A550

[stevecim]

Hi David

Quick question : Do you find the A550 underexposes by 1 stop? Something I read over on DPR.

I found a camera store here in Melbourne which offered me AUD$995 (~US$850) for a A550, Decided that was the best way to upgrade my kit, since I have lenses that need to be used at F6-7 it was cheaper for me to buy a new body which allowed iso800-1600 instead on buying new lenses plus I also get better LCD, OVF, FPS, battery life, AF over the A350 (still keeping the A350:) )

[David Kilpatrick]

No. I find it exposes normally, as far as JPEGs in camera go. Technically, there is no doubt they are underexposing the raw image; that's how they get the extended dynamic range at the highlight end, which is also what makes the HDR function more effective. But you don't get to see a dark picture if you use a correctly set up raw converter, whether Sony IDC or Adobe ACR.

David

[stevecim]

Thanks David,

I've had a quick play around the house, ISO 800 and above is much better then the a350 ( I guess everyone knows than by now ), heading for a weeks break to the Sunny Goldcoast soon, it should get a good work out there.

Thinks I like so far (over the A350)
*ISO 800 and above
*LCD
*FPS
*Battery life
* Flash sits ~2cm higher, seems to help with red eyes
* Dual memory cards
* seems faster in general use.
* Same battery has A350
* AF seems better, So far.
* Manual Focus Live View
* Improved DRO
* HDR
* Face detect

Things I don't like:
* No ISO in OVF
* Parts of the flash assembly seems to rattle when the flash is down. (minor thing )
* No program shift
* uses a different VGrip to the A350
* Does not use CF cards


Things I would like to have:
*set ISO min/max
*Set ISO in 1/3 steps
*ISO displayed in OVF (does not have to be full time, just the way the A350 did it is fine)
*Program shift

[stevecim]

I've just returned from holidays, had a week in Sunny Goldcoast QLD.

Well, the A550 preformed so well, I did not take the A350 out of the bag.

Wife never liked the A350 but like the A550, better LCD and AF is what she like the most, also liked face/smile detect. She also only uses the camera in Auto mode.

Did notice some things:

* When using Auto or Scene modes you can not select ISO speed, only works in Auto ISO:
* The A550 likes to use settings like ISO200, F16, 1/160 + flash even in bright sun light , on Auto and scene mode, including "Sports" mode.
Had to make sure it was set to Auto no Flash mode, when my wife was shooting out side in good lighting and never use scene modes.
* In Scene modes you can't turn off Long exp. NR
* Long exp. NR and High ISO NR can only be enabled in single frame drive mode.
* Can not set high ISO NR to high in Auto or Scene modes.

I found, for me the best way to use the A550 was A mode with Auto ISO, it was to painful to use Manual ISO and OVF at the same time, since ISO is not displayed in the OVF like the A350. I would prefer the A550 did not rely on ISO1600 so much (when in Auto ISO mode)

If your a JPG shooter and like using Auto/Scene modes than you can only use Normal - High ISO NR
If you use P/S/A/M then you can use High - High ISO NR, but you need to change to single frame drive mode.

I found the A550 to be very locked down and I had to change the way I shoot to the way it wanted me to shoot.
Does anyone know if Sony PnS are so locked down?

And having no ISO 100 was a pain under bright Australian Summer skys.

But the better AF/LCD/High ISO/FPS means the A350 will not see much use over the next few years

[stevecim]

iso 1600 f1.7 1/15


iso 200 f14 1/125


iso 200 f9 1/800

[stevecim]

iso 200 f5.6 1/2500


ISO200 f14 1/640



iso200 f13 1/320

[stevecim]

iso 200 f7,1 1/400


iso1000 f6.3 1/320




ISO1600 f6.3 1/125 This Cougar was not happy with the sound of the shutter/mirror

[Dr. Harout]

Nice shots... and I love summer.
We have an unnatural winter here this year. No snow, temperatures above 0 Celsius, unfrozen nights, no need for tire change, no much heavy clothes... The only snow is high on the mountains.
I remember winters without snow till end of January but with freezing temperatures.

[alphaomega]

stevecim
Thanks for your like/don't like list above. I think you are giving a reasonable account of the A550 plusses and minuses. Since you also own the A350 I wonder to what extent you have noticed the occasional inferior image quality at ISO200 compared with the A350 that David Kilpatrick referred to in his reviews.
In the end I replaced my A350 (passed to my wife) with another A350 as low ISO IQ is essential for my requirements. In any event I am doing fine with my A700/350 combo and will probably wait a year after the release of a true A700 replacement to re-enter the DSLR market. If the A550 had had better low ISO capability and some of the omissions you and others have listed I would have bought the A550 even if the UK price had exceeded £600. Another £50 of worthwhile additions such as DOF, MLU, Pshift, low IQ improved performance, intermediate ISO settings, Auto ISO min/max settings would have been welcome at least to me. Others would probably also have liked the removal of "crippled A setting" i.e. ability to use not chipped lenses in aperture priority rather than just manual. Maybe the rumours of a worthwhile A700 replacement with APS-C will turn out to be true. Time will show if Sony intend to close the considerable gap between A850/900 and A500/550.

[stevecim]

Hi Alphaomega

Not sure about ISO 200 , I did shoot RAW+JPG, but I only know how to use DxO, which has not been updated for the A550 yet.

With my JPGs, under Australian summers sky, they seem to over expose a lot, I think I had the wrong setting for things like DR, so a lot of my JPG seem washed out.

If you want I can email you some iso200 RAW files and you can see for your self.

Overall, the camera feels very "basic" since I'm a techy by trade, I like to "play" The A550 really fills like a "This is how we (Sony) think you should use it , and we know whats best." type of camera.

when you look at it closely there are very few user selectable options.

[stevecim]

Nice shots... and I love summer.
We have an unnatural winter here this year. No snow, temperatures above 0 Celsius, unfrozen nights, no need for tire change, no much heavy clothes... The only snow is high on the mountains.
I remember winters without snow till end of January but with freezing temperatures.

Me too, hate Winter, I'm a beach/summer boy, We were there for 9 Days, 29-31 Celsius over the 9 days, no rain. Today back home in Melbourne (only some 2000 Kms south) it's 18 and raining. It was real hard to get up and go to work today

[David Kilpatrick]

I will defend the A550 on several counts. First, it is actually better to use with gloves on than the A900. The rear wheel is almost impossible to turn on the A90o with gloves - the A550 proved better to use. And the sharpness and focus accuracy is exceptional, and ISO 400-1600 beats any other DSLR of its type (including the Canon 500D/50D).

My big problem recently has been that blue sky noise. The entire image perfect - except the sky.

David

[stevecim]

I just had a play with Sony's range of PnS, at a Sonycentral store in Melbourne, compared to them, the A550 is very flexible
Guess it depends on which side of the fence your standing on.

Don't anyone get me wrong, I'm very happy with the A550, can't wait to buy some good glass for it, has I'm still using a Sigma 17-50 DC, tamron 70-300, my only really good lens Minolta 50 1.7.

It's was David's review that pushed me over the line.

Now I hope, DxO add good A550 support to DxO 6.1