Why sony a55

The Advanced Auto mode acts much like a regular Auto mode, taking control of most settings, but differs from the standard Auto mode in that it can also access some of Sony's more unique multi-shot modes, such as Handheld Twilight and High Dynamic Range. Continuous Advance Priority AE increases the maximum burst shooting speed as compared to the standard Continuous Advance modes, but does so by requiring the aperture be fixed near its open position. The Sweep Panorama mode can function in either 2D or 3D variants, and allows capture and in-camera stitching of multi-shot panoramic images by simply pressing the shutter button and sweeping the camera across the subject.

A selection of user-friendly scene modes accessed through the Scene position include Portrait, Sports Action, Macro, Landscape, Sunset, Night view, Hand-held Twilight, and Night Portrait, and let beginners get the look they're aiming for, without needing to understand the subtleties of shutter speeds, apertures, and the like.

The Sony A55 and A33 use the image sensor itself when metering, and consider the overall image as 1, separate zones in performing metering calculations. An autoexposure lock button is provided, allowing metering to be locked from a specific portion of the subject, then the overall image reframed as desired. White balance options include auto, six presets Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Incandescent, Fluorescent, and Flash , plus both custom and direct color temperature 2, to 9,K options.

The Sony SLT-series cameras all include an auto-popup flash strobe with a guide number of 10 meters at ISO , as well as a proprietary flash hot shoe. The built-in flash has 18mm coverage, and a recycle time of four seconds. Movie mode. The Sony A55 and A33 all offer high definition interlaced video capture at up to 1, x 1, pixel resolution, commonly known as "Full HD" or "i. Using the non-standard 1, x 1, and standard definition VGA x pixel modes, progressive scan videos are created, matching the same actual sensor frame rates.

Maximum video length is 29 minutes or two gigabytes per clip, whichever limit is reached first -- although if SteadyShot is enabled, this limit is slashed to just nine minutes per clip, likely due to sensor heating issues when using the sensor-shift stabilization mechanism.

Movie capture is started and stopped with a dedicated Movie button located just to the right of the electronic viewfinder, within easy reach of a thumb press. The most unusual capability of the SLT-series cameras' video mode is enabled by their translucent mirror. The Sony A55 and A33 can continue to use phase detection autofocusing during movie recording, allowing swift adjustments to focus as your subject moves.

Since standard Alpha-mount lenses are used, this focusing action is accompanied by significant levels of AF drive noise, which is clearly picked up by the camera in recorded videos. For consumers, this is likely a relatively small price to pay for sharply focused video, however, given that manually pulling focus during video capture is a difficult art to learn.

If focus point selection is set to local, the Sony A55 and A33 even allow the active focus point to be changed during video capture, and it's also possible to adjust exposure compensation during recording. Also available in Movie mode are the autoexposure lock function to prevent variations in scene brightness, and white balance, creative style, AF area and metering mode functions.

However, if autofocus is used, lens aperture must be controlled automatically by the camera, regardless of AF servo mode. When using manual focus, the SLT-series cameras allow manual control of aperture before video capture commences.

In all cases, shutter speed and ISO sensitivity of videos is controlled automatically. They can also accept external stereo microphones, courtesy of a 3. Alternatively, sound recording in videos can be disabled, if preferred. The built-in speaker in the SLT-series cameras is monaural, and there's no manual control over audio recording levels. Dust is reduced via a protective film 1 and shaken free by the sensor-shift mechanism 2. Dust reduction. The Sony SLT cameras have a dust abatement and removal system.

A charge-protection coating on the low-pass filter aims to prevent dust adhering in the first place. The sensor shift mechanism used to provide SteadyShot image stabilization also doubles as a shake mechanism to try and free stubborn dust particles that settle on the low-pass filter, although at much lower frequencies than the vibration induced by cameras using a piezoelectric element. From what we can tell, there is no strategy for keeping dust off the translucent mirror, except to blow the surface gently with air; it cannot be cleaned, and should never be touched.

