Sony Alpha DSLR-A380 (with 18-55mm lens)

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Sony Alpha DSLR-A380

When Sony released the Alpha DSLR-A350, it stood out from the crowd primarily for its robust feature set at an aggressive price. A year later, everyone else has caught up, and its successor, the DSLR-A380 isn't quite so novel for the money anymore.

The A380 is nearly identical to its cheaper sibling, the A330. The only difference is the A330's lower resolution, 10.2-megapixel sensor. You can get the A380 in two kits: one with an 18-55mm lens and a dual-lens kit with that lens plus a 55-200mm model. At the moment there's no body-only version of the A380, but one could possibly surface later in its life cycle. As with all Sony dSLRs, you should be able to use any Minolta A mount lens with the camera.

Most of the redesign over its predecessor works for the better, though I do have a couple of quibbles. It's lighter, though it still seems to fall in the middle of the sub-$1,000 dSLR herd for size and weight. The new grip design doesn't work for me, however. It's only three-quarters the height of the body and doesn't feel nearly as secure as full-height grips. I do like the rubberized texture that covers it and the left side of the body, though.

The mode dial, which provides the usual access to a handful of scene program modes and the typical manual-, semi-manual, and full automatic exposure modes, sits to the left of the viewfinder, while a large Live View/optical viewfinder toggle switch sits to its right. Also on the top right is a cryptic button for the Smart Teleconverter, a 1.4x or 2x digital zoom that produces results identical to cropping and only works in Live View mode. On a ledge behind it is the exposure compensation button; I don't particularly like its position or feel, though. It's hard to feel and you have to move your whole hand to reach it with your thumb, and I think that will discourage people from using it.

Sony provides both an SD and Memory Stick Pro Duo slot in all its entry-level models, with a manual switch to choose between them, so you don't have to commit to the less popular proprietary format. In an unusual design, the slots and the USB and miniHDMI connectors sit under a sliding door on the left side of the camera instead of the more common right side. (The half-height grip probably necessitated this.) It doesn't seem to affect usability, however.

The back controls are fairly typical for a modern dSLR and will be instantly recognizable to advanced point-and-shoot users. A four-way navigation switch with a center AF button is just below the indented thumb rest. With it, you pull up flash options (including a no-brainer wireless on/off), ISO sensitivity settings, display choices, and drive mode options. The latter includes an interesting 3-shots-in-10-seconds self-timer mode and rather limited bracketing: just exposure, for 3 shots in 1/3 or 2/3 stop increments. Above the navigation switch is the Fn button, with which you access all your frequently needed shooting settings plus some others: autofocus mode, AF area, metering mode, D-Range Optimizer, white balance and Creative Style. There are no novel options here, but in a nice interface touch, some text pops up to clarify the purpose of a setting if you pause for too long without making a selection. You have to go into the menu system to set image quality and toggle the image stabilization, but there's nothing truly buried or misplaced in the user interface. Of course, with the relatively basic feature set, there's not a lot to hide. (For a complete list of features and guide to the camera's parts, you can download the PDF manual.)

It uses the same viewfinder that I complained about in its predecessor. Like many budget dSLRs, the viewfinder isn't very good--it's small and it's hard to see the focus dots blink red, especially against dark objects. At least the focus lock indicator is close to the middle of the bottom readout.