Sony A700 Review

The Sony A700 is a new DSLR camera with a wealth of features that are clearly targeted at the advanced amateur photographer. Clearly based on the design of the Konica Minolta Maxxum / Dynax 7D camera (Sony bought Konica Minolta’s camera assets in 2006), the A700 inherits the same lens mount, eye-start auto-focus system, and in-body anti-shake system. Building on that solid foundation, Sony have brought the A700 bang up-to-date with a 12.24 megapixel CMOS sensor, large 3 inch LCD screen, 11 point autofocus system and 5fps continuous shooting. At this price point (around £999 / $1400) the Sony A700 faces some stiff competition, with rival models from Nikon, Canon, Olympus and Panasonic all making a strong claim for your money. Mark Goldstein took the new Sony A700 to the deserts of Dubai to find out if this new pretender to the prosumer crown has what it takes…

Website: Sony A700 Review

Published: Thursday, January 17, 2008

Reader Comments

1. quote from the article: "The XtraFine LCD screen is a large 3 inch model with an amazing resolution of 921,000 pixels (most "standard" screens have 230,000 pixels), a wide viewing angle and visibility that isn't compromised by bright sun. This screen is very similar to the one used on the Sony DSC-G1 compact camera. The LCD on the A700 is a joy to use, one of the best that I've ever seen on any digital camera. With a staggering 921,000 pixels, it provides a 4x increase in resolution compared to most competitors"
   
   Actually, the screen doesn't have 921.000 pixels, but 921.000 *dots*. The difference is that Sony is considering a pixel as 3 dots (RGB: Red/Green/Blue). So, the true fact is that the screen's resolution is in fact 640x480=307.200 pixels. The difference isn't that big anymore as compared with the other producers, isn't it?

   div at 12:05pm on Thursday, January 17, 2008

2. It is not only Sony who - I guess deliberately - use the wrong term. Every digital camera manufacturer does it. So your average 235.000-"pixel" LCD is actually a 235.000-dot LCD, meaning it is about 78.000 pixels. Compared to that, the VGA resolution of the Sony screen is huge.

   Zoltan at 03:06pm on Thursday, January 17, 2008

3. It gets more confusing than just counting dots and pixels. The digital camera displays have typically been delta array LCDs, whereas Nikon and Sony's new DSLRs have gone to stripe array LCDs. So, I don't think the apparent difference is as big as 235,000 to 921,000, but it's defnitely not as small as 235,000 to 310,000

   Laughing Wildabeast at 07:47am on Friday, January 18, 2008

4. a very well written and concise review
   it answered all the questions i may have had.well done.

   william baxter at 08:03pm on Friday, March 14, 2008