Nice review. Compeling reasons to get one, although I'm certainly not disappointed with my A700 so I will be skipping this one. I'm sure you may have made things more complicated for prospective A200/300/350 upgraders.

Thnaks for the review. however, it reads as though you have written this with one aim foremost in your mind - to prove that the A500 is a better buy than the A550!

You're welcome btw :).

I was pretty clear in the review about the A500 being a better value. I think it is. I wasn't, and am not, hiding that fact. And for that fact...it's a better camera on the market place as a competitor as well. That is important because I want Sony to do well on the market and sell Alphas. Why recommend a camera that is overpriced for the feature set?

I was also clear that I passed on some niggles I had with the A550 as a result of the price for the A500, not too hard a concept to wrap our heads around is it? :) Gosh I hope not.

There are still niggles on that A500 that I have, but that's fine for a camera that costs 20%-25% less than the A550, since my/our expectations won't be as high. Right?

Also I didn't want to write a duplicate review, what good would that do? Might as well not even write it if that was the case. I mentioned early in the review that both articles together make for one good informative full article for either camera. I had hoped that might be a bit more understood by readers. So that is my recommendation, again.

The same negatives mostly apply for the A500 as they do on the A550 but they are just easier to swallow. Lets hope people start understanding my viewpoint a bit more and not make a conspiracy theory out of it :).

Carl

I started my dSLR hobby with the a300 and are quite pleased with it. About this time last year it presented the best combination for me to get a dSLR upgrading from my first digital camera, a Panasonic Lumix FZ5, and being a Minolta 5000i and 450i user. I had few lenses but was loyal to the brand and thus, when I compared the other brands I came back home to Minolta/Sony. AMW factored heavily on my decision(s) and based on Carl's review of the a300 it was my choice. Initially I leaning toward the a350 but based on the review and price, I opted for the a300 rather than the a350.

I've had a year to play with the a300, acquire some Minolta lenses through eBay, 1) 50mm f1.7, 2) 100-200mm f4.5, and 3) 28-105mm f3.5/4.5, and again, are quite pleased overall. However, with the new Sony models and my developing passion, I am considering an upgrade, and again, my concerns are essentially performance for the price. Photography is growing on me and while I don't get to participate as much as I'd like to, thus far my activities include general family photo opps, general and nature macro, and sports/drama of my kids. As before, based on initial reports I was leaning towards the a550, but at its price and Carl's review, I was seeking other options. The a500 review is calming but presents other questions/concerns.

I like the a500 and are strongly considering it as my upgrade option from the a300. The main issue is bang for the buck and what is coming down the pike, ie, the a700 replacement. With the previous line up the next logical progression was to the a700. But with the a850, which is out of my budget but definitely on my wish list, and now the a500, within budget but possibly limited growth potential, I am holding fast and waiting for the a650/a750, probably the right mix of performance but at what price. Again, the determining factor is performance for the price.

I'm not posting this asking for advice, just a comment from the perspective of a loyal alpha user looking to maximize his kit with a limited budget. :)

Thanks for the review, Carl. I chose the A500 over the A550 for many of the same reasons you mentioned. However, in the real world, for better or worse, megapixels sell. All you have to do is go over to dpreview and you will notice rather quickly that there are tons of posts about the A550 and relatively few about the A500. From what I have read the A350 out sold the A300 by a fairly large margin as well, even though IMHO the A300 was the better value. The A550 is the top of the Sony consumer DSLR line and many folks will spring for a couple hundred dollars extra to get that top of the line distinction. Also, an argument can be made that a slightly better viewfinder, 2 more megapixels, a faster fps option, and a deeper buffer are worth the extra $200 for some people. In the real world those things weren't worth it to me, but I can see how they would be for some folks.

I personally think that both of the A5xx cameras are much better than many (not talking about you here Carl) have given them credit for being. I feel that they are highly competitive with the Canikon offerings in the sub $1000 price range. I do feel that dpreview in there review doesn't give the A550 enough credit for some of the ground breaking features it has. I feel the same way about the posters in the forums over there. It's more fun, for some, to complain about the things these cameras lack than to open their eyes to the great features these cameras have that make them stand out from the competition. Sure the A5xx cameras could have been better if a few missing features had been included. Still, they are the worlds fastest shooters at their price points (fps). They are the only cameras at their price points to have an HDR mode. They have the best battery life. They have the best live view options. They have stabilization on all lenses that is superior to Canikon's buy it one lens at a time option, hands down. They have very fast and accurate focus even with screw focus based lenses. Those things probably outweigh the lack of MLU and DOF preview for most users at these price points.

