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(More customer reviews)Short version: this is easily the most sophisticated pro-sumer dslr on the planet. It has a set of features that make it easier to take great pictures in the most challenging circumstances. This review is for the camera with the kit lens. The lens is a compromise: the body and moving parts are essentially all lightweight plastic. I even noticed some plastic-on-plastic chatter when zooming in and out. But Sony knew that their flagship pro-sumer camera (the A700 is getting long in the tooth) had better perform well, so they put the money in the optics. I tested this lens against five others using eye-charts at 20 feet, and guess what? It was in the upper third of the heap in center sharpness in its zoom range, and it was in company that costs roughly 5X the extra money you pay for it over the camera body price. It is exactly what Sony intended it to be: a great place to start, and a good-enough place to stay. Now for the longer version of the review.
When Sony bought the Mind of Minolta, melded it with the minds of one of the world's leading multi-media companies, and backed it with Sony financial muscle, good things started happening for digital photography. Sony corporate revenue is 10 times that of Nikon and Canon put together, and when Sony shows up, they come to play. I have had an A550 for over a year, but on careful reading of specs and the A580 owner's manual, I decided to upgrade. The DSLR innovations from Sony are beginning to snowball. This review is based on several weeks of testing and use of the A580, with particular attention to the new features. This camera is ahead of every other camera on the planet in three areas that are critical to non-professionals:
1. low light performance - it is excellent out to ISO 6400 (Pros care about this too.)
2. fast-focusing live view with tilt screen, which is slightly better than several other Sony offerings and beats all other brands like a drum
3. high dynamic range (HDR) feature, which, for stationary subjects, will bring images out of the shadows with full detail, grain-free, like you won't believe
The A580/560 has added the video capability that the A550/500 lacked. It shoots 1080/60i, which deinterlaces in a 1080p TV to become 1080/30p and is technically better than what you get from the high-def movie standard of 1080/24p, but is not up to the 1080p/60p of the most recent video cams. It can be very, very sharp according to your optics and your success at focusing. Much has been made of the A55/35's capability for continuous autofocus while shooting. The A580/560 does not focus during video shooting, but it does something that the A55/35 does not: it allows you to choose the lens aperture f-number. (Higher f-number means a more closed down aperture, means more of your scene in focus, and means you may need more light when you take advantage of it.) The A580 allows manual focus while shooting, but that's awkward without a tripod. The A55/35 shoots only wide open (with minimum depth of focus), which is necessary to support the dynamic autofocus function. On the A580/560, you can zoom while you shoot, but you can't change the aperture while shooting. (The manual is extremely confusing on that point.) With the A580/560, you set up your focus and your f-number before you start shooting. (Use aperture priority and press your still-photography shutter halfway to set the focus.) Then you press the video button, and focus stays fixed until you stop shooting video and change it (unless you adjust manually). Given that this is an APS-C sensor, you should be able to get enough depth of focus to cover most - but not all - circumstances. If you need a lot of your scene in focus at once, the A580/560 is preferable; if you need to follow a objects as they move a lot closer or a lot further away, the A55/35 is your best bet. Both designs will have a heating problem if you shoot video continuously for more than a few minutes, which most of us rarely do. So far what I've done with video has looked very sharp. When shooting video, you can't use the optical viewfinder.
The A580/560 has done away with two of the three most-significant negatives that I had identified for the A550/500. The only one left is lack of program shift, although there is a very useful manual-mode shift, which is often overlooked by professional reviewers.
The rest of this review will explain the still-camera features and their associated benefits and liabilities, point out some other key discriminators, provide recommendations for sources of additional information, and offer suggestions for accessory purchases.I'll discuss the kit lens, and I'll look at the A55/35, which I've been able to work with briefly. I'll point out differences relative to the A550/500, just in case you're considering upgrading. Finally, and you may want to skip ahead to this, I'll cover the differences between the A580 and the A560, from a real-world user's perspective.
There are three kinds of potential buyers for this camera: those who already own a Sony SLR or a Minolta SLR, those who own another brand of digital SLR, and those who would be newcomers to digital SLRs but typically already have compact digital cameras. Most of the first group is pretty much already in Sony's pocket, because they have sunk cost in lenses and accessories that they can use on the A580. The second group will be a hard sell because they're fully vested in another brand. The third group is wide open, and the obvious opportunity for Sony's DSLR brand growth. This is exactly why Sony has put so much emphasis on the live view capability. The owners of compact point-and-shoots are accustomed to framing their shots in a video display on the backs of their cameras (live view), and may be reluctant to buy a big, clunky, expensive camera that won't do live view as well as what they already have. This group is also likely not to know that they should care about program shift, even though it can be handy.
I've said that Sony is targeting the DSLR newcomer here. I'm not implying that this is an entry-level DSLR. And speaking as one who spent 30 years with Nikon-professional and Hasselblad film cameras, I have to say that the SLR snobs should wake up and smell the live-view coffee. There are many, many situations in which live view is a vastly superior way to set up a shot. I predict that in five to seven years, all DSLRs - even the pro models - will have live view capability like the A580. It is just ahead of its time.
Several of this camera's innovations fall under the heading of compositing: the generation of a composite image through the combining of multiple, automatically shot, preliminary images. Professionals have always done this on their computers after-the-fact, using software like Photoshop. Now it can be done for three different purposes, very effectively - instantly - in your camera.
So what's the significance of the three superlatives that I cited first?
The capability out to ISO 6400 means you can shoot in lower light. It affords a faster shutter speed that will facilitate the use of longer (i.e., telephoto) lenses, without a tripod, and deliver fast-action shots with less blurring. Alternatively, you can get greater depth of focus and/or get by with a smaller, lighter, and cheaper lens (i.e., with larger f-number). The terrific built-in stabilization, coupled with the low-light-capable sensor, delivers this capability. The fact that the stabilization is built in to the camera body instead of the lens means you can buy excellent, cheap, vintage Minolta lenses and get the full benefit of stabilization. Sony makes their own sensors and even sells sensors to competitors. Given Sony's obvious priority for DSLR market share, they can be expected to hold some things back from their DSLR competition. The combined sensor and stabilization capability will allow you to sit in the den and shoot Fido without a flash. No more pet red-eye! It also means you can sit in your den with the manual (or better yet, with the soon-to-be-released books that I recommend here) and learn the camera pretty much inside-out, working in available light. There is a new compositing feature that adds even more low-light capability for near-stationary scenes: the hand-held twilight mode. This mode, market-tested earlier this year on Sony's higher-end point-and-shoot models, fires a burst of 6 frames, aligns them, and then uses them to reduce both random and detector-specific noise in a composite image with no attendant loss of detail. This really matters.
In addition to near instantaneous focusing (in decent light), the live view screen is bright and has extraordinarily high resolution. You can set up the shot better, you get a better review of what you've shot, and you have a better idea of whether you need to reshoot. The tilting screen allows you to shoot over crowds, shoot over fences, shoot from waist level, and shoot from floor/ground level without having to lay down to do it. It's extremely handy for macro work. You'll also find yourself using the tilting screen in ordinary circumstances. (Some have complained that this camera does not have an LCD readout on top. The flip-up screen does help compensate.) Other DSLR brands, with the exception of Olympus, have totally pathetic live-view focusing capability. That's an understatement. And even Olympus does not have the tilt screen. (Nikon actually has a better tilt screen, similar to the A55/35, but they don't have the fast-focus live view.) BTW, any DSLR will focus fast and allow you to squeeze off a shot in a split second when you use the optical viewfinder. With this camera, the difference is that you can have it both ways, and both ways will yield way...Read more›
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