Which sony a55

The translucent mirror design also provides other opportunities to optimize component placement. As one example of this, Sony has increased the angle of the translucent mirror, so that instead of directing light directly upward at a 90 degree angle as it would for a viewfinder prism, it is actually angled upward and slightly forward, allowing the autofocus sensor to be moved forward, providing more room for the electronic viewfinder assembly directly to the rear.

Losing the pentaprism and mirror drive motors helps the A55 achieve a smaller body size than SLRs. The net result is that, while the Sony Alpha A55 and A33 are a fair bit thicker front-to-back than single-lens direct-view SLD cameras, which can do away with the bulky mirror box entirely, they're still exceptionally small cameras by SLR standards.

Unlike the smallest SLD cameras, the A55 and A33 still include a built-in electronic viewfinder -- and for those SLDs that can accept an optional electronic viewfinder, much of their size advantage over the SLT series is erased once it's installed. Sony's SLT cameras thus occupy a comfortable middle ground, sacrificing little of the versatility of a traditional SLR, yet bringing a worthwhile advantage in portability. While not quite as light as the Olympus E, which lacks an in-body image stabilization mechanism, the Sony Alpha SLT-series cameras are certainly in the same ballpark.

By comparison, the Olympus E weighs Thanks to their smaller body, and especially their reduced height due to the lack of a pentaprism or pentamirror assembly, the Sony SLT-series cameras look rather aggressive, with the popup flash housing hunched low over the top of the lens barrel. A soft, rubber pad surrounds most of the handgrip, and wraps around to the rear of the camera to cover a small, contoured thumb grip area as well.

Due to its diminutive stature, most photographers will find that the grip only accommodates two fingers, with the index finger resting on the shutter release button above, and the little finger curling beneath the bottom of the camera. This might seem a little crowded, but with the light, plastic-bodied mm kit lens, handling is nonetheless good, with the combination feeling extremely well balanced.

Using larger, heavier lenses, the grip size is too tiring for single-handed shooting, so the photographer's left hand will need to serve double duty, adjusting zoom or focus while simultaneously taking up the weight of the lens itself.

Centered to the right of the lens in the photo above is the lens release button, while the depth-of-field preview button is positioned snugly at the bottom left corner of the lens mount. A small plastic panel in the handgrip conceals the infrared remote control sensor at top, and the self-timer lamp beneath.

Directly beneath the shutter button and power switch is the control dial, used to make adjustments to exposure and variables and menu options. At the top of the handgrip is the popular combination of a shutter button surrounded by a power switch, making it easy to quickly power on the camera and snap a picture with one finger. The Mode dial on the left shoulder is used to select the camera's operating mode.

An angled panel allows you to view four buttons from either the rear or above: Menu, Movie, Exposure Compensation, and Auto-exposure Lock buttons. The viewfinder itself projects quite a bit from the rear of the camera, a decision that was apparently necessitated by the tight packaging of components in front, including the AF module, popup flash, hot shoe, and microphones.

When using the SLT-series cameras with a neckstrap and particularly light lenses, this might cause it to bump against your body, but with even moderately heavy lenses the camera will turn face-down even though this doesn't match the strap mount alignment, and this won't be an issue.

A positive side-effect of the EVF positioning is that it makes it easier to keep your nose from smudging the LCD panel. Given the relatively tight eyepoint of the electronic viewfinder, the projection also helps prevent the photographer having to jam the camera to their face to see the entire viewfinder display.

The display tilts down degrees and then swivels degrees, allowing it to face any direction except to the front right handgrip quadrant. The design not only allows easy framing of high- and low-angle shots, but also allows subjects in front of the lens to see themselves -- but only when somebody's available to hold the camera. Since the display tilts downwards, it will be blocked from view when mounted on a tripod, and can't be extended beyond the degree position with the camera placed on a flat surface, so the only way to use it for self-portraits is to hold the camera at arm's length.

