Sony's new full-frame A850 under US$2,000

Lori Grunin | Aug 27, 2009

The Sony Alpha DSLR-A850. (Credit: Sony)

News of the A850, Sony's full-frame follow-up to the Alpha DSLR-A900, surfaced on the Web weeks ago--Sony itself accidentally leaked the entire manual, for pity's sake--but the most important aspect of the product, the camera's price, remained only speculation. Without that context, one really didn't know what to make of the subtly stripped-down version of the A900. Now we know it'll cost US$1,999 for the body, making it the least expensive full-frame dSLR currently available. That makes it newsworthy, but does that automatically make it droolworthy?

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It's worth taking a step back and considering the benefits--and drawbacks--of a full-frame dSLR; that is, a camera with a sensor that has the same active area as a frame of 35mm film. In comparison, typical consumer dSLR sensors are anywhere from two thirds to half that size. Since larger sensors are generally better for cramming a lot of pixels in without losing ground to an excessive amount of image noise, full-frame sensors are commonly accepted as the best choice for high-resolution and/or low-light photography (without opting for the significantly larger and more expensive medium format option). It's also easier to build wide-angle lenses for larger sensors.

A big, low-noise, high-resolution sensor: What's not to like? Well, for one thing, big sensors mean big cameras; they require lenses with larger circumferences than the smaller sensors, larger viewfinders, larger bodies, and so on. And all of that costs more. The A850 is still US$1,000 more and 10 ounces heavier than its newly minted 14-megapixel little brother, the A550.

In order to carve US$700 off the price of the A900, Sony cut costs in four key areas: The A850's viewfinder isn't as nice; it's burst shooting isn't as fast; the finish is a little less...finished; and the remote is optional rather than included. According to Sony, that extra 2 percent of viewfinder coverage is really expensive to attain, and the fast mirror mechanism necessary to gain that 2 extra frames per second in burst shooting adds a lot of cost as well.

But rather than looking like a bargain, the A850 simply makes the A900 look overpriced. The A900 has generally slower non-burst performance than the D700 and 5D Mark II, and its high ISO noise profile isn't nearly as good--unless Sony has seriously tweaked its autofocus and image-processing algorithms, those characteristics will carry over to the A850. (Oddly, the A550 gets all the interesting innovations there.)

That said, for photographers who've been reluctant to shell out almost US$3,000 when they simply need the extra resolution or Minolta lens compatibility, and don't care about video capture, best-in-class speed, or low-light shooting, this price drop may be just what they've been waiting for. For them, the wait's not over until the end of September.

Via Crave CNET

Filed under: Digital Cameras
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