Customer Reviews

Sony Alpha DSLRA350X 14.2MP Digital SLR Camera with Super SteadyShot Image Stabilization with DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 & DT 55-200mm f/4-5.6 Zoom Lenses

5 star:		(52)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I don't have several hours to do a proper review on this excellent camera, but I can quickly share the high points. It has great "human factor" engineering, meaning it fits your hands like a glove and all the controls are easy to access. The camera/lens combo is very light and easy to handle. If you have any Minolta lenses, they fit. The ability to view the picture on the large, bright LCD instead of through the viewfinder is a definite plus in many situations. 14+ megapixels ... really, how many more do you need?

Here's the bottom line ... I worked for Kodak, I've been a serious amateur photographer for decades, I've shot thousands of pictures (hundreds so far with this camera) and it leaves nothing that I can think of to be desired. If you want to spend more bucks on a Nikon or Canon, have fun. But for my money, this little beauty is a clear winner.

This camera is really unbelievable for the price. If we're talking about the camera body (with no lens), I prefer it over the Canon Rebel XSi anyday (and I've used both). The problem for Sony is that their lens is sooooo crappy that the image quality goes straight down the toilet, and Canons lenses are for the most part very sharp and colorful.

The solution? Minolta lenses. I got my camera in the mail this morning and have played with it all day. From the second I unpacked the lens I was disappointed- even before I put it on the camera. It has an extremely cheap and plasticy feel, probably because it is cheap and made of only plastic. I'm actually pretty sure there's not a single piece of glass in the lens (which means, for those of you are new to this, that it sucks). I put it on and sure enough the results were not pretty. Don't run off to Canon's page so quickly, though- remember that this IS a 5 star review.

What makes up for sony's crappy crappy lens is the fact that you can use any Minolta lens from the past 20 years. In anticipation of purchasing this camera I brought 2 Minolta lenses from a garage sale a few weeks ago for a hundred bucks, and when I put them on the camera it was like magic. The autofocus still works in an instant, and the sharpness and color combined with Sony's 14megapixel sensor have left this former film-snob utterly impressed.

So my advice to advanced amateur photographers is to buy this camera. But just the body only. Save the hundred bucks to buy yourself a Minolta lens (or two). I thought I'd throw in the extra hundred bucks with this cam just to have an extra lens for my collection, and it was absolutely not worth it. I don't even know if I'll mount it onto my camera ever again. Seriously- It's a big plastic turd. I wouldn't buy it again if it was 20 bucks.

Also- I learned the complete menu for this camera in less than a day. The only negative things about this camera (except for the crappy turd plastico lens) are that it's not a full frame sensor (look it up, and then decide if you really want to spend and extra 1300 dollars to get a full frame sensor DSLR), and that there's a really dumb and pointless digital zoom button that is a total tragic use of space. I could think of ten more used/usable functions that could have gone there instead.

Really though, I couldn't be happier with this camera.

I've been able to handle an Alpha 350 one and off for about a month now, and I'm quite pleased with what I've seen so far.

First, the camera's appearance is very much like that of the Alpha 200, and identical to the Alpha 300. All share the same, comfortable grip that uses a full-size lithium-ion "info" battery, and should feel good in most peoples hands. The tilting LCD screen is added from the A200, and makes it a bit thicker at the back. This thickness doesn't seem to be much of a drawback for handling, but it might make it a bit more ackward for those who wear eyeglasses.

Most of the camera controls are located in easy to use places, although the rear toggle might be too easy to hit (by mistake) for some, the idea is for it to be quickly accessable.

Performance wise, the camera seems to be greatly improved from the older Alpha 100. Image Quality (IQ), both sharpness and color wise, appear to be very good. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to do critical, side-by-side, low-light/high ISO testing, something which is of a possible concern with such a high megapixel CCD sensor. Visually, those images I shot in poor lighting appeared reasonably good, but more serious testing needs to be done.

Autofocusing speed is very decent, especially when the eye-start feature begins the AF process for you. The 9-point AF seems fast and accurate. My only disappointment is that an upgrade camera such as this does not have the "instant" manual focusing ability of the Alpha 100. [This feature allowed you to use the camera in AF. Once the camera focused, it released the gearing, making manual focusing instantly possible to make corrections, without fiddling for an AF/M switch].

Of course, the built-in anti-shake ability is great. Although we can argue the merits of in-camera vs. in-lens, there is no doubt that this feature is much less expensive, and works with lenses that neither Nikon nor Canon offer with IS/VR (e.g. 50mm f1.4), and a whole bunch of older lenses as well.

Like the anti-shake system, everyone will have their opinion on what's the best way to implement Live View. I prefer the way Sony has chosen to use Live View, where AF speed is unaffected. The drawback is that only 90 percent of the actual image is previewed with Sony's system. Adding the articulated, nice quality LCD seems to me to make this system a bit more useful, and the 1.4x and 2x digital cropping may come in handy (but keep in mind, you're just cropping out megapixels).