It can also be difficult to deploy and use with the camera mounted on a tripod. On the positive side, the mechanism does allow the LCD to be folded facing inwards, providing some degree of protection against minor knocks and smudges when traveling and when you're content to use the EVF instead.

The display also uses Sony's TruBlack technology, which couples a reinforced glass cover plate with anti-reflective film, and a resin filling that removes the air gap beneath the cover plate, which the company says improves contrast and reduces glare under harsh sunlight. Thanks again to the relatively short stature of the SLT-series cameras, the remainder of the rear-panel controls are rather difficult to reach when shooting single-handed, even with the relatively light kit lens attached.

There are only a few buttons, Function, Playback, and Delete, plus a four-way controller with a central OK button. This isn't an issue if shooting two-handed, but you do have to change your grip fairly substantially to reach any further than the top quadrant of the four-way controller.

Major components. Translucent pellicle mirror. Undoubtedly the biggest story of the Sony SLT-series cameras is their use of a translucent mirror. Also known as pellicle mirror, this works by allowing most light to pass through to the imaging surface beneath, while a small portion is reflected for other purposes. Sony is not the first camera manufacturer to use a translucent mirror in an SLR-style camera, with the manual focus Canon Pellix film camera from taking that credit.

The Pellix was followed by a handful of other pellicle mirror-based SLRs from Canon, Nikon, and Mamiya, largely designed for professional photographers, and manufactured in very limited production runs. Fifteen years later, Sony has become the first company to resurrect the pellicle mirror for use in an interchangeable lens digital camera.

Full-time autofocus. There are several advantages to the use of a translucent mirror in place of a traditional single-lens reflex mirror mechanism. The Sony Alpha A55 and A33 use it to allow them to simultaneously provide a live view feed with full-time phase detection autofocus.

Most of the light is transmitted to the image sensor, while a smaller portion is delivered to the phase detection AF sensor, where it can be used to perform focus adjustments -- even during live view, high-speed shooting, and movie recording. While contrast-detection AF systems these days are much faster than they used to be, phase-detection AF generally still has the edge in terms of outright speed. It also involves less hunting around the point of focus, since phase-detection systems can determine both the focus direction and the required adjustment.

On the flip side, though, contrast-detection systems generally offer more precise focusing, since the image sensor itself is responsible for confirming the point of focus, without any reliance on the lens's focus drive and AF sensor alignment being perfectly in spec. The Sony A55 and A33 adopt a newly developed phase-detection autofocus sensor and lens module with 15 points, of which three are cross-type.

AF points can be selected automatically or manually, and both predictive control tracking and face detection are included, although the cameras can only focus on detected faces if they fall under a phase detection point. Continuous shooting. As well as allowing full-time AF during live view and movie capture, the translucent mirror design of the Sony SLT cameras brings another important advantage.

During burst shooting with continuous autofocus, a traditional SLR has to drop its mirror between each frame, wait just long enough for any mirror vibration to settle, perform the AF measurement, and then raise the mirror again so that the next frame can be captured. Using a pellicle mirror, there's no reflex mirror to raise, and so the only delay required is to wait for the lens aperture to open after the exposure has been completed.

For even swifter burst shooting, the aperture can be locked at either F3. The Sony A55 and A33 all offer burst shooting at up to six frames per second ordinarily, but with the aperture locked in Continuous Priority AE, the A55 offers a whopping ten frames per second, a speed only rivaled by professional DSLRs from Canon and Nikon.

Sony also notes that, for like framerates, the autofocus system in the SLT cameras can be active for a greater proportion of the time compared to a traditional SLR, providing more data from which to make AF tracking predictions. One quirk of the design of the Sony A55 and A33 unfortunately conspires to make this high-speed burst shooting somewhat harder to use than would otherwise be the case.

Instead, the cameras show the previously captured image. This makes it harder to follow fast-moving action, since rather than seeing what's you're trying to frame, you're effectively seeing a static slideshow of what happened around a tenth of a second earlier. This problem, incidentally, is also found on all of the SLD's we've reviewed.

