Sony Alpha DSLR-A330

Sony announced its three new entry-level dSLRs for 2009, the Alpha DLSR-A230, A330, and A380, which replace the A200, A300 and A350 respectively. The products preserve Sony's three-tier strategy for its low-end SLRs. The cheap A230 differs from the slightly-less-cheap A330 by the viewfinder and the tiltable LCD, plus the A330 will be available in brown. But perhaps most notably, these models have dual-memory slots, one of which takes SDHC cards and the other Sony's proprietary Memory Stick Duo.

Canon and Nikon don't even seem to participate in the $650-ish price segment the A330 inhabits. Nevertheless, it can't compete on size against Olympus' amazing shrinking dSLRs; its viewfinder will look a bit smaller than both thanks to the lower magnification factor and it has a slower burst frame rate. But that 9-point AF has the potential for faster focus.

	Sony Alpha DSLR-A330	Olympus E-450	Pentax K2000
Sensor	10-megapixel CCD	10-megapixel Live MOS	10-megapixel CCD
Sensitivity range	ISO 100 - ISO 3,200	ISO 100 - ISO 1,600	ISO 100 - ISO 3,200
Viewfinder	95 percent coverage 0.74x magnification	95 percent coverage 0.92x magnification	96 percent coverage 0.85x magnification
LCD	2.7-inch tiltable	2.7-inch fixed	2.7-inch fixed
Live View	Yes	Yes	No
Video	No	No	No
Continuous shooting	2.5fps	3.5fps	n/a
Autofocus	9 points	3 points	5 points
Dimensions (WHD, inches)	5.0x3.8x2.8	5.1x3.6x2.1	4.8x3.6x2.7
Weight ounces; add about 1.8 ounces for battery and card	17.3	13.4	18.5
Price	$649 (with 18-55mm lens) $849 (with 18-55mm and 55-200mm lenses)	$699.99 (with 14-42mm and 40-150mm lenses)	$699.95(with 18-55mm lens and flash)

Sony's research shows that most people stepping up to these classes of dSLRs are looking for better photo quality and performance but want to retain the simplicity of the point-and-shoot experience (a premise I agree with). Of course, there's always the green Auto mode on every dSLR, but the big challenge is moving people from that to using a lot of the features that make dSLRs a lot better than their old snapshot cameras. For instance, Canon has its Creative Auto mode, described in the review of the EOS 50D. With these cameras, Sony has added online guides to describe the different features, and provides more contextual displays for the settings like shutter speed and aperture.

The Sony Alpha DSLR-A330 will be available in black in July; the brown version will ship later this year.