All in all a good dslr. Its capable of taking great shots with detail and sharpness that are class leading imo. The only real negatives IQ wise is the noise present at higher isos in comparison to other cameras.
A few caveats must accompany this though. 1) The actual iso sensitivity of the camera is higher than advertised (1/3 of a stop) and over exposing by 1/3 of a stop improves matters greatly at the higher isos. (actually the alpha errs on the side of caution exposure wise anyway in my experience and dialing in 1/3 of a stop +ve compensation is usually no bad thing)
2) The images taken by the alpha respond quite well to noise removal by some of the better tools available.
3) The shake reduction system offsets this quite effectively allowing you to use lower isos than otherwise possible.
Its build quality is not the best, but neither is it sub standard as some have suggested - my only worry might be the twin operation knobs after a couple of years.
I personally dont find the camera layout particularly intuitive and im usually pretty quick a getting to grips with things, i still find myself constantly having to stop and look at the top of the camera etc to adjust settings more than i would like.
The battery life is pretty good which came as a pleasant surprise. The write times to a CF card are impressive and can basically be filled with jpgs at the rate of ~3fps if so desired. The Dynamic range optimisation feature can be regarded as a bit of gimmick but does work and can be useful sometimes. The shake reduction system really does work and you can happily shoot away at 1/10s shutter speeds and sometimes slower.
Problems:
Possible slight backfocus issue.
A few caveats must accompany this though. 1) The actual iso sensitivity of the camera is higher than advertised (1/3 of a stop) and over exposing by 1/3 of a stop improves matters greatly at the higher isos. (actually the alpha errs on the side of caution exposure wise anyway in my experience and dialing in 1/3 of a stop +ve compensation is usually no bad thing)
2) The images taken by the alpha respond quite well to noise removal by some of the better tools available.
3) The shake reduction system offsets this quite effectively allowing you to use lower isos than otherwise possible.
Its build quality is not the best, but neither is it sub standard as some have suggested - my only worry might be the twin operation knobs after a couple of years.
I personally dont find the camera layout particularly intuitive and im usually pretty quick a getting to grips with things, i still find myself constantly having to stop and look at the top of the camera etc to adjust settings more than i would like.
The battery life is pretty good which came as a pleasant surprise. The write times to a CF card are impressive and can basically be filled with jpgs at the rate of ~3fps if so desired. The Dynamic range optimisation feature can be regarded as a bit of gimmick but does work and can be useful sometimes. The shake reduction system really does work and you can happily shoot away at 1/10s shutter speeds and sometimes slower.
Problems:
Possible slight backfocus issue.