Another feature I would have liked for this price is a wireless shutter release (it does offer a wired release).

It will be interesting to see how this stacks up to the competition. The biggest threat will come from the Canon Digital Rebel XSi. The XSi will be smaller (using a new, smaller battery), and have a 12 megapixel CMOS sensor, which may prove to be better from someone doing low light with high ISO speeds (such as museum or stage photography). Also, for $200 less, the Alpha 300 will need serious consideration. The only feature difference is it has 10 megapixels vs. 14, and this may actually improve IQ in poorer light.

Overall, a very fine addition to the Sony lineup!

Canon Digital Rebel XSI 12MP Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens (Silver)

Sony Alpha DSLRA300X 10.2MP Digital SLR Camera with Super SteadyShot Image Stabilization with DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 & DT 55-200mm f/4-5.6 Zoom Lenses

I already owned a Sony A100 and liked it alot, so when the A350 came out I was expecting it to be good - and it is. Some additional controls, true TTL viewing, even longer battery life than the A100 - which means I've taken more than 1,000 photos at maximum quality without a battery change - and it handles quickly and accurately. I have a few lenses, but like the flexibility of the Sony 18-200mm zoom so it's on the camera most of the time. The disadvantage with that lens is that it's slow (4.5 to 6.3 at 200mm) so it's not really suitable for people shots, unless they're in bright sunlight. However, the lens is fine for objects, buildings or anything that's not going to move quickly. I was in Marrakech recently and found the camera and lens a great combination, although they're big and obvious enough to make it difficult to shoot candid portraits. Now I'm looking for a 135mm f.2.4 lens so I can shoot in shadows.

I got the Sony A350 about 2 months ago. The camera is great. I like the way it's laid out and it's easy to use. The live view and tilting screen is very hand when shooting small objects on the ground.

HOWEVER - I'm a bit disappointed in the 18-70mm lens supplied with it. Under certain conditions (which I'm not sure I understand what these are) there is quite a bad flair. Red on the left, green on the right of objects. Bright and contrasty pictures seem to show this up most.

When viewing the pictures normally, this defect isn't obvious. When the pictures are enlarged to the extent that you are starting to see the pixels, this flair becomes quite obvious. I'll try to submit a picture here illustrating this. If I'm not successful, trust me that it's poor.

The good aspect of this defect is that it's not obvious unless the pictures are enlarged quite a bit, so for most photographers, it's not an issue. Dispite this problem, I like the camera and I'm glad I got it. This amazon price was also good.

I bought the Tamron 70-300mm zoom and it works well on this camera and doesn't seem to have this red/green lens flair. The Tamron is a good companion at a great price.

It has been about 10 years since I put away my old olympus SLR camera away to gather dust for a few nifty small digital point and shoots. I bought this Sony about a month ago and have taken almost 2,000 pics. Took me a while to brush up on my technique and understand the new dslr lingo, but for anyone who has ever used a traditional SLR, I think you'll be most pleased. SUPER clear/hi res pictures, exceptionally quick focusing, even in live view mode, and easy to access options. Chances are, the things you are looking for the most are just a button, dial or quick click away. The ISO button is super handy, and with the touch of a button, you can change the setting up to 3200 to suit your needs.

I skipped the kit lens option and decided to buy the SAL18250 (18 mm - 250 mm. Stick with the Sony lens folks. It is solid responsive, and a great overall wide angle/telephoto lens. Why schlep around 2 kit lens' when you can virtually have it all in one? (:

OK back to the camera. OK now, some cons: The camera is a bit on the heavy side (But then again I'm really used to a point and shoot). This camera also lacks the ability to do a super magnified manual focus on the LCD during live view. This is not a real big deal to me for my needs. Auto focus works great, and manual focus works fine for me those rare times I use it.

I love the tiltable 2.7 in live view screen. Got some incredible shots at ground level looking up (From a dog's eye view) I should say an ants eye view! That with the wide angle... wowza.. seriously creative shots without breaking your back or twisting your neck!

I've been able to hand hold existing light shots down to 1/20 of a second, thanks to the anti shake feature. Pretty cool. I would have never thought I could take such a slow hand held pic without it being all blurred.

I highly recommend purchasing an 8 gig CF card for this camera to maximize your data storage. You should get about 1,700 fine res .jpg pics per disk. Go for the faster speed CF card like the SanDisk Extreme III. They're cheap now, under a hundred bucks. I also recommend getting a UV filter and circular polarizer. Again, stick with Sony filters. Now that you have such a great camera, you'll want the really nice quality filters.

You'll have fun with this camera and your friends will drool over your pictures!!!

