As you’d expect, the crops contain a high degree of detail, and the 24-70mm lens performs very well across the frame; there’s a small amount of softening in the extreme corners, but little to worry about.

Once again it’s a natural-looking result, packed with detail when viewed at 100%. Notice the 22.4MB file size though. The A900’s Extra Fine JPEGs can get very large with detailed scenes.

The very low shooting angle was however quite uncomfortable without Live View. Sony may shun Live View on its higher-end Alphas, but it’s a useful facility in many situations.

As you’ll see in this gallery, the A900 has a tendency to underexpose, and the bright hull hasn’t helped here.

The crops still contain plenty of detail, but in shadow areas there’s the slightest evidence of noise – it’s not quite as clean as at 100 ISO, but that’s serious pixel-peeping and won’t bother most.

The result is a small depth of field with a nice blurred background and attractive bokeh – the 24-70mm f2.8 is great for this kind of effect.

There’s arguably a slight over-exposure this time, but there’s still lots of noise-free detail in the image, and the brightness is easily adjusted in software if desired.

The result isn’t the tightest macro shot you’ll have seen in these galleries, but look closely at the crops and there’s lots of detail which remains sharp across most of the field.

As we’re seeing throughout this review, the Sony A900 and Carl Zeiss 24-70mm are an ideal combination.

As you’ll see in all three of our indoor samples here, the A900 has delivered what most would consider to be an underexposure.

The boost in sensitivity has resulted in the presence of very fine noise if you’re looking for it, but it remains discreet and we’d certainly be happy using the A900 at 400 ISO.

To ensure sufficient portions were sharp, we selected f5.6 in Aperture Priority. This resulted in a relatively slow shutter of 1/5, but the built-in SteadyShot ensured a sharp result.

The crops show an increase in noise, but there’s still lots of detail – remember those artefacts will be very small when printed.

Noise levels are now much higher with undesirable colour artefacts and smearing. Again the high resolution means the artefacts will appear small on prints, but most would still try to avoid 1600 ISO on the A900 for the best results.

The A900 goes on to offer 3200 and 6400 ISO modes, but neither look good up close.