2. Sony Alpha 550
Two entry-level DSLRs go head to head! the Pentax offers video and a new sensor while the Sony provides excellent Live View and a tilting LCD. Fight!
No Video
But there’s been a change of strategy with the new Alpha 500/550, which offers a "true" Live View using the main sensor, called MF Check LV. The coverage is practically 100% and it’s easy to use manual focusing thanks to the 14x magnification. Autofocus is also available, but it requires a mirror movement.
So the Sony Alpha 550 becomes a little more interesting in the studio for packshots, even though it doesn’t come with software for remote control via a computer. It is possible, however, to connect the SLR to an LCD display or TV set via the mini HDMI connection.
With their new A500/A550 DSLRs, Sony has new models to compete with the benchmark SLRs of the moment, namely the Nikon D90 and Canon T1i. The A550 has a wealth of features aimed at winning over photographers: a 14.2 MP EXMOR CMOS sensor, a burst speed of five frames per second, Live View with fast autofocus, and tilting display screen, among other things. 
Handling
Our first contact with the Sony Alpha 550 was a little disorienting. As on Sony’s early models, (Alpha 100, 200, etc.), the body looks and feels too “plastic” compared to the competition. But we won’t judge it too harshly, because the surface of the handgrip has a very nice feel, and the handgrip itself is well designed and handles well, even if it is a little narrow.
The interface is standard with various shortcuts (ISO, setting memorization, exposure correction, etc.) The camera is fairly large, however, and the controls located on the top are hard to access when you’re using the eye-level viewfinder. A function button provides access to a settings screen with the main shooting options. Everything is clear and there’s contextual help.
The main display (outside of Live View mode) is a little more disorienting. It’s aimed at providing simpler access for beginners, but in fact it’s a bit daunting – there are graphics, but there are also a lot of figures. Fortunately, it can be turned off and replaced by a more conventional display.
The optical viewfinder isn’t really the Sony A550’sstrong point. It’s small, not very bright, and not very convenient for eyeglass wearers, and we didn’t use it much. Sony is clearly putting the accent on Live View, and they’re right in doing so. A second sensor lets you maintain fast, precise autofocus while using Live View, a unique feature and a real advantage. It’s true that the display lacks a little detail and fluidity, but overall the A550 does quite well and the autofocus inspires trust, especially since the tilting LCD display is high-quality, though it only tilts on one axis (up and down).
One result of using Live View is that the battery has trouble going the distance, especially attaining the 950 shots claimed by Sony. Extensive use of Live View emptied the battery after 500 Raw + JPEG shots. Another downside: no depth-of-field preview and mirror lock for long exposures on a tripod.
Responsiveness
The A550 proved to be really speedy. The nine-point autofocus worked well in most situations, but was still a little slow in low light. The A550 has no assist lamp, and you have to use the flash for quick focusing in semi-darkness, which is not very discreet. In fact, the autofocus is also negatively impacted by the 18-55 mm SAM lens – which, though it’s new, has no sonic motor (SAM is for Smooth Autofocus Motor). The system remains a little slow and noisy, and manual focus touch-up isn’t possible.
The continuous mode is remarkable, with five frames per second with continuous focusing and up to seven frames per second without automation (no exposure metering, no autofocus).
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Sensor | 12 MP CMOS (APS-C) |
| Zoom | Kit Lens: 18-55 mm, f/3.5-5.6 DA L |
| Image Stabilization | Sensor Shift |
| Internal/External Memory | None/SD, SDHC |
| Sensitivity (ISO Range) | 200-6400 (extension: 100-12800) |
| Video Format | 1280x720/24p |
| Power Supply | 4 AA batteries |
| Dimensions/Weight | 4.8”x3.6”x2.7”/20.5 oz. loaded |
Image quality
The use of a new EXMOR CMOS sensor is also good news, and Sony dropped CCD sensors in this segment of their line with good reason. With the new sensor comes new electronics, and the system works rather well, as the camera’s ability to use higher ISO settings demonstrates. Without rivaling the current leaders (the Pentax K-x, Nikon D90, and Canon T1i), the A550’simages were remarkably good up to 3200 ISO. Since noise management was one of weak points of Sony SLRs, we can only congratulate the technicians on the job they’ve done. Sensitivity settings above 3200 ISO are less reliable, however, and will have to be used sparingly.
The kit lens (the 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6) is of fairly high quality, with good sharpness and well-controlled chromatic aberration. That makes this kit lens a good starting point. Using matrix metering, the A550 has a tendency to underexpose shots. Of course you can correct that with the exposure correction. To balance images, you can also use DRO (Dynamic Range Optimizer) mode, which restores a little detail in areas that are too dense. The A550 also has a new HDR mode (that combines two consecutive images) that’s worth having for landscapes, provided you don’t push exposure spread too far (up to 3 LV).
The stabilization worked perfectly and we took a good series of blur-free shots freehand at 1/6s.
Video
This is an easy one to call, since the Sony Alpha 550 simply has no video mode. Sony and Olympus are the only SLR manufacturers that don’t include a video mode. Is that really a loss? Of course that depends on how you shoot. But do keep in mind that the video modes found on current SLRs are still in the embryonic stage – hesitant autofocus, poor sound quality, etc. But at least a video mode lets you create HD films with good control over depth of field.
| Sony Alpha 550 | |
|---|---|
| Pros | Cons |
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The Sony Alpha 550 is a serious SLR: fast, good image quality up to 3200 ISO, and – a rare feature – a really effective Live View. Only the lightweight build quality and the absence of a video mode might be cause for hesitation.
