Sony Alpha DSLR-A900

Sony Alpha DSLR-A900

with grip by Kimmo Kulovesi (Image rights) Manufacturer: Sony Date of Production: 2008/2009 Variants: budget variant Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 Type of Camera: DSLR Sensor type: 24.4 megapixel CMOS Lens: Minolta AF mount Shutter: focal plane shutter Shutter speed range: 30 sec. to 1/8000 sec. Viewfinder: pentaprism 100% 0.74× reflex finder -3 to +1 diopter corr. ASA/ISO range: 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400 Flash: flash sync 1/250 s to 30 s w/ flashgun on Dynax/Maxxum inverse flash shoe Exposure Modes: program, aperture prio, shutter prio, manual Exposure Metering: TTL Focusing: phase detection Focusing areas: 2 cross sensors, 10 dots Continuous Shooting: 4.5 fps Bracketing: 3 or 5 pics in 0.3, 0.5 or 0.7 EV steps Frame size: 35.9×24.0 mm, 6.048×4.032 pixels Custom WB: sunny, cloudy, flourescent, light bulb 3 individual settings between 2500 K and 9900 K Programs: portrait, landscape, macro, action, sunset, night-portrait Rear LCD monitor: 3" color display, 921.600 pixels Image Data Recording: CF I/II or MS Duo Battery: rechargeable Li-ion NP-FM500H 1.650 mAh battery Optional Battery Packs: VG-C90AM grip allows 2nd NP-FM500H battery Weight: 850g w/o battery Dimensions: 156mm×117mm×82mm

The Sony Alpha DSLR-A900 was Sony's first professional DSLR, the flagship of the Sony α system from 2008 to 2011. It has Sony's special Exmor CMOS image sensor which has no pixels hidden behind conducting paths of the chip, thus being more light sensitive with a better dynamic range than older Sony sensors. The sensor has almost the same format as the 24x36mm image frames of the normal 35mm film cameras, thus giving an advantage to those photographers who have good old autofocus lenses for analog Minolta AF cameras. New lenses for this Minolta/Sony Alpha lens system are available from Sony and Zeiss. Be careful not to choose one designed only for Konica Minolta or Sony DSLRs with smaller "APS" format chip.

The camera once made hopes that Sony would become a high-end DSLR maker. But Sony never released further full-format DSLRs since the A900 and its budget variant A850. In 2010 it made its last APS-C DSLRs.

In the opinion of many photo enthusiasts this 12 years old digital quality still camera still remains flag-ship of the whole Sony α system since it's a true highlight, in the tradition that Sony had taken over with KonicaMinolta's invaluable heritage of autofocus SLR camera making! It endured an awfully long time until any of Sony's mirrorless CSCs got THE feature of KonicaMinolta's and Sony's DSLRs, the anti shake which took away beginners' fear of doing something wrong buying an SLR. image by Howard Stanbury (Image rights)

A900 presented at Photokina 2008 image by LucisPictor (Image rights)

with Zeiss Sonnar (left) and with Sony lens 2.8/300 (right) images by Uwe Kulick (Image rights)

Links

• DSLR-A900 support page at Sony Support