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Olympus E-450 Review

Posted on 27. Oct, 2009 by Joel Meadows in Review

Olympus have made their name in consumer electronics thanks to their video cameras and live action cameras. So, in the stills camera market, Olympus is not the first name that would come to mind when picking a Digital SLR. The first thing you notice when unpacking your Olympus 450 compared with say a Nikon D60 or Canon EOS is how much lighter it is than those other manufacturers’ models. So Olympus have designed this with those people who want a decent camera to take on holiday with them but don’t want to exceed their baggage limit on the plane, which is an issue these days. Its body looks quite sporty in design.

So, because it has been conceived as an SLR for the customer who wants an SLR for snapshots and family photos rather than for professional or semi-professional use, it is fairly accessible to pick up and begin using. It has Advanced Shooting Modes and Easy Shooting Modes. The Easy Shooting Modes include an Art Filter, a Portrait setting (making it easier to shooting people), Landscape, Macro, Sport and Night Portrait. Advanced Shooting Modes are Program Shooting (which allows you to shoot using an aperture and shutter speed that the camera sets), Aperture Priority Shooting (which allows you to set the aperture manually), Shutter Priority Shooting (which makes it possible for you to set the shutter speed manually while the camera sets the aperture automatically) and Manual Shooting (where you can set both shutter and aperture yourself). In the Easy Shooting Modes, there are three Art Filters (Pop Art, Soft Focus and Pin Hole). These are here to help the photographer make choices about what he or she is shooting and they are useful for those who have never used an SLR before. The camera’s Face Detection function is also a useful feature as it detect people’s faces in the frame and adjust the focus and metering automatically.

The viewfinder here is a decent size, so it makes it pretty easy for you to get a clear view of what you are shooting when you are shooting it. The Info setting allows you to see how the white balance or exposure compensation is just before you shoot too so you can see a split comparison screen and pick the one that you want. Also, when you switch to Manual Focus, you are able to enlarge the image on the display so you can get a closer look at what you are shooting. The camera also allows you the option of Panorama Shooting, so you can join a number of different images of the same place together. The Noise Reduction feature is quite efficient and allows you to cut out that horrible grain that you sometimes get in poor light. The only drawback is that it does extend the amount of time it normally takes to shoot a photo. The Olympus E-450 is a fast camera and the time it takes from appearing in the viewfinder is very quick.

It does quite rich things with landscapes, like the tree I shot locally up on a hill and it is pretty intuitive when you’re shooting fine detail and close-up like architecture. Sometimes it can oversaturate blues but to be fair, I didn’t have any filters on the lens that it was provided with, a 14 to 42mm, so if you added a polarising filter, it may help. It can be quite sharp when you’re shooting buildings and it isn’t as sympathetic towards them as say a Nikon. But it does cope with shooting into direct sunlight reasonably decently. Its portrait setting, which I used to shoot a London walks guide, works well and it compensated for the outdoor setting (the grounds of Hever Castle in Kent), creating a shot that is one step beyond a family snapshot. Speaking of portraits, the camera has an invaluable Red-eye reduction flash, which emits a series of pre-flashes before the regular flash fires, which acclimatises the subject to the flash, minimising the red-eye. The camera also allows you to alter the intensity of the flash, which is also a useful function. It will also allow you to customise your camera to make it easier to use. Print reservation makes it easy for you to keep the date/ time information on the memory card with the photos you’ve taken.

The camera also deals decently with low light and its lightness is an advantage on a tripod as it balances well. It also shoots well with the flash off in places when you don’t want to use it or aren’t allowed to use it. As a minor quibble, the menus are shown in this digitised type which makes them look like an Eighties computer, which is mildly annoying but this is a pretty minor criticism.