While I don't find the high ISO JPEGs to be quite up to the crispness that I get from my D90, I only notice the difference when I go pixel peeping. In every day usage the difference is basically invisible. Make no mistake about it, the A5xx cameras are terrific high ISO cameras. If some one is coming from a Sony A2xx or A3xx the improvement in high ISO results will be very gratifying.

I just hope to help some people who dont' really need the extra features save a buck. Those that do, should buy the A550. :)

Carl

Thank you for the best overview about A500. Some A700 owners, as me, are waitinig, what happens after A700. Do you know, what Sony is going to do or doing with this very nice camera replacement?

Honestly if I did know right now, at this moment, I would not be able to say anything about it at all.

So no, the only people that know anything about it are choice Sony employees and whoever they have entrusted.

I do however know they are replacing it come 2010, per Mr. Toru Katsumoto San's statement/interview that was translated.

So it's coming- is all I know.

Cheers,

Carl

That's what I was thinking, that the a500 is the update for the a300. I have the a300 and the a500 does what the a300 can do, but better, with some new features, ie, high ISO, HDR, and MFCLV.

The a300 is my first dSLR and I have had a lot of fun with it. I immensely love the LV, it allows me to be engaged in the activity and get some great shots, just as a P&S should. Also, because I wear glasses and the LCD sticks out unless I have been outside in bright sun I have not used the OVF nearly as much as the LV. I recently picked up a diopter attachment from Sony and now I do not have to wear glasses to use the OVF. Once the weather is more condusive to camera walks I plan to use the OVF more. However, because the a500 has improved the OVF as compared to the a300 this is another value add on its behalf.

But I am looking toward growth. I am becoming a photo enthusiast and are loyal to the alpha mount, but in this economy, with young kids I just don't have the funds to get a new camera every year. I'm still trying to build my kit, on a shoe string budget. Perhaps once I get my hands on a couple more lenses, camera upgrades every year or so may be possible. But what I'm looking for is a kit with a broad number of functional lenses and 1 camera that does all I need it to. At present it would be a hybrid of the a500 and the a700. That's why I'm waiting for the a700 replacement. Once Sony defines its product offering I will have a better understanding of where I fit and which camera is the right one for me.

As for speculation of what the a700 replacement will be, there has been a good bit of discussion on just that here on AMW. Being relatively new to AMW and Sony dSLR's I don't have a clue from a historical point. However, looking at what has been offered there appears to be 4 segments, the 230/330/380, 500/550, 700, and 850/900. In the three categories that Sony has already updated there were multiple product offerings and I expect this to be the case for the a700 replacement. I expect that it will be similar to the a500/a550 in that it will have two models, 650/750, have a new sensor, and they will differ by pixel count, 16 and 18 MB, one with LV and the other without.

Even though the 650/750 might be the (functional) camera that I've been daydreaming about it may be just that, a dream if the price is where I expect it to be, between the 550L and 850, approximately $1450/1650, respectively. And as such, I will most probably end up opting for the a500, or maybe keeping my a300 and picking up a deeply discounted a700 once its replacement drives the price down a bit more.

Thanks again for your update to the initial a500 and 550 reviews! I will continue to check AMW as well as some of the other blogs that aren't as favorable to the alpha mount for news on the a700 replacement.

Hi Carl,
I read your review on the A550. I waited for this because of the cmos sensor and the initial reviews were good. In your review you have mentioned that it does not produce sharp quality pictures bet ISO 200-800. If I understood it correctly, at these levels, the noice is high when compared to higher ISOs. Actually lower ISO is where we will for most part shoot the pictures right? I recently bought it and wondering should I sell it brand new. I am not a pro. I have Tameron 28-300 lens that I used with Minolta MAXUM 5. I tried to use it with A550. It seems to work alright. Would it damage the a 550 motor since it is a heavier lens. I also tried the Af 28-80 lens that came with maxum with a 550. It also worked fine. Do you think the image qulaity will be far superior than the old lenses when compared to the new digital lenses made for DSLRS. What is the G lens everybody is raving about. How is the picture quality compared to d90 at ISO 200-800. I would appreciate your comments. my email eniasivam@gmail.com

are softer than they should be in the lower ISO's, but are quite sharp when doing raws (a550 and a500 alike) but are sharp enough for most people and most situations.

