The Sony A58 joins the SLT Alpha range as the Sony A57 replacement and sits just above the entry level 37. New to the Sony A58 are a host of features that should appeal to photographers who are starting to get more serious about their photography and want to take more control over their pictures.

Along with the Sony A58′s newly designed 201-megapixel Exmor APS-C HD CMOS sensor and Sony’s translucent mirror technology, the A58 adds an increased ISO range from 100 to 16,000, full HD video recording, an improved EVF and an enhanced Bionz image processing engine.

It’s an impressive spec list indeed. Here Amy Davies takes a look at what this new Sony Alpha camera has to offer in her Sony A58 review video.

Sony A58 Review Video Transcript

Sony has introduced a new camera at the bottom of its SLT line-up, the a58. It replaces not one,but two cameras – the a37 and a57, in an attempt to simplify the beginner range of Alpha cameras.

The a58 is a DSLT – the T standing for Translucent and referring to the fixed mirror inside the camera. Unlike normal DSLRs, light travels directly through the mirror, rather than it flipping out of the way. This means that the camera can offer faster frame rates and quicker autofocus speeds in live view – which the camera is effectively always shooting in – and video mode.

The a58 has a fairly hefty body, with this large grip and rubberised coating helping when shooting one handed.

On the top of the camera is a mode dial for switching between the various shooting modes on offer, including fully automatic, fully manual and semi-automatic options, such as aperture and shutter priority. There are quite a few other options also found here, including scene mode, sweep panorama and picture effects.

The buttons on the back of the camera are well laid out, with easy access to almost everything with your right thumb. Only the main menu button is more inaccessible, but with the quick function menu accessed with this button, you should find that you don’t need to delve into the full menu very often.

You can access all the most commonly used settings, including white balance, Drive Mode and Picture Effects, via this function button. It’s also here that you’ll find Auto Object Framing, a new feature for the Alpha series which automatically crops your images for what the camera considers to be a better composition.

We’d previously seen Auto Portrait Framing, but with the addition of Auto Object Framing, any kind of photo can be cropped, rather than just people shots.

At the top of the camera is a zoom button, this is used to activate Sony’s Clear Zoom function, which uses By Pixel Resolution Technology and doubles the effective focal length of whichever lens is attached. We’ve been impressed by how well this performs compared with other forms of digital zoom before, and a similar performance is put in by the a58.

Unfortunately, a lot of the most interesting features of the a58 can’t be used when shooting in raw format. These include Picture Styles, Clear Zoom and Auto Object/Portrait framing.

Annoyingly, this means that you need to delve into the full menu, switch off raw format shooting, then go back to whatever you’re trying to use. This can be a bit of a tedious process and we had hoped Sony would have come up with a better solution for this by now.

As there’s not a traditional mirror in the camera, the a58 uses an electronic, rather than optical, viewfinder. Sony has used an OLED in the a58, compared with the LCD in the a57. It’s a noticeable improvement, offering a clearer and brighter view. Some don’t like electronic viewfinders, but there are a couple of distinct advantages.

The ability to see any changes you make in live time via the viewfinder is useful, as is the captured image popping up to help you know whether you’ve nailed the shot or not. This sensor here automatically switches to the viewfinder, and switches off the LCD screen, when the camera is lifted to the eye.

The 460,000 dot screen isn’t fully articulated, but it does tilt up and down to make it easier when shooting from some awkward positions in landscape format. It’s not as much help when shooting in portrait format though.

It’s quite a low resolution screen, but it doesn’t suffer too badly from glare or reflection, with the ability to tilt the screen helping if the sun is very strong. Once again, Sony has chosen not to incorporate a touchscreen on its entry-level model.

One of the problems with a translucent mirror is that less light is able to get to the sensor, sometimes meaning that the lens hunts around to attain focus, especially in lower light conditions. The A58 kit lens has quite a noisy focus mechanism, so this can be a little distracting in certain situations.

Sony Alpha cameras have impressed us before with their excellent image quality, and the a58 is no different. Generally, it produces very detailed shots with good colour rendition and exposure.

It’s worth experimenting with different Picture Effects and Styles, as well as the Sweep Panorama when you want to get more creative, too.

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The new Sony Cyber-shot camera boasts an equivalent focal length of 24-720mm and offer image stabilisation that’s twice as effective as its predecessor, the Sony Cyber-shot HX200V, according to Sony.

Onboard the Sony HX50 is a 20.4-megapixel3 Exmor R CMOS sensor and BIONZ processor, with high-speed autofocus that works at more than twice the speed of the Cyber-shot HX200V4, Sony says.