So that’s the Olympus E-450. As a bridge between a compact and a snazzier SLR, it’s a decent camera. Its weight is definitely an advantage if you were planning to take an SLR on holiday with you and you were concerned about overloading yourself with something bulky on a plane. It isn’t as sophisticated or as intuitive as a Nikon or a Canon but it is accessible for someone who hasn’t used an SLR before. Its design is decent enough and the large viewfinder is advantageous. So if you’re looking for a camera to shoot holiday snaps or family pictures and want something packing a little more oomph than your compact, then you could do worse than grab the E-450. But if you are looking to move into the semipro level, then this camera isn’t really suitable. With a retail price of around £400, it’s not bad value at all. Olympus may never lead the digital SLR market but they’ll certainly give other manufacturers something to think about.

See all of our test shots for the E-450 Review

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Review: Olympus Pen E-P1 Digital Camera

Posted on 16. Sep, 2009 by Robert Bluffield in Review

There is no doubting the fact that the new Olympus Pen is an extremely fine and versatile camera. It is not an SLR but an interchangeable lens compact camera with performance that equals many DSLRs. It is well constructed, has an aluminium body and it is crammed with features that allows a wide level of control to capture superb images. However, I am confused about the camera’s potential market. With a manufacturer’s listed price a penny under £700, in anybody’s book this is an expensive camera. Unless you are somebody who is not averse to spending lots of money on gadgets, this is hardly likely to appeal to many who simply wish to upgrade from a compact although its stylish looks will appeal to some. For the more serious photographer it may be altogether too gimmicky and this may steer them in the direction of a more conventional DSLR of a similar price. This, I believe, leaves a potential market somewhere between two groups of buyers; the company executive/employee who requires a small, yet high resolution camera to record aspects involving their work, and the well-heeled enthusiast who cannot resist buying the very latest gadgets. This may seem a little unfair, but I feel Olympus has created something of an expensive hybrid with the Pen E-P1 although I don’t intend this to be in any way derogatory.

The Pen E-P1 may also deliberately be aimed at la small element of long time users mature enough to have owned the iconic Pen 35mm half frame camera from when it evolved in 1959 and lasted in one form or another until the 1980s. Olympus has felt it necessary to emphasise this pedigree by including the strap-line on the camera body that proudly proclaims ‘OLYMPUS PEN since 1959’ as if to remind sentimentalists of its heritage. In its day, the original Pens were indeed very fine little cameras that would fit snugly in the pocket and would produce 72 images of excellent quality on a standard 36-exposure 35mm film. During the 1970s my flat mate had one; it went everywhere with him, and although his father owned a camera shop he chose the Pen over all other cameras, so this must prove something. The original Pen, in its various guises, carried certain kudos, but although it may still be regarded by some as a classic, these popular cameras no longer fetch much money as collectibles. This is no surprise, considering more than 17 million units in the range were produced, with plenty of working examples still about. Aficionados of the camera may be interested to learn more about its history and development here.

The Pen got its name allegedly because the camera was devised to be as simple to use and carry as a pen. This may have been the case with the film version but with the growing number of features being added to the armouries of digital cameras, it would be difficult to fit the latest Olympus into a pocket in spite of the manufacturer’s efforts to make this possible. Certainly the Pen E-P1 is reasonably small (120.5×70x35mm) but not as small or as light as most compacts. The size is partly made possible by the pancake lens that has to be extended manually before use, and the mirror-less format, but it is still fairly heavy, weighing in at 335g without a lens. As to ease of use; it is not overly difficult, more fiddly, and it takes a considerable time to become familiar with the wealth of features and functions. Novices may find this extremely frustrating, even irritating, and may be put off by having to wade through a lengthy 160 page manual particularly if they have little prior knowledge of the workings of digital cameras. I found some of the functions a little difficult to work out but, like all things, with patience and increasing utilisation things become more familiar and the user will probably then opt to become discerning over which features they personally find most useful. Olympus claims that the Pen is the smallest camera on the market to have interchangeable lenses; it may well be, but considering that the E-P1 also has the dual capability of being able to capture high quality 12.3MP still images as well as (1280×720 resolution) video at 30 frames per second, with stereo sound, this may influence more people to consider it especially if they have the desire to shoot both genres without being bogged down by separate pieces of equipment.

