Sony Alpha 330

Sony's DSLR product range grew again recently with three moremodels, the A230, A330 and the A380 and it's the middle model, the SonyAlpha 330, which is exclusive to Jessops that we try here.

TheA330 has a guide price of £500 with the standard 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6zoom. At this price, it's pitched in a competitive sector of the DSLRmarket and will have to be good to make any impression.

Sony isproud of its fast AF Live View feature, judging by the tags andstickers that you come across when unpacking the camera. A switch onthe top-plate gives the option of Live View or OVF (opticalviewfinder). Select Live View and you're presented with a high-qualitymonitor image.

There's the option of having an uncluttered image, a live histogramshowing or camera settings information. First touch of the shutterrelease and the AF whizzes into action, the image popping into focus.It's probably the fastest, most sure-footed Live View AF system thathas been our pleasure to use.

Even in poor light or lowcontrast, the nine-zone AF system is efficient and the working sensor(or sensors) is highlighted in green. The monitor can be tilted foroverhead or waist-level shooting and you get a clear image even whenviewed obliquely. Fully press the shutter button down and the pictureis taken. There's no final 'twitch' or 'hunt' that slows the processdown like you get with some DSLRs.

Live View is one of theA330's big selling points, but there are plenty more. The on-screenhelp guide is one aimed at less experienced camera users and assistswith the choice of exposure modes.

Another feature that willappeal to people new to DSLRs, but might make experienced photographersfrown, is the digital Smart teleconverter. This feature is an in-cameracropping facility available in Live View and JPEG quality mode,magnifying the image by factors of 1.4x or 2x.

On the button

Muchmore useful is the Fn (Function button) that comes into play in P, A, Sand M modes only. Push this and you get six options of Autofocus mode,Metering mode, White-balance, AF area, D-range Optimizer and CreativeStyle. This lets you fine-tine the camera's handling to your liking orto deal with the situation facing you.

D-range Optimizer hasthree settings – Off, Standard and Advanced – and is useful oncontrasty light. Standard is a good default setting and makes adifference but the impact of the Advanced setting is amazing. Inbacklit situations, it brings out shadow details effectively withoutlosing too much in the highlight areas. Certainly, it's worth using.

The same can be said of the Creative Style feature where there areseven options, again accompanied with on-screen help. This is where youcan alter colour reproduction and includes a monochrome option.

Thealterations are applied in JPEG quality mode only and in RAW you canalways use the original image. In fact, using the supplied Sonysoftware you can adjust RAWs using D-range Optimizer as well asCreative Styles.

Overall performance of the exposure system wasimpressive. It consistently delivered fine exposures and was difficultto fool. Only in extreme lighting did we experience duff exposures.

Onoccasion, it seemed that the camera underexposed according to themonitor but checking the histogram revealed that there was plenty ofinformation across the full tonal range. There's an exposure bracketingfunction but this is limited to three shots in 0.3 and 0.7 EV steps.Given the choice, it would have made more sense to have the options of0.5EV and 1EV.

Shooting steady

Assessing the actual benefitof camera shake systems isn't straightforward. Sony claims a 2.5 to 3.5EV benefit with its Super SteadyShot that, in theory, means that youcan shoot at 1/25sec or 1/10sec and get the same sharp pictures as youwould at 1/125sec.

In practice, this claim appeared justifiedand we were even getting sharp handheld exposures as slow as 1/6sec –out of a sequence of four shots, two were sharp.

As regards to image quality, we found the A330 more than capable ofproducing files that can be readily enlarged to give A3 prints andbeyond, especially at ISO 400 and lower. Go to ISO 1600 and 3200 andnoise is more significant.

We did a comparison with therecently launched Pentax K-7 (admittedly, a more expensive camera) andfound the A330 has higher noise levels from ISO 800 upwards. Belowthis, however, image quality is comparable which is a credit to theA330.

Handling rates highly once the camera is set up. In principle,Eye-start makes sense and the idea of the camera preparing itself forphotography as it's brought up to the eye is good. However, it isannoying that the camera with Eye-start on the AF twitches away as youcarry it around your neck.

If you want to shoot fast action,you should have no problem with the A330's shooting speed. With aSandisk Extreme 4GB, we got 100 RAWs before the camera showed signs ofslowing down.

There's no automatic sensor cleaning function andyou have to do this through the menu. The camera emits a high-pitchedbuzz and vibrates for an instant while cleaning takes place. It seemsto work well, though, because over the 400 exposures made for thisreview, none showed any sign of dust or hairs.

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