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Camera Review


I have had my a500 for a few months and am very happy with my purchase. This is a great camera for someone wishing to switch from advanced point-and-shoot to full d-SLR. The menus are intuitive, and this camera is generally easy to use. It has some nice features like HDR imaging, manual live focus, and an amazing live view. I tested this camera with Nikon and Canon models in the same price range and felt this was the superior product. I also like that this camera has the autofocus motor inside the camera itself (unlike many similarly priced models by other brands), making it compatible with my 20-year old Minolta lenses. As you probably know, lenses are as important, if not more important, than the camera body so it's nice to be able to use older, reasonably-priced, solid glass. This generally takes nice low light shots although there is some noise at higher ISOs. This is to be expected from a camera in this price range. Also the kit lens is not the greatest, but this is usually the case with entry level SLR cams. I'd recommend buying the body only and picking up a 50mm prime lens. Then start shooting. I gave this 5 stars because it's great at what it is --- a starter SLR camera with some room for the photographer to grow. This of course can't compete with $2000-$3000 full frame models, but it has none-the-less exceeded my expectations. Great value. In general, I think this brand is underrated in the digital camera world. If you are in the market for your first d-SLR, give Sony a try. VIEW PRICE

Camera Review

 My only real gripe with the T3 is its lack of a rubberized handgrip. I don't expect posh materials at this price point but some surface providing a better grip would have been nice. One important point though is that because of the materials used, it makes the camera extremely light-weight (although you will find with heavier lenses it will feel out of balance somewhat). However, despite the lack of a rubberized handgrip, you will find it hard to dislike this camera. And it I think it provides an overall better and more straight-forward shooting experience than thte Nikon D3100.

The controls are pretty straight-forward on this camera. And I always like Canon's menu system, very intuitive. It has plenty of auto controls for newbie photographers but of course has a full manual suite of controls so it's perfect for students or folks in general who want to learn photography and want a camera they can grow with. In terms of the performance, this DSLR impressed me. Overall operation is very quick, shot-to-shot times are decent, and the autofocus is very fast. It comes with a nice chunky battery which will give which goes a long time before needing to be charged again.

The viewfinder is 95% coverage and isn't the greatest but I found it to be satisfactory. And despite the relatively low screen resolution of 230k, I found the screen somewhat viewable in direct sunlight and better than the one on the D3100. Again, it's not wonderful, but not as bad as some I've seen (the worst was the Pentax K-x). They've also upgraded the AF system from 7 points on the Rebel XS to 9 points.

One move that was very smart on Canon's part was to keep the megapixel count at a modest 12 megapixels. This is the ideal camera to use if you plan on using kit lenses exclusively and not using more expensive lenses. This is because Canon's other pro-sumer DSLRs all use the same 18 megapixel sensor. Which is a great thing to have IF you attach some higher-end Canon lenses to it. But when those cameras are used with a kit lens, the image quality is not as impressive as one would think because of the kit lens have a harder time resolving detail on the 18 megapixel sensors. With the T3, however, I think you can get cleaner images with the kit lens than you can with the 60d, T2i, T3i, etc. Overall image quality is excellent. Exposure is almost always on the money, metering is excellent, ISO performance is excellent up to 1600, and colors are accurate and punchy without looking cartoonish and oversaturated. The jpegs come out of the camera just a tad soft. But they respond very well to some in-camera sharpening and of course if you shoot in RAW you can adjust the sharpness to your liking. But overall the T3 can be counted on to deliver great-looking images in almost any shooting environment. And that is worth the 5-star rating alone.

As far as the movie mode goes, it's only 1280x720 HD but actually the video quality is excellent. However, the manual controls are very limited. If you're equal parts into photos and movies, I would consider the Rebel T3i or 60d over this one though, as those have far more extensive manual controls for video shooting.

So overall, if you're able to overlook the rather cheap plastic construction, this is a very formidable entry-level DSLR that is suitable for both newbie photographers, and even pros looking for a light-weight companion to their regular gear.

Camera Review

 My title is rather pessimistic, I know, but I've been playing with this camera now for a couple of hours, so I've had a chance to get a feel for what consumers are going to probably like, and not like, about this lens kit.