A fingerprint would require replacement at a service center. Tilt level. The Sony A55 and A33 all include a dual-axis level gauge, which helps ensure level horizons and prevent converging verticals in photos.

The level gauge can be shown on either the electronic viewfinder or the rear-panel LCD, but only alongside the most basic information overlay -- you can't combine the detailed display overlays with the level gauge. A clever way around it, though, is to set one viewer to the level gauge, and the other to a more informative display, since by default you can set the display modes independently. There's no way for the user to recalibrate the gauge, if they find the factory default to be inaccurate.

The gauge is displayed in a style reminiscent of an aircraft attitude indicator, but with a separation of the roll and pitch indicators. When the camera is perfectly level, the pitch indicators and markings at the end of the roll indicator are illuminated in green. Built-in GPS. This allows both images and movies to be tagged with information regarding capture location, including latitude, longitude, altitude, receiver speed and direction, and the GPS time stamp.

Movies are only tagged with information regarding the location at the start of the clip. Accuracy in our informal testing was good, with the camera determining location within fifty feet or less, but this will vary depending on the number of satellites in view at a particular time and location.

The Sony A55V can display the latitude and longitude information in Playback mode, but this doesn't provide the full level of precision available in the EXIF tag, which can be accessed in Sony's software, as well as third party programs like Adobe's Photoshop.

The initial GPS lock can take rather a long time to complete, on the order of several minutes, if the camera hasn't been used recently.

Again, this can depend on environmental conditions, as well as the number and position of satellites in view. Once locked, though, we found the GPS receiver to be surprisingly powerful, able to retain a lock inside a house at a fair distance from the nearest windows.

This process has to be repeated roughly once per month, as the assist data is only good for so long. User interface. The user interface of the Sony A55 and A33 is generally clean and easy to understand, with the one major exception being the rather arbitrary segregation of still images and videos in playback mode. Switching between viewing stills and videos requires the user to either enter the menu system, or zoom out to the thumbnail view and select the appropriate tab.

Neither option is immediately obvious without reading the manual, and photographers unfamiliar with the interface might believe they'd accidentally deleted the unavailable media, not realizing they were simply in the wrong viewing mode. Special features. Each of these modes automatically captures several images, microaligns them, and then combines them into one image with attributes that couldn't have been achieved in a single still.

The Sweep Panorama modes create lengthy panoramic images with a single sweep over the scene, and do a good job of automatically correcting for uneven panning, although they do sometimes show stairstepping in nearby subjects. The 3D variant is particularly unusual, in that it calculates separate left and right-eye views by comparing the positions of subjects as seen by the left and right sides of the lens.

The result is saved as a multi-picture object file containing separate left- and right-eye JPEG views of the scene, for viewing on 3D displays. Auto High Dynamic Range mode captures numerous images with varied exposure, then creates a single image with much greater dynamic range than would otherwise be possible. Handheld Twilight mode captures a batch of high-ISO images, reducing blur from camera shake, and then averages the aligned exposures so as to reduce image noise. A new Multi-Frame NR mode acts similarly, but allows the ISO sensitivity to be selected manually, allowing use even at lower sensitivities.

Of course, these effects could all be achieved in a PC with some work and know-how, but what's impressive is that they're now available with a minimum of fuss, in-camera.

Power and card. Storage and battery. The Sony Alpha A55 and A33 offer a single flash memory card slot, but it's compatible with two memory card standards, each with various permutations. Surprisingly, despite its lower overall spec, the A33 is rated at the lowest battery life of the trio from the same pack, with LCD shots, or shots with the EVF.

The Sony A55 in particular delivers higher capture speeds than any other consumer-class digital SLR, as well as true phase-detect live autofocus during video recording. I had a chance to spend a few days with a late prototype of the Sony A55 equipped with production firmware version 1. After running a couple thousand shots through it it does have a very fast continuous mode I found it to be a pretty compelling camera, combining remarkable shooting speed with a host of other capabilities that really set it apart from most of the market.

