Digital Camera - Ken Gilbert
Digital Camera - Ken Gilbert
Digital Camera - Ken Gilbert
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6<br />
Sony alphaa500<br />
Good value but not the best feature set<br />
T he<br />
cheapest cameraon<br />
test still manages to serve<br />
up some interesting<br />
high-end features,but<br />
in other areas it’s a little lacking.<br />
With its decidedly bulky build,<br />
there’s plenty of room for a<br />
secondary LCD on the top panel,<br />
but this is omittedand all shooting<br />
information is shuffled around the<br />
back to atwo-way tilting three-inch<br />
LCD screen, with a disappointingly<br />
low resolution of just k pixels.<br />
“The A500 features a Face<br />
Detection autofocus mode, which<br />
is a little gimmicky for an SLR”<br />
Around the back… SONY ALPHA A500<br />
Controls are basic in places, but this keeps things simple<br />
Viewfinder<br />
The pentamirror<br />
viewfinder has the<br />
lowest magnification<br />
hereofjust 0.80x<br />
LCDscreen<br />
The resolution is<br />
disappointing at just<br />
230k pixels, but the<br />
screen does pivot<br />
The pentamirror viewfinder is<br />
aletdown, with the lowest<br />
magnification factor in the test.<br />
Advanced custom settings are<br />
few and far between, which will be<br />
abugbear for serious photographers<br />
wholiketoset up their cameras to<br />
Controls<br />
The exposure<br />
compensation and<br />
lock buttons sit<br />
under your thumb<br />
Fn button<br />
Gives quick access<br />
to drive, flash,<br />
metering and<br />
autofocus modes<br />
KITzONE<br />
Sub-£750 SlrS teSteD<br />
One screen only The topplate has room for<br />
a second LCD, but only has buttons<br />
Hotshoe The custom hotshoe prohibits the<br />
attachment of third-party flash triggers<br />
work in just the way they like. On<br />
the plus side,thereare severalfancy<br />
features,including sensor-shift image<br />
stabilisation that works with any<br />
lens. Sony claims a 2.5 to four-stop<br />
advantage, and an Auto HDR mode,<br />
which captures twoimages with<br />
different exposuresettingsand<br />
merges them automatically into one<br />
shot. There’salso afairly convincing<br />
Dynamic Range Optimizer, akin to<br />
Canon’sAutoLighting Optimizer and<br />
Nikon’s Active D-Lighting systems.<br />
Likemanycameras, the A500<br />
includesaFaceDetection autofocus<br />
mode,which is alittlegimmickyon<br />
an SLR, but Sonyhas upped the<br />
stakes further with an added ‘Smile<br />
Shutter’ mode, which attempts to<br />
automatically fire the shutter when<br />
a portrait subject cracks a smile.<br />
If you’rewilling to dig alittle<br />
deeper into your pocket and hand<br />
over an extra £60 or so, the Sony<br />
A550 has a higher-resolution 14.2Mp<br />
sensor, a faster 7fps maximum burst<br />
rate and asuperior 921k-pixel LCD<br />
but, in all other respects, the two<br />
cameras areprettymuch identical<br />
and suffer from the same flaws.<br />
FEATuRES<br />
IMAGE QuALITy<br />
Overall<br />
hANDLING<br />
VALuE<br />
<strong>Digital</strong><strong>Camera</strong> July2010<br />
137
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