First impressions of A550

[stevecim]

Hi All

On my daily lunch time walks found a A550 in "Camera Action" in melbourne, AUS. I like it . To my untrained eye the OVF seems bigger and brighter than the A350 not has big/Bright has the A700, yes the Manual Focus Zoom does work in RAW. they would not let me use my own memory card so i could not take any pic with me but high iso is miles ahead of the A350, seemed better than the A700 (but I only had the Camera's LCD screens to view the images). for got to try "face detect", the build seemed has good has the A350. (or has bad depending on what you think of the A350) Did not like the placement of the OFF/ON switch kepted turning the camera off when I went to use the wheel. If I had the funds to upgrade I would be hard pressed to chose between the A700 and A550, If I was replacing my A350 then I would get the A550 only because the wife and kids only use LV ( I use it for family pics has well ). If I was buying a camera for me only, I would get the A700 since it's selling at the same price had the A550. (At around $1200AU the A700 is a great camera, I have a personal limit I will not spend more than $1300odd for a camera body unless I was using it to make money with it which has no chance of happening )

[alphaomega]

Thanks for the brief description of your encounter with Sony's new A550. I actually just bought a new A700 for Pouonds 500 as my son inherited my old one. I just used the new A700 over the weekend and have been drooling over the amazing images at 100%. These were, of course, taken with my CZ 16-120. My wife is increasingly falling in love with my A350. She is using it with a Tamron 18-200 and finds it most useful for her purposes of photographing steam engines and trains. That leaves me increasingly without my second DSLR so I will be in the market for an A550 when the price moves towards £500 and some decent RAW converter is made available that can remove CA at the RAW stage. I would welcome comments from anyone who has had the chance to use the camera and in particular I am looking forward to David Kilpatrick providing his exellent comments and evaluations. It would appear that this camera is a major improvement on the A350 and in particular the higher ISO performance will be useful. I also think that the 3 inch flip out screen is a major improvement on the A350. So the nearest thing to "Heaven" next year may be a bag with my A700 v.4 and a new A550.

[bfitzgerald]

Interesting. I cannot comment on handling and feel etc, I have not held one. The high ISO performance does indeed look very good, it's very welcomed by most. What does strike me, is how little buzz or discussion there is about the new A5xx series. I think part of that is down to Sony playing it too safe with their model releases, and lacking in ambition and drive to deliver better than expected products in all areas.

Again, whilst I will repeat I have little serious interest in video, it's surely going to hurt sales of the A5xx series, as other rivals feature this. As time goes on, and with an 18 month cycle on models (or near there) Sony are in danger of being left behind. I am seeing a number of folks I know, moving to or adding models that have this feature. Some new buyers might simply ignore what could be a good camera, on this alone. Had Sony produced a really standout A5xx range, with unexpected, and or more feature packed, that might have cushioned the blow better. We're at a situation now, when Sony release 5 new models, they already look a bit dated/tired, even before they hit the shelves. More vision is needed at Sony DSLR camera HQ

[pakodominguez]

What does strike me, is how little buzz or discussion there is about the new A5xx series. I think part of that is down to Sony playing it too safe with their model releases, and lacking in ambition and drive to deliver better than expected products in all areas.

I think there are not that many units hanging on the street right now... They start delivering the A850 last week and the A5xx series are expected for the Photo Plus Expo in 2 weeks. We will have more users' comments next month.

Again, whilst I will repeat I have little serious interest in video, it's surely going to hurt sales of the A5xx series, as other rivals feature this. As time goes on, and with an 18 month cycle on models (or near there) Sony are in danger of being left behind. I am seeing a number of folks I know, moving to or adding models that have this feature. Some new buyers might simply ignore what could be a good camera, on this alone. Had Sony produced a really standout A5xx range, with unexpected, and or more feature packed, that might have cushioned the blow better. We're at a situation now, when Sony release 5 new models, they already look a bit dated/tired, even before they hit the shelves. More vision is needed at Sony DSLR camera HQ

I understand that the A5xx series is the first of a new technology, or at least an intermediary step to the new breed (from the A700 to the A350, including the A900/A850 it represent only one cycle of developement) probably Sony is "reserving" the video feature for the A700 sucessor. Or for the A380 sucessor...

Regards

[bfitzgerald]

I have no idea when Sony will add video (part of me does not really care either!) But as the A5xx ones are brand new, forget entry level video for at least 18 months, A7xx..who can say, I would not want to place a bet expecting video on that, but they might shock us.