Image sensor and processor. Of course, the image sensor and processor are also an important part of the speed of the Sony A55 and A33, and of their image quality. They also include the same on-chip analog and digital noise reduction that featured previously in the Sony A Alpha mount. The Sony SLT-series cameras accept Alpha-mount lenses from Sony, and are backward-compatible with older Minolta or Konica Minolta A-mount lenses, allowing use of a huge range of both current and historic glass.

Compared to single-lens direct view cameras -- even Sony's own NEX series -- this will likely make the new SLT-series bodies a much more attractive proposition for existing Alpha or A-mount photographers. While Alpha-mount lenses can be used on NEX cameras through a mount adapter, they lose their autofocus and in-body SteadyShot capabilities, whereas the SLT-series cameras will retain both capabilities with the same lenses.

Electronic viewfinder. Part of the camera's compact size comes due to another design decision. Unlike past pellicle mirror cameras, the Sony A55 and A33 don't provide a true optical viewfinder, but instead rely on electronic viewfinders. It's a sensible decision. The drawback to using the pellicle mirror to provide a viewfinder as past cameras did is that with most of the light being transmitted to the imaging plane, the optical viewfinder is necessarily very dim.

As well as providing a viewfinder that's bright enough for low-light use, adopting an electronic viewfinder in its design has allowed Sony to increase the angle of the translucent mirror, compared to the standard 45 degrees of an SLR reflex mirror.

This directs the light path for the AF sensor not only upward, but also slightly forward, allowing optimal placement to keep body size to a minimum. While we don't currently have details on the precise viewfinder type employed by the Sony SLT-series cameras -- Sony describes it as a 0.

This differs from traditional LCD displays, which mostly create color information with a cluster of three adjacent red, green, and blue subpixels commonly called 'dots' , for each pixel location. When compared to standard LCD electronic viewfinders, ferroelectric types bring both advantages and disadvantages. They've proven somewhat divisive in the past, due to their tendency to demonstrate RGB "rainbow" artifacts when you blink or move your eyes, or with fast-moving subjects.

On the positive side, though, since each pixel provides full color, ferroelectric LCDs tend to look much smoother and more detailed than their traditional LCD siblings, with less obvious pixel structure.

It's not surprising to see such a display adopted by Sony, since Konica Minolta -- the company Sony absorbed to create its DSLR division -- was a particular proponent of their use. We're pleased to report that the EVF in the Sony A55 and A33 provides better dynamic range than most, and does a decent job of preserving highlight detail in high-contrast scenes. The slight distraction caused by the "rainbow" effect is relatively easy to ignore most of the time. Sony specs the EVF as having 1,, dots, of which 1,, are effective in the viewfinder display.

We believe that the company is following precedent here, by reporting a dot count as if each pixel constituted three separate color dots, rather than being time-multiplexed. If that's the case, the actual pixel resolution would be , total pixels, of which , are effective in the final image.

This is likely done both to match the rear-panel LCD display aspect, and also because even with this crop, the EVF already has a generous 1.

Were the whole display used, the eyepoint would fall uncomfortably low -- it's already just a little tight for eyeglass wearers. Translucent mirror redux. As noted previously, adopting a translucent mirror design has allowed Sony important benefits in terms of autofocus, burst shooting, and body size, and conceivably the removal of one more mechanical component could improve camera reliability, as well.

There's no such thing as a free lunch, though, and the translucent mirror design does have some clear disadvantages as compared to existing SLR and SLD designs. Perhaps most significantly, light entering the lens is shared between the autofocus and image sensors at a fixed ratio.

With a traditional SLR, all the incoming light arrives at the image sensor once the mirror is raised, and the same is true of an SLD camera whenever its shutter is open. With less light arriving at the sensor for an equivalent aperture, a translucent mirror camera must either lower its shutter speed, raise its sensitivity and along with this, the levels of noise, or the amount processing to mitigate it , or some combination of both.

