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Sony Alpha SLT-A33L review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £527
inc VAT

Packed with innovative features, but some of these have drawbacks as well as advantages.

Specifications

23.4×15.6mm 14.0-megapixel sensor, 3.0x zoom (27-82.5mm equivalent), 643g

http://www.amazon.co.uk

Buying a camera used to be so much easier. It was a straightforward choice between a cheap and cheerful compact or a high quality, bulky SLR. Then along came Micro Four Thirds and its peers, with their SLR-quality sensors, interchangeable lenses and compact bodies.

Some of these hybrid cameras look and feel more like a compact while others are conceptually closer to an SLR. The A33 (and its sister model, the A55) takes it to a new extreme, being externally indistinguishable from Sony Alpha SLR cameras. The layout of controls is very similar, with a command dial and a few dedicated buttons but most photographic controls accessed via a Fn button. Unlike some recent Alpha cameras, it’s comfortable to hold, and the key controls fall nicely under the fingers. It also uses Alpha lenses – the kit lens is the same 18-55mm model we’ve seen many times before.

The slightly lower height and weight, shaving around 5mm and 50g off most entry-level SLRs, are the first clues that something is afoot, but it’s only when the camera is raised to the eye that the truth is revealed. Rather than a through-the-lens (TTL) optical viewfinder, you’re greeted with an LCD version.

Sony Alpha SLT-A33L back

This electronic viewfinder is much higher quality than those used on ultra-zoom cameras. It’s bigger than the optical viewfinders on consumer SLRs, and the 1,440,000-dot resolution is almost as sharp as the eye can see. For reasons that aren’t entirely obvious, only 80 per cent of the screen is used for widescreen videos, and less for photos. Even so, accurate manual focus was just as easy to achieve here as it is on consumer SLRs’ viewfinders, with the ability to enlarge the image to 7x or 14x being very handy. It can also show a variety of other useful information, such as a histogram and virtual horizon.

It can’t match an optical viewfinder for contrast and low-light sensitivity. Shadow detail was often lost and subdued light caused the image to become noisy and the frame rate to drop. Then again, these are limitations of the sensor rather than the screen. In fact, it could be considered useful for the viewfinder to warn of the sensor’s shortcomings, as they’ll appear on captured photos too.
The electronic viewfinder caused more serious problems in some situations. One was when using an off-camera flashgun and manual exposure settings. Because the camera had no idea what the flashgun was set to, it exposed the preview image as if there was no flash – both the LCD screen and electronic viewfinder were pitch black. If you’re ever likely to want to experiment with off-camera flash, this isn’t the camera for you.

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Basic Specifications

Rating ***
CCD effective megapixels 14.0 megapixels
CCD size 23.4×15.6mm
Viewfinder electronic
Viewfinder magnification, coverage 1.1x, 100%
LCD screen size 3.0in
LCD screen resolution 921,600 pixels
Articulated screen Yes
Live view Yes
Optical zoom 3.0x
Zoom 35mm equivalent 27-82.5mm
Image stabilisation optical, sensor shift
Maximum image resolution 4,592×3,056
Maximum movie resolution 1920×1080
Movie frame rate at max quality 25fps
File formats JPEG, RAW; AVCHD, MPEG-4

Physical

Memory slot SDXC, Memory Stick Pro Duo
Mermory supplied none
Battery type Li-ion
Battery Life (tested) 340 shots
Connectivity USB, mini HDMI, microphone, remote
HDMI output resolution 1080i
Body material plastic
Lens mount Sony Alpha
Focal length multiplier 1.5x
Kit lens model name SAL-1855
Accessories USB cable, neck strap
Weight 643g
Size 92x124x154mm

Buying Information

Warranty one-year RTB
Price £527
Supplier http://www.amazon.co.uk
Details www.sony.co.uk

Camera Controls

Exposure modes program, shutter priority, aperture priority, manual
Shutter speed 30 to 1/4,000 seconds
Aperture range f/3.5-22 (wide), f/5.6-36 (tele)
ISO range (at full resolution) 100 to 12800
Exposure compensation +/- 2EV
White balance auto, 6 presets with fine tuning, custom, manual
Additional image controls contrast, saturation, sharpness, noise reduction, dynamic range, colour space
Manual focus Yes
Closest macro focus 25cm
Auto-focus modes 15-point
Metering modes multi, centre-weighted, centre, face detect
Flash auto, forced, suppressed, slow synchro, rear curtain, red-eye reduction
Drive modes single, continuous, self-timer, AE bracket, HDR, sweep panorama, 3D sweep panorama, IR remote

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Reviews | DSLRs