Among the camera’s other key features are a dedicated Exposure Compensation dial on the Sony Cyber-shot camera’s top plate and integrated Wi-Fi that allows photographers to share photos instantly or use their smartphone as a remote control for the camera.

A Multi Interface Shoe allows photographers to incorporate accessories such as an electronic viewfinder, flash or microphone for better video sound quality, and the camera boasts a Multi Terminal for using a remote controller.

Other features on the Sony HX50 include a Memory Recall mode, which allows photographers to store three favourite camera settings, a battery life of 400 images and a range of creative effects modes.

The Sony HX50 price tag will be £350, with a release date set for the first week of May 2013.

Official Sony HX50 Specs

Effective Pixels (approx.)
20.4 megapixels

Image Sensor
1/2.3 type (7.82mm) Exmor R CMOS sensor

Processor
BIONZ

Lens
Sony G, 24-720mm, f/3.5 (W) – 6.3 (T), 11 elements in 10 groups (including 5 aspheric elements)

Zoom
30x

ISO (still image)
Auto/80/100/125/160/200/250/320/400/500/640/800/1000/1250/1600/2000/2500/3200/
4000*/5000*/6400*/8000*/10000*/12800*
* Achieved using “By Pixel Super Resolution” technology and overlay burst shooting.

Display
7.5cm (3.0type) (4:3) / 921,600 dots / Xtra Fine / TFT LCD

Wi-Fi
Yes

Battery
NP-BX1 and USB Charge/USB Power Supply

Battery Life / still image shooting (approx.)
400 images / 200 minutes

Approx. dimensions W x H x D
108.1mm x 63.6mm x 38.3mm

Weight (body only, excluding media and battery)
Approx. 272g (Battery and Memory Stick DUO are included) Approx. 246g (Body Only)

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One winner will also receive a NEX-3N compact system camera to test out their new skills.

Featuring the same image sensor that you’d expect from a DSLR camera, the NEX allows you to take professional standard pictures, providing the best results and picture quality on the market.

With a selection of 15 e-mount lenses available you’ll discover the ideal lens to bring your vision to life.

What’s on at the Sony World Photography Awards Workshops

The workshops will cover a variety of topics suitable for camera enthusiasts from beginners to budding professionals, and will coincide with the opening of the Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition on 26th April.

There are three separate workshops covering a range of topics. From showing beginners how to improve picture quality, providing an understanding of commercial photography and turning a hobby into a career, or looking at the developments in full-frame photograph over time, there will be something for any photography enthusiast.

Speakers will include Michael Wayne Plant, who specialises in work around identities and social landscape, and Magdi Fernandes who works across fashion, music and sports.

All attendees will be entered into a prize draw each day for one lucky winner to receive the Sony NEX-3N.

Click here to enter for your chance to attend the workshops and win a Sony NEX-3N.

Should you miss out on the prize, don’t worry! You can still book yourself a ticket to attend one of the workshops. Click here to find out more about tickets and times.

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The NEX 3N comes as the direct replacement to Sony’s entry level compact system camera, the F3, and as with the F3 it’s aimed at those looking to make the jump from a pocketable compact to a camera with an interchangeable lens.

As a Sony NEX-F3 replacement, the Sony NEX-3N offers a redesigned chassis that makes it what Sony claims is the smallest and lightest APS-C size compact system camera in the world.

Along with its 180-degree tillable LCD screen and a host of features like Auto Object and Auto Portrait Framing, the Sony NEX 3N could be the perfect ‘next step’ camera for compact camera owners looking to take more control of their photography.

Find out some of the key features and why this may be the camera for you in our testing team’s hands-on Sony NEX 3N review.

Hands-on Sony NEX 3N Review Video Transcript

The NEX 3N comes as the direct replacement to Sony’s entry level compact system camera, the F3, and as with the F3 it’s aimed at those looking to make the jump from a pocketable compact to a camera with an interchangeable lens.

Whilst the specifications of the 3N shows a comfortable improvement over the F3, when it’s in your hands it proves far more impressive than the specs let on; for instance there’s a big boost in build quality, button and dial layout and a new sleeker look, all of which helps reinforce a feeling that Sony is pushing harder than ever to be number one in the market.

Despite being Sony’s entry-level CSC, and having a price tag of just £400 for body and 16-50mm lens kit, my first impression wouldn’t put this in the same category as many other entry level CSC’s. As mentioned the build quality and overall ergonomics are reassuringly solid, with a metal rather than plastic body and well designed grip that actually manages to look sleek whilst still providing a good comfortable grip.

