Sony Alpha DSLR-A550 (body only)
The A550 is heavier and bulkier than its lower-end siblings are--though it's lighter than the competition--but with a much better grip design. Its siblings are about three-quarters height, which feels much less secure than the A550's full-height grip. While it feels solidly built, its plastic housing leaves a cheaper impression than similarly priced models like the 50D did. And even for a midrange dSLR, Sony doesn't make good use of the extra space, with too many buttons and labels unnecessarily crowding the body. For instance, the Smart Teleconverter--digital zoom--doesn't belong on a camera like this, and the D-Range Optimizer doesn't really require a dedicated button. They just get in the way while you're trying to distinguish among the drive mode, ISO sensitivity, exposure compensation and exposure lock button, which all feel identical.
Usually more buttons mean a more streamlined shooting experience, but the A550 seems designed for LCD-based shooting rather than viewfinder shooting. On one hand, the viewfinder displays image stabilization status--bars show how close to steady it is--and will indicate if the lens is in manual focus mode. But it fits those in by trading off for more traditional information, such as ISO sensitivity. That means you have to look at the back display to change it. The viewfinder prompts mixed reactions as well. On one hand, it displays the focus indicators as large boxes, which is a nice switch from the tiny dots favored by viewfinders a price class down. However, the viewfinder is small with a low magnification factor. And since the LCD extends out a bit past the eyecup, you actually have to cram your face up against the camera to see through it. I've left cheekprints all over it.
In typical DSLR fashion, the A550 features a deeply sculpted handgrip front and built-up thumb rest rear - the shooting finger falls naturally to the shutter button. The top and back of the body are covered with buttons and controls except for the thumb rest area, and the overall spacing and layout of the controls doesn't present any obvious conflicts that might encourage inadvertent activations. The most likely candidate for such a problem is the control dial which sits below the shutter button - in the manual or semi-auto shooting modes it only needs to be moved to change camera settings, but in practice it proved immune to accidental inputs.
The bottom line: If you're a Live View-oriented shooter who doesn't care about color accuracy, the Sony Alpha DSLR-A550's good performance and decent noise and more »