Design & Appearance

Visually the Olympus Pen has an extremely attractive retro appearance that closely resembles the compact 35mm half frame Pen F camera launched in 1963. It is sturdy, beautifully constructed and is available in two colour schemes (silver/black or white/tan). His and hers? The front is, as expected, dominated by the lens which is removed using a simple release catch to its left. Apart from a firm rubberised grip on the right and a couple of logos, the front of the camera is free of controls. The rear, business side of the camera is dominated by the 3 inch 230k LCD screen to the left, with a rotary D-pad control on the right used to adjust the settings. This has an OK button in the centre of four surrounding pads used to control ISO, auto focus, white balance and other functions. To the left of this are four small, neatly aligned buttons that control the auto focus/auto exposure lock, the navigation button for scrolling through the taken images (still and video), image delete button and menu controls. A fifth button set slightly below the control pad labelled ‘info’ will, when pressed, display the current settings in use. Adjustments to the main shooting functions; tone, colour, image quality (including RAW option) ISO setting, metering, AF mode and driver/self timer are all made using the D-pad via the menu, while exposure control can be set using the unusual roller control feature that is partially recessed into the top right of the back plate. This uses click stops that can easily be set by turning the control using the thumb. Selections can be determined by scrolling the clear on-screen quick menus that are similar to those on many Olympus compact cameras. The main mode dial is partially recessed into the upper left top plate of the body and is used to change the exposure priority modes (aperture/shutter/programme/manual/auto and scene). The Pen E-P1 offers an optimum range of manual controls including fully customised colour profiles; adjustable tone gradation and image aspect ration control that can be changed from the 4:3 default to 3:2, 6:6 and 16:9. The camera also offers nineteen different scene mode programmes that includes high and low key, panorama, portrait, nature macro, macro, night scene and action and six Art Filters; high saturation pop art, pin hole, pale and light colour, soft focus and grainy film options as well as double exposure. Shutter speed setting ranges from 30 seconds in B mode to 1/4000th sec and the ISO can be set in one third EV increments from 100 to 6400.

The right of the top plate contains the on-off button (neatly illuminated with a green ring when turned on), shutter release button and exposure compensation button with the rotary control dial on the left and optional flash hot shoe in the centre. There is also a button, located next to the on/off switch, marked SSWF that relates to the Super Sonic Wave Filter, the useful cleaning system used to remove irritating dust from the camera sensor.

Lenses & Image Quality

The Pen E-P1 has a high-speed TruePic V image processor and micro four thirds live sensor, also employed in their E system DSLR cameras, which were jointly developed with Panasonic. The Pen also has a micro four thirds lens mount that accepts the two specific Zuiko lenses; the fixed focal length 17mm f2.8 (that I did not have the opportunity to review) and the ultra-sharp 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 with ED glass. With an appropriate adaptor Olympus E and OM system optics can also be used. Auto focus is provided using a multi point/centre point contrast detection system and the camera has sensor shift image stabilisation to considerably reduce camera shake. Exposure preferences can be set to multi pattern, centre weight or spot metering. The white balance, as expected, can be adjusted to most lighting conditions such as bright sun, shade, fluorescent, tungsten etc although I prefer to leave cameras set on auto white balance and adjust the balance post-capture using Adobe Photoshop because I shoot most of my images as RAW files. With this in mind, the Pen can be set to fine or normal compression JPEGs and RAW (up to 3 frames per second) or on video in AVI motion JPEG format with a file capacity of 2GB. The camera uses an 1150mAh Li-ion rechargeable battery (supplied) that slots smoothly into a recess in the bottom of the camera below the hand grip. This port also contains the media slot that accommodates SD or SDHC memory cards. The E-P1 also has built in AV out, USB 2 and HDM1 ports enabling a direct connection to be made to a digital TV…

