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Finally, the indoor football season has arrived. In the past years I have
used the Konica Minolta 5D as my primary camera, but this season will be
different. This year my primary camera (I shoot with two) will be the Sony A700. My
early testing seem to show it will bring home more keepers than the KM5D can at this
particular venue. The KM5D produced very clean ISO1600 output that printed very
well, but the Sony Alpha A700 is a completely different beast, and most of that
beast is a big upgrade from the KM5D. The Alpha A700 focuses faster, tracks
better, and provides a much higher frame rate, and all of that is very much
appreciated. Another great addition is the MF/AF button which I used constantly
througout the night. The KM had great color and clean files, but was a slow
dog in comparison to most "sports" cameras. The A700 is fast enough,
and gives adequate output even at very high ISO values.
The main faults of the camera on this shoot were as follows. The main dials
are very easy to bump which change the settings, several times I had
accidentally changed my aperture or shutter speed value during the shoot. The
tone curve and metering is significantly different on the A700 when compared to
the six megapixel KM5D camera. I had anticipated shooting at ISO1600,
using center weighted metering, and a color temperature around 4200 M2 like I
have in the past with the 5D, but on Monday night I ended up trying several other
settings, including shooting the majority of this gallery at ISO 3200, and using
a couple different WB and Color Temp settings.
All-in-all the camera performed well, but it does takes some getting used to
seeing the A700 100% crop watercolor look. This was only an exhibition game, and
when the season opens I will shoot in the ISO1600-2500 range, and use slightly
different metering and white balance scheme and the shots will get even better.
The camera JPGs at ISO3200 seem easier to work with than the Raw files and the
JPGs are what you will find posted here. The lens I used was the Minolta 135 2.8
and a few of the frames are slight crops of the original. No flash or strobe has
been used on any of the shots. The lighting was the nasty yellow stuff you
normally find in dimly lit arenas. The arena that this Continental Indoor
Football League game was played in was the MetroCentre in Rockford, Illinois
My home town team the Rock River Raptors got crushed by the defending
league champion Rochester Raiders 50-10 on this night. We will be
back....and I am sure glad it was only exhibition for the Raptors and my Sony
Alpha A700!
Click here
to enter this football game gallery.
Cick here to enter the
main Sony photo gallery page.
-Sonolta 03-06-2008
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