DPReview on Sony A350: Slow Performance, Soft Images

Sony A350 DSLR Camera

DPReview notes that while Sony‘s first two DSLRs, the A100 and A700 showed clear signs of their Konica Minolta lineage – sharing a lot of DNA with the Maxxum (Dynax) 5D and 7D respectively, the A350 shows a much greater Sony influence in its design.

DPReview.com has posted its review of the Sony A350 and heaps praises on the camera’s implementation of Live View. It said the A350’s ability to seamlessly shoot overhead or down at waist level gives a degree of freedom that no other DSLR is able to offer. And, at low sensitivity settings, you do get a camera that offers the easy composition simplicity of a compact camera with the focusing speed, shutter-button responsiveness and image quality of a DSLR.

“Unfortunately, the A350 is a slow camera by modern standards,” writes reviewer Richard Butler. “The continuous shooting speed is some way behind the models it will share retailer shelf space with, but the bigger problem is the general lag while waiting for the review image to appear after each shot. Waiting around for the camera to start displaying a shooting screen (either the status screen or the live view preview), further distances you from the shooting experience in a way that will be unfamiliar for DSLR users.”

But the worst beef about the A350 concerns image quality, where it matters most for a camera. Its lousy kit lens is pulling it down. The default JPEG output is soft with poor low-contrast detail. There’s also a trade-off between tightly-packed pixels and high-sensitivity performance, with the sensor producing a lot of noise and smearing it away.

[Via: DPReview.com]

Published by Chris Malinao

Chris teaches Lightroom as workflow software to photography students at the FPPF, Federation of Philippine Photographers Foundation. He also teaches smartphone photography.