Thumbs Up:

Above-average performance; perfect higher ISO levels output; fast Live View auto-focus; large and tilting LCD display.

Thumbs Down:

Awkward design for shooting through optical viewfinder; no video recording; poor color accuracy; Live View only gives 90% coverage.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Sony Alpha DSLR-A550 is a 14.2-megapixel digital SLR camera with Live View. It has Exmor CMOS of 14,600,000 pixels resolution that features dust reduction and anti-dust coating. The light sensitivity levels are ISO Auto (200-1600) and ISO 200-12800. Shooting programs include Night Portrait, Portrait mode, Sports mode, Landscape, Sunset and Macro. The maximum shutter speed is 1/4000 second and minimum is 30 second. The X-sync speed is 1/160 second.

3 inches LCD display is of folding type and has a resolution of 921,000 pixels. Sony Alpha DSLR-A550 has optical eye-level penta-dach mirror viewfinder. Its field coverage is 95% with 0.8x magnification. Its dioptric correction range is -2.5 to +1.

Shooting programs are Black & White, Landscape, Portrait, Neutral, Sunset and Vivid. The exposure range is EV 2-20 (ISO 100) with 40 exposure metering zones. Exposure compensation is ±2EV range in 1/3 EV steps. Auto exposure bracketing is 3 steps in 1/3 or 2/3 EV steps. The exposure modes include Aperture-priority, Shutter-priority, Automatic, Program, Manual and Bulb.

White balance is of three types: Automatic, Presets and Custom. Its presets include Incandescent, Fluorescent, Daylight, Cloudy, Shade and Flash. Sony Alpha DSLR-A550 features SteadyShote INSIDE Optical Image Stabilization, pop-up flash and white balance bracketing.

Zoom lens has a focal length of 18-55mm with an aperture of F/3.5-5.6 DT SAM that provides 3x optical zoom. The auto-focus is TTL phase detection with nine auto-focus points. Sony Alpha DSLR-A550 has Minolta A-type lens mounting system, 55mm filter and Smooth Auto-focus Meter (SAM).

Sony Alpha DSLR-A550 has pop-up flash with 12 guide number that features Wireless off-camera control, Flash exposure bracketing, Flash +/- compensation and AF illuminator. Flash modes include Red-eye reduction, Rear curtain sync, Flash OFF mode, Slow synchro, Fill-in mode and Auto mode.

The still image formats are RAW+JPEG, JPEG and RAW. The image storage resolution options are 2288×1280, 2288×1520, 3344×1872, 3344×2224, 4592×2576 and 4592×3056. Sony Alpha DSLR-A550 has Hot shoe for flash terminal and self timer delay of 10 second and 2 second.

The additional features of Sony Alpha DSLR-A550 are Automatic display brightness adjustment, Camera orientation detection, Smile Detection technology, Display brightness control, RGB primary color filter, Highlight point display, Dynamic Range Optimizer, Digital tele-converter, Digital noise reduction, Digital image rotation, USB 2.0 compatibility, Shadow point display, PRINT Image Matching, Eye-Start AF system, Built-in help guide, Saturation control, Quick AF Live View, PictBridge support, LCD live view mode, Exif Print support, Sharpness control, Histogram display, Contrast control, Date/time stamp, Face detection, Auto HDR mode, Direct print, DPOF support, AF lock and AE lock.

Sony Alpha DSLR-A550 has two connectors: 1×USB and 1×HDMI output; and two slots: 1×SD memory card and 1×Memory Stick PRO Duo. The software inside the included disc are Sony Image Data Converter, Sony Picture Motion Browser, Sony Image data Lightbox SR and drivers & utilities.

Supported operating systems are Microsoft Windows 2000/XP SP2/Vista and Apple Mac OS X 10.1.3 or later. Sony Alpha DSLR-A550 has one Sony NP-FM500H lithium ion battery. Accessories supplied inside the package include DSLR camera, battery, power adapter, USB cable, lens cap, dust cap, body cap, shoulder strap, software & drivers disc, and user manual.

Razzle Dazzle:

Sony Alpha DSLR-A550 is 4.1 inches tall, 5.4 inches wide and 3.3 inches deep and it weighs around 1.3 lbs (22.9 ounces). It is heavier than the A500 and A380. The Alpha DSLR-A550 has full height grip. The overall plastic housing gives a cheap feel while taking in hands. Sony hasn’t made good usage of a spacious body, its has affixed numerous labels and extra buttons.

