Sony Alpha DSLR-A350 review

The rest of the specs are typical for its class: sensitivity up to ISO 3,200; sensor antidust protection measures; shutter speeds from 1/4000 second to 30 seconds with 1/160 second flash sync; various white-balance presets plus manual and colour-temperature chooser; spot, multi-segment and centre-weighted metering; and spot, selectable spot and wide-area AF.

Shooting speed (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Time to first shot

Raw shot-to-shot time

Shutter lag (dim light)

Shutter lag (typical)

Sony Alpha DSLR-A350 (with 18-70mm lens)

0.6

0.9

0.6

0.3

Sony Alpha DSLR-A200 (with 18-70mm lens)

0.5

0.6

1.2

0.3

Nikon D80 (with 18-55mm lens)

0.1

0.3

0.9

0.5

Canon EOS 450D (with 18-55mm lens)

0.2

0.4

1.2

0.5

Pentax K10D (with 18mm-55mm lens)

0.5

0.5

1.6

0.5

There are also various drive modes including white-balance bracketing. Sony-specific features include the same D-RangeOptimiser as in the A700 and Creative Style presets with editable contrast, saturation and sharpness.

Performance
Because it generally costs too much to add faster processing in this price segment, the A350's higher resolution exacts a performance toll. There are a couple of bright spots, but in our overall tests, the camera ranks on the slow side.

When you take processing and file writing out of the equation, the A350 handily zips past the rest of the pack: shutter/shot lag lasts a mere 0.3 seconds in optimal conditions and 0.6 seconds in dim. The rest doesn't look quite so rosy. It powers on and shoots in 0.6 seconds, kind of slow relative to the rest. Once focused, shot-to-shot time typically takes about 0.7 seconds for JPEG and 0.9 for raw, both at the bottom of the class.

We will say that it doesn't feel that slow while photographing, and we routinely shoot raw+JPEG. Adding flash recycling time almost doubles the lag to 1.5 seconds, also at the bottom of the scale for dSLRs. As you'd also expect, the camera is a slow burst shooter as well -- 2.5 frames per second. Though it can keep that up until your card fills with JPEGs, it maxes out at 4 raw frames.