I bought this camera body a couple of weeks ago together with the Sony Zeiss 16-80mm lens. It is my first DSLR, with my most recent other camera being a Canon S2 IS superzoom point and shoot. Have not used a SLR camera since before the digital age. Am very happy with it! Image quality, as you'd expect, is *far* above that of the S2 IS... and there aren't any image quality issues that I can determine relative to other DSLRs. Resolution seems great, color is spot-on, etc.

Ergonomically, I'm also very happy. As I get back into using things like aperture and shutter speed settings, I find the controls to be well laid out and accessible. The Live View implementation is very easy to use...admittedly, I wish I could live-view things like depth of field et al, but for my uses, I don't really miss it. My only complaint is that when I hold the camera, occasionally my hand will press up against the AF directional-pad and alter the AF setting.

At the moment, I can't really imagining needing anything more complex than this camera. I'm sure that a pro photographer will want the flexibility of more lenses et al. But for me, I don't see myself needing a whole collection of lenses...maybe one more bigger zoom lens or something like that.

To start off, I don't really write reviews on products, and I am new to digital photography, so you can really take this review with a grain of salt... However, I just thought I would share why I gave this product a 5 star rating.

The five star rating simply put is because I love this camera. As stated earlier I am new to digital SLR photography so I won't be nearly as insightful as the Nikon/Canon buffs.

Why get the A350? 14.2 megapixels. Live view. Ease of use. Super Steady Shot built into the camera.

The high megapixels enable you to take high quality photos that will look great when blown up. Does this mean that this camera will take better pictures than a Nikon D300 because the megapixel count is higher... No, not at all that was a common misconception I learned. But knowing that I wanted to take a lot of pictures and make large digital prints to make my office look less lame, I figured I should go a step higher to get the blown-up image quality that I want.

The live view is great for so many reasons. Right on the display, it tells you all your settings from battery life, flash, aperture, etc... all while giving a great idea what your image will look like. Keep in mind, what you see on the live view isn't 100% what you'll see when you load the photos on computer or photoshop.

Ease of use: Grab the camera, go over the manual, play with the settings, take pictures. Coming from someone who knew nothing about cameras until about 2 weeks ago, the learning curve was easy with this camera. Right out of the box, you can set everything to auto and take great pictures just like a small digital camera. But for more advanced photos you simply learn by trial and error and the live view helps you see what you might need to adjust when taking photos. So even if you've never touched an SLR camera, you begin to learn what ISO, f/5.6, and all the other settings are and how to use them just by taking good pictures... or bad ones!

Super Steady Shot: Clear images, built into the camera, not the lens like other manufacturers. Down the line it can help you save some money because you can buy less expensive lenses because you don't need to pay the extra money to get the image stabilization in the lens like Canon or Nikon.

So why get this camera vs. other brands? First off, this camera is great for anyone wanting to get into digital SLR's. If you have old Minolta A-mount lenses you can use them with this camera. There are websites that give compatibility charts with some of the old lenses that you have.

If you have a bunch of DSLR Nikon and Canon gear, well that sucks for Sony because you won't be buying an A350 anytime soon. If you did, then you're either dumb or have a lot of free time and money to blow. However, if you're thinking about getting a camera, Sony makes a great product and offers tons of features in the camera at a low cost. Down the road, Sony will launch more professional and higher priced cameras so if you're starting out on a DSLR journey, you can begin it with Sony and start collecting lenses, tripods, filters and all the other happy stuff that goes into the expensive hobby of digital photography.

Side note: I think this camera was $100 cheaper when I bought it 2 weeks ago. I got the Sony A350X kit (The X is the 2 lens kit, the A350K kit is a 1 lens kit) so I don't know what the deal is there. But all in all, it's a great buy.

Oh yeah, if you're trying to decide whether or not to buy the A300 or A350, in case you didn't know the only difference, literally is the megapixels. So unless you are going to blow up your images, go save yourself $200 bucks and get the A300. If you're going to make large prints like I am, then go with the A350.

I waited a long time for the Nikon D80 to come down in price. While I was at the store ready to purchase the D80 the guy behind the counter introduced me to this A350. I have a few Minolta Lenses so it seemed like a great fit. I was a little skeptical at first but let me tell you, this is a great camera. I have taken more than 700 photos including my kids playing, storms, Lightning, and even long exposure night photos of the sky. I have had some KILLER photos come out of this camera. I am highly impressed and I have no regrets in choosing this camera over the D80. The only downside that I saw in the beginning was the 2.5 photos per second vs the d80's 3.? per second. I can handle that. I would highly recommend at least a 4 gig card but get the 8gig.I have the 8 gig and I currently have about 720 photos stored at highest res. about 14mb per photo on the card with plenty of room left.

I love this camera and all of it's many features. Don't buy the kit lens. It is not worth the extra money. I put a C. Zeiss 24-70mm lens on it and it is wonderful.