It's by no means perfect, but unquestionably expands the range of shooting capabilities open to consumers with average pocketbooks. Looking at just how much I found to comment on below underscores for me just how much Sony has done in the last few months. Read on for some of my thoughts on this new class of consumer SLR:.

Attack of the giant hand? That's what we jokingly called these shots when we took them. Despite the disparity between the size of my hand and the camera body, the grip was still fairly comfortable. I'm always a little torn over really small camera bodies, as it can be uncomfortable to twist my longer-than-average fingers around a small handgrip. That said, I really didn't find the smallish grip on the Sony A55 too objectionable.

The design of the front grip naturally encourages my middle and third fingers to curve downward, my pinkie to fold underneath the body, and to carry the weight of the camera on my middle finger, between the second and third knuckle. My customary two-handed SLR grip, with one hand on the lens' zoom ring made for a comfortable and secure hold. Rest for your thumb The deeply sculpted thumb rest does a lot to make the grip feel secure.

Combined with the textured rubber used over the whole right half of the body, it provides a very secure gripping point for my thumb, and does a lot to make up for the small size of the front grip. The rubber coating also contributes to a feel of solid build quality, by damping the body vibrations that often make small and light cameras feel tinny or cheap. Since the camera is capable of very fast live autofocus during video recording, I often found myself wanting to zoom during the recording, something that would be anathema on a conventional video-capable SLR.

The result was a lot of weight for my right wrist to carry, and the small grip made it more difficult than otherwise. When shooting normally with smaller lenses, though, I never found the grip uncomfortable. The control buttons are for the most part intelligently arranged and readily accessible, but the small space available for them on the right side of the body does mean that you need to hold the camera in your left hand to be able to access them properly: They're really too close to the right side of the camera to keep your fingers wrapped around the grip and operate the buttons with any degree of comfort.

The movie button does require a deliberate reach to get to, but is nonetheless easy to identify by feel when you're looking through the viewfinder; just slide your thumb over until it hits the viewfinder housing, and you'll be right on top of the movie button. A lot of the Sony A55's settings are accessed via the Fn button, just below and the to the left of the thumb grip recess on the back of the camera. I can't think of any better place to put it, but accessing it does require loosening your grip, and therefore shifting support from your right hand to your left.

Apart from that, the Fn button is in a good location, easy to find by feel: Just slide your thumb down out of its recess, and the Fn button is the first control you'll touch. Adjusting settings via the Fn menu is generally a good experience. This is nice because it lets you quickly make a number of Fn settings changes in succession, without having to drop down a menu level for each, or being forced out of the Fn menu between choices.

The few exceptions to this are those items with a second level of control, such as multi-shot ISO or the tweak adjustments for white balance settings. The only exit at that point is to hit the OK button again, which unfortunately drops you out of the Fn menu entirely. One nice thing about the Sony A55's electronic viewfinder is that the Fn menu is also available in the viewfinder display; you can make many camera settings without taking your eye from the viewfinder eyepiece.

As I became more familiar with the camera's controls, this led to a very efficient shooting style, although it would take more than the few days I've had with the camera thus far for this to become second nature. In reviewing my experience with the Sony A55, it's interesting to find so many of my notes and so much of my attention directed to the viewfinder display. Were I not already so familiar with Sony's multi-shot exposure technology, the camera's multi-shot features would doubtless have commanded more of my attention, as they're worthy features indeed.

That said, though, the Sony A55's viewfinder turned out to be absolutely integral to my experience with the camera. Nose Relief. The Sony A55's viewfinder eyepiece projects back a bit, leaving a bit more room for your nose. An electronic viewfinder, or EVF for short. Mechanically, the Sony A55's eyepiece projects out from the back of the camera a fair bit, to leave room for the camera's autofocus system in front of the EVFs micro display and viewfinder optics.

I found I actually liked this rear projection, as it left a bit more room for my nose when I held the camera to my eye. Happily, the neckstrap eyelets are arranged such that the camera hangs lens-down when on a neck strap, so I had no trouble with the projecting eyepiece poking me in the chest.

I have to say up front that I've never been a fan of EVFs. While they do permit much more information overlay than conventional optical viewfinders, I've always felt that EVFs' limitations have outweighed their advantages.

In particular, EVFs usually have limited sensitivity and dynamic range, not to mention low refresh rates and poor resolution when compared with the view through a conventional optical viewfinder. It by no means corrects all the ills of the genre, but does go a long way in the right direction. It still loses highlight detail in scenes with both deep shadows and strong highlights, but I found it workable most of the time.

I could generally make out clouds against the sky, important for framing landscape shots. It also seemed to do pretty well under low light conditions, although as of this writing, I haven't done a lot of night photography with the camera. Still, the large pixels of the Sony A55's APS-C size sensor mean that its EVF is much more able to form a usable viewfinder image under dim lighting than is that of a typical digicam.

Under really dark conditions, I'd still like to see it gain-up a bit more, though, even at the cost of slower refresh rates. The time-multiplexed full-color RGB pixel technology generally worked well to deliver very high resolution with no gaps at all between the pixels. The only place I was aware of the EVF pixels were in diagonal strokes of letters on the various VF info readouts, or on the electronic level display, when the indicator lines were tilted.

I never saw pixel jaggies when looking at the subjects I was shooting, even in the case of sharp high-contrast edges. The one thing some users might find distracting about the Sony A55's EVF is the RGB "rainbows" you can see when either your eye, the subject, or the camera is moving rapidly.

Each pixel of the display shows its red, green, and blue information sequentially, so if the viewfinder image is moving rapidly relative to your eye, you'll see red, green, and blue ghosts or trails around bright objects. I didn't notice this at all until someone pointed it out to me, but after they did, it became unreasonably annoying for a while. After a couple of days of shooting with the camera, though, I again became largely unaware of it and now have to deliberately look for it to be aware of the effect.

As mentioned earlier, the ability to check your shots and make camera settings without taking your eye from the eyepiece leads to a slightly different and more efficient shooting style; one that encourages you to learn the camera by feel and memory, rather than looking at the controls as you press them. I've only had a few days with the camera as of this writing, but can see that greater familiarity will produce a very efficient shooting style.

The view through the Sony A55's eyepiece is much more akin to that of a full-frame DSLR than that of any competing sub-frame model currently on the market. It manages this with a comfortably high eye point and plenty of dioptric adjustment for eyeglass wearers, at least when simply viewing the live viewfinder image itself. When you switch to the Fn menu display, though, you need to press your eye pretty close to the viewfinder eyepiece to be able to see the menu items on the left and right sides of the screen.

I found that with my eyeglasses on, I had to shift my eye to the left or the right to see the menu entries on the sides, or else really mash my eyeglasses against the eyecup.

Switching to aspect ratio expands the image to fill the left and right of the EVF's LCD as well, which is also problematic for eyeglass wearers. Interestingly, I didn't notice the unusual size of Sony A55's viewfinder display when I first picked up the camera, but I became acutely aware of its loss when I switched back to a conventional sub-frame DSLR after having shot with the Sony A55 for a day or so.

The conventional DSLR suddenly felt I was looking down a tunnel, and I also found myself greatly missing the richness of the A55's viewfinder information overlays. The excellent image quality of the Sony A55's EVF did a lot to win me over to the idea of EVFs on interchangeable-lens cameras, but it was the combination of image size and informational richness that really put me over the top.