Overall Impression

I found the Olympus Pen E-P1 a pleasure to use although the choice and range of optional settings could be confusing making me doubt whether many serious photographers would bother to use some of the in-built features. The camera is fairly heavy for its size but it is well balanced, handles easily and is comfortable to hold. I found the overall image quality generally exceptionally good, equal to many larger DSLRs but it lacks something by not having a built-in flash. Although it would have added to the overall size and weight of the camera, the exclusion of its own flash could be a mistake Olympus lives to regret that is hardly helped by the cost of the optional dedicated flash (£160). This considerably raises the overall price beyond many DSLRs that do come with an onboard flash. The requirement to carry an extra item somewhat diminishes the advantage of building a small, neat camera in the first place that I find difficult to comprehend. I am also alienated by having to rely on an LCD screen to compose my images especially when it is difficult to judge what the camera is seeing in brightly lit conditions when the sun tends to wash out the screen. A clip on viewfinder is available (again, as an expensive option at around £100) to use with the non-zoom 17mm lens, but this will hardly be favoured by the majority of users. The camera would also benefit from having an in-focus indicator light to overcome the difficulty of knowing when the camera is in focus using the LCD screen. However, despite these criticisms, in my opinion most users will gain far more than they might lose by buying an exceptionally well constructed camera that is capable of producing superb image quality both in still and video formats.

Test Shots

See all of our test shots for the Olympus Pen E-P1 review

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Olympus Pen E-P1 @ WarehouseExpress.com
Olympus Pen E-P1 @ JohnLewis.com

Review: Nikon D60 Digital SLR

Posted on 31. Aug, 2009 by Joel Meadows in Review

Nikon D60

The Nikon D60 is an entry-level Digital SLR from Nikon, replacing the D40 and D40x models. At 10.2MP with an Image Sensor Cleaning System, Nikon have improved on its predecessor as what you aren’t told as a consumer when upgrading from a compact to a Digital SLR is the dust on the sensor that will play havoc with some of your best shots. So the Sensor Cleaner is a fantastic feature, although it could be argued that you can fix dust on your shots in Photoshop, Aperture or iPhoto, something that is true, but this saves you having to go through the whole process of doing this.

The D60 is quite an easy camera to pick up and start using even if you haven’t used an SLR before because its Modes dial uses many of the modes that you would find on a Nikon compact camera: Auto, Auto (Flash Off), Portrait, Landscape, Child, Sports, Close up and Night Portrait. For example, Landscape comes in useful for vibrant landscape photos as the camera picks the focus point containing the closest main subject while the built-in flash and AF-assist illuminator turn off automatically. These features make life easier and make some of the choices for you. Setting it to the M mode on the dial allows you to control both the shutter speed and aperture, so you’ll be able to shoot fireworks and stars. It has a Panoramic mode which works well with a wide angle lens. The S Mode (shutter priority mode) means that you can choose the shutter speed while the camera automatically selects the aperture that will produce the optimal exposure. If you pick the A mode (Aperture-Priority Mode), you choose the aperture while the camera automatically selects the shutter speed to produce the optimal exposure. Setting small apertures (high f-numbers) increase depth of field, bringing both the main subject and background into focus. Another feature is Active D-Lighting, which will improve photos that you shoot outdoors or in high contrast situations. Also, because it doesn’t have a motor in it, it’s pretty light and portable and can easily be stowed in a camera bag or a back pack without too much of a strain on your shoulders. You can carry it in your hands without a battery grip and it’s not hard to handle, although a battery grip is available. So, unlike the old days, when an SLR meant you were adding pounds to what you carried with you, the D60 is feels like it’s got a lot packed into it. It does sit quite well on a tripod too, if you wanted to achieve something a little more ambitious, with its weight an advantage here.

It’s also pretty good in low light and you can achieve some nice subdued effects when you shoot with the flash off. For example, when shooting the Tim Burton portrait below at San Diego Comic Con, that was taken indoors with slightly sharp light but the D60 with the flash turned off compensated nicely for the poor light.

Also, when I took the photo below of geese on the river at Kingston Upon Thames, it compensated for the high sunlight. I used the D60 with two different lenses: the 18-55mm, which it comes with, and a bigger wide angle 18-105mm Nikkor lens.