Inside Dope:

Sony Alpha DSLR-A550 comes in two different kits: body only version for $949.99 and another with 18mm-55mm lens for $1049.99. The DSLR-A550 has larger sensor resolution and faster burst option than its sibling, the A500. However, its resolution is similar to that of the A900 and the A700. While testing, we felt that Smart Teleconverter feature of digital zoom was useless.

Sony Alpha DSLR-A550 seems to be designed only for LCD based shooting instead of viewfinder shooting. The viewfinder exhibits the image stabilization status bar to show the closeness of objects and also indicates the manual focus mode of lens. In addition, it also shows the focus indicators like large boxes instead of tiny dots by some viewfinders of dSLR cameras. On the dark side, the viewfinder does not display the basic settings like ISO sensitivity levels. It has small size and low magnification. The LCD glass is enough smudge prone to attract the fingerprints and cheek prints. LCD display extends out from the camera’s body like an eye-cup, so you have to choke up your face for better view. However, the screen will attract the cheek-prints.

Usually dSLR cameras place the controls on the top right for easy access by your forefinger. On the contrary, the controls are closely located on the back of Sony Alpha DSLR-A550 where you cannot reach your forefinger or thumb. You have to lower down the camera to access these buttons. We think that Sony is treating the DSLR-A550 as a cheap camera so it does not place the control wisely.

You can press the Fn button at the back of Sony Alpha DSLR-A550 to access various options including Creative Styles, DRO/Auto HDR, white balance, flash compensation, metering, ISO levels, auto-focus area, auto-focus mode, flash settings and drive mode. However, the navigation switch is flat and does not give any feedback on pressing.

You can tilt the LCD display of Sony Alpha DSLR-A550 for shooting at different odd angles. However, it does have flexible design like flip and twist LCD. You will like the fast Live View auto-focus and MF Check LV mode that magnifies focus area and adjust the exposure. The Live View displays 90% of a scene, whereas the MF Check shows 100%.

The Hand-held Twilight mode of Sony Alpha DSLR-A550 has Auto HDR variation. It captures two sequential snapshots at different exposures and then combines both of them to make single shot containing optimum shadow detail and highlight. You can manually select the bracket amounts up to 3 stops in auto or in 1.5-stop increments. This mode is limited to two shots only and does not give ample options. It combines the result of two shots and saves them as JPEG. It works better for extended dynamic range than Sony Dynamic Range Optimizer. The complete automatic setting does not allow changing the ISO levels. The shot-to-shot performance also affected on processing and saving the image.

There is a Speed Priority Continuous Advance mode in Sony Alpha DSLR-A550. It fixes the exposure and focus adjustment on first shot and gives up for the rest shots to provide the 7fps frame rate. However, this mode has some disadvantages also such as the object should remain always moving either on a fixed distance or beyond the infinity focus distance. Moreover, the lighting should be consistent on the object for this mode.

The time from power on to first shoot is 0.4 second. Time to focus and shoot is 0.3 seconds in good light and 0.7 second in dim light. The sequential two shots take 0.7 second and 0.9 second with flash. The burst shooting speed goes to 4.3fps (frames per second).

Sony Alpha DSLR-A550 and its cheaper sibling, the A380, have same 14.2-megapixel resolution. It is much better than the 12.3-megapixel optical sensor of Nikon D90. Comparatively, Canon EOS 50D has 15.1-megapixel optical CMOS. However, the Exmore sensor of the A550 gives more clear images on all ISO levels than optical CCD sensor. The pictures are clean, sharp and have great exposure at ISO 400. The A550 provides good picture quality with little image noise at ISO 800. The pictures starts to have mush up at ISO 1600, but the very detailed photos are usable even at ISO 3200. There is an increase in noise suppression from ISO 6400 and above. You can use ISO 6400 and above levels in emergency. However, the picture at ISO 6400 is clearer than that on the A850 and A900. The images at ISO 12800 are only good for small viewing and print size.

The Creative Style provides poor over-saturation and color accuracy. However, you cannot predict the output whether it will be natural or equivalent. In addition, the Sony Image Data Converter SR does not inform about the sharpness, saturation and contrast settings. The raw versions of files were more accurate for A380 than the A550. The inbuilt software does not have any option to replicate or replace Creative Style settings.

Nitty Gritty:

Sony Alpha DSLR-A550 offers poor color rendering and awkward design; still it offers good performance and midsection noise profile. If you want to be a Live View shooter and do not care about its awkward design, then you can buy this camera. However, we will recommend you to check other cameras in its class before making any decision.

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