Sony DSLR-A500 Review

© 2010 Peter Free

 

19 August 2010

 

Better than initial reviews said it was

 

The Sony A500 (and its brother A550) is arguably better than initial reviews indicated (for example here and here).  Camera Labs’ more favorable impression was, to my mind, more balanced.

 

My qualifications

 

I’ve been involved with photography for more than fifty years.  I have a fair amount of experience with professional film equipment from 35mm through 8x10 view cameras.  My exposure to digital systems is confined to DSLRs and my wife’s point-and-shoots.

 

I do hours of post-processing daily ─ using Adobe’s Photoshop, a variety of plug-ins, and other self-standing digital software.  It is not unusual for me to spend 8 hours or more on one frame.

 

Sony’s A500 and A550 function better than their specifications might indicate

 

Even given their lack of mirror lock, depth-of-field preview, and programmable functions ─ this pair of cameras is more than just a step up from point-and-shoots.

 

Experienced photographers may like them for their ease of use and Sony’s incorporation of two features, in combination, that other brands lack.

 

In some respects, Sony changed the game.

 

Positive ─ picture quality

 

To my aesthetic, Sony is unequalled when it comes to delivering color that does not require much manipulation under a wide variety of photographic conditions.

 

Moreover, when I need to change colors, Sony files are usually easy to manipulate.

 

Positive ─ articulating LCD and instant live view

 

The A500/550’s articulating LCD, combined with live view, works extremely well.  Sony is the only brand to permit instantaneous live view.  Press the shutter, and there is no lag in taking the picture.

 

Why live view helps me

 

I wear reading glasses.  I can’t see the camera controls without them, but I have to remove the glasses to look through the optical viewfinder.

 

Live view allows me to leave my glasses on.   It speeds everything up.

 

Articulating LCD screen

 

The merits of an articulating screen are obvious.  There are times when I use it to get photographs that would be impossible to get without a great deal of work-around.

 

For example, when I’m doing interiors and have to jam the camera tripod up against a wall.  I can look down at the LCD and ensure that focus is where I want.  Without an articulating screen, I would have to guesstimate focus and check its accuracy by taking a series of trial photos.

 

Similarly, folding the LCD screen down allows me to take pictures when it is not obvious that I am.  It becomes the more accurate equivalent of scale-focusing and shooting from the hip.

 

Instantaneous live view

 

Sony’s instantaneous live view enhances the value of the articulating screen.  You get what you aimed at, right now.  Not a few moments from now, when the scene has changed.

 

Magnified live view

 

Sony’s “manual focus check live view” is helpful for scenes in which accuracy is required.  It makes using legacy lenses via adapters a breeze.

 

Positive ─ some of the camera’s ergonomics are helpful

 

Ergonomically, Sony elected to eliminate a top-positioned LCD and replace it with large buttons for direct access to several functions.  These include drive mode, ISO, live view, manual focus live view, and Sony’s dynamic range function.  I use the first four all the time.  For someone who prefers the straight-forward approach of mechanical cameras, Sony’s simple ergonomics are a plus.

 

Sony also simplified the camera’s menus.  They are comparatively few, easy to read, and mostly self-explanatory.

 

Positive ─ infrared focus assist

 

The A500/550 uses an infrared, in-body focus assist for low light levels.  Infrared is less annoying than pop-up electronic flash assists.

 

Positive ─ limited feature RAW software works well

 

I shoot exclusively in RAW.  Sony’s Image Data Converter works exceptionally quickly and is almost self-explanatory.  It does an excellent job with the A500/550’s files.  But it (inexcusably) lacks a batch processing feature.

 

Negatives ─ not so many as reported

 

Negatives are well covered in the above “here” and “here” reviews.  For a litany of complaints, go to dpreview.com’s Sony DSLR forum.  There are so many, predominantly from people who have not actually used the camera, that I won’t list them.

 

One negative, however, should be mentioned.  People often criticize the Minolta locking hot-shoe that Sony carried over to its line of DSLRs.  In reality, the Minolta shoe very much speeds up changing flash units.  The efficient, secure design is typical of Minolta’s occasional flashes of brilliance.