Comments regarding Sony "upping their game" on the A5xx ones, simply suggesting that Sony did the bare min, and failed to put back any "possibly wanted" stuff like MLU, AEL spot toggle, things like that. Still missing the spot metering circle, no ISO in VF either. Might be minor, but it's a sign of a lazy company IMO. The could have put an AF assist light in there, just some examples of a few extra bits that might make all the difference to a potential buyer. Just a shame they have shoe horned what appears to be a good sensor, into a mediocre/basic spec body. A lot of us were hoping we would get at least 1 model that was D90 ish or mini A700 ish.

I ran across this in Dyxum:
http://www.dyxum.com/dforum/a550-techni ... page1.html

The poster there gives some impressions, and suggests no ISO in VF even if you press the button! Hmmm. Also any shots of the 2 cameras have no hot shoe covers, looks like Sony are saving money big time

[stevecim]

hot shoe cover did not ship with the a300/A350

after reading a post on dpreview and testing my A350, all Alpha's under A700 (don't know about A850 and A900) have plastic lens mounts...Yes plastic. Even my bottom off the line Minolta 3xi has a full metal mount!!

I'm starting to think Sony have no idea what they are doing.

[Lonnie Utah]

the mount on my a900 is metal.

[KevinBarrett]

after reading a post on dpreview and testing my A350, all Alpha's under A700 (don't know about A850 and A900) have plastic lens mounts...Yes plastic. Even my bottom off the line Minolta 3xi has a full metal mount!!

I'm starting to think Sony have no idea what they are doing.

http://a.img-dpreview.com/reviews/SonyD ... smount.jpg

Is that the plastic lens mount you are talking about? Or is there plastic behind the metal? I've heard of plenty of lenses with plastic mounts (mostly kit lenses), but no cameras.

[stevecim]

the black tabs that hold the lens are made of plastic.

[stevecim]

I've had a look at every lens mount photo on dpreview for all brands and Sony is the only one to use plastic mounts.

[KevinBarrett]

Perhaps the plastic mount is to reduce erosion on the plastic mount of the kit lens...

[Dusty]

hot shoe cover did not ship with the a300/A350

after reading a post on dpreview and testing my A350, all Alpha's under A700 (don't know about A850 and A900) have plastic lens mounts...Yes plastic. Even my bottom off the line Minolta 3xi has a full metal mount!!

I'm starting to think Sony have no idea what they are doing.

Well, my Alpha 350 has a metal mount flange. The lenses themselves that I have are all plastic flanges - 1 Sony, 1 Tamron and 1 Sigma. Hard to believe that no other lens mfgs use plastic!

Dusty

[stevecim]

looks like the plastic lugs on the camera's lens mount was started by Minolta with the D5,D7 and maybe some late 90's early 2000 film models.

Just no one noticed it till now

here is a link to the dpreview thread.

2 images at the bottom on the second page show the difference between the solid metal mounts and the metal/plastic mounts

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readf ... 415&page=2

[bfitzgerald]

Not sure this plastic behind metal mount thing is a big deal. I've looked at my bodies and yes the film 7 has an all metal one, 5d appears plastic, film 5 plastic, 60 also plastic. Of course all have front metal mounts. I have even used and bought fully plastic lens mounts, dynax 4's etc, 404si models, for other folks, some of these have had heavy use.

Never seen a problem with any of them, not in the mount dept anyway.
Sure would be nicer to have full metal, but this isn't an issue I would make a huge fuss about, least it's not a problem for me, even though I would avoid any full plastic mount, they don't appear as prone to wear as you might think.

On the hot shoe cover, again, no big deal, I ebayed a bunch of 3rd party ones (you would be nuts to buy the official sony covers, too expensive!), identical to the originals, look great even on Minolta bodies too. But I would expect the A5xx ones to have one included..also the Kit lens no longer has a hood, nor are they putting a rear lens cap on it either (which is unforgivable) IMO Sony are on a cost cutting drive. Not handled an A5xx one yet, but I doubt it will match the A100 or 5d for build quality.

[RubberDials]

I doubt Sony would think that the a550 was a basic-spec body as it is innovative in several ways. Also the 920K rear screen means it will have the very best Live View experience in DSLR shooting by a long way - LV with this camera should be a dream.

I think that Sony think MLU and VF ISO display are features that most users don't care about, and in a way they're right. What is most interesting is analysing how they continue to misjudge their market in other ways. Clearly someone thought the release of the a850 would keep all the a700 users quiet and tidy up the issue of the a900 being neither fish nor fowl (pro or amateur). Infact it has done neither. The a700 users are still complaining and going on Middle Earth-style quests to buy up the last remaining copies of a true 'enthusiast-level' camera and the differentiation between the a850 and the a900 is about as clear as the differentiation between the 16-80 and the 16-105 lenses - ie not clear at all. They clearly both don't need to exist.

Hopefully this is just a time of transition and Sony has all the hobs, the oven and the grill on back at HQ cooking up new cameras and tech.