Sony Dslr A330 Reviews

Sony Alpha A330
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Great Camera for old Minolta users!,

I've been using this camera for several weeks now and I am very impressed. Here are the pros, in my opinion:

(1) The camera is very light and balanced when using the 18-55 lens. My wife was very surprised at the weight, or lack of it.

(2) Minolta Maxxum autofocus lenses work flawlessly with this camera! I have two old telephotos (20 years old) that produce incredible pictures with the new Sony. My old zoom flash works too, although I have to adjust exposure manually. Although the newer Sony lenses are much lighter, quality older lenses can be purchased on auction sites for a fraction of the cost of new lenses. Just remember: they will be much heavier than today's modern opticals.

(3) The A330 functions well as an automatic point and shoot camera, but also allows the flexibility to set everything manually if desired. I especially appreciate the ease of setting white balance for those flashless shots in changing lighting conditions. Depth of field was easy to adjust using Aperture priority.

(4) Picture quality is outstanding. Viewing the high definition output on my Sony Bravia through the HDMI output is an incredible way to preview photos. My TV remote even advances the photos in my camera as I watch!

(5) It will take both an SD memory card and a Memory Stick Pro Duo card AT THE SAME TIME. When one is full, the flip of a switch changes to the other card. Memory is mostly limited by the size of your wallet.

(6) The 3200 iso setting does well in low light situations, although there is some grain.

Here are a few cons:

(1) Some functions are buried in menus. This seems to be par for the course these days for all camera manufacturers.

(2) In moving up from an 8 mega-pixel camera, this 10.2 creates substantially larger files. It is important to take into consideration what the photos will be used for, and then set the resolution accordingly.

(3) The pop up flash knocks my hat off!


I did a lot of research before purchasing this camera. The primary selling point was the ability to use my old Minolta lenses, and the tilting rear screen. This camera reminds me of my old 35mm. It feels like I am really taking pictures again, instead of merely capturing digital images. Those wanting or needed more features should look at the higher end Sonys. However, for beginner or intermediate photographers, this should fit the bill just fine!

Spent Days Comparing...After over 1000 Shots, Very Very Pleased!,

Ok, I have literally spent days painstakingly comparing entry-level DSLRs (Canon XS, XSi; Nikon d3000, d5000; Pentax k-x) and have even made my own excel spread sheet grading each of the technical pros and cons. Obviously, I finally chose the a330, so I will write this review from the perspective of the reason why i chose this camera and why I've immensely enjoyed it.

Picture Quality
- Since you are looking for an entry level DSLR, the picture quality for all entry levels is comparable (in my opinion). Since I am a manual mode shooter, the quality of my shots are really based on settings (aperture, shutter speed, ISO, light, etc) so you'll be able to get good quality out of all of them.
-I would rate the a330 as a bit more exceptional, because in the manual mode, Sony has something called "Creative Style" where you can further tweak your shot (vivid color, night shot, sunset etc....and for each one of those modes, you can further alter saturation, sharpness and contrast). See some of my pictures in my profile!

Lenses
-This was one of the first reasons why the Sony alpha series made my short list - any Sony or Minolta lens will work with this camera. In addition, because the image stabilization is built into the camera and not the lens, the cost is more reasonable compared to other lenses. Therefore, any lens I find on eBay I can use (don't have to worry if a particular Sony lens or older Minolta lens will work, so my options are endless).

Speed
- Although the continuously shooting isn't the fastest in its class, it's definitely usable. When I first was looking at FPS, I thought this was something that was high on my feature list, but turns out (unless you are a sporting-event photographer) when you shot something relativity still, you end up with tons of pictures, where you'll end up just deleting most of them. So the 2.5-3 fps is still faster then i will need.
- As noted by other reviewers, the AF is blazing fast (with 9 AF points), and the switching between Live View and the optical view finder is very fast as well!

Battery
- The battery power is pretty decent, especially since I don't shot with the flash. But here's my work-around: I just use a vertical battery grip, that add three batteries total to use seamlessly ([...]). This grip makes your camera look like the big 2k-5k cameras, and give you 3Xs the battery power.

A230 vs A330
- As those who have researched this well, the a230 is exactly the same camera as the a330, but it doesn't have the live view and tilting LCD. I thought, I'm definitely getting the a230, because the viewfinder is better, and the price is way cheaper. But I found that I love shooting with the Live view, because in manual mode, the live view gives me an estimate of how aperture, focus, shutter speed and iso would effect my shot vs with the viewfinder in the a230, where it doesn't show me any of that(in the viewfinder-only case, I'm stuck waiting unto the preview shows, so I would have to check every shot and then adjust, etc). So the Live view saves me time and space on my SC card and I get pictures right the first or second time, versus the 4th or 5th time!

I could write all about my experience with the Nikon a3000 and a5000, and Canon XS and XSi but I'll just say after testing all of them I like the Sony better

p.s. I realize Nikon and Canon are more prevalent in the market of DSLRs, which is why I wanted to give Sony a real chance - FYI I have a Canon HD video camera, which I love WAY better than any of the Sony models, so for video, I would definitely go with a Canon.

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