I also added a Skylight polarising filter to improve shooting in sunlight and to enhance general shooting. The body accommodates the two lenses well and their addition doesn’t make the camera unwieldy and it remains portable. In fact, for taking your camera abroad to shoot away from home, the D60 is a perfect model. The 18-55 lens that it comes with has VR (Vibration Reduction), which is a godsend when shooting in low light and stabilises the image, making those blurry, out of focus shots almost a complete thing of the past. I even tried it with my monster 70-300mm Sigma lens and it accommodated that without too much of a problem.

The D60 also allows you to shoot in black and white but only with a lens that has manual focus. It is an efficient portrait camera too because it picks detail out very delicately and for that reason, it is also a good buy if you shoot a lot of architecture. As with all SLRs, it allows you to shoot in RAW, if you need to photograph very large images for posters for example and want to take shots that are uncompressed. The Fine JPG setting is suitable for photos that don’t have to be printed in large format and you can shoot portraits that are good enough to reproduce at A4 size.

In terms of its price, it is competitively priced at just above the £400 mark, which is impressive considering that its predecessor, the Nikon D40x cost about the same when it was launched but the D60 is a more intuitive and sophisticated piece of kit. Nikon cameras are also very Mac friendly and transferring shots from your camera to your preferred application on your computer is a reasonably quick process. Also, unlike the D40x, you don’t have to eject it from iPhoto: just unhook the USB lead and you’re done.

So if you are looking for a good entry level SLR or if you are looking to upgrade from a very basic SLR to the next level, the D60 is a good choice. It takes sympathetic architecture shots, it is fairly easy to master and it does handle portraits with little fuss. It also works very well with the Mac, if this is your computer of choice. If you are moving from family snapshots to something semi-professional too, then this is a sound investment for you. It fills your shots with warm blues and vibrant reds and helps bring a city that you’ve shot on the D60 to life. Digital SLRs used to be accused of taking photos that lacked the immediacy and the human touch of their film predecessors but I think that Nikon have moved some way towards giving Digital SLRs the gritty feel of film. The D60 is a recommended piece of kit for anyone wanting to switch from the holiday pics to something with more power and sophistication.

Test Shots

See all test shots taken for this review

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Review: Sony A230 Digital SLR

Posted on 27. Aug, 2009 by Robert Bluffield in Review

As a wizened old pro I can be extremely sceptical of changes and I am not always convinced that when a manufacturer launches a new or upgraded product it is always better than the one it replaces. My lack of conviction is not confined to cameras; I feel the same about cars, entertainment systems, mobile phones … most things really. This has made me quite critical more especially when anything new often brings the necessity to learn new technology and to wade through a hefty, poorly conceived instruction book. I had no reason to feel any different when I unpacked the new A230 camera that arrived from Sony but having never previously used any of the company’s still cameras I was in a grey area. When I removed the body from the box, clicked the 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 zoom lens into place my initial reaction was to dismiss the A230 as a serious DSLR.

But as I raised it to my eye I was immediately impressed by the balanced and comfortable feel of the camera, particularly by its marked lack of weight. My opinion soon changed. This is, after all, an entry level DSLR but it also has plenty that might appeal to the more serious photographer.

I mention the weight because this is very significant as every photographer who has ever lugged a heavy bag loaded with a camera body and various lenses for a number of years will testify. It can have a marked adverse affect on your body.

An experienced photographer will soon appreciate how a camera weighing just 450 grams (15.9 oz) without battery, memory card and body accessories can very quickly become an attractive prospect. By knocking almost 100 grams from the weight of its predecessor, the A230 evolved as the world’s lightest DSLR. This alone will make it instantly appealing to a wide group of users including those of a certain age, females and children who find weighty cameras difficult to handle, the disabled and anyone who needs to carry equipment over difficult terrain, over long distance and on to public transport. Hence the A230 will be particularly attractive to sports, wildlife and travel photographers who find heavy gear not only a hindrance but a health hazard.

