Sony Alfa A850

Sony's second DSLR to offer a full frame, 35mm image sensor. Packed with 24.6 megapixels of resolution, photographs are presented with stunning detail for oversize printing or cropping applications. Sony builds this sensor in-house and processes captured files through a proprietary set of Dual BIONZ engines. Nikon uses a similar sensor design in their professional D3x camera, and though different processing conventions are applied, overall image quality is much the same.
The advantages of a full frame sensor are numerous. Touted as salvation for wide angle photography, larger sensors also improve resolving power and depth of field control. There are many good arguments against 20+ megapixel imaging. Outstanding detail comes at the expense of chunky, high ISO performance. This wasn't much of a concern for me when testing the A850. Overall quality was certainly better at ISO 640 than 6400, but at the end of the day, there wasn't much to complain about. Shooting a speak-easy poetry sharing in the South Bronx, you will able to get the frames that you needed in an all but no light situation. The snaps definitely showed some breakdown in their shadow detail, but I was able to capture my subjects with action-stopping shutter speeds – something that would not be possible at more conservative ISOs. In the studio or any other medium to well lit location, the A850 flexes its resolving power as well as other full frame cameras that are four times the cost. Simply put, the camera offers higher image quality than 35mm film and holds its own against the beastly files of many digital medium format cameras.