Sony Alpha DSLR-A550 Review

Sony unleashed new camera named Alpha DSLR-A550. It is expected to do well in the $1000 cameras segment. It comes in two models namely basic body version and another with 18-55mm lens. The A550 is little different from its previous version A550 and cheaper than A500. A550 is enhanced with faster burst option and very high resolution LCD screen. A550 differs from A500 in its resolution.

Design and Specifications

The A550 have included the few features which were missing in the recent 2 and 3 series models. They have regained Auto Exposure Lock keys and bigger FM500H (11.8Wh) battery from its earlier models. It provides many external buttons to obtain quicker access to camera settings such as ISO, D-range and drive mode. It also facilitates controlling AF in four ways.

The A550 is slightly lighter than A500 and provides more grip in the hands, more sturdy. The A550 is solid and offer full height grip. But it is more bulky and heavier than 2 and 3 models. Its exterior is made from cheaper plastic, which put A550 in back foot. The extra space available on the A550 are filled with too many extra buttons, which are not needed, they just consume the extra space. Organization of the buttons is not so good and less user convenient.

The design of the A550 is more biased towards the LCD based shooting than viewfinder shooting. Viewfinder display mode indicates manual focus status, image stabilization status and steady status. It is helpful in customizing the ISO sensitivity. Viewfinder displays focus indicators with bigger boxes. But the viewfinder suffers with low magnification factor and smallness. Unlike other dSLRs, the A550’s buttons close to your forefinger or thumb; you can’t get them easily unless you lower the camera. The Function buttons provided at the back enables you to customize the ISO sensitivity, flash compensation, metering, Autofocus mode, flash settings, , Autofocus area ,drive mode, Creative Styles and DRO/Auto HDR. The function button is bit flat, confusing and not so user friendly.

Sony offers tilt able displays which facilitates fine shooting with odd angles. The screen can tilt or orient up to 90 degrees. The design of the A550 is not much flexible as twist-flip architected LCD. The A550 offers quicker MF Check LV mode and Live View Autofocus; these magnify the focused area and let you to customize the display exposure, so that you can view your action. The MF Check LV mode offers 100% display and while Live View displays 90% of the scene.

The A550 features Auto HDR function which captures two consecutive snaps at different exposure and merges them into a single snap with proper shadow detail and optimum highlight. Then it processes the image and saves the same. The A550 camera comes with a Speed Priority continuous Advance mode which relinquishes the exposure adjustments and continuous focus. The settings will be fixed in a first shot. It enhances the frame rate from 5fps to 7fps.The A550 doesn’t need special mode as it performs without it. It takes just 0.4 seconds to shoots. It takes 0.3 seconds to focusing and shooting the snap and 0.7 seconds in dim light as well. Burst shooting records at 4.3fps. It also offer manual five level options to adjust Dynamic range optimization.

The A550 has impressive 14.2 megapixel resolution with Exmor CMOS sensor. Exmor CMOS sensor facilitates to take crisper and clear photos in all ISO sensitivities than its sibling’s CCD sensors. Images will be good in ISO sensitivities such as ISO 400, ISO 800, and ISO 1,600. The image quality starts staggering from ISO 3200. The A550 offer best noise performance in the midrange ISOs.

The concern is that Sony dSLRs yields over saturation and colour accuracy because of the default creative colour accuracy. You will be little confused about the style settings to achieve better image. It doesn’t give the information about sharpness settings, contrast and saturation for each setting. Even software provided by Sony will not provide information on Creative Style settings this. You can go with AdobeRGB rather than sRGB.

The A550 is coming with good battery life. You can take up to 1000 snaps once you charge the battery. A550 offers larger buffer compared to A500. It can store 14 raw frames in its buffer, but A500 can store just 3 frames. It enhances the speed and performance.

Conclusion

The A550 offers good noise profile at the midrange. It is fast and offer good features like Auto HDR, good battery, excellent Exmor CMOS sensor. But the colour styling, bad user interface, poor usage of extra space with too many put the A550 in the back foot. Given its excellent midrange noise profile and above-average performance–two of the most important reasons to buy a dSLR–it’s frustrating that the Sony Alpha DSLR-A550’s awkward design and poor color rendering keep me from being able to recommend it without so many caveats. It comes at $1100 without the lens and $1300 with 18-35mm lens.