But, while the featherweight attributes of a camera will have its appeal, this is of no relevance if the equipment fails to perform seriously on the image capture front. With a 10.2 megapixel APS-C sized CCD sensor combined with the fast BIONZ processor, the A230 is certainly no light weight when resolution is considered and the high image quality can only really be criticised by the most discerning. The majority of users will probably be content to produce images for non-commercial purposes and they will not be disappointed by the sharp, mostly noise free results this camera produces. During my brief test with the camera set at various ISO settings, I found little noticeable deviation in quality even when shooting at 800 ISO or higher in poor light. The colour saturation and image sharpness remained generally consistent although I had to slightly lighten some images, but not all, that I had taken using the auto and aperture priority settings with the white balance set to auto. I stuck with using the camera only on fine JPEG and RAW settings but this allowed me to produce professional quality images that were perfectly acceptable for publication.

I have never understood why anyone would compromise image quality by shooting at lower resolutions in any case, unless they are playing the numbers game by cramming as many images onto a card as they can. I see no point in this. I assume that most buyers of the A230 will be stepping up from a compact or fixed lens film or digital camera therefore their quality expectations are likely to be less critical and the camera is likely to impress. The A230 is versatile, user-friendly and capable of operating up to 3200 ISO with an incorporated noise reduction feature on higher ISO settings that provides excellent image quality even at very slow shutter speeds under difficult lighting conditions. The camera also has in-built Steadyshot™ stabilisation; a useful feature that deploys automatically at slow shutter speeds without flash thus diminishing the need to use a tripod. As Sony has embedded this feature into the camera body it also removes the need to buy costly image-stabilised lenses that incorporate this facility.

A TIFF image taken hand held using the Steadyshot™ system with the lens at 20mm and set at f 3.5 and a shutter speed of 1/4th second at 800 ISO and the camera set on night view programme

Controls and display

It has been stated that this is the first camera that Sony has designed without any input from Konica and Minolta and they can be congratulated for making the operation of the A230 almost idiot proof. The controls are neatly arranged in a format that will be familiar to many existing DSLR users with the aperture/shutter control wheel set into the front fascia above the hand grip to the right of the prism, with the exposure compensation button set behind on a ledge. As expected, the on/off control and shutter release button is located into the top of the body immediately above the shutter/aperture control.

To the left of the prism, mounted on the body top plate, there is a dial that sets the camera mode to manual, fully automatic, aperture or shutter priority, or to any of six scene selection modes (indicated by small icons). These are portrait, landscape, action, night view, macro and sunset but the camera can also be ‘fine tuned’ for creative styles and colour preferences such as standard, vivid and black and white. The A230 has a built in flip-up flash located above the viewfinder prism that is sufficiently high above the lens axis to reduce red eye. Behind this the hot shoe will accommodate any of the optional Sony HVL range of external dedicated flash guns and the A230 also has built in radio flash capability.

The camera back incorporates a four way navigation pad with a central AF button (occasionally referred to as the ‘OK’ button) that controls the various menu functions including image resolution, ISO, white balance, drive options (single or up to 2.5 frames per second), metering modes, flash control etc. Making changes to any of these functions is made easy for a novice if they follow the clearly devised menus on the bright 2.7 inch Clear Photo LCD screen that explains what the different functions do. The A230 graphic interface has been well devised to display the various current settings and includes the mode (auto, manual etc) shutter/aperture settings, metering mode, flash (on/off), file resolution, number of remaining frames on the recording media etc. Sony has attempted to visually demonstrate the effects that the selected aperture/shutter speed combination will have on the resulting images. This is particularly useful to those new to photography who may find it difficult understanding the mysteries of depth of field. It is achieved by using icons placed either end of a pair of scales depicting the shutter speeds and aperture f numbers. A marker moves along the scales as you change settings to show the relationship between the shutter speed and aperture. On the shutter speed indicator a graphic heads towards an icon representing a stationary figure at the slower end of the scale; towards a running figure as the shutter speed is increased. The aperture scale operates the same way but uses a row of icons that are all darkened at the smallest aperture (f22) and with only the first icon showing dark at the widest aperture (f1.4). Thus, the more icons that are shown in dark colour, the greater the depth of focus will be.