An increase in sensor gain to compensate for the loss may explain why we see slightly higher noise levels from the A33 versus the A, which share the same sensor. Another potential issue of the translucent mirror design is that with an extra optical surface between the lens and the imager, flare could be increased, and image quality degraded.

There's also another surface for dust to adhere to, and while this would be too far from the image sensor to appear as distinct specks, it could further contribute to issues with flare and reduced contrast. While manual sensor cleaning will now be a familiar process for photographers used to shooting with a digital SLR, cleaning the pellicle mirror is a total unknown. The Sony A55 and A33 provide a cleaning mode allowing the sensor to be accessed, and the pellicle mirror itself can be manually raised to facilitate this, but Sony's documentation provides no advice on cleaning the pellicle mirror itself, simply noting that the surface of the mirror shouldn't be touched.

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. Although a lot of people only upload images to Instagram from their smartphones, the app is much more than just a mobile photography platform.

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Geological Survey. But how much difference does the longer 40mm equivalent lens of the 'X' version make to the shooting experience? Click through to read more. Want to learn more about the Nikon Z9? Do you have a burning question you haven't seen answered anywhere else? Join us for a live Twitter Space on Thursday, November 11, and be part of the conversation. Click through for details. The four firmware updates bring improved autofocus performance in a number of different shooting modes, as well as support for Nikon's new FTZ II mount adapter and Nikkor Z mm F4 S lens.

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This is the second time the venerable telescope has faced extended downtime after being offline for a month earlier this year. Panasonic China has posted a pair of images to various Chinese social media sites that tease what appears to be a new lens launch. Please note that this 16 second movie is 33Mb in size. The Sony A55 turns conventional design on its head to provide what is in many ways a better user experience than traditional DSLRs can achieve, at a price point that Canon and Nikon must be worried about.

If you can overcome your reservations about electronic viewfinders, the Sony A55 is a great choice for both beginners and more cautious enthusiasts alike. If you don't need the 2 extra megapixels, built-in GPS or 3 frames per second faster continuous shooting mode, the cheaper A33 is also well worth considering. There are some limitations of this ambitious design, most notably the almost complete inability to pan with your subject, limited creative control over movies, and rather noticeable jumps in focus if using continuous auto-focus during video recording, but overall the first-generation A55 feels remarkably mature.

Image quality is very good, with results from the APS-C sensor rivalling the DSLR competition and in most cases surpassing the Compact System Camera alternatives, especially if you're after shallow depth-of field effects. Noise doesn't rear its ugly head until ISO for JPEGs, although the A55 does apply some pretty aggressive noise reduction to keep the files clean, resulting in loss of fine detail. The myriad of creative effects such as HDR, Dynamic Range Optimisation, creative styles and the innovative sweep panorama mode help to get the most out of the A Despite its cutting-edge internal design, the Sony A55 is a wisely more refined version of many other Alpha cameras in terms of handling, offering a tried and trusted approach with few real drawbacks that both new DSLR users and the more experienced will warm to.

The Sony A55 is a great marriage of new and old, competitively priced to take on the best that mid-range DSLRs and Compact System Cameras can offer, and surpassing both in many ways. Highly Recommended. The company has rejected the traditional DSLR design and instead created a hybrid that, like a compact camera, is from the ground up built around live view, but one that is also capable of offering full-time DSLR-style phase-detection autofocus.

The combination means they can offer features such as phase-detection AF during movie recording and extremely fast continuous shooting rates 10 frames per second on the A55 , previously unthinkable at this price. Read the full review ». Instead of being mirrorless, the new digital cameras employ a "translucent mirror," more commonly known as a pellicle mirror. This advanced translucent mirror remains fixed in place during operation, allowing most of the light to reach the imaging sensor, while a small percentage is reflected to a dedicated autofocus sensor.

The Sony Alpha SLT-A55 is the flagship of a unique pair of ILCs that use a translucent mirror to provide full-time continuous autofocus during video recording and at very fast burst-rates. Latest Reviews Popular Reviews. Download the sample movie. Camera Total sensor Pixels megapixels Approx. High Speed sync. LCD screen Screen Size 7. Dimensions Width mm Loading comments…. Share Tweet Comment. Flash Off - Wide Angle 27mm.

