A few more reasons to love the Sony A200

Continue to be very happy with my new Sony A200 and Minolta 35-70mm f4 combo. Went to Reefton (an hours drive from where I live) this weekend with the family, and we stopped at on old train memorial to have lunch. The kids started to play on the train and I couldn't help myself - perfect photo opportunity!

The sharpness of this lens is just crazy - and the colours are fantastic.

Having said that, the Alpha 200 isn't the fastest at processing images - takes a while to write to the card, even in jpeg mode. I do find myself having to wait for the images to write before I can review - which would be annoying if I was using it to shoot a wedding as my main camera. It won't replace my Nikon D300 anytime soon shooting weddings.

This image of Joshua has an almost HDR quality to it - even though it's pretty much straight out of the camera. I have the Dynamic Range Optimiser on the Sony set to 'Standard', and I don't think it's applied to the RAW file anyway? Anyway, the colours zing from this lens/sensor combination. Couldn't be happier with the results.

While we were having lunch, a very well-fed Weka (NZ native flightless bird) came out of the bush to 'share' some of our food. Must be my week for bird photography as well. He wasn't shy, and came within a couple of feet of us to get the food we dropped for him.  I easily filled the frame with the 75mm end (105mm equiv.) and took a few 'portrait' shots of him as well. The 35-70mm f4 is turning out to be a great portrait lens. I'm sold!