Internally being an NEX it has Sony’s APS-C sized sensor, so a larger sensor than those offered by Olympus, Panasonic, Nikon and Canon.

At 16.1 million pixels this might not seem ground breaking in comparison with the other manufacturers, but when it comes to noise at the higher sensitivities this increased sensor size really will make a difference, especially if previous NEX models such as the 5R are anything to go by.

This sensor combined with the updated Bionz processor should ensure CSC beating image quality, and performance throughout it’s 100-16000 sensitivity range, a full image quality test will be carried out once we have full production samples.

The 3N will sit below the 5R in the NEX line-up and features in common include a full mode dial, 180 tilt-able LCD and to a certain degree it looks, but it lacks the 5R’s touch-screen and the finesse of the large thumb dial, which, I felt during testing, set the 5R apart from the crowd, but then again it looks as though Sony could be following the trend started by Olympus by giving photographers great image and build quality across the range, and just reigning back the features to separate models.

For this reason the 3n sits very comfortably between premium compacts and the 5R, offing updated features such as Auto Object Framing that expands the Auto Portrait Framing feature that we’ve seen on previous NEX models, and now adds Auto Macro and Tracking framing. Again a full update on how well these work when we have full review samples.

Unlike the 5R, but similar to the F3 and Cybershot range the 3N features a pop-up flash with a GN of 6 at ISO 200, and a very familiar feature for all compact users is this zoom lever which with the new 16-50mm kit lens enables you to zoom in and out from the camera body, very nifty and compact like..

Size is also similar to premium compacts, and whilst the NEX range has never been large, the 3N is noticeably smaller than the F3 as is the new kit lens which almost halves the size of the previous version

So the NEX 3N looks very interesting and promises from what I’ve seen so far to be a very high quality entry level offering and will be available from mid-March. For more information check out Techradar.com.

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In her Sony A99 review video, our head of testing, Angela Nicholson, takes a look at Sony’s latest full frame offering, the Sony Alpha SLT-A99.

To see her full lab tests and sample images, check out Angela’s Sony Alpha 99 review on our sister site TechRadar.

Sony Alpha SLT-A99 Review Video Transcript

This is the Alpha 99, Sony’s first full-frame Alpha camera since the Alpha 900 was launched four years ago.

Unlike the Alpha 900, this camera has a fixed translucent mirror which means that it can have a high continuous shooting rate of 6fps at full resolution or 10fps at reduced resolution. It can also use phase detection autofocusing when shooting video or composing images on the rear LCD screen.

Inside the Alpha 99′s body is a full-frame sensor, in other words a sensor that’s the same size as a 35mm frame. This means that the 24.3 million pixels are larger than they are in the Alpha 77 which has an APS-C sized sensor – larger pixels means better image quality.

Sony has mounted the 3-inch LCD screen on a strange tilting-articulating bracket. It’s easy enough to arrange when you’re shooting horizontal format images, but its a bit more fiddly to find the right angle for it when shooting vertical format pictures.  The good news is that the screen provides a nice clear view even in direct sunlight when its brightness is turned up

Because it’s an SLT the Alpha 99 has an electronic viewfinder rather than an optical one. With over 2-million dots this shows lots of detail, but scenes tend to look a bit warmer and more contrasty in it when compared with the captured image – even when its reviewed in the EVF.

The EVF is particularly useful when shooting in low light conditions because it shows the scene at the selected exposure settings, making the subject easier to see than it is in reality. Unfortunately though, the autofocus system doesn’t fair so well in low light. In fact it only needs a small drop in light levels before it starts to become quite hesitant. Even in good light it isn’t as fast as the systems in competing cameras like the Canon 5D Mark 3 and Nikon D800.

It also annoying that the 19 selectable AF points are so closely clustered around the centre of the frame.

There are plenty of direct controls available for making settings adjustments. This one on the front is quite unusual and its designed to allow near silent settings changes during video shooting.

This button here is intended to activate the Smart Teleconverter – a type of digital zoom. But I wonder how many full-frame photographers would want to use it for that? I’ve set it to magnify the screen image when focusing manually.

Thanks to its full-frame sensor and 24.3 million photosites the A99 can record a lot of detail – especially in raw files – and noise is controlled well. Even images captured at ISO 12,800 look good at sensible printing sizes like A3. Noise, or the impact of its removal, is more of an issue in images taken at ISO 25,600 – but the results are still usable.

The A99 has lots of useful features and customisation options. It’s also capable of shooting high quality stills and Full HD movies, but it’s let down by a disappointing AF system and its menus could be better organised.

