The Sony Alpha name has officially been around for more than two decades. On June 5, 2006, Sony announced its first DSLR, the Sony Alpha A100. Twenty years later, Sony’s interchangeable lens cameras still carry the Alpha name, but the imaging giant’s latest models are a far cry from Sony’s first.
The Sony Alpha A100’s 10.2MP APS-C DSLR, which shot at just 2.49fps, shows just how far imaging technology has come in the last twenty years – after all, Sony’s most recent announcement, the A7R VI shoots 66.8MP images at 30 fps.
But, the A100 did have a feature that Sony’s modern E-Mount cameras do not. The Sony Alpha A100 had a feature called “eye-start autofocus” – while the name sounds a little like Sony’s modern eye detection autofocus, the older tech had an entirely different purpose.
Eye-start autofocus used a sensor placed near the DSLR's optical viewfinder. Whenever this sensor detected something within about an inch of the camera, the DSLR would start autofocusing. That meant the camera would start focusing as soon as photographers pulled it up to their face, starting to focus before photographers even pressed any buttons on the camera.
The feature could help boost the camera’s autofocusing speed by starting the focus before the photographer pressed the shutter release halfway. But the eye-start autofocus never made it out of the A-mount DLSRs and into the E-Mount. A likely culprit? The eye sensor drained a lot of power, reducing the battery life. Other objects coming within an inch of the back of the camera, like a camera strap or having the camera bounce around a neck, would also trigger the camera to begin focusing.
The feature also illustrates how Sony Alpha cameras got their start, despite being a little late to the DSLR game: from Konica Minolta. Some Minolta film SLRs had eye-start autofocus in the 1990s.
The Sony Alpha A100 arrived in part from Sony’s purchase of the Konica Minolta camera division, and along with the eye-start AF, the Minolta heritage also brought in-body stabilization. While the stabilization is common in the mirrorless era, the feature wasn’t as easy to find at the time.
The A100’s stabilization was rated to somewhere between 2 and 3.5 stops – another key example of how far Sony has come, as cameras like the A7R VI have stabilization systems rated up to eight stops.
Other features that speak to the DSLR’s early 2000s age? The native ISO topped out at ISO 1600, and low-light autofocus was only rated to +1 EV.
While Sony celebrated 80 years in May, the Sony Alpha series has just passed its 20th anniversary. Happy 20th birthday, Sony Alpha series!
You may also like...
Take a look at the best Sony cameras, or the best Sony E-Mount lenses.