No damage will come to the A550 as a result of your lens being "heavy".

As far as image quality the two lenses you cited aren't the best performing lenses. You'd be better off with other lenses that are much sharper and have better contrast etc. There are simply too many good lenses to make in a recommendation in a reply here :).

G lenses are generally excellent, with very very good color and contrast/sharpness.

Carl

It seems that the A500 does have an edge in JPEG quality versus the A550 based on samples that were recently posted on Imaging Resource. The wipe out on the red channel happens at ISO 1600 with the A500 versus ISO 800 with the A550. Also, while the difference is much smaller, I do notice a slight edge in favor of the A500 versus the A550 even at ISO 200. To my eyes, the A500 has slightly crisper JPEGs at ISO 200 when I look at the fabric swatches on Imaging Resource. So, with the A500 having a bit better JPEGs and costing $200 less than the A550, would that be enough to get a "Highly Recommended" on dpreview? We will likely never know because dpreview will probably never review it.

But not much, they look near identical to me in comparison.

Dunno on DPR, if it doesn't get reviewed by CES I doubt it will get reviewed by them unless none of the other DSLR companies do not announce something.

I'm sure it'd get a bit better rating by DPR though, as it did here when compared to the A550. Prices have dropped now on the A550 by 100.00 US which helps a bit.

Carl

Hi Carl,

Just join your forum. I found your review of the A500 & A550 very interesting and informative. I am about to upgrade from my Panasonic FZ28 to the Sony A500.
I planning to get the Sony A500 because of the Tiltable LCD, HDR ,DRO and live view features. After reading your review and also DPreview I kind of worry about the JPEG quality output. To me JPEG is very important as I don't use raw as I'm not good in post processing, maybe just simple sharpening, saturation and contrast adjustment.
Like to know if the A500 is able to take sharp images from JPEG assuming I have a sharp lens. I'm not the pixel peeking sort of person but I expect at least the image when view from my 15 inch monitor is sharp and clear.
Another question is how reliable is the metering base on what DPreview has hightlighted :

Quote : "The metering and auto white balance are too inconsistent and the JPEG processing (contrast, saturation, sharpness) far from optimal. The irony of the Alpha 550 is that it really needs someone who knows what they're doing behind it to get the benefits of what appears to be an excellent new sensor and fast shooting capabilities. At the very least means playing around with the JPEG parameters and taking control of the white balance and metering when necessary, but for the most part it really means you need to shoot raw (and process each file manually) to really see the Alpha 550 shine."

Need your help, because I don't really know if this camera for me .

Thanks,
Rontth

Great review Carl, will help tremendously, anybody looking to buy this camera. I must admit that I personally do not like the two tone colour on these new Sony cameras, but that's a subjective issue.

hi carl!

i'm ryan from indonesia...recently i purchased A500+VG, i'm about to replace my KM5D..
the thing is i found out that the JPEG files are too soft, they look similiar to my DSC W-110 JPEG..my question is since you said the image quality is good, do you use the image converter from Sony? coz i haven't installed it yet.. my JPEG files from KM5D is very good
btw your review of A500 is very good!
thanks

regards,
ryan

hej all!
just have my A500 for let's say 3 hours! Reading this thread and have by coincedence made some test shots like ISO1600 and JPEG standard camera settings. I am coming from a A300 and recently as a backup camera the A100 and below I post an image for you to feul your discussions...I can only say the results with an old minolta 35-70 f4 on 70mm ISO800 and f4 just look fine to me...I am normally a RAW fan so.....

once again, I am happy I made the choice taking in the A500 as an replacement of the lost A300 and recently the A100. More or less thanks to reading Carls and other peoples reviews, posts! Mostly the A500 review made me decide to go for this as an upgrade over the A300 and the spare body I bought cheap (A100). Carl and AlphaMountWorld.com many thanks!
//Dave

I just tried 500 yesterday. It feels good, dispite interface of 700/850/900 I think is still the best in the world. If high ISO shoots are really better with 500, this camera can be recommended for persons, who do not like to buy old 700 model and really need high ISO shoots as me for documentation. Aavo. 700;1,4/50;16-80;F42

