DSLR Reviews

Sony is not shy about who this new D-SLR is designed for—those seeking to step up from point-and-shoot digicams into the land of interchangeable lenses and easy application of creative controls.

The Sony Alpha A550 (with kit 18-55mm lens, $1049 list; body only, $949 list) takes us another step forward with in camera processing of HDR and DRO functions. While these items, to me, are the headliners for this camera, other camera amenities add to its allure. These include an articulating monitor, two Live View modes, very good high ISO results, a fast 5 fps (frames per second) shooting rate...

Boasting incredibly high resolution for a 35mm-size D-SLR, the A900 features a full-frame sensor and some unique technology. Sony developed an Exmor 24x36mm CMOS chip for this camera; it’s packed with 24.6 million effective pixels but they’re quite large (5.9 microns vs. 5.5 microns with the A700) thanks to the oversized sensor and improved design. As a bonus, analog-to-digital...

Sony announced the long-awaited A99 II DSLR-style camera at photokina 2016 this week and Shutterbug was one of a handful of media outlets to get to shoot with a pre-production version of the camera. What was it like? Well, in a nutshell, it was fast!

Newsflash! So-called entry-level DSLRs are no longer stripped-down models built to fit a bargain-basement price point. In fact, many budget DSLRs these days let you enter at a higher level photographically while not putting a dent in your wallet. The following are our choices for the five best DSLR kits (including lenses) for $750 or less.

The Nikon D4 is a large sized, 16MP, lightning fast D-SLR, with high-definition video capability good enough to satisfy an independent film producer. At first, my thought was to see how the D4 worked when used for the more mundane subjects I shoot than what it was designed for, and to see how it compared to the APS-C sized cameras I prefer. But, by the time my experience with the camera ended, I had shot a tutorial video with it (www.setshoptutorials.com and then click on “Anatomy of a Still Life”), found its fast framing rate more helpful than I expected, and decided I especially liked Nikon’s D4, an FX camera, when shot in the DX (APS-C) mode. Although the primary difference between the D4 and the D3 is the D4’s increased resolution and its advanced video capability, I found the whole package that represents the D4’s feature set just as important, so let’s look at those.

When it was launched in October 2007, the E-3 broke new ground. It wasn’t a me-too SLR; it carried the Four Thirds format into new directions that were uniquely Olympus.