Sony A390
My first Sony was a mirrorless A7 in 2014. I was never into their DSLRs, so why did I buy an A390 from 2010? Some of you will roll your eyes to hear this, but it's about the colours from CCD vs CMOS sensors. I know, technically speaking there shouldn't be too much difference, but hear me out. I have samples. I'd heard people saying that they preferred the colours from older CCD cameras, but I was sceptical and didn't pay it too much thought. That was until I processed a photo of a squirrel in a summer forest from the Nikon D1. Usually these green contaminated photos are very difficult to process with modern cameras. You'd hope that red squirrels stand out well against the foliage, but their colours often look a mess no matter what you do with the white balance and colour mixer...
The issue with photographing squirrels like this on most DSLRs is that looking through the optical viewfinder to frame them and focus while squirrels are low to the ground is pretty horrible. The only DSLRs to have a solution to the live-view tilt-screens with full speed autofocus while they were still using CCD sensors were Sony's A350, A380 and A390 models. Interestingly, these models also had three stops of 'in body image stabilization' and one of the most modern 14 megapixel CCD sensors. I also found a Zeiss Planar 85mm f/1.4 portrait lens for a decent price, which I will be comparing to the Sony FE 85mm f/1.8 lens on the A1.
Colours
I wanted a nice comparison between a CCD and CMOS image. I will try to get the same photo with each camera by keeping the squirrel busy with snacks. I will shoot both images in RAW, with settings as similar as possible. Once editing the files in software (ACR) I will tune the white balance for each as best as I can, but not change anything else other than exposure. Here goes...
Results
I was quite shocked by how much red I was getting out of the CCD shot. This is exactly what I felt was lacking from images I take with the Sony A1 (or any new CMOS sensor camera), but I always put that down to tricky lighting... until now. To my eye the squirrels would stand out more from the surrounding foliage, but the photos felt washed out, making their fur a more yellowy-orange than red. The CCD image is giving me way more of that complimentary colour feel, without me having to adjust the hues. If I tried to boost the reds of the Sony A1 image in the colour mixer nothing happens. There is literally no red in that image at all, so it's not just a case of boosting the saturation there. I do feel the saturation from the CCD sensor is a touch too high at times (see more samples below), but the hues feel more faithful and the images feel easier to edit.
Conclusion
As a camera the Sony A390 is a typical low end DSLR. Its controls are similarly lacking to a tiny mirrorless model (like the Sony NEX 5). With only one dial, in manual mode you need to toggle aperture and shutter control with the exposure compensation. I enjoyed being able to use a DSLR in live-view mode without the typical auto focus penalties and having IBIS too. However, the 9 point focusing system is very simple and slow. It's also very noisy with a screw driven lens like this Zeiss 85mm f/1.4, so not ideal when close to skittish squirrels. The lack of continuous auto focus and tracking also made it only good for static subjects, hence the squirrels here are always eating :D.
Here are a few more sample images to illustrate the punchy saturation, which is not edited at all..