Flash On - Wide Angle 27mm. Flash Off - Telephoto Flash On - Telephoto Red-eye reduction. Night Shot. Download the Full Size Image. Front of the Camera. A release button is located on its left hand side and a small depth-of-field preview button on the lower right. Slightly below the release button and around a corner is a slider switch for swapping between auto and manual focusing. The pop-up flash sits above the lens mount. In the P, A S and M modes the flash off and autoflash settings are unavailable and the flash must be raised manually via a button near the front of the housing.

Flash modes include auto, fill-in, rear-synch, slow-synch, high-speed synch and red-eye reduction. Working across the top-panel from the left hand side we find a mode dial that carries settings for the mandatory Program AE, Shutter-priority AE, Aperture-priority AE and Manual modes plus two Auto modes, a flash-off mode and a Scene Selection setting with eight illustrated pre-sets. The Menu button is located just behind the mode dial and accesses a standard system of pages, each containing settings for shooting, replaying images and video clips, managing recording media and setting up camera functions.

The viewfinder housing merges into the flash housing, which is topped by an accessory hot-shoe. A six-hole microphone grille is located on its left hand side. The EV compensation and AEL buttons control playback zoom and index view functions, respectively, in playback mode.

A sensor below the finder eyepiece detects when the camera is raised to the eye and automatically switches the LCD monitor off. A tiny ridged dial inset into the right side of the viewfinder provides dioptre adjustment.

A removable rubber surround helps to exclude stray light. Two thirds of the rear panel is covered by the adjustable 3-inch Xtra Fine TFT LCD monitor, which is hinged at the base plate and adjustable through degrees. It can be reversed onto the back of the camera or rotated to protect the screen when the camera is not in use, although this makes it vulnerable to fingermarking and smearing.

This screen has a resolution of , dots, which is VGA quality. Its brightness is adjustable via the menu. To the right of the monitor is a conventional arrow pad with a central button that doubles as an OK and instant AF switch.

Pressing the upper edge of the arrow pad opens the Display sub-menu. Drive modes are set via the left hand edge. Above the arrow pad sits the Function Fn button, which provides quick access to key camera settings. Pressing it calls up a screen with icons for functions like drive, flash, AF area, metering, ISO, white balance, bracketing and Creative Style adjustments. Buttons below the arrow pad access the play and delete functions. The battery and memory card share a compartment in the base panel in much the same fashion as a compact digicam.

A metal-lined tripod socket is located centrally in the base panel, aligned with the optical axis of the lens mount. Three connection ports are located behind lift-up covers on the left hand side of the camera body.

The larger hard plastic cover protects the USB and HDMI ports while the smaller rubber ports cover microphone and remote control terminals. The location data is stored in the image metadata and accessible in the supplied software — and any other applications capable of a full metadata display. The review camera — a late pre-production unit — was supplied to us about a week ahead of its worldwide unveiling and just before we left on a two-week holiday in Western Australia.

Sony provided the camera body with the standard mm kit lens plus a mm zoom lens. Most of the sample images shown below have come from this trip — although we have also included our standard set to test shots for comparison with other cameras. It has 15 AF points, three of them with cross-type sensors. Three focus area settings are available: Wide, Spot and Local, the latter supporting focus area selection from the point array.

In all modes, the AF point s where focus is confirmed glow green. Face detection is also provided by default and Smile Shutter shooting where the shutter fires when a smile is detected is available via the Fn menu. Manual focusing is also supported with separate switches on the camera body and lens to cover all options. It works best with subjects that remain at the same distance from the camera and those moving towards it. Exposure metering is via a zone evaluative system with multi-segment, centre-weighted and spot metering modes.

In addition, exposure compensation is readily available via the hot button right of the Movie button. A small brightness histogram similar to those in compact digicams can be overlaid on the screen as a pre-capture reference.