First, if you are a serious photographer, you are going to be better off buying the body of this camera separately from the lens. It isn't that the 18-55mm, 3.5-5.6 aperture lens is bad: it just isn't great for inside work, as far as I can tell. The kind of "meh" aperture range means you'll struggle a bit in "normal" indoor lighting to get hand-held shots that don't really want flash, and the problem with the flash is it is straight-ahead flash, so that your attempts at head shots are going to potentially have a deer-in-the-headlights quality about them. This will be because even zoomed in to 55mm, you're going to need to be close to a subject for a portrait shot--closer than you really would like to be. Getting the two-lens kit, for a couple hundred dollars more, might be a really good alternative here, because I think the longer telephoto in that kit can go out to 200mm, giving you more flexibility in where you need to stand for shots. I was pretty sure when purchasing the kit that I was going to quickly need a really solid prime to go with it, and the Sony 50mm f 1.4 has already proven itself a valuable addition.

The good news is that, aside from the "adequate-but-kind-of-meh" lens, everything else on this thing mostly rocks! I was a bit nervous because I had seen other reviews in which some reviewers chewed on the ergonomics a bit, but I'm not really finding that to be a problem so far. The battery door, the door to the memory cards, etc., are rigid and open happily and confidently. As far as the battery goes, my advice would be to pick up an extra battery, because after charging mine the first time, I was down to roughly half power without having taken that many photos (maybe 75 RAW out of what I was being told was a 500-image total available. I didn't expect the battery to make it for 500 shots, but it looks like I would have gotten about 150 shots out of the charge, and I can definitely see situations where a photographer would run into trouble from that.)

One thing that may not be immediately obvious from pictures is that the right-hand grip is quite comfortable, and there is a design feature on the back (basically a bit of a "hump" that provides the right thumb a place to get a kind of secure purchase so that you really shouldn't ever feel like the camera is in danger of slipping out of your hand. I always put my left hand under the bottom of a camera anyway, so that I can adjust the focus ring easily, and even though this camera and its lenses have auto-focus, that's still a comfortable place for the left hand.

Many of the features and details of the camera are things that you can find in other reviews or in detail lists for this product, so I won't repeat all of that. I will state that I had no problems with the placement of the shutter button. I had seen some criticism on line suggesting that the reviewer felt like he was putting a lot of stress on a couple of fingers while firing the shutter button, but I really just didn't find that to be the case.

All of the controls are really pretty intuitive. I turned the feature off that shows the pictures of what various things mean. If you are stepping up to a SLR from a point-and-shoot, do yourself a favor and learn what aperture is, and white balance. The joy of this camera is taking a photo with "automatic" settings, and then going to manual, taking the same shot, and realizing how completely screwed up your own sense of the shot is! <smile> Actually, this is kind of valuable, in that the digital nature of the camera means that you (and I) can get a real lesson about what happens when changing aperture or shutter speed, even sometimes by very small amounts.

In many ways, this camera is an ideal camera for a serious hobbyist (I'm not going to go hyperbolic and say "professional," because the limitations of this camera are the sort that wouldn't be tolerated by a professional being pushed to the limits of digital photography. It isn't that a professional shot can't be taken on this camera, but that there are digital bodies that would make a professional's life much easier than the a230 would).

It is going to pretty much meet all of my needs for awhile, at least with the better lens on the front, and maybe a really good zoom to give me a bit more range of options.

The build quality seems fine to me. Nothing is jiggling. Lenses go on and off with no problems. Definitely buy the LCD cover that's available from Amazon. Otherwise, you'll discover that basically everything smudges the LCD display. It isn't the end of the world, but your nose will constantly be pressed against the display, so there will always be a bit of oil and moisture smudged on, otherwise.

This isn't a bad camera at all, and if you are JUST looking for a system that will give you some flexibility to take "normal" shots of the variety that other people make you sit through after they've fed you dinner, then you are going to be immediately happy. The camera will do many of the things that you need for it to do automatically, and can easily take better shots than you would take, if you knew nothing or little about photography, and had no interest to learn. But like many things, if you DO know something about photography, you will be pleasantly surprised about the sorts of things that you CAN do with this rig, as long as you are willing to make an investment in accessories that will give the body a chance to show its stuff. VIEW PRICE

Camera Review

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Camera Review

 It was my first time seeing the unicorn. I wish I could hold on to it but I couldn't. Maybe when the magical elves give me the key to the kingdom of ever fast changing eye of the pixels and shapes, I can grasp one. They disappear as soon as the show. You wait for your mail telling you when you can get a glimpse of it. Keep waiting and hoping. Once it is revealed, you no longer are amused and it is nothing but a donkey with a carrot taped on to its head. VIEW PRICE