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With its 35mm full frame sensor and fixed-length 35mm f/2.0 Carl Zeiss T* coated lens, the Sony RX1 has caused a stir of excitement among photographers at its potential for superior image quality.

But with the Sony RX1 price tag at £2,599/ US$2,799.99 / AU$2,999, should photographers pay so much money for a camera with no touchscreen or viewfinder – some of the digital camera features found in other premium compacts?

Amy Davies puts this new Sony camera to the test in our Sony RX1 review video below.

Sony RX1 Review Video Transcript

This is the Sony RX1, which is the world’s smallest digital full-frame camera. Inside the body of this miniature device is the same sensor as can be found in the Sony Alpha 99.

It features a fixed length Carl Zeiss 35mm lens, which, as it’s a full-frame camera, there is no equivalent crop factor.

In terms of the build, the RX1 is pretty similar to the RX100, the company’s other premium compact. Here on the top of the camera you’ll see a mode dial and an exposure compensation dial. It’s quite useful to have this dial here, as you can access it with your thumb when shooting one handed.

To alter the aperture, you twist this ring near the base of the lens. There’s a further two rings on the lens. This one here is to switch the lens from its standard focusing to its macro focusing mode. Switching it like this gives the lens the ability to focus from as close as 20cm, it’s worth pointing out that it’s not a true 1:1 macro lens though.

Finally, a third ring at the front here, is used for manual focusing. If you twist this while in manual focusing mode, the scene is magnified on the LCD screen for precise focusing.

Speaking of the screen, the 3 inch, 1.2 million dot TFT features Sony’s White Magic technology, which is designed to boost contrast. It’s a good performer, not suffering from reflection or glare in all but the very brightest of sunlight.

There’s no viewfinder included as standard, but, unlike with the Sony RX100, either an optical or electronic viewfinder can be slotted into this port here.

As already mentioned, the RX1 uses a fixed, 35mm, lens. However, when not shooting in raw format, you can use Sony’s Clear Zoom technology to get closer to the subject. Pressing this button here zooms in, you can choose to zoom in steps if you like. Results when using Clear Zoom are very good, making it a good option if you really do need to get closer in.

Most of the commonly used settings can be accessed by pressing this Function button. You’ll find Drive Mode, sensitivity, white balance, metering and so on here.

You’ll also find Creative Style near the bottom here – this allows you to choose between a variety of shooting parameters suited to different subjects, such as Vivid, Black and White and so on.

These can be shot when shooting in raw format, unlike Picture Effects, which can only be activated in JPEG. Here you’ll find lots of digital filter effects, such as Toy Camera, High Contrast Monochrome and Miniature.

One of the best things about the Sony RX1 is the ability to customise many of the buttons. On the top of the camera is a small C button which can be assigned to a number of different functions, for example sensitivity.

On the back, this AEL button and the four directional buttons on the scroll wheel can all be customised, which is really handy and shows Sony has thought about how advanced photographers like to use their kit.

To change the autofocus point, first you need to set the Autofocus area – you can either have it fixed to the middle, have the camera choose spots for you, or go for Flexible spot.

Once Flexible mode has been chosen, the central button in the middle of the scroll dial can be used to bring up the focus point, you then use the directional keys to scroll to the area you want. It’s a shame the camera doesn’t have a touchscreen as this could have sped up the process a little.

Since it contains a full-frame sensor, we had very high hopes for the image quality from the RX1, and we haven’t been disappointed. That sensor is capable of resolving an incredible amount of detail, while colours are rich and vibrant.

Noise levels are kept to the minimum at high sensitivity, while the combination of a very large sensor and f/2.0 maximum aperture allow for some beautiful shallow depth of field effects.

Ultimately, it will be interesting to see how the RX1 sells. With its high asking price, and its fixed lens limitations, it’s a camera that shows off exactly what Sony can do, and isn’t necessarily aimed squarely at the consumer market.

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Photography has reinvented itself with the arrival of digital technology. Gone are sky-high film and developing costs; in their place are minimal running costs and fast processing times.

There’s a lot to be said for the pocket-sized convenience of digital compact cameras, but for ultimate image quality, unrivalled versatility and limitless creative options, there’s really no substitute for stepping up to a DSLR.

The boost in popularity and increasing affordability of SLRs fosters fierce competition between the major camera manufacturers like Canon, Nikon, Pentax and Sony.

That’s great news for consumers, because camera makers are constantly seeking to improve their designs, with innovative new features, greater ease of use, and ever-increasing picture quality. But what are the key factors to bear in mind when you’re choosing a new SLR?

