Sony Alpha DSLR-A200 review

Performance
Our tests indicate it wakes up and shoots very quickly -- in roughly half a second. Under good, high-contrast lighting, it focuses and shoots in just under a third of a second, rising to a moderate 1.2 seconds in dimmer conditions. Typically, it captures consecutive frames in 0.6 seconds, jumping up to 1.3 seconds with the built-in flash enabled.

Its 2.8 frames-per-second continuous shooting speed falls around the class average. Also as is typical for this segment, it has limited non-JPEG burst shooting capabilities: only 3 frames raw+JPEG or 6 frames raw in burst mode. In casual testing, the image stabilisation system delivered about 3 stops of latitude over what the reciprocal rule dictates --1/10 second versus 1/70 second for a 70mm focal length -- which is pretty standard.

Shooting speed
(Seconds -- smaller is better)

Time to first shot

Raw shot-to-shot time

Shutter lag (dim light)

Shutter lag (typical)

Sony Alpha DSLR-A200

0.5

0.6

1.2

0.3

Nikon D40x

0.2

0.8

0.9

0.4

Olympus E-510

1.3

0.8

1.3

0.4

Pentax K100D

1.2

0.5

1.3

0.4

We do have a few performance gripes, though. For one, the LCD is very difficult to view in direct sunlight. Secondly, the focus indicators for the 9 off-centre focus points are lines -- rather than squares -- and very dim. Some people may have trouble seeing them. Plus, the shutter, or at least the mirror flip it drives, sounds unusually loud.

Image quality
On the whole, the A200's photos looked okay, if unexceptional. It renders reasonable, if somewhat warm or cool automatic white balance, depending upon the lighting. In standard mode, exposures seem skewed too much toward the midtones -- probably to avoid blown-out highlights -- so images look low contrast.

Its noise profile looks good until ISO 800, at which point colour artefacts become obvious, but that's par for the course on low-end dSLRs. The kit lens we tested produced soft photos.

Conclusion
Sadly for the A200, there are better, more interesting models from earlier years whose prices are dropping into its territory -- the Nikon D40x or Canon EOS 400D if you're willing to forgo the image stabilisation, or the slightly more expensive Pentax K10D if you're not. You can even opt for the similar and two-year-old Alpha DSLR-A100, if you don't shoot a lot at high ISO settings, and put the money you save towards a better lens.

Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday