Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Pros:
- fast speed shooting - combines 7 shots in 1 in SCN - Hand Held Twilight ("stable night shot") mode - impressive. I have Sony HX1 which has 6 image burst with processing in 1 (it's a little faster than a560 though). And I never will buy another camera without this feature because with that you will avoid blurry pictures especially in night time. And you do not have to carry around a tripod.
- fast focusing, continuous AF - tracking of any object with release button is half pressed, when you point camera at object. Standard AF. The focusing is really fast in any time (day or night). Well at least with coming SAL 1855 Sony 18-55 mm lens. The same thing I liked about Pentax - fast focusing but it does not have a 7 in 1 burst and Sony Images much better than Pentax. I tried Canon Ti1-3, Nikon 3100 and none of them have the same fast focusing;
- auto HDR mode takes 3 pictures and combine them in one with best contrast and color;
- pretty true distinguished colors. I liked that very much. In this area A560 bits HX1;
- high ISO (12800) and low noise (3200-6400) allows you to take a picture in twilight or practically in a night time with ambient light (using auto HDR in P mode or Hand Held Twilight) with pretty decent quality, better than Pentax K-x for example;
- battery life is ok, and counts mostly not by number of taken pictures but by time when camera is on;
- video HD 1440x1080 in MP4 is pretty clear, with stable shot on and steady hands you may shoot decent video (I did). It's about 10 minutes with steady shot on, and about 24 minutes with steady shot off. If to compare with Sony-A580, the last one allows you to take only 14 minutes of video with steady shot off;
- view finder and live view mode is practical in sunny day. Live view screen is clear and does not slow down AF;
- there is a shoe for external flash or microphone;
- 3.5 microphone input;
- duel SD and MS (memory Stick Pro Due) in built card reader (you have to switch between them manually though);
- tilted live view screen (90 degrees: up and down);
- 3D sweep panorama mode;
- AF Check LV (it's metering distance to an object, then you press and hold button under lens and when an another object will be in a focus range of the first one you can just "draw" your camera and take pictures within milliseconds). Lets just say you wait for some person and he will pass next to the area where you set a focus and then, as I said, you just "draw", point and "shoot". It can be done along with any mode. It reminds me old good SLR.
- Exposure compensation during a video shooting works best in P and S modes (worse in M and A modes). You can add or reduce brightness while taking a video;
- Many function buttons on the camera body for easy access;
- 14 Mp allows you to crop a picture without loosing a considerable picture quality (low grain and very clear picture especially with sufficient light);
- with stable shot off you can take continuous clip (about 24 min per clip) without camera sensor overheating and as a result of auto shut down;
- built in filters: Green and Magenta. You can change intensity (from 1 to 9 scale) in this color range;
- the camera has a power savings setting. So if you would forget to turn it of it will "fall asleep" saving by that your battery.
Cons:
- built in filters: Green and Magenta only in AWB (auto white balance mode). For Blue color correction you can use only the color temperature by decreasing one.
- 7 shots in 1 feature is available only in SCN "stable night shot" mode, and it does not freeze the object movement completely as it could be achieved with Sony Cyber Shot HX1, which has a day and twilight stable shot; A560 - has only twilight stable shot;
- Portrait mode does not have too much control. You can lock exposure (AEL), set timer or use "Focus check LV", you can not change ISO, select burst mode, you can not use exposure correction or D-range (DRO or HDR). You can not set center focus if AF in use. Because of all that outdoor picture in portrait mode are subject to light conditions. If it's too sunny - picture will be overexposed, if you do not use manual focus you may end up with blurry object. I tried that.
- When you take a picture in direct sun light or use a flash it seems that the color spectra shifted to red zone. A person face can become more yellow and red. My suggestion - use a UV filter.
- Shooting object against the sun with flash is tricky. I found for my self hard to find right mode and brightness balance. I could finally find setting in P mode to take a person picture against the sun but it's for certain light condition. Once cloud covered the sun (a bit) the background went overexposed. I suggest use external more powerful flash because the built in flash was set at maximum power and this was not much in help. I used to take a pictures with the same light conditions (against the sun) with Sony HX1 in auto mode and the whole picture was well balanced with all details.
