Sony Alpha ultra-compact concept hands-off: leaves much to the imagination

We'd love nothing more than to extol the merits of Sony's Alpha ultra-compact concept with an interchangeable lens -- which bears a striking resemblance at face value to Olympus and Panasonic's Micro Four Thirds standard -- but alas, the little device is hidden behind glass. Furthermore, all the Sony reps we managed to corner wouldn't answer our questions. Will the lenses be interchangeable with Sony's current Alpha DSLR line, or any of the MFT lenses? What's been cut from traditional Four Thirds models to accommodate for the drop in size? Radio silence, save for a repeat of this morning's information and a finger point to the adjacent " Exmor APS HD CMOS" sign -- which, as we know from this morning, is larger than a Four Thirds sensor, but we're not sure how much. Still, enjoy the pics we managed to take from behind the glass -- and also be sure to enjoy the shots of this morning's other Sony announcements, the Super Telephoto Lens (500mm F4 G) and the prototype Distagon T 24mm F2 ZA SSM.

Sony Alpha ultra-compact concept hands-off

Sony Alpha DSLR concept, Super Telephoto Lens, and Distagon lens hands-off

[Grusic Posted Feb 21st 2010 11:46PM]

@Atkins It'll probably be touch screen operated to a certain extent, which is fine as far as I'm concerned.

Also, this type of camera will most likely be used in street photography or still work. With street shooting, most folks are just operating in auto or shutter priority mode because they need to shoot very quickly. For still work, which is much more considered, going through a menu, if we have to do that, isn't that much of a concern, although it can become laborious after awhile.

The lack of an OVF isn't a big deal to me personally. And, LCD Liveview works perfectly well once one gets used to it. My current cam has an excellent EVF and LCD Liveview, and I don't miss OVF at all.

About 50% of the time I use the LCD - I shoot a lot in clubs, etc., where things are moving pretty fast. So, having a large LCD Liveview is an advantage then. I've tried using the EVF in those situations and it just fails to work well at all; not because of the quality of the EVF, but because of all the fast movement.

[Grusic Posted Feb 22nd 2010 1:29AM]

@Atkins Please don't worry about the typos

Yeah, I get what you're saying about using an ultra-slim camera like this with a big lens. It'll probably take some getting used to or perhaps some enterprising individual will come up with a sling for it.

I'm mildly concerned about touch screen operation also. But, I guess we'll have to wait and see if Sony can pull it off well. ;)

[keithwwalker Posted Feb 22nd 2010 5:24AM]

meh, I am glad I broke down and purchased the GF1....

[N0b0 Posted Feb 22nd 2010 5:46AM]

@Atkins Remember this is not the final model, it's a concept. The final model will probably be a lot sleeker and have more controls. The is what the Olympus Micro Four Thirds Concept looked like: http://www.digicamreview.com/2008/09/olympus-micro-four-thirds-camera.html
See it didn't have many controls either.
Even if the camera doesn't have many controls like the E-P1/2 and GF1, it could still be a winner. If the price is right, it will compete with the new E-PL1 which doesn't have a lot of controls either (at least easy accessible ones).

[JMichels Posted Feb 22nd 2010 7:38AM]

I started to comment on this last night, only I couldn't conjur an adequate alternative to the word lame. Way to go sony, always a day late and a roll of quarters short. Anyways engadget, I would rule out MFT, and backwards compatibility with their current line of lenses-- the removal of the mirror-box changes the the focus plane, they'll have to design a whole new line of lenses, or a $200 adaptor they'll force people to buy because they only have one lens at launch......sound familiar?