Digital Trends

Sony alpha DSLR-A350

April 13th, 2008 | by David Elrich

Features and Design

The Sony alpha DSLR-A350 is a solid, sturdy digital single lens reflex camera. Honestly it doesn’t look too much different than almost every other D-SLR out there. The camera has a matte black finish and if you covered the logos, you’d be hard pressed to tell a Canon or a Pentax apart from the Sony. Not to say they’re ugly but overall aesthetics aren’t the raison d’etre for these babies—good photos and fast response are the ticket.

The DSLR-A350 measures 5.25 x 4 x 3 (WHD, in inches) and weighs 20.5 ounces for the body alone. Add a lens like the $699 USD Carl Zeiss 16-80mm zoom (which Sony loaned to us) and you’re carrying 41 ounces (2.56 pounds). In other words, it’s a commitment not like tossing an ELPH in your pocket for casual snapshots.

The front of this D-SLR—like all others—is dominated by the lens mount. In this case it accepts all Sony glass as well as older Minolta a-type bayonet lenses. As noted in our review of the –A200, Sony doesn’t have the huge number of lens options offered by Canon, Nikon et al, but it has enough to handle most common situations. Other than a few logos, the front has an AF Assist sensor on the grip, the lens release button and keys to pop open the flash and to switch between AF and Manual Focus.

Image Courtesy of Sony

The top has a nice camera feel with a sturdy mode dial on the far left. Unlike some others in its class (such as the new $799 USD Pentax K200D) it does not have an LCD display to quickly check your settings. On the pistol grip is the shutter button and control dial for making menu adjustments. The grip has a good, comfortable feel and felt just right in my hand—please do you own ergonomic test before pulling the trigger on this one or any other camera or camcorder. Other buttons here are one for ISO (100-3200) and another for continuous shooting/self timer. Since this is a 14.2-megapixel camera for under a grand, it only takes 2.5 frames per second compared to the usual 3 fps of other D-SLRs. This frame rate drops to 2 once you engage the nearby Live View switch. Even at 2 fps this is an incredible number since it’s more like a frame every 5 minutes when using Live View from other makers! This is a bit of exaggeration but it’s better than many point-and-shoot digicams with the real live view we know and love. You’ll also find the pop-up flash and hot shoe.

The main mode dial has the usual settings including Auto, P (Program AE), A (Aperture Priority), S (Shutter Priority) and M (Manual). There are also a number of common scene modes such as Portrait, Landscape, Macro, Sports, Sunset, Night Portrait and Flash Off. There’s nothing here that’ll surprise any photographer. And if you don’t know what they mean, the supplied 168-page Instruction Manual does a decent job explaining it all.

The rear of the DSLR-A350 has something you don’t find on run-of-the-mill D-SLRs—an articulating 2.7-inch LCD screen rated 230K pixels. When combined with Live View, you can easily hold the camera over your head and shoot over crowds—or take shots low to the ground while standing up. This is a great tool and lets you take your face away from the viewfinder. The viewfinder is surrounded by a soft rubber cup and has a diopter adjustment. Like the -A200, there’s Eye-Start AF that starts focusing on the subject when you bring the camera up to your eye. I find this annoying and turn it off but you may like the shorter focusing time.

Image Courtesy of Sony

There are the typical keys to the left of the monitor including Menu, Display, Delete and Playback. To the right is a four-way controller with center set button, a Function key and Super SteadyShot on/off to engage the sensor shift image stabilizer. This helps eliminate most but not all blur that ruins photos shot at lower shutter speeds. Other keys include power on/off, Exposure Compensation, AEL (Auto Exposure Lock) and the Smart Teleconverter button. This one is basically a digital zoom that works when you’re in the Live View mode; as with all digital zooms resolution drops when used and is not recommended for top quality.

On the right side is the CompactFlash card slot with a nearby USB out while the compartment on the left has connections for a remote and DC-in. The bottom of this Made in Japan camera has a metal tripod mount and battery compartment which is rated a good 730 shots using the viewfinder.

The alpha comes with everything you need to start shooting other than a flash memory card—neck strap, body caps, owner’s manual and CD-ROM with Picture Motion Brower ver. 2.1.02, Image Data Lightbox SR Ver. 1.0 and Image Data Converter SR ver. 2.0 for downloading and developing RAW files. The camera is available with an 18-70mm kit lens but I feel a 14MP D-SLR deserves something better. Sony does too and sent along a $699 USD Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar f/3.5-4.5 16-80mm lens. I’ve used this one in the past and was very pleased with the results. You should strongly consider this since it’s a worthwhile investment and will probably be the only lens you’ll need for years to come.

After loading a 4GB Sony UDMA 300x card (at 48 Mbps, it’s fast), it was time to start shooting.