A further function of the display system is to provide additional information that explains the purpose whenever any of the scene programme modes (portrait, landscape, night view etc) are set. The LCD screen is bright, concise and allows the user to change the screen colour, but it does not provide a continuous ‘live view’ or tilt facility that is a feature of the A330 and A380 models. I am aware that live view has its supporters but I always find it disconcerting to work with a moving display of this kind and I am more comfortable composing images using a conventional viewfinder.

Using aperture priority and matrix metering landscapes tended to be under exposed.

Image capture and transfer

The A230 metering system can be set in multi-segment; centre weighted or spot modes and uses a 40-segment light metering sensor and D-Range optimiser with advanced mode. This automatically adjusts the exposure to each part of a scene to provide even colour balance, rich shadows, good highlights and optimum brightness/contrast exposure in back-lit subjects. Precise, fast auto-focussing is achieved by a 9-point centre cross AF system with Eye Start® but the camera can also be set to manual focus when required.

The camera has dual card slots located in a recess on the left end of the body hidden by a tidy smooth-sliding door that accepts either memory stick™ PRO DUO or PRO-HG Duo media as well as HX/SD and SDHC memory cards. A switch within the card department needs to be manually set for the card/socket in use to operate. Sony has worked tirelessly on the effective HD compatibility of the Alpha camera range and all models connect direct to HD ready televisions via the built in HD/HDMI™ jack. BRAVA™ sync also allows images to be played back using the television hand control on suitably compatible equipment and if a camera memory stick™ has been used this can be plugged into various Sony VAIO, Playstation 3, digital photo frames and printers. As a wide number of compact cameras already use HD cards, it is likely that the memory cards that you used in your previous camera will also be compatible to use in the A230. The camera is also equipped with a high speed USB 2.0 jack to connect direct with computers and other devices.

The A230 handles close up detail well. This was shot of fine JPEG and is enlarged from the central portion of the original image.

I was irritated by being unable to open the RAW files shot on the A230 directly into Adobe Photoshop. Instead it is necessary to run Sony’s own Image Data SR software first and then save the files from there into Photoshop but I was unable to save the files as JPEGs. .

Other features include a smart teleconverter to provide instant scene magnification for viewing purposes, even when a telephoto lens is not being used, to give a clearer, closer view of the subject being photographed. As every DSLR user will know, changing lenses can allow dust to enter the camera body where it will adhere to the sensor and appear as annoying marks on the stored images. To reduce the amount of dust entering the camera, Sony has incorporated a dual anti-dust system into the Alpha range to effectively reduces sensor contamination

The Sony DT 18-55mm lens handles close up detail with clarity

The camera is sold in three kits: DSLR-A230Y (around £575) that includes the body with standard zoom DT 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 SAM and telephoto zoom DT 55-200mm f4.5-5.6 SAM lenses; the DSLR-A200K includes the body and DT 55-200mm zoom lens and the DSLR-230L (around £399-£435) includes the camera body with standard DT 18-55mm lens. The camera also accepts all Sony lenses but it is also compatible with A-mount bayonet lenses from Minolta and Konica Minolta.

Overall I found the A230 design visually attractive and solidly built. It is relatively simple to use, handles well, the auto-focus responded accurately and quickly and the image quality was exceptionally good; better than I would have expected from an entry level camera. For a camera in this price bracket I believe the A230 offers great value for money. And, for the record, I found the instruction book easy to wade through.

The light weight of the Sony A230 makes it an excellent tool for photo-reportage and travel photography. This image, shot as a fine JPEG, when seen enlarged retains excellent sharpness as well as detail in the movement of the spinning wheel.

Comparable competitors

Nikon D60, Olympus E-450, Pentax K2000, Canon EOS 450D.

Test Shots