The Alpha 100 only has its LCD monitor and the information
area in the viewfinder to show camera settings (see the
Ergonomics section of the review). Camera settings
are shown on the monitor at a press of the Display button.
Settings are indicated clearly and are very legible. Moreover,
a magnified view is also offered, which limits the display
to the most important settings, but in larger characters.
In addition, the information display changes orientation along
with the camera, which makes it even simpler to see. Similarly,
the use of a Function dial that presents settings directly
on the monitor, where they can be modified, is quite efficient.
The menu system of the Alpha 100 is relatively simple, and
easy to decipher thanks to the use of blue text on a dark
grey background. The menu is composed of 4 sections, all identified
by tabs and easy to understand icons, and the number of pages
of each section is shown at the top of the monitor. Each section
of the menu loops back to the beginning of the section, but
moving to another section requires going back to the top and
selecting another tab, which is a bit slow.
The last section of the menu is dedicated to the basic configuration
of the camera, and is called Setup.
The options contained in this section are spread over three
screens:
LCD Brightness: serves to adjust the brightness
of the monitor using either the 4-direction Controller,
or the Control Dial.
Transfer Mode: serves to choose the USB protocol.
Mass Storage allows the camera's memory to be recognized
as a hard disk by the operating system, while PTP (Picture
Transfer Protocol) is intended for printing directly to
a PictBridge compliant printer.
Video Output: decides the video signal produced
by the camera NTSC or PAL.
Audio Signals: On or Off. Controls the sounds produced
by the camera when it is used.
Language selects the interface language: English,
French, Spanish, Italian, Simplified Chinese or Japanese.
Date/Time Set: serves to set the time and date
on the camera.
File # Memory: On or Off. Serves to decide whether
image file names are continuously incremented or return
to 1 when a new memory card is used or the card is formatted.
A sub-option is also offered:
Reset: restarts numbering at 0001. If the folder
into which images are being already contains an image,
the camera starts numbering after that image's number.
Folder Name: controls how folders are named. The
default is the standard form (100MSDCF), but the folder
name can instead be based on the date.
Select Folder: serves to select the folder into
which images will be saved.
New Folder: serves to create a new folder.
LCD Backlight sets the delay after which the information
display on the monitor turns off: 5, 10, 30 seconds or 1
minute).
Power Save decides the period of time after which
the camera will power down when it is not in use: 1, 3,
5, 10 or 30 minutes.
Menu Section Memory: decides whether the menu opens
on the Recording or Playback section depending on the mode,
or on the last used option.
Delete Confirmation: Yes or No. Decides whether
or not a confirmation screen is displayed when an image
is deleted.
Clean CCD: engages a mode that vibrates the CCD
for a while then lifts the mirror and opens the shutter
so that dust can be blown out of the area.
Reset Default: returns all main camera settings
to the factory defaults.
The Alpha 100 is supplied with a printed manual that covers
most aspects of the camera. Regrettably, however, the text
is occasionally difficult to understand or convoluted, and
is not on par with what should accompany a DSLR.
Software
A single CD is included with the Alpha 100 in North America.
It contains the following programs:
Picture Motion Browser version 1.1 for Windows
ME, 2000 and XP.
Image Data Converter SR version 1.1, for Windows
2000 and XP, as well as Mac OSX (v10.3/v10.4).
The Software User Guide, in PDF format (Adobe Acrobat)
and in a variety of languages.
Picture Motion Browser is foremost a JPEG-only image
browser, presenting images as a contact sheet, with the folders
that have been imported into the program's database appearing
in a column on the left. The contact sheet side of the program's
window allows images to be rotated, but any other editing
requires the image to be double-clicked so that it opens in
another window called Image Editor. There, modifications
can be made to brightness, contrast, hue, saturation and sharpness.
Image Data Converter SR is
supplied to open RAW format images captured with the Alpha 100.
First the program requires that folders containing RAW format
image be identified, which then allows showing only
RAW images contained in these folders if desired.
Once selected for development,
a RAW image opens in a window along with tools to adjust it
as needed, each of which open small windows that can be moved
around freely.
Which of the tool windows that are open is determined by
a master list of the tools available, itself shown on the
left of the image in its own window that includes text description
for each tool.
The program is quite advanced, and
allows precise adjustments to white balance, exposure, sharpness,
noise reduction, contrast, hue, saturation and tone using tone
curves. Filters can also be applied, allowing, for instance,
to change the image to black and white.
An option is provides to record
tool settings, making it possible to apply similar settings
to another image.
RAW images can then be saved using the non-lossy TIFF format
in either 8 or 16-bit, or as JPEG at any of 4 levels of compression,
the least compressed of which produces file sizes that are
three times as big as those produced by the camera at the
Fine setting. The colour space can also be selected, either
sRGB or Adobe RGB when the image is saved in TIFF or JPEG
format, according to where and how it will be used.
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Interface & Software
Setup.
The options contained in this section are spread over three
screens:
