photoclubalpha.com
Download and install latest FIRMWARE and SOFTWARE updates for the Alpha 100 and Sony image conversion/browsing packages
Welcome to photoclubalpha.com, the former Minolta Club of Great Britain. We are renaming the club as the Photoworld Club, and membership is provided free of charge to anyone subscribing to the quarterly Minolta/Sony Alpha user magazine now simply titled 'Photoworld'. We also have - temporarily, as we may not be permitted to use the name - an additional site www.minoltaclub.co.uk which mirrors this in content. The newly-revised quarterly magazine is tailor-made reading for all owners of the new Sony Alpha system as well as anyone using, or interested in, the range of Minolta cameras from 1929 onwards.
You may now download from this site a complete 36-page 'edition' PDF of the Summer06 issue of Photoworld, at a medium quality 150dpi resolution suitable for viewing up to 200 per cent on most monitors or printing out to better than webpage quality. This is a 10Mb file and not suitable for low speed connections. It was mailed to all subscribers in late July 2006. Printed copies are still available for new subscribers. The next edition (Autumn 2006) is now available, as from October 20th, including a report on Sony's Alpha system as exhibited at photokina (Sept 25-Oct 1st, Cologne).
You can also download as an alternative - for those keen on Alpha 100 info - just our eight-page article covering the European launch of this camera in Morocco. It is in two versions, page by page and in spreads, and is a little over 2Mb in size.
If you wish to subscribe to Photoworld the summer06 edition does include a complete postal application form, including two special gift offers. However, you can also do so using our online Paypal subscription service.
photoclubalpha.com is maintained by Icon Publications Ltd without prejudice to Sony's intentions for other websites, and the name used does not reflect any future organisation. When official Sony Alpha Club resources go live, direct links will be provided. Sony does not financially support, endorse or have any association with this site or with Photoworld magazine.
A history of association
Let me introduce ourselves as your hosts on this site: we are David & Shirley Kilpatrick, professional photographers since 1975 and publishers of photographic magazines in Britain since 1983. We first started using Minolta SLR systems in 1974. In 1981 we were asked to run the Minolta Club of Great Britain and produce its quarterly magazine, Photoworld; we did this for 25 years with the support of Minolta (UK) Limited and later of Konica Minolta Photo Imaging (UK) Ltd.
You can also download the entire PDF for the final Konica Minolta supported edition, which would have been a 25th anniversary edition for us and nearly 40th anniversary edition for the British Minolta Club. It includes a few words of farewell as well as optimism for the future.
What has made the Minolta Club of Great Britain possible has been the long-term loyalty of thousands of system owners, and the regular intake of new owners through the medium of leaflets in product packaging. This new intake is no longer possible. Sony packaging will not contain any references to the former Minolta Club for obvious reasons, and Minolta or Konica Minolta products are now generally out of stock as well as out of production.
The future of the club and the magazine are Icon Publications Ltd's responsibility. Sony will provide their own web-based club open only to buyers of new Alpha equipment, closed to our existing Minolta Club members unless they invest in Alpha. Konica Minolta will not allow use of its trade names for a continued Minolta owner club site, something difficult to reconcile with the many enthusiast and owner clubs independently run for countless makes and brands past and present.
Existing subscribers have received the Summer 2006 magazine, with an initial Alpha system launch report. We have welcomed support from Sigma Imaging (UK) Ltd, Intro2020 Ltd (Tamron lenses), The Flash Centre, and Calumet Group. This has enabled us to mail all current and previous subscribers, including those who have allowed their subscription to lapse. We are offering a chance to resubscribe with a worthwhile free gift of a versatile Z-case or (subject to postage costs only) a Minolta MB-1 camera kit bag.
Run our Alpha System web slideshow
Links
There is now an excellent PDF format e-book written by Gary Friedman as a user guide, mine of information and all-tround treasury of inspiration for Alpha 100 owners – see www.friedmanarchives.com for details and how to buy this either as a physical printed book, or a download. It's nearly 400 pages but very easy to read on-screen, and the expensive printed edition (even more so if you use your own inkjet!) is not necessary. Gary also has a Dynax 7D/5D book, and Dimage A1/A2 book (equally applicable to the A200).
Raw converters
Sony Alpha owners will find that Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Photoshop Elements 4.0 include a good .ARW raw file converter in the current version of Adobe Camera Raw 3.x (anything later than 3.4 will process .ARW files). Earlier versions will not. A currently free and very powerful beta version of Adobe Lightroom, a dedicated raw file conversion and 'digital asset management' utility, which is a complete stand alone product including A100 conversion, can be downloaded from:
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom/
You can also convert .ARW raw files from the Sony Alpha 100 into Adobe .DNG (Digital Negative) universal raw files, readable by earlier versions Adobe Photoshop 7, CS and Elements 3. Please note that downloading auto-updates for Photoshop does NOT automatically update the raw converter, and this must be done as a separate, manual download. There are two download options, both entirely free, for the DNG converter and the ACR 3.x plug-in (which requires CS2 or PSE 3/4 for Mac, 4 for Windows, and is not compatible with earlier versions):
There's a great Mac-only raw file developer for the A100 and previous Konica Minolta DSLRs - RAWDeveloper from Iridient. This is really fast, allows scaled exports, has superb noise reduction and is a highly professional workflow solution.
