Sony A350 liveview - Hands (+Eye) On

Hi, I took a look at the Sony A350 today, to check out liveview.

The camera looks and feels like a big point-n-shoot, but I was really just interested in how well this function worked, and I was impressed... It is "active" meaning realtime feedback (just like on a $100 P&S...), and is either on-off from a separate button. I thought it may have been some kind of half-*ssed solution, but it is fully *ssed... I've got a D300, and had been waiting for the Aquatica to come out... Even though I'm pretty well committed to Nikon stuff topside for now, I think this camera w/ liveview could be quite nice uw, and now I'm going to seriously look into this for my uw DSLR system...

Here is a blurb from Sony, in case you haven't heard about it:

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores...4&langId=-1

"

With incredible 14.2 MP detail, Sony's α (alpha) DSLR-A350 raises the bar. This model pushes the envelope, setting a new standard of excellence for step-up digital photographers shooting both family memories and fine-art photos. Live Preview in a large 2.7" LCD screen links you and your subject-and you'll have special features like super-quick AF response, continuous shooting at 2 fps while you see your subject in the viewfinder, Creative Style modes for quick recall of custom settings, and in-camera Super SteadyShot® image stabilization that reduces blur for every Sony, Carl Zeiss® and legacy Minolta a-mount lens.

Live Preview of Your Subject

The DSLR-A350’s Live Preview mode links you and your subject on a large 2.7â€1 LCD screen, for a familiar point-and-shoot style -- with super-quick AF response and accurate exposure control to help you catch the perfect moment. In Live Preview mode, the camera bypasses the optical pentaprism mirror to create a live “eye-to-eye†view on the LCD of loved ones, children, pets and fast-changing scenes.

"

It seems to be the best liveview on the market now. However, on the expense of the viewfinder size.

It's definitely a tempting option for upgrading from P&S camera or even from other DSLR if LV is important.

Is there any UW-housing announced for this model?

BS Kinetics offers a housing for a350:

http://www.bskinetics.com/

Actually it reads like they're using phase-detection on the sensor to focus on in 'live view' - which is exactly identical to what the E420 is doing, near as I can tell.

Actually it reads like they're using phase-detection on the sensor to focus on in 'live view' - which is exactly identical to what the E420 is doing, near as I can tell.

Yep. Almost identical. The sony version is slightly improved:

http://photoclubalpha.com/2008/03/08/sony-...ve-view-tested/

No, actually that article is comparing it to the older E330 (which I have). In that respect, I guess you could say the lack of a splitter off the viewfinder is a 'slight improvement'....a small and less bright viewfinder was one of the complaints that traditional photographers had about the E330, since it limited their enjoyment of the OVF. However, the E420, which is what I mentioned earlier, uses phase-detection live-view off the main sensor, exactly the same as Sony is claiming to now do for the A350.

Both below quotes are from the model intro press releases, respectively, pulled from dpreview.com:

Sony A350:

Sony’s innovative Pentamirror Tilt mechanism directs light to a dedicated live view image sensor, enabling fast and responsive TTL phase-detection auto-focusing, even during live view.

 

Eliminating the focus delay of other systems, the new models are equally responsive whether using live view or optical viewfinder.

Olympus E420:

The E-420 solves these problems with its Live View LCD, which enables photographers to hold the camera away from their faces and at angles they just cannot reach by using the optical viewfinder alone. The E-420’s new Live View autofocus functionality now simplifies the process by working just like a point and shoot. By simply pressing the shutter button halfway, your subjects come into focus on the LCD, so when the perfect moment occurs it is easy to capture sharp images.

No, actually that article is comparing it to the older E330 (which I have). In that respect, I guess you could say the lack of a splitter off the viewfinder is a 'slight improvement'....a small and less bright viewfinder was one of the complaints that traditional photographers had about the E330, since it limited their enjoyment of the OVF. However, the E420, which is what I mentioned earlier, uses phase-detection live-view off the main sensor, exactly the same as Sony is claiming to now do for the A350.

 

Both below quotes are from the model intro press releases, respectively, pulled from dpreview.com:

 

Sony A350:

Olympus E420:

Sorry, I mixed up these two bodies, but actually the e330 is similar to the solution of sony and the e420 is probably different (we don't know). E420 uses the main sensor for autofocus (sony not) and probably similar way as nikon d300 achieving autofocus by a "contrast detect" manner. It's slow compared to the sony solution.

It's just speculations from the information I read at dpreview. I haven't found any quote for "phase-detection".

I stand corrected! The Sony does indeed use the 2nd sensor, just 'instead' of the OVF vs. 'in addition to' (via a splitter) with the E330. I was also wrong about the 420 - although it does use the main sensor for liveview focusing, it uses contrast detection not phase-detect.

A good summary of all the above was found in the 420 description at imaging resources here:

Oly 420 Review at Imaging Resources

Arguably the biggest advance in the Olympus E-420's design comes in its autofocus system. Olympus pioneered the development of "Live View" in digital SLRs, which has since become a must-have feature for many users upgrading from conventional digicams. While the attraction of an SLR (Single-Lens Reflex) is that the optical viewfinder lets you look through the same lens the camera will take the picture with, digicam users are loathe to give up their big rear-panel LCD viewfinders. Conventional SLR design precludes this, but various manufacturers have found various ways around the issue.

 

A limitation of Live View in digital SLRs is that the reflex mirror must be raised to expose the main image sensor for viewfinder use. The problem is that this disables the SLR's normal autofocus system, which relies on a secondary mirror and a sensor in the bottom of the mirror box. (It must be noted that Olympus' original Live View DSLR (the E-330) and Sony's most recent Live View models use a secondary image sensor inside the viewfinder optics to avoid this necessity.) As a result, Live View DSLRs have tended to have very sluggish shutter response, because the mirror must be dropped before the exposure in order for the lens to focus. While Live View is an attractive from a convenience and familiarity standpoint, the sluggish shutter response eliminated one of the most important features of SLRs; namely, low shutter lag.

 

In the E-420 though, Olympus has included an option for contrast-detect autofocus, the same type of autofocus system used in digicams. This may be slower than the phase-detect system the E-420 and other SLRs use for normal focusing, but is likely to be a good bit faster than the conventional Live View system. {Comment: here I think they're using "conventional" to describe the Live Views that don't use a second sensor, e.g. in the e410 or e510 and non-Olympus manufacturer's offerings.}

 

Live view in the Olympus E-420 should perhaps come as no surprise: Olympus and Panasonic are partners in subsystem design for Four-Thirds SLRs, and the Panasonic DMC-L10 offered a contrast-detect AF option when it was announced a little while ago. Nikon also introduced contrast-detect AF in their D300, announced last summer. On the D300 though, contrast-detect AF can only shift the lens position rather slowly, leading Nikon to refer to it as "tripod" AF mode.

Ikelite now suppurts the full range of sony dslr cameras:

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/camsonchart.html

Considering the LV implementation of a300/350 other housing companies may follow ikelite.

Looks like dpreview finally got their review of the A350 up. Sounds like they were kind of underwhelmed overall. The review did keep saying it was the 'only current liveview without adding delay' - I guess 'current' means they are intentionally neglecting the Olympus E330 since it's discontinued.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonydslra350/

Sounds like from their point of view the viewfinder sacrifice (size) was similar to what they dogged the E330 for (size/brightness). Still, will be curious to see how useful it ends up underwater.