Because it could appear right there in the viewfinder, rather than on the rear-panel LCD, I was surprised to see how much I came to rely on the electronic level display for keeping my landscape shots straight when there was no obvious horizon line. Bottom line, while the Sony A55's EVF doesn't entirely conquer the challenges of its genre, it goes further in the right direction than any other I've experienced to date.

Most telling is that I now find myself reluctant to give up its benefits and return to world of purely optical viewfinders once again. The potentially game-changing performance of the Sony A55's EVF overshadows its excellent rear-panel LCD, which is a little unfair: It's as good an LCD as is found on any other camera, and in at least one sense literally outshines them all.

First, of course, it literally twists and rotates, albeit from the bottom of the body, rather than the side. This unfortunately makes it useless for composing self-portraits with the camera mounted on a tripod, but otherwise is quite helpful for getting over-the-head and ground-level shots with ease.

A bright idea. It loses some highlights, but makes the viewfinder remarkably usable in direct sunlight. Shot in direct afternoon sunlight, the sequence above gives you some idea of the effect. This is a combination of anti-reflective coatings and a darker mask around the LCD pixels, to keep shadow areas darker. It does seem to be an improvement over LCDs lacking it, but to my eyes, the difference isn't dramatic. The LCD improvement I found most the most dramatically useful was the brightness settings.

Set to Auto brightness, the camera will brighten or dim the LCD display in response to ambient light. This helps a good bit in bright daylight, but the display still washes out in direct sunlight. Wow - That's a really bright display!

It does blow out the top end of the display's tone curve that is, you won't see any detail in the highlights in your images in this mode , but this is the first time I can honestly say that I had no trouble viewing a camera's LCD screen in direct sunlight. It's a really great feature, although I'm sure it further reduces the Sony A55's already-short battery life.

It in fact does a remarkable job of delivering 10fps full-resolution shooting speeds, although in some respects, the experience is still rather different than shooting with high-end pro SLRs with that sort of burst capability. The heart of the difference has to do with what image the Sony A55 is showing you through the viewfinder at any given moment. High-end professional SLRs drop the mirror between exposures, providing a direct however brief view of the subject between shots.

In contrast, in their highest-speed capture modes, the Sony A33 and A55 display a static image of the shot they've just captured. I'm not remotely an experienced sports shooter, so I can have trouble tracking fast-moving subjects under the best of circumstances.

DRO processing can be switched off or users can select an HDR Auto mode that captures three shots with different exposure levels and combines them in the camera to produce an image with an extended dynamic range.

Two images are recorded to the memory card: one with the correct exposure plus an overlaid image. Creative Styles adjustments are also included in the raw file processing options provided by the supplied software. You can only view GPS data when shots are uploaded to a computer.

Picture Motion Browser 5. The version of PMB we had was also able to display Map View, which showed a thumbnail image of the selected shot superimposed on a map of the location in which the shot was taken. Relatively compact and light weight, this lens is also comparatively slow — although fairly typical of cheaper standard zooms.

A review of this lens is published separately here. The compact and lightweight body and lenses made this camera a great choice for bushwalking and its ergonomic design placed all key controls within easy reach.

The built-in GPS tagging function is also handy when you come to sorting out holiday photos and deciding where particular shots were taken. During our two-week holiday, we swapped between the supplied lenses fairly constantly to meet the demands of the subjects we photographed. The dust reduction system in the camera handled this type of usage well for the first week but, after that, we found sequences of shots that were dust affected.

Only one speck of dust was located — and it was dislodged after a day or two by the automatic vibration system. The user manual provides simple instructions for cleaning the sensor, should the need arise. We had to push the brightness of the LCD monitor up to its maximum to make it deliver optimal viewing quality for shot composition and playback. The EVF was large enough for comfortable viewing and accurately reproduced the monitor view for both shooting and playback.

Its refresh rate was fast enough to provide smooth viewing when using the Sweep Panorama modes — and also for tracking moving subjects when shooting both stills and video clips.