I just found this site while reading another review on the A500, and registered. Everyone here has valid points and I must say I like the review Carl. I went thru 2 months of forums and reviews and videos on different cameras before deciding on the A500. Like Carl, I couldn't justify the extra money for the exact same camera with the A550. For those of us that know that we will never make wall sized posters, the 15mp didn't matter much. I am a graphic artist and started out in photography in yearbook class back in the way early 90's. With cost always being a factor i've handled but never been able to afford my own DSLR. So for my 34th birthday this year I decided my birthday gift would be one. End the end it came down to live view and extra functions with a tilt screen, or live view and extra functions with videography built in. I decided since I already own a video camera, there was no point in buying another one. Also, I appreciate the fact that Sony said they would not dumb down their HD Video technology to stick in a SLR. After all a SLR is for photography, not video. I am currently stationed in Afghanistan and do 60% of the photography. This is also my biggest hobby. After using this equipment for the last month I can't say that I could be more pleased. Some people stated concerns about hitting a brick wall when learning what all there is to learn with the A500. The gruesome truth to that is, next year something bigger and better will come out, and technology will change building one of those walls. But right now there are none. For the price range I would put this as a mid SLR instead of an upper entry SLR. I for one am a big CNET fan and was disappointed that they do not acknowledge the existence of the A500/550 or list it in the under $1k line up. With the SAM 18-55 and 55-200 lenses, I have found no issues with picture taking thus far.

This was a picture I took here in Afghanistan. Bare in mind this picture was taken from the back of a MRAP doing 45mph and thru a 4in piece of protective glass, which is where the blue hue comes from. 1/320 F11 ISO 200

The second picture was taken in Williamsburg, Va at 5:45PM using HDR. 1/4 F5.6 ISO 1600

Carl,

Is there a big difference between A500 and A300? If there is, what are they? Do you think upgrading from A300 to A500 make sense or should I just stick on my A300?

Thanks..

Marlon

The A500 is an upgrade to the A300, just how much the differences are between the two cameras depends on your needs or expectations in a camera.

The A500 has a slightly larger optical viewfinder, slightly larger LCD screen with more range of motion, slightly more resolution, higher ISO settings (at the cost of losing ISO 100), faster processing and frame rates (5fps vs. 3fps optically), auto HDR, and best in class battery life when using the OVF.

If that list appeals to you, then there is a big difference between the cameras. It all depends on you and your wallet and needs though.

And btw, welcome to the site bud. :)

Carl

Thanks Carl for the reply... I think I'll just stick on my A300 for now.. The difference on A300 and A500 are not really necessary for me at this time.

Thanks also for the welcome...

Marlon

I've recently bought the a500 and am so far very happy with it. There's something I've not been able to figure out so hopefully someone more clever can help.

I've got an HVL-F42AM flash for shooting wireless-ly. However, I've not been able to figure out how to switch off the built in flash when using the HVL. Am I missing something obvious?

Thanks

read the manual
you will need a wireless transmitter and receiver to use it without the popup flash, aka cybersyncs, and you will need a couple of adapters, via flashzebra

Check Gary Friedman's article on wireless flash : http://www.friedmanarchives.com/flash.htm.
He describes how to put some exposed color film in front of the built-in flash to block visible light. It will let through the infrared that is needed to trigger the off-camera flash.

Haven't tried this myself yet since I only received my HVL42 yesterday.

Wim

... is the way to go if you want to turn off the pop-up completely. You'll find all the adapters on http://www.flashzebra.com. I have the setup, but I don't have cybersyncs, I have a cheap wireless thingie from eBay. I have four flashes though, so I suppose in your case things will be a lot cheaper (the adapters and optical slaves, screw lock sync cords, etc cost more than the wireless thingie)...

-Rene

Hi

I'm trying to change the High ISO Noise Reduction setting but when I go into the menu it's not giving me the option to change it. I assume it's because there's another setting I've got that's disabling this option. Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks
Dan

Sounds to me that you are shooting in raw. You can only change the feature if you are shooting in fine, standard, or raw & jpeg.

Thanks for that. I just found another forum which said about not being able to do it in raw so I'll have a play.

Thanks for the great review.
I now made up my mind and will finally buy this one