- auto focusing available only for still images, not available in movie mode (in opposite to Sony A55, but last one is not last in the video mode longer then 4 minutes, even with steady shot off);
- movie button design placed it near the view finder, what does not make the turning off smoothly;
- there is neither auto focusing nor an electric buttons zoom control, what brings some shakes when you zooming manually in video mode. Besides, when you use zoom in video mode you can see flickering of whole screen (not badly but noticeable) because of exposition changing;
- steady shot does not help much in movie mode. If to compare with video in Sony HX1 the Sony A560, the first one makes more smooth video. Video A560 without a steady shot on is like you filming in earthquake environment (manually focusing on every object) even if you do not touch zoom. HX1 takes great videos with smooth zooming (but not very good audio).
- audio in movie mode is the same as in HX1 - not very good (there are no basses at all, the sound is like in an empty jar). But I'd say a560 audio recording is worse then HX1, because of constant ambient noise. However A560 allows you to connect an external microphone, what could resolve the audio quality problem. I tried to use a regular microphone from headset with 3.5 jack. It worked on A560, the ambient noise went down, however, I didn't hear a stereo sound in a playback (It could be not a stereo microphone). So I'm getting an Audio-Technica PRO24CM directional Stereo Microphone (100 - 17KHz) for this camera;
- after 8 minutes of continuous shooting the temperature sensor control indicator pops up on the screen. In 10 (in total) minutes the camera shuts off by itself. When you turn off "stable shot", camera takes video for 23 min and 35 seconds (what is video limit for one continuous clip), then video turns off but camera stays on. Shooting without tripod in both ways (stable shot off/on) won't give you stable (not shaking) movie clip if you won't be able to hold it very steady. I suggest to get a lens with optical stabilizer;
- with AVCHD (1920 x 1080) setup, the movie clip is recorded in bizarre AVCHD format with file extensions *.MTS, what can't be read by Nero player or Windows player or any one. But it can be read by supplied on CD PMB software. I imported file in Prism Video converter then was able to preview it. After that you may convert it. But what the point advertise AVCHD - 1920 x 1080 if you can play it only from your camera connected directly to your TV without possibility of editing or PMB from Sony, which is pretty limited in editing? By the way, you gonna use a HDMI mini connector (Type C) if you want to connect camera to your TV;
- to achieve 10x ore bigger zoom you gonna need an additional lens, and it looks like bazooka (for me it's cons because I got used to 20x zoom on my HX1 without additional spending's). However I found on Amazon a "Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC Lens for Minolta and Sony Digital SLR Cameras" which has a 11x zoom + optical stabilizer (which can be useful when you want to solve camera overheating problem (in video) by turning internal stabilizer off). This lens more compact and light weigh. I got it today. It fits for A560, does not slow down AF, has more smooth and more quiet zoom and focus controls. Optical stabilizer + Sony inside one give more smooth video recording suitable for home video, and I'm satisfied with that.
- in P mode flash is not always pop up automatically. You gotta press flash pop up button;
- auto HDR does not always works great, but it's subjective opinion. The higher EV the less shadows and picture becomes not very sharp. I tried to take a picture with an auto HDR mode in cloudy condition in contrast between tree shadows and a sky. When you point mostly at the sky then you can see distinguished clouds but trees are completely in the dark. And otherwise: when you point mostly at the trees then sky becomes just a white background. You may need to try different settings for best results. As for me I ordered from Amazon "Sigma 62mm Multi-Coated UV Filter", because I bought Sigma 62mm (thread diameter) lens. With hope it will solve brightness balance problem;
- the view finder is not available in the movie mode (live view only). So, with manual auto focusing it's nearly impossible in sunny day to focus at object with 100% accuracy (you gotta watch for focus indicator to catch this steady light what is hard for moving objects). However if object father then about 6 meters you may set focus to infinity, what will solve focusing problem;
- remaining time for video is not shown on display (only # of remaining shots) unless you start video, then you can see how many minutes your video have left. It's pretty awkward to start shooting...Read more›
Click Here to see more reviews about: Sony A560 14.2 Megapixels DSLR Camera with DT 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 Lens (Black)
Don't let life pass you buy. Get the fast action that other cameras miss thanks to Sony's Quick AF Live View. Take in the landscape with 3D Sweep Panorama mode.1 See into the dark with Handheld Twilight and Multi-Frame NR modes. And preserve your memories with amazing Full HD 1080i movies.
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