The eye-detection sensor, which is used to switch between the LCD and EVF as you raise the camera to your eye, clicks in quickly enough to make this switch almost seamless. Performance At the default setting, JPEG images straight from the camera appeared slightly flat and colours were slightly warm. Since the review unit was a late pre-production camera, these problems are likely to be corrected by the time this model hits the market.

The illustrations below show the differences between unedited and edited versions of an image. Working on ARW. RAW files in the latest version of Photoshop which is now compatible, thanks to the recent release of Camera Raw 6. JPEG files also delivered some excellent prints after fairly minimal editing. Really rapid local movements were often blurred in shots. However, the Spot AF setting was prone to hunting in dim lighting and with low-contrast subjects.

The Sweep Panorama function was also interesting, particularly when we photographed scenery with few or no moving components.

It was less successful with moving subjects, such as waves breaking on beaches — although, even here, its performance was impressive when you consider the difficulties involved in capturing and combining such a sequence.

The illustrations below show successful and less successful examples of this function. Resolution with both file types declined gradually at sensitivity was increased, as shown in the graph below. Shots taken under incandescent lighting retained the original warm cast, while shots taken with fluorescent lighting were close to cast-free. For both lighting types, the pre-sets slightly over-corrected colours but the manual measurement system delivered a neutral colour balance.

Plenty of in-camera adjustments are provided for tweaking images as you shoot and white balance bracketing across three shots is available for dealing with tricky lighting.

Two levels of WB bracketing are available. When Lo is selected, the colour is shifted by 10 mired, while the Hi setting changes the colour balance by 20 mired.

Although the AF system showed an above-average ability to track moving subjects, we found a few situations where it focused on the background instead of the subject. However, these occurred mostly when shooting fast-moving subjects. Shooting movies tends to narrow the field of view. Dynamic range adjustment appears to be disabled and clips are shot with the white balance, exposure compensation, metering mode, AF area setting and Creative Style processing that were in place before the Movie button was pressed.

You can adjust exposures with the exposure compensation button while shooting. The only way around this was to pre-set the aperture and use manual focusing. Audio quality was also good, although some noise from the focusing motors of the two lenses we used was picked up in the soundtracks. Wind noise was also picked up in most outdoor recordings. However, the soundtracks in most clips had reasonably good stereo presence and were acceptably clear and crisp. With properly-paced pans, this problem was almost undetectable.

The review camera powered up in just under a second and shot-to-shot intervals averaged just over 0. We measured an average capture lag of just under 0. It took 2. RAW file and 5. It took 9.

Changing to raw file capture, we recorded a burst of 10 shots in 1. It took It took almost one minute to process this burst — which is much longer than average. Gordon Laing is back at it again with another Retro Review. In this episode, Laing goes back 25 years to provide an in-depth overview of Nikon's unique Coolpix camera, which was half compact camera, half PDA.

The adapter includes optics to help offset the crop factor of APS-C cameras. OM Digital Solutions — the company that's bought the Olympus imaging division — has just launched the M.

Zuiko Digital ED 20mm F1. Click through for a closer look. Chris and Jordan tease-out the differences. After quickly selling out of its first batch back in , Lomography has announced that it's re-releasing its color-shifting LomoChrome Turquoise Film in 35mm, and format.

The search for understanding in the far reaches of the known universe is an expensive endeavor. Every 10 years, US astronomers and astrophysicists release a report outlining their goals and hopes for the next decade of space exploration. The latest report has been released. This second-generation 50mm F1. Submit a News Tip! Reading mode: Light Dark. Login Register. Best cameras and lenses. Previous 1 Introduction.

Sony A55 - key specifications Sony Alpha A Tags: review , sony. Next page. Sony SLT-A We are retrieving offers for your location, please refresh the page to see the prices. View Comments 6. Comments All 6. Ranjansanath It seems Sony A55 is very unreliable camera.

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