UPDATE: The Sony A850 has been announced on August 27, 2009. Please see Photography Bay’s Sony A850 Reviews and Resources page and Sony A850 Official Announcement page for more. The A850 is also available on Amazon.com.
It’s a sure thing now. The Sony A850 manual has leaked from a Sony website and is pretty much all over photo forums across the web. Initially, it seems like the A850 is an economy version of the Sony A900. No word on price yet. For now, here’s the high points on this new full frame DSLR.
Sony A850 Key Specs
- 24.6-megapixels
- Full Frame 35mm (35.9×24.0 mm) CMOS sensor
- 3 frames per second
- SteadyShot image stabilization
- Viewfinder features 0.98x frame coverage & 0.74x magnification
- 9 AF points w/ 10 supplementary AF points
- Sensitivity range of 0 to 18EV
- ISO 100-6400
- Flash sync: 1/250s (SteadShot deactivated); 1/200s (SteadyShot activated)
- CF card and Memory Stick Duo compatibility
- 3.0-inch LCD at 921,600 dot resolution
- Battery: NP-FM500H
Here’s the link to download the manual from Sony (I won’t expect it to stay up for long) – http://www.css.ap.sony.com/consumer/hkmc/index.aspx?usr=p&c=en
How exciting! Too bad I’m sure I won’t be able to afford it, but I’m glad Sony is continuing to expand their DSLR body repertoire.
What? No HD movie mode?
Nope. No movie mode at all. Perhaps we’ll see that in the A500/A500?
http://www.photographybay.com/2009/04/22/sony-a500-a550-rumors/
Won’t be able to afford it? I would think again. This will be the cheast FF DSLR on the market and probably by some margin. Like the A900, it’s a real ‘photographers tool’, rather than a mash of new age features. It does it’s job simply and excellently.
If you want LV and video I think Eric is right – the A5XX series will probably bring that (September).
The specs look very similar to the a900…
hmmm….
LOOKS VERY SIMILAR to my A900 specs, except 3fps.
Why would Sony step on their own toes? If it was say 18MB or 20MB
I could see the nitch but making it the SAME FF as their A900?
Makes the A900 owners feel kinda bad for shelling out $3k!
OH, the link does not contain ANY A850 info. Must have taken it off already
Hmm, we will how this pans out.
-F
Did they mention on the manula that a850 is FF?
Yes, the sensor dimensions are provided as listed above.
I’ve got it :)
Some Difference compare with A900
– View finder: Frame coverage approx 98%
– 3 fps
– Magnesium Alloy body, but testa plastic
Live View: Sony will never do it?
They say: Never…
Why not? If so, they have a Handycam!
But Sony said that they got the interchangeable lens digital camera may just capture video, has get a photos… But brand not Alpha although use Alpha mount, mirrorless…
Personally, don’t really care about the video component. Looks like a solidly-good camera for a decent price. It’s nice to see some test reviews and user reviews starting to pop up. Imaging Resource has a nice–thorough– review up now. And, Photocrati just put up a (photographer-centric) Sony A850 field test report by Peter Burian (Nat Geo Photo Field Guides guy).