Another alternative is Silkypix Developer Studio, a Japanese developed raw file converter, which has something in common with Sony's Image Converter SR, and will - again - handle both the new A100 file format and previous Minolta and Konica Minolta raw files, for those with mixed systems. This is available in both Windows and Mac versions.
Bibble, a popular commercial multi-format raw converter and browser utility, now supports the Alpha 100. We have had some problems with scaled-up output showing unwanted raster-like patterns, but for normal size files BibblePro offers NoiseNinja which is one of the best ways of dealing with the Alpha 100's rather strong high-ISO noise levels.
DxOptics Pro also now supports all Konica Minolta/Sony DSLRs and includes automatic correction for many Minolta/Sony lenses. This deals with chromatic aberration, fringes, curvature of lines and vignetting of brightness towards the corners of the field, and it is especially useful with digital format zooms.
An excellent top-level raw .MRW/.ARW converter, if a little hard to master, is Capture One Pro made by Phase One, the Danish digital medium-format back manufacturer. The good news is that if you buy a SanDisk Extreme III memory card right now (as from October 16th 2006) a version normally costing $99 called CaptureOne Pro LE is included on the card free of charge. You can also download trial software, and upgrade this LE version to the full product, by visiting Phase One's website.
Support and resources
For legacy support and information on Konica Minolta photo-digital products, we currently recommend the website below, which has not disabled all its downloads of software, firmware, etc: http://ca.konicaminolta.com/support/americas/
For information on the Sony Alpha system and the new Sony Alpha 100 DSLR, the UK Sony site now has some really excellent resources in place. Use the High Bandwidth option if you possibly can, and expore both 'Assignments' and 'Equipment': http://www.sony.co.uk/nextlevel
The bimonthly magazine for freelance photographers, ƒ2 Freelance+Digital, has a dedicated website where many PDF articles can be downloaded. We have included on this site many PDFs from our Photoworld magazine. ƒ2 magazine is moving to new publishers from the October/November 2006 edition, but the website will remain operational. Registration is necessary but paid subscription is only required to access the archives of older articles - new editions are free for two months to all comers, subscribers can download from well over 100 previous articles, and use the Forum as well: http://www.f2photo.co.uk/
You can view a selection of full size, 10.2 megapixel images taken with the new Sony Alpha 100 on David Kilpatrick's pBase pages. At the last count there were over 70 examples and the Alpha images had clocked up over 100,000 views. There's lots of technical information on the tests, examples, and comparison present on these pages. These include comments, captions and EXIF shooting data: http://www.pbase.com/davidkilpatrick
There is an independent Minolta M-AF forum and website, Dyxum, which offers many useful resources including lens tests and storage card speed comparisons: http://www.dyxum.com
There is also a new Yahoogroup called SonyAlpha, at least until Sony's legal dept ask them to cease and desist: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SonyAlpha/
A useful group with a strong photography emphasis is UKExpert - forums and galleries and many further onwards links
Dealers and spares
The main Icon Publications Ltd site allows subscription to Photoworld magazine, including special offer options with free gifts (subject to additional postage & packing only). We also have a range of discontinued Minolta products for sale, some Alpha-compatible, and details of our other photo magazines: http://www.iconpublications.com/
Former Minolta Club administrator Adrian Paul has his own specialist business selling spares, accessories and smaller hard-to-obtain products from the Minolta and Konica Minolta ranges, and will be offering Sony Alpha system products in future. The Photostore is a mail-order business only and Adrian offers a fast, excellent standard of service and knowledge: http://www.photostore-uk.com/
Pro dealers Calumet have the Alpha system now as a main line, after decades of sidelining the Minolta mount. This is very important and will put the Alpha in front of Britain's working professionals: http://www.calumetphoto.co.uk/
Thank you for visiting the photoclubalpha.com temporary site. If you would like to receive future information by email from Sony UK about the Alpha system, and news of future developments for the former Minolta Club of Great Britain, please email iconmags@btconnect.com using the heading 'Add to Alpha mailing list'
- David Kilpatrick, revised October 20th 2006
Icon Publications Ltd
Maxwell Place
Maxwell Lane
Kelso
Scottish Borders TD5 7BB
UK
UK Subscription to Photoworld magazine may be ordered from this address by post, enclosing a cheque made payable to Icon Publications Ltd for £19.95, along with address details for receipt of the magazine. Europe or World subscribers should use our Paypal subscription pages.