Sony Alpha a550 review

Sony A550 DSLR Camera is a very good camera it has Quick Auto Focus Live View has been developed with Face Detection technology to help you get the best shot by recognizing and adjusting for faces. It establishes the priority of the auto focus on faces and provides fine adjustments of exposure for portraits net, with tones natural skin. It also supports Up to 7 frames per second (with optical viewfinder in Speed Priority mode) can capture the decisive moment in sports or get the ideal baby photo. You can also shoot at up to 4 fps with Quick Auto Focus Live View.

Please put some untouched samples of this camera. Nobody needs photoshop worked samples to make an ideea about this camera.

Ref comments regarding price difference between A500 & A550, I've just ordered an A500 which was over £110 cheaper than the A550 and going on previous Alpha's (A300 vs A350 & A330 vs A380), we'll have to wait and see, if once again the lower spec camera is the better option.

Price-wise, there's supposed to be £100 difference between the a550 and a500. However, a couple of weeks ago some online retailers had a difference of as little as £10. The week after this changed to around £50. So, week by week, the price gap can fluctuate considerably. Principal differences between a550 and a500: 1. a550 has 7fps burst mode compared to a500's 5fps. 2. a550 has 920K-dot screen compared to a500's 230K-dot. 3. a550 has a 14.2MP sensor, the a500 has a 12.1MP. Both the same physical size, though output sizes are obviously different. 4. The a550 has a considerably larger buffer, it's capable of transmitting twice as much data before clogging up compared to the a500.

Upon release and still in some areas, the A850 was priced very similiar/higher to the A900. Generally the price difference does work itself out after a while, using camera price buster the difference between the A500 and A550 on Friday was £110. In a few months I'd expect the A500 to be at £400 and the A550 at 450. Even if they don't drop that low, show me a 12mp d-slr with the "best" live view system on the market, inbuilt stablization, great noise ability and 5fps for £469.

Why oh Why do testers never use independent lenses when comparing cameras. If you pick a good one and use it on Canikon, Sony, Pentax, etc you are then judging camera bodies as like for like. No more excuses.

David, A simple answer to that question is because, generally speaking, the manufacturers market bodies with a kit lens. We approach reviews from a consumer point of view, where people will want to know how the kit lens performs - in this case, the a550 has the physically noisiest autofocus of a modern kit lens that we've tested throughout 2009. The body was also tested with a Zeiss 16-35mm f/2.8, a lens which rendered much better results (both in action and picture quality). We do also independently test lenses, as a means to balance our reviews of what goes to market. The a550 is a good camera, our 'Recommended Award' and 86% score reflect this; it has class-leading live view and good image quality. WDC

Having owned an A500 for a week now I would say that WDC's ratings value is low, given that you can get an A550 with lens for £620. Would you put the A550/A500 up against a D5000 or a D90, or a 500d or a 50d ?. (remember the 1000d and d3000 would compete with the A330/A380). It's possible to have a A500 and a decent minolta 28-105 lens f3.5-f4.5 for less than £520. A Nikon/Canon equivalent would set you back £750+ and still not have full time stablization, or "the best" live view system etc. I'd put the value at 18 at least. Image quality: does that incorporate noise control ?. Any chance of a A500 vs D90 vs 50d test ?.

Value's always a tricky one as the scales slide around all over the place all of the time. The current kit (18-55mm) is around £630 (8/12/09), with the a500 at around £550. The a500/a550 are really head to head with the Nikon D5000, Pentax K-x and Canon 500D depending on which Sony model you choose (mainly for price, given they're so similar).

So what do the A230, A330 and A380 compete with ?. Any chance of a A500 vs 500D vs D5000 test please, using something like a 16-105 ?.

Just got the latest edition of WDC, and tbh can't see why you bothered to do an A500 review, I've never read something so negative, even though "it's certainly a good bit of kit" ???. The average is £100 between the A500 & A550, I only paid £459 (body only), show me a similar camera capable of 5fps & on board IS etc for the same money. The A300 was better than the A350 (but strangely "never" got reviewed by wdc), The A330 is probably better than the A380 and I'd imagine that the A500 will sell quickly. Mainly because for those of us that do buy the camera, £100 is quite a difference and for me the wonderful extra's (as with the A350), ain't worth it; The A550's faster burst rate can only be used in one mode, the resolution is higher but where's the noise comparison that we saw in the A330/A380 review (where the A330 was better), the A500 battery life (only 520 images ??????) "is" better and as for being a compact camera lcd, it's definetly an improvement over the A300 and far better than my Samsung PL70 (which IMHO is far better than the WDC acclaimed Tz3), and the same resolution as the 87% rated Pentax K-X, as with the mega-pixel race is'nt quality more important than quantity ?. Bigger buffer yes, but bigger memory card for the increased file sizes ?. Alphamount world would seem to prefer the A500 and for some reason (probably as it is good bit of kit), several other reviewers have group tested it against the likes of the D90, D300, 7D & a 50D, all exceptional camera's, not bad for a WDC rated 82% camera ?. Any chance of an A550/A500 noise comparison test please?. I'd imagine the A700's replacement will be "beefed up", if it had live view would there be a need for it to be replaced or for that matter the D90, not bad for Sony's first true d-slr. Given that the A550 will be competing with the likes of the D5000 and 500d, will the A500 be competing with the D3000, or is that the A380's job ?.

I believe there are other factors which to be considered when reading these kind of reviews. Reviewers want money from camera manufactures and they are not fool that they would review one's camera without getting anything from them. Think about it first. Almost all reviewers blamed Sony DSLR except Alpha users. I found they always come to the point of High ISO performance and hiding other great qualities which Alpha Offers. Why Canon and Nikon Bodies are highly priced than Sony/Olympus etc???? Where does those extra money goes? Remember every manufacturer almost spends same amount of money for same class products. You need very good marketing to sell your products. That means you have to spend money for marketing. You have to pay somebody to advertise your products. the more you spend, the better advertisement you would get. Thats it!!! I believe Sony must spend more money for its products for advertising, in different way. Because people buy products by looking at these reviews/ comments etc. Good Luck Sony!!!

i prefer the sony thn the canon, d500, if i want is lenses canon charge me for it,, i think canon overprice the lenses to begin with,,i had minolta rokkor lenses 20 years ago , they was more than a match for the big companies then,go sony

I use Sony myself. They really need to sort it out and stop concentrating on churning out model after model of sub £600 plastic crap-really!!!!! Buy a shit camera or buy an 850/900 or a discontinued 700. Not an ideal situation-or maybe that's all part of their plan?