest Museum of Engineering, Communications and Computation [1]
- Sony Mavica SLR (1981) listed at number 14 in Jason Schneider's Top 20 Cameras Of All-Time on Shutterbug.