A380 Amateur Photographer review

[alphaomega]

Had a quick look at conclusions. In a hurry and did not buy. DR seems to be the same but apparently less noise in higher ISOs than the A350. Could be good. Look forward to reading David Kilpatricks view when he gets his hands on a copy.

[bfitzgerald]

Well not read any reviews, real ones that is. AP can be ok..but they are not IMO a great review mag.

What I have been reading is the A230 user manual, so the A380 is sure to share many things.
I note the following

Still badly written as ever (and add confusing too) 162 pages which is far too long winded, and I think it's about time someone mailed Sony an old Minolta manual with a post it saying "do it like this"
Still no "thank you for buying a Sony DSLR" or something similar..this is basic, really basic stuff.
In auto and subject modes, you cannot over ride settings like you could on the previous models, metering is stuck to Multi segment only, AF is set to "wide", no choice for spot or area selection.
Manual says that in auto or scene modes the creative style is locked to "standard" and cannot be changed. I imagine this means you cannot say "bump up" the in camera sharpening, which is baffling to say the least. Maybe I got that wrong..

As noted elsewhere no options for custom kelvins or filters
We appear to still be stuck with the blinking highlight and shadow areas in the small histogram display (I would have allowed this for larger views)
Sony have ignored calls for ISO info in the VF, also the AEL * in the VF is gone obviously as the AEL button is removed
The manual says nothing about CW and spot metering, aside from a very brief description..no examples of when to use them. Also, as AEL is gone, unless the AEL is linked to AF confirm..then there appears to be no way to lock exposure rendering CW and spot metering almost useless for the photographer.
Exposure compensation is unavailable for auto and scene modes
No wired remote socket
Sony say "buy the ALC-R55 rear lens cap" when you get the 18-55mm, meaning the "sauce tray" cover is in the box, no real rear lens cap.
Some areas are not clear, for example AF point selection. They say this:
"Choose the area for which you want to activate the focus
from among nine areas with the control button. If you press
and hold the center of the control button during the shooting,
you can temporarily adjust the focus using the AF areas
located in the center area"

And how do you do that then??? with the front control dial??

Considering the effort sony have gone to, aiming this for new users, their user manual is frankly the most appalling user guide for a camera I have ever seenwritten, to think somebody got paid to do it as well, sends shivers down the spine.

Some of these limitations remind me of the criticism that Canon got with the EOS 300d, though for different reasons. I really hope they get a good hiding from reviewers, and we never again see this kind of pointless crippling of models. Let alone the save a few pence on the rear lens cap! Bad moves all round. With these kinds of limitations/poor choices, I could not suggest any user look at these models. Where I could at least feel happy enough about suggesting folks should check out the A200-350 series.

[bfitzgerald]

Forgot to mention evidently the 18-55mm DT new kit lens has no hood supplied.
Looks like Sony are copying their rivals in some ways.