Something else! The Sony Alpha 850 (£2149), in the face-off

Product Unavailable Our suggested alternatives: Editor's Choice Sony Alpha 77 Entry-Level SLR Nikon D3100 All-Rounder Pentax K-5

Today's new arrival in our camera face-off might seem a little surprising: a pro SLR, the Sony Alpha 850, on sale at around £1500 for the body alone and £2149 with the lens kit. So what are we up to? We're giving you a benchmark.

As you probably know, when it comes to digital SLRs, here at Digital Versus we don't publish tests on cameras above the expert segment, cameras that, with the lens kit included, remain within sight of the £1000 marker. This is because as far as we're concerned, anyone looking higher up the price range will no doubt want to study their purchase in a good deal more detail.

However, we have just added the Sony Alpha 850, a full frame SLR (a 24x36 mm sensor like standard 135 mm film) which extends well beyond our usual price limit.

Our objective is simply to offer a benchmark. The face-off often shows up big differences between compacts and general consumer cameras, but how far are these models away from the absolute best?


As you can see there is still a difference. On the right you have the Canon G11, which is perhaps as sharp as things get for compacts, with the telephoto (to give best results), opposite the Alpha 850 and its 28-75 f/2.8 lens kit (elected best expert lens a the TIPA awards). We have resized for a 20x27 cm print at 300 dpi, so as not to afford too much of an advantage to the SLR's megapixel superiority.

All details are more precise and better rendered with the Alpha 850. The most obvious are the relief lines near the glacier: perfectly detailed on the 24x36 SLR, they are almost invisible on the compact.


At 100% the difference given by the 24 Mpx is clear: see - or work out - the watercourse flowing from the Sauvire glacier to the south-west, or the 1650 m relief line above the word 'Sauvire'. Even the NEX-5, with its 14 Mpx CMOS sensor which until now had given the sharpest image in this test, is far from displaying such detail.

Of course the number of people who'll go for a £2149 kit is minimal. Nevertheless it puts down a marker: when amateur cameras manage to compete with these results, we'll know a big step forward has been made.

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