As a long-time Minolta film shooter I held off going digital for some time. Not that the Maxxum 7D didn’t tempt me. I couldn’t justify, at the time, paying so much for a 6MP DSLR. Hey, I’m a photographer on a budget. Then along came the Sony Alpha 100, essentially an updated Maxxum 5D but with a 10.2MP sensor, and I couldn’t resist any longer. An affordable 10MP DSLR that functions with all of my current Minolta Maxxum 7 accessories and lenses, the Sony A100 has allowed me to shoot unhindered. This is especially true for my youth sports shooting. Before digital I limited myself to certain angles, waiting for specific action, and rarely experimented. I don’t miss developing 'almost' action shots that were unusable. The continuous shooting mode allows for fast action grabs and if some of those include framing or exposure issues, simply delete them and keep shooting. On a 1GB CF card the Sony produces around 290 images in JPEG Fine mode.The freedom digital provides is wonderful and I’m glad that youth sports have started up again. I tend to favor my trusty, classic Minolta Maxxum 70-210mm f4 lens for sideline shots. It’s bulky but provides smooth focusing and sharp images. Best of all on the Sony A100 with its 1.5x magnification this lens provides coverage as if it were a 105-315mm lens. I’ve compiled a small gallery of recent images taken with the newer Sony A100 using the older Minolta lens. The camera was set to Vivid color mode, continuous shooting mode, daylight WB, hand-held with Super Steady Shot engaged, and I tend to favor Aperture Priority mode in these action settings. When set to ISO 400 action freezing shutter speeds are all but guaranteed when selecting f4 – 8. These images were captured during early morning hours with slight cloud cover.
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