 

Negatives

 

For me, the A500/550’s chief negatives are:

 

(1) no mirror lock-up

(2) narrow 1.4-stop exposure bracketing function

(3) inability to set self-timer with bracketing or the HDR function

(4) somewhat inapproachable optical viewfinder

 

Lack of a mirror lock (or its pseudo-equivalent) is an indefensible oversight

 

Sony’s lack of heritage in the SLR camera business is reflected in its decision to leave a mirror lock out of the A500 series.

 

I use a tripod frequently.  Mirror lock-up automatically went into my routine, frequently even for portraits.

 

Overly narrow exposure bracketing range

 

Frequently a negative for me is the fact that Sony carried over Minolta’s three-frame, 0.7-stop bracketing function.  That gives a total exposure range of only 1.4 stops.

 

The tiny bracketing range was silly in the film days.  It is absurd in the digital age.  Sony’s bracketing limitation makes handheld, true high dynamic range photography virtually impossible.  It also slows everything down on a tripod.

 

Sony probably justified keeping the narrow bracketing range because the camera includes an automatic HDR function.  But Sony’s HDR implementation is not a real high dynamic range feature.  Its exposure range is far too small, and the camera does not output separate exposures.  In truth, Sony’s implementation is useless under real world high dynamic range conditions.

 

The virtue of a wide bracketing feature (like the 8-stop range from Nikon and Pentax) is that it (a) avoids the problem of the user having to manually adjust exposures and (b) very much speeds the picture-taking process.

 

Manual exposure adjustments run the risk of slightly moving the camera frame from shot to shot.  The time these take to implement gives ambient light lots of time to change.  Lighting changes cause significant problems when making high dynamic range panoramics.

 

High dynamic range implementation aside, the A500/550’s meter sometimes errs outside a 1.4-stop range, so the camera’s limited bracketing feature has implications even for ordinary photography.

 

A500/550’s drive menu prohibits mixing the self-timer with bracketing or HDR

 

When one uses the self-timer, particularly at its 10 second setting, ambient lighting can change in ways that Sony’s metering screws up.  Not being able to exposure bracket these situations is silly.

 

Less negatively ─ no depth-of-field check and a poor viewfinder don’t bother me much

 

I am old enough to have imperfect vision, so the camera’s lack of depth-of-field preview is not a concern.  I don’t see accurately enough to use it.  I also have enough experience to estimate depth of field.

 

People often complain about the camera’s small, dark viewfinder.  But it is better than an Olympus E-500 that I used for two years.

 

Admittedly, the camera’s LCD protrudes far enough to make getting one’s eye close to the viewfinder difficult.  Wearing glasses, my eye is so far away that I often have to guess as to what is going to be in the picture.

 

Accurate framing is also a problem with live view on the LCD screen.  It only shows about 90 percent of what the photograph is going to include.  Experience with the camera eventually overcomes this.

 

Sony’s RAW converter has no batch function

 

The converter cannot do batch processing.  This is a significant flaw.

 

I have not commented on auto-focus because it works well enough for me

 

The A500/A550’s auto focus works without fuss.  It doesn’t miss often under my comparatively undemanding uses.

 

I don’t use continuous auto focus.  Only professional camera systems do that well enough to count on the feature.  To get what I want with lesser cameras, I pre-focus on areas where my experience predicts the action will go.

 

I become mildly annoyed with people who complain that their modern cameras are not achieving perfect focus on challenging movement.  Years ago, I photographed field sports semi-professionally with a manual focus, manual exposure Pentax 6x7 and a 600mm lens.  With Gitzo’s heaviest tripod, the combination weighed about 30 pounds.  It was a clumsy, demanding set-up.

 

Today’s electronic cameras are golden in comparison.

 

In conclusion ─ the A500/A550 works better than one might guess

 

On balance, I like the A500.

 

As of this writing, there is no camera in its price range that I would trade it for.  Its picture quality, articulating LCD, and instant live view have me hooked ─ in spite of the camera’s significant negatives.

 

The A550 allows me to do things that were tedious before I got it.

 

No other camera’s positives (as of this writing) would make up for losing the A500/550’s pluses.  Its competitors have not yet matched Sony’s combination of an articulating screen, instant live view, and easy to work with color.