DSLR advantages
The advantages of DSLRs over compact cameras are many and varied – starting with the all-important image sensor. Many compact cameras may equal or even exceed some DSLRs in their megapixel count, but outright resolution isn’t the primary concern.

Image sensors in DSLRs are physically larger than those in compact cameras, giving two key bonuses. First, bigger sensors mean bigger pixels that individually capture more light. This has the potential to massively reduce digital image noise, which can give photos a grainy appearance, especially when shooting at higher ISO settings.

Second, larger sensors enable a smaller depth of field (the distance between the nearest and furthest points in a scene that can be kept sharp), enabling you to throw the background out of focus and make the main point of interest really stand out. This is especially useful in portraiture.

Another critical benefit is that an DSLR enables you to actually look through the lens when composing shots. There’s no beating an optical viewfinder that leads
the eye right into the scene with perfect clarity and sharpness.

The perfect camera
Ergonomically, the larger build of a DSLR makes for much more natural and comfortable handling, while manual zoom and focusing rings on the lens enable far greater precision and control when composing and focusing.

Furthermore, 
buy a DSLR or a compact system camera, and you’re literally buying into a whole imaging system, with the possibility of buying additional lenses and accessories that can transform your camera into the perfect tool for any shooting scenario.

Over the next few pages, we’ll take a detailed look at the principal differences between different types of DSLRs and compact system cameras (which feature interchangeable lenses, but have no reflex mirror) so that you can make the best possible choice when picking out your new camera.

PAGE 1: Overview of how to buy a camera
PAGE 2: Body design and new DSLR features
PAGE 3: How many megapixels do you need?
PAGE 4: DSLR video options
PAGE 5: What you want in a viewfinder
PAGE 6: How fast should your new DSLR be?

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Where can I see the videos?
The video below is a compilation of all of the 30-second videos called DSLR Gear No Idea. There are eight videos in total, each lampooning a particular photographic personality.

Such as…?
‘Status updaters’ features a couple of female friends on a beach endlessly turning a camera on themselves using a ridiculously long lens; the brilliant F-Stop Fusspot features a hapless portrait photographer constantly fiddling with settings; the Lens Spotter is determined to tell everyone who’ll listen about the benefits of his (even longer) lens; and the Foreign Correspondent – our particular favourite – wanders around sporting a khaki vest and a clutch of spare bodies to photograph a friend’s barbecue. And it only gets worse when he starts filming a home movie…

Will it work?
Who knows? At the time of writing, the channel has had more than half a million video views, so it’s definitely catching on, but whether it will help Sony sell more cameras is another question. CSCs are selling like saki in Japan, accounting for around 50% of sales of interchangeable lens cameras.

In the UK, which also boasts high adoption rates, the figure is thought to be more like 30%, but in the rest of the world CSCs have yet to have quite the same impact.

UPDATE:

Last week Sony Australia backed up their light-hearted ribbing with some cold, hard facts.

In a survey of over 1,000 non-professional digital SLR owners, almost two thirds admitted to using their camera on full auto mode most or all of the time, a third said that they didn’t know how to use their camera, and one in five said they used their camera to capture images purely for blogging and social media sites.

Sony would say that wouldn’t they… But even allowing for the fact that the results are doubtless somewhat skewed in Sony’s favour (so as to bolster sales of its smaller and arguably more intuitive compact system camera), they nonetheless suggest that SLR owners aren’t getting as much out of their cameras as they could be.

What’s interesting is that it suggests – quite reasonably – that many of us might be better of with CSCs. Since Canon joined the CSC party earlier this year, industry experts have been wondering if 2012 will mark the tipping point for CSCs, which still play second fiddle to SLRs in most countries.

As part of their ongoing campaign, Sony sent celebrity portrait Pro Gary Heery onto streets to speak to SLR users in person. For comic effect, Heery made the game participants hold up embarrassing placards highlighting their deficiencies. Quite how he got away without being punched is anyone’s guess.

Source: Analysis by Photography Week

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For more on some of the hottest rumours about what could be launched at Photokina 2012, check out our testing team’s blog on our sister site TechRadar.

What do you think will be announced at Photokina 2012? Vote in our new poll below!

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The new Sony NEX camera features a 16-million-pixel CMOS sensor, improved grip and 180 flip up screen.

In our video review of the camera below, Amy from our testing team takes a look at what the Sony NEX-F3 has to offer. Alternatively, you can visit our sister site, TechRadar, to read the full, scientific Sony NEX-F3 review.

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