- 1. Pentax K-x
- 2. Sony Alpha 550
K-x Pentax undoubtedly produce a remarkable/clear picture up to its boundary , say:ISO 2500 and using RAW can give fairly printable at 3200-6400 ISO, While most photographers on their right mind mostly uses up to the limit of ASA/ISO 100-400 by using a powerful flashgun leaving high iso stupidly silent. To be Fair by no means, Enthusiast have different perspective on taking a picture and that where K-x pentax come along specially for a budgetarian. ((Wealthy idividual just hire photographer thru phone, and sleep, no worry ))So its always the money that talks and often an object in buying a DSLR.
And for the video thing, you need to know your gadget well and you objectives to be able to produce a good video out of K-x, If you're just a push button user ? why not call photographer/videographer who knows what to do ? IMHO
..Trakertec
One of the little mentioned facts about the built in HDR function of the A500 and A550 is that, if you set the camera to 1 stop HDR, feel free to shoot at 3200 and 6400 all day: the HDR mode acts as a quick image stack, allowing much cleaner, sharper High ISO imaging simply due to the HDR processing. A little added DR, a lot less noise = killer images in low light.
Also, don't forget you can do the HDR mode in black and white... allowing zones of gray to be visible in rich tones across the image that would also be otherwise unheard of. The HDR in black and white is one of THE reasons to own this camera, IMO.
Also I note that you undersold the fact that the Steadyshot Inside on the A500/A550 is far more accomplished than any other internal IS system to date and is easily as good as any optical system in the market, no matter the competition.
We are currently showing 30x40 images from the A550 HDR that are simply stunning. The great thing is that the HDR is a jpeg file, so no one can accuse us of mucking with RAW in order to get a better looking image. No, the A500 and A550 are simply capable of direct to print images that are impossible for other brands to shoot. HDR makes this so.
The K-x is a nice camera, I wholeheartedly agree, but it's not exactly cutting edge, save for the video which, as you mentioned, is still in its first phases. The progressive CMOS in the A550 alone allows for speed unheard of in this class of camera, let alone 5 fps with af live view on, with a proper HD screen, no less. The A550 also adds wireless ttl flash to the mix, along with a proper spot meter to boot, sharing these features with the A500.
Sony's getting serious. People will have some eyebrows raised, I suspect, come later this coming year.
Thanks for the reviews! I didn't know Tom's did more than computer stuff (basically my homepage years ago when I was building computers).
The A550 is nice, but leaves some more important (to me) things that the K-x has while costing twice as much...
dim viewfinder, build quality, no mirror lockup. Also, this is the first I've heard that the IS system is better than Pentax or Olympus. Do you have any links?
Not all pro's will never use high ISO - many times it is impossible to have an external flash stand in the right spot or a ceiling to bounce off of.
Btw, dyna, your point of HDR being a jpeg and not mucking around in RAW is the opposite of what I've typically seen. When images are saved in JPEG, being much smaller, the camera's processing includes only what it wants (I see this as mucking around with data), while RAW is supposed to include everything untouched.
Your point about HDR (or RAW works pretty well too) is spot on - B&W should always be shot in RAW (greyscale mix capability, simply more luminosity levels stored 65,536 vs 256...) or HDR.
Anyways, the A550's 7-fps no-automation feature is a great one that I wish more cameras had.
As for the K-x, I wouldn't advise only to use center-AF point. Select AF point works just as well (and is actually my favorite mode on cameras with LED indicators when shooting anything, including sports), and you can have a button set to center-AF and easily change the AF point to a known location without removing your eye from the VF. 11-point and 5-point AF is what is much less useful on the K-x - agreed there.
As for MJPEG, it is indeed much bigger, but that data allows more post-processing abilities and quality than other more compressed codecs - a fair compromise for me.
I am not sure what this part is for:
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You turn the camcorder on by pressing the Power button, which automatically opens the lens shutter, which covers a 10x optical zoom that starts at a focal length of 43mm – a bit narrow. We would have hoped for a slightly wider angle, even if the Sony HDR-CX520 does no better.
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You can choose whatever focal length that the lens offers with video - the kit lens lets you choose 18-55mm or 28-82.5mm 35mm equivalent. The coolest part is the macro video capabilities you can create, allowing videos like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc2O1cfShzQ
I agree about LiveView being slow focusing on the K-x - exactly why I use phase-detect AF in Live View - downside is you don't get to see the image while its focusing (not a big deal), but also you get the mirror slaps (can be bad). With the new firmware 1.01, I find contrast-detect AF is faster as it doesn't hunt to the extremes nearly as much.
The Sony is 1.5 times more expensive!!! How can you rate them both equally?
I think the Pentax K-x wins hands down.
Nikon
The video review doesn't seem very fair at all. First off, the only other DSLRs that shoot video in the price range of the k-x is the Rebel T1i and the D90 (both of them being fairly more expensive than the k-x), and neither of them have auto focus while shooting. In fact, there are no DSLR's that can auto focus while shooting video at the moment.
The tone of the review makes it sound like these HDSLR's need to operate like a camcorder. That's like comparing a point and shoot with a DSLR. It's exactly what they're NOT suppose to be, for they serve completely different purposes.
Sony A500 is closer to Kx price ($699 right now on amazon). A500 has everything that is in A550 (except 7fps, 920K LCD, and A550 has larger buffer).
A550 is a little behind than Kx/D90/D5000 in high ISO performance but that’s probably due to jpeg output. Perhaps Sony will issue a firmware update for jpegs. On Dxomark, A550 sensor scores over 800 points in low-light ISO category (higher than D300s/A700), so the new 14 MP sensor has more potential than the current jpeg output shows.
By the way, Nikon D5000 also has video, and is cheaper than D90 (close to Kx price).
You need to fix Specifications section of this article (for A550). It's appear to be that of Kx