With the launch of the Alpha 700, some sample images shot mainly as in-camera JPEGs by journalists attending the launch have been circulating. The file sizes - around 4 to 5 megs for a 12 megapixel JPEG - are similar to file sizes obtained when you compress images to Photoshop Level 10 or 11. But I will say outright that the detail, the smoothing, the edge processing and overall information content of these images has so far been disappointing at low/normal ISO settings. The high ISO results are a different matter, because at high ISOs we are looking for something else, a clean image. They are exceptionally good.

The ISO 100-400 results do not seem to be on the same level as the Alpha 100 for fine detail capture. I do not shoot JPEG normally, but checking over comparable in-camera JPEGs from the 7D, 5D and A100 shows them to be quite different and with more preservation of textural information.

To demonstrate the very LEAST that an A700 JPEG should be like, I took one of my casually snapped A100 raw files from the same afternoon as the press launch, albeit a couple of thousand miles away in Scotland. I processed this using Photoshop ACR converter settings of 25 sharpness, 25 luminance NR and 25 colour NR - this ensures that fine detail is slightly destroyed, as it would be with in-camera NR and sharpening. I cropped it slightly to remove a man at the left. I exported the image using ACR to the 11.2 megapixel size option (slightly enlarged) and then interpolated the result using Photoshop Bicubic Smoother, to match the pixel height of the A700's 12 megapixel files.

Finally, I compressed it to below 4MB (PS Level 11) to match the size of a similarly busy A700 typical JPEG. You will see that in the image, the fine hairlines of the rear screen heater elements in the car window above the bicycle are clearly resolved. All the signs and notices are legible, fabrics and masonry, flowers and other surfaces have just the detail you might expect from a 10 megapixel camera shot blown up to 12 megapixel size. At native 10 megapixel size it's even sharper, of course.

This is what the A700 *should* be achieving for its Fine quality in-camera JPEG at lower ISO settings.

The lens, by the way, is not my Carl Zeiss 16-80mm. It's the Tamron 18-250mm superzoom, which is now to be launched in a Sony version. f/10 is a very good working aperture for this lens. Most of the A700 samples have been taken on the 16-105mm Sony which we would hope to be every bit as good.

I hope that I can prove the A700 has the qualities I look for in a DSLR - notably, recording the finest detail possible when used at low ISO settings - as well as the Canon-matching high ISO performance. In the meantime, compare this result with sample A700 files to judge how a typical A100 image 'sizes up' in a scrap with its big brother.