Sony A500 & A550

Dear All

Does anyone have any info on the new Sony A500 or A550's release date or if there are any online reviews completed of these cameras?

Regards

Dave

Dave2k1 said:

Dear All

Does anyone have any info on the new Sony A500 or A550's release date or if there are any online reviews completed of these cameras?

Regards

Dave

Click to expand...

They should be released right now, at least this week in Beijing.

There's a preview here on dpreview, there's a write-up about it on luminous landscape, and several results if you google for "sony a500 review" or "sony a550 review".

Not that hard, is it?

It's my guess that Sony have delayed releasing the A500/550 because they are revising the firmware version 0.9 to V 1.0 so that it can include MLU.
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Keith-C

KEITH-C said:

It's my guess that Sony have delayed releasing the A500/550 because they are revising the firmware version 0.9 to V 1.0 so that it can include MLU.
--

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There isn't any delay. The info was always for a launch of the cameras (end of) October (at least in Europe). And do you honestly believe that Sony delays a long planned product launch just because they forgot to program a MLU function that most buyers aren't even aware of? That seems a bit far fetched.

Nonsense. It's on sale in some parts of the world already.

Member said:

And do you honestly believe that Sony delays a long planned product launch
just because they forgot to program a MLU function that most buyers aren't
even aware of? That seems a bit far fetched.

Click to expand...

Some people have too much of a high opinion of themselves. They think that if they whine on an Internet forum (like this one), Sony will notice it and give them what they want. LOL. No one gives a crap about whiners on forums. The posts on this forum are not read by anyone working for Sony. They might read the main reviews, but definitely not trolls on forums.

Well, if you want my humble opinion:
I had a little time to try the 550 recently, and it was getting pretty dark:
I set ISO to 6400 and the results were indeed very promising-

pictures are grainy, but literally all chroma noise is gone- it looks a lot more like a Nikon shot, somehow. ; )

Even ISO 12400 looked usable.
The handling itself is not as good as the A700, A700 feels more solid and rigid.
regards,
Bernd

Sony Style U.S.A. estimates that they will ship on 10/28/2009.

I just checked SonyStyle USA. You're right. Odd--previous estimates were for shipping in early October, perhaps even the last week of September. I wonder what's going on.
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Dulaney
A700; SAL 50 f1.4; SAL 18-250; CZ 85 f1.4

I am officially looking forward to the A550's performance based on what the samples show. I had really been looking at as many samples as possible of the high ISO performance, and comparing them in my head to what I get from my A300 at ISO1600 and 3200...but this past 5 days I've been on a trip where I shot a very large number of photos at ISO800, 1600, and 3200 with my A300. While my ISO800 results are fine, and ISO1600 are perfectly usable with some cleanup, the ISO3200 shots really need a ton of work especially when shooting in very low light, and in very hot temps. The chroma noise is absolutely horrible at ISO3200 in the A300, and what I've seen from the A550, there is basically no chroma at all at ISO6400, and a significantly better detail retention with much less smearing from the noise reduction. I shot 50 or so ISO3200 shots, and with the 100 degree weather and high humidity, plus extreme low light conditions, the chroma was in the form of massive blue splotches. At ISO1600, the chroma was much lighter, and much smaller, and easy to clean up - however the A550 samples seem to show much less noise at ISO1600, which might not require any cleanup at all.

I am looking very forward to trying these out in person...they still look like an excellent upgrade path.

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Justin
galleries: http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg

The estimated ship date of 10/28 was exactly the same the day the cameras were announced. Given Sony's history none of us should be surprised if they ship before that date.
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Gary

What we've seen from the A550 looks very promising. The A700, though, still does pretty well at ISO 3200 even in very poor light.

A700 with Sigma 70-200 HSM, ISO 3200, 1/500 sec. at f 2.8 (noise reduction OFF with PP via Noise Ninja):



--
Gary

...just like what I saw on the A550.
regards,
Bernd

I agree with you totally. With my A200, I'm scared to use even ISO800, and I frankly hate pushing even to 400. But, from the looks of the 550 samples, 3200 looks better then my A200's 400. So that's over a three-stop improvement. Looks great.