A200 Firmware Update Wishlist
Posted on: Sat, 11/15/2008 - 6:00pm
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A200 Firmware Update Wishlist
Hello all,
This is my first post here, and I wanted to start off by saying: what a great site. Everyone seems quite helpful, terrific reviews by all the writers, and quick feedback in the review comments sections.
As a new A200 owner, I'm quickly falling in love with photography again. I have previously owned a Canon EOS 3000 film SLR, but the price of film, processing, etc, made it difficult to really experiment. Truly, to me, digital seems to be the way to go. My neighbor introduced me to the Sony's when he bought the A100 last year, and I was quite impressed. When the A200 was being sold at a low price this summer I jumped all over it. After using it alongside my neighbor's A100, I've come to appreciate the advantages of my camera, but noticed that it is lacking some really nice features of the A100. I haven't seen a post like this in the forums yet, and thought it might be interesting to see what everyones' opinions might be on this subject. So, if Sony is listening, here is what I would like to see in a firmware update:
- Mirror lock-up (such a simple feature in the A100, why take it out?)
- Spot meter AEL Lock (ability to have the camera in other metering mode, such as multi-segment, but by simply pushing the AEL, the camera switches to spot metering as you lock your meter to recompose)
- flash slow-sync commanded through the AEL lock button, handy for wireless flash photography. This is a nice feature in the A100 that takes away the requirement to set your shutter speed manually to get the slow sync when the camera is in wireles flash mode.
Anyone else agree or have other desires?
Marc
__________________
A200 with Travor Vertical Grip
18-70mm Sony Kit Lens
70-210mm f/4 Minolta (Beercan) Lens
HVLF42AM Sony Flash
I'd like a DRO-bracket option, even though it would be a bit extreme for many circumstances compared to the A700/900. And can I have what the A700 people got that turned their cameras into entirely new instruments, an NR-off switch? I'm not sure if the cameras are too different for that to apply the same way, but reinventing the camera thru firmware would be nice.
As long as I'm dreaming, how about a new jpg engine entirely, or a downloadable set of options? It's clearly the sore spot with most reviewers, who praise the RAW images and lament the (relatively) lame JPGs. I tend not to go past iso800 plus I have RAW.. but I need practice/training on NR techniques in software, I am not very good at it yet.
Jim R - Portland, Oregon
A200 - Mino35-105N - Mino50/1.7 - Tam17-35Di - Tam28-200Di
Good points, personally the thing I miss most are the more advanced DRO capabilities of the A700. But then I assume Sony probably pays higher license fees from Apical for the advanced capabilities used in the A700 DRO.
Plus the DRO on the a200 does have its merits it seems, I do like the gentle dro effect and overall clean look of the images from it.
I wonder if a more advanced firmware update for the a200 might be in the works at some point.
Eric
-AlphaMountWorld Chef
Thanks for posting :)
Agree the A200 should have those features as well as DOF preview. I can just about bet that Sony will offer the upgraded model with some if not all, and maybe more features than it has now.
As far as the jpeg comment below yours, the A200/300 has very good to excellent Jpegs, it was one of the stand outs for me when I did the review and one reason I keep my A200. Since the A700's introduction, there have been 3 firmware updates (now at version 4), finally the jpeg output looks really really good. Not sure what people would want more out of the Jpegs now.
The A200 to me is a bare bones DSLR that does one thing really well, takes great pictures. I like it because I don't hardly have to think when shooting with it, and sometimes I do like to have that kind of mindless experience to be honest :). Yet, like you, I'd like to see some upgrades to it, either through firmware or eventually a new model, see if it can dent the Rebel sales even more ....
Cheers,
Carl
-AlphaMountWorld Chef-
"You can't legislate morality or common sense."
I thought that seeing as the A700 has had 3 firmware updates, this would be a great way to improve an already fantastic camera. One other thing I failed to mention was the NR at high ISOs. Seeing as Nikon uses the same CCD sensor, I'm sure that Sony should be able to close the NR gap, it is obviously a processing issue. Seems to me that these kinds of inexpensive upgrades would help boost sales for the A200.
A200 with Travor Vertical Grip
18-70mm Sony Kit Lens
70-210mm f/4 Minolta (Beercan) Lens
HVLF42AM Sony Flash
Fear not, I will have a comprehensive "nitpickers" list up shortly ;-)
Going on the prints I have played with so far, or rather done off of samples, yes the print quality is good. "If" you like to hit noise on the head, if you don't mind a bit of grain (and I rather like it), then you will want to shoot raw obviously, with NR "off" as well.
The OP has some valid points, and I would agree with them, my initial reaction on the A200 news was, uh oh..Nikon D40 cut down. But, it's not as bad as that. If they had pulled out wireless flash, then I would have started a riot by now ;-) Oh and the other thing, it is very cheap, as in really cheap..so that lets it off on a few things. But MLU wouldn't hurt, not one bit..and a few other things would be nice.
As a new owner of an A200 I still have a lot to learn but one thing that would be useful is wider AE bracketing because at the moment it is limited to +/- 0.7 Would it be possible to change this on a firmware update? Has anyone had good results producing HDR photos using this camera? I can't understand the point of Sony limiting the bracketing when HDR is such a popular technique unless I'm missing something. Having said that, it seems to be an awful lot of camera for very little money.
I don't do HDR, but I can see the point about a larger AEB range.
I hope sony do update it via firmware..
My top requests are as above
MLU
Spot AEL toggle
Reduced NR on jpegs
Larger AEB range
Would love DMF too..
We can hope for at least some of those..I think the MLU one was the biggest error, and spot AEL toggle, use that frequently..just those 2 would do...
I would ask folks post on the sony blog, as more requests won't hurt at all
Freaky! I had a double entry...
Double what? MY GOD MAN! (lol, just kiddin)
Carl
-AlphaMountWorld Chef-
"You can't legislate morality or common sense."
I would definately add the support for Remote Camera Control program - it costs nothing, since they have such functions implemented in A700/A900. I would also customize Invalid Operation button to something more useful. Not mentioning the famous ISO changing with LCD lighten up, always in horizontal position regardless the actual camera (and controls) position. braketing by 0.3EV and 0.7 EV is pointless with ARW shooting.