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The Sony A500 is the latest mid-range DSLR camera in Sony’s Alpha range, packing a spanking new 12.3MP Exmor sensor that promises ultra-speedy continuous shooting and noise-free low light abilities. Grand claims indeed, so does it meet them? Read our full Sony A500 review to find out.
We were pretty disappointed with the Sony A380, Sony’s previous Alpha model, but as soon as you pull the Sony A500 out of its box it’s clear that it’s a huge step up. The body is a chunky, solid piece of plastic with a proper grip (i.e. one that you can actually, well, grip) and a huge array of buttons for quickly changing shooting settings and other options. And instead of the scaled-down battery used by the A380, the Sony A500 uses the same battery as previous models, which actually gives remaining life as a percentage on the rear screen. While the A380 was a little too lifestyle-oriented for our liking, the Sony A500 is clearly a grown-up’s camera.
It’s got the performance chops to match its rugged good looks too. There’s a brand new Exmor CMOS sensor tucked inside the Sony A500, and in tandem with the built-in BIONZ image processor, this allows you to snap away at up to 5fps (or 4fps if you’re using live view rather than the optical viewfinder). Very handy for shooting sports or wildlife.
The Exmor also addresses one of the chief concerns about the Sony Alpha range: low light performance. In the past, Sony’s DSLRs have tended to excel in dynamic range and colour reproduction but have often displayed lots of grainy noise at high ISO settings. That’s reduced with the Sony A500, so you can bump up the ISO and, unless you’re printing out your snaps full size, or a “pixel peeper” that likes to spend hours zooming into their shots in Photoshop looking for noise, you’re unlikely to see too much in the way of speckly distractions.
Sure, select the top ISO 12800 setting and you’ll see tons of noise, but this is supposed to be used in extreme circumstances. But overall, Sony is edging closer to its main rivals Nikon and Canon when it comes to noise control.
Overall picture quality is excellent, and usability is similarly impressive. The Sony A500’s autofocus is extremely fast in viewfinder mode, and much quicker than any of Sony rival cameras when using live view on the tiltable rear 3-inch LCD. The abundance of buttons means you can quickly tweak most settings, and Sony’s revamped menu system successfully balances user-friendliness with a huge range of options.
The Sony A500’s main problem may be its lack of HD video support, which puts it in an unfavourable light when stacked against some rival models. That’s a shame, because it’s a very impressive stills shooter that shoot suit the intermediate DSLR photographer perfectly.
