tantilising-twinsThese two beautiful cameras are both powered by the BIONZ™ image processing engine. This means that fast-paced action shots are captured easily and with much faster continuous shooting speeds than were available in previous models.

The soul of these two Alpha cameras is the new Exmor™ CMOS sensor that guarantees incredibly crisp, minimal-noise images, rich with intense colour and brilliant detail.

The Numbers: 4 frames per second in Live View Mode and you can push that to 5 frames per second if you use the view finder. There is a new Speed Priority mode on the A550 which pushes the limits even further and allows shooting at 7 frames per second! The Alpha A550 weighs in at 2 more grams than the A500 totalling 599 g without the battery or lens. The A550 snaps around 950 per battery charge while the A500 does an incredible 1000 shots! Incredibly sensitive shooting with an ISO of up to 12800! These cameras shines above the rest when shooting in environments like romantic candlelit surrounds.

I’ll make another mention of the BIONZ™ engine which allows for a smoother, faster auto focus system including auto focus in live view mode. Auto focus now also includes Face Detection which is bias to faces rather than scenery and will implement lighting and exposure (which balance etc) to enhance skin tones for beautiful portraits.

Another great feature is Smile Shutter which automatically fires the shutter and exactly the right second capturing relaxed, natural smiles.
The Sony A550 is equipped with a 921,000 dot 3 inch Xtra Fine LCD screen for high quality image viewing with excellent detail, contrast and colour.

The A500 is equipped with a clear, 3 inch high contrast Clear Photo LCD screen. Both cameras LCD screens tilt up and down in a full 180 degree arch which I found made some of the tricky angle shots a lot easier.

If you are outdoors or in an intensely lit environment and to the contrary, if you are in a badly lit environment, the ambient light sensor will brighten or darken your LCD brightness to accommodate for your surroundings.

The view finders on both cameras offer 95% coverage and the Live View offers 100% coverage as well as grid lines for perfect positioning of subjects in your frame.

I found that using both of these cameras was hassle free and simple. Sony has redesigned the interface and it now provides incredibly easy access to the settings and functions when in live view operations. There is a Graphic Display as well which allows a reliable indication of the effects that shutter speed and aperture will have on the outcome of the image.dslr-a500_bk_tiltscreen_01-1200_lg

Sony has included a feature: 7x / 14x zoom function for focusing those close ups.
Manual Focus Check Live View mode helps when it comes to fine tuning your scene.

Of course these twins would not be complete without SteadyShot™ INSIDE. A great feature available in most DSLRs that aids in reducing camera shake even when you have no tripod available and are shooting handheld; compatible with any lens that fits your Sony.

Something worth mentioning! If you aren’t satisfied with the already mentioned 1000 shots per battery charge for the A500 (950 A550)…then just add the new VG-B50AM Vertical Control Grip which holds two NP-FM500H batteries and effectively DOUBLES the camera’s charge… that means 2000 (!) shots for the A500 in one charge! (A550 1,900 shots). Your Sony will automatically switch from the one NP-FM500H battery to the second one once it has depleted the first ones charge.

I was absolutely thrilled to hear that Sony has included this amazing new feature!… I am sure that most of you have heard of High Dynamic Range images. This is basically when you take a picture of the same scene at different times/exposure settings, (different lighting etc) then you overlay the two images and the outcome is this beautiful, surreal scene with colour and depth that only the human eye is supposed to be able to perceive. When you are taking High Dynamic Range shots you usually need a tripod to ensure that both / all of the images you take are of exactly the same spot, all fitting perfectly into each other; and then the editing and overlaying would be done on a computer. The exciting news is that Sony has included an Auto HDR function that snaps two shots in a space of less than 10 seconds with different exposure settings and then overlays the shots for you EVEN if you DON’T use a tripod! The camera will line up the shots automatically to ensure that any alignment issues are corrected…absolutely incredible feature that I loved playing around with.

A Smart Teleconvertor button boosts your images to further extend your cameras existing zoom range for even better close ups.

The usual D-Range Optimiser has been improved and gives brilliant results when shooting high contrasting scenes.

Both the Sony A550 and the Sony A500 cameras will be available from the end of October 2009, so it’s not that long to wait and is just in time to make an excellent December Holiday Gift!