Sony Alpha A390 Digital SLR Review

Sony Alpha A390: Click on the thumbnail for the larger image.

Sony's A390 sits at the top of their entry level SLR range boasting a 14.2 megapixel CCD sensor. In this review Gary Wolstenholme takes a look at whether those megapixels have been put to good use.

Sony's latest line of entry-level SLRS have proved popular due to their excellent on-paper specification and the inclusion of useful features, such as an articulating screen and Quick-AF Live-View. The A390 sits at the top of this entry level line of cameras, offering a higher pixel count than many other similarly priced cameras in a lightweight and compact body. Being aimed at beginners, the A390 isn't currently available without a lens and comes bundled with their 18-55mm SAM lens as standard for a shade under £400, which isn't a bad price for the specification. Is it good value enough to tempt new SLR buyers from other brands? Let's take a closer look and see.

Sony Alpha A390: Features
As with Sony's other entry-level SLRs, they have chosen to implement a CCD sensor, rather than use CMOS, which may have an effect on the camera's performance at higher sensitivities. However, in good light the 14.2 megapixel resolution should be plenty enough for large reproductions of your favourite images.

Sony's Super Steady Shot system is built into the body, which means you will be able to take advantage of the benefits of image stabilisation with whatever compatible lens you mount on the camera. Whether that be an old Minolta Dynax lens, one of Sony's latest offerings, or even a lens produced by a third party manufacturer, such as Sigma or Tamron. This should allow the user to keep the weight and cost of their camera system to a minimum. A camera shake meter is visible in the bottom right corner of the viewfinder to help you make the most of the system as the steadier you are, the more it can help.

The viewfinder is a roof-mirror type providing 95% coverage of the image area. Although I found the viewfinder appears a little smaller than with some rival cameras, it does the job well enough. A total of nine focusing points are visible, which can be selected automatically by the camera, or manually if you wish to take control.

The proprietary hotshoe fitting, which is a legacy from Sony's takeover of Minolta's camera business is present on this model. Although this may not be an immediate concern for many beginners, it may mean you will need to purchase an adapter to give you a standard hotshoe for the attachment of many useful flash accessories.Third party adapters are available for a few pounds, or Sony produce their own which can cost around £100!

The 2.7inch LCD screen is a joy to use with the Live View feature, which gives very fast autofocus performance indeed for such a system. The screen can be tilted through 90degrees, allowing it to be used as a kind of waist-finder, or it can be tilted the other way for shooting above head height. I would have been nice to see a swivel feature added so that the camera could be used in portrait format more easily in these conditions, but the screen is still a useful tool all the same, saving many a dirty knee when you need to get the camera close to the ground. Although not the highest resolution screen I have ever seen, 230,400 dots is plenty enough for comfortable use along with the screen's excellent viewing angle, brightness and anti-reflection coating.

Sony Alpha A390: Key features: Click on the thumbnails for larger images.
The A390 is compact, lightweight and comes bundled with Sony's 18-55mm SAM lens.	The articulating screen is a bonus for photographers who like to use the live view feature of the camera.
Connections for USB and HDMI are provided alongside support for Sony Memory Stick Duo cards and SDHC memory cards.	Power is provided by a standard Sony H-type battery, which is the same used on many of their digital camcorders, which is great if you already have plenty of Sony kit.

A recent development for Sony is to start providing support for popular SD and SDHC card formats alongside their established Memory Stick memory cards. Having both slots gives users the best of both worlds, as users of existing Sony equipment such as their TVs, or portable gaming devices may already have an abundance of this type of memory, whilst other users will be able to take advantage of SD's wide support and generally lower prices. A switch is provided in the memory bay to change between the two slots. You will also find a HDMI and USB connector in there, which can be protected from damage by the sliding plastic cover.

Sony Alpha A390: Handling
Weighing only 497g, the A390 is certainly lightweight for an SLR and will definitely suit those who wish to travel light. The body is about as compact as entry-level SLRs from Canon and Nikon, although the body itself feels a little chunkier, probably due to the articulating screen.

The overall fit and finish of the A390 is good, with high-quality plastics being used throughout. The finger grip and a small section on the rear of the body have rubberised grips attached, which helps to provide a good purchase. Being an entry level SLR the control layout is quite uncluttered, with only essential options having dedicated controls on the pouter surface of the camera. For anything else, you'll need to dip into the menu system, which thankfully is very clearly laid out, especially for functions such as white balance and autofocus options.

Sony Alpha A390: Performance

Exposure
The same 40-segment honeycomb metering system found in Sony's other APS-C SLRs does the job of judging exposure on the A390. The meter does an excellent job in a wide range of conditions, only faltering in scenes with very high contrast, where I found the camera would occasionally over or under expose, which is typical of most evaluative metering systems. The automatic scene modes, selectable from the main command dial also seem to cope well when used appropriately.

Shutter speeds between 1/4000sec and 30 seconds are selectable, providing ample control for a wide range of conditions. The flash sync speed is only 1/160sec though, which may pose problems if attempting to use flash for fill in bright daylight. Exposure compensation of two stops either way is available if the meter need overriding. Many other cameras offer a much wider range than this, with some offering up to five stops of compensation either way. Although this may be an issue for more advanced photographers, or those who prefer to use exposure compensation when bracketing for HDR images, but it is not something that should effect your average beginner, that is until they start to experiment more with the camera.

Sony Alpha A390 Exposure: Click on the thumbnails for larger images.
The metering system has clipped the highlights in this predominantly bright scene.	Scenes with more even contrast result in well-balanced exposures.
The exposure system has coped well here, keeping detail in both highlight and shadow areas of the image.	The Dynamic Range optimiser has helped to boost the amount of detail in the shadows.

A Dynamic Range Optimiser feature is included which helps to boost the amount of detail in highlight and shadow areas of your images, although I find it has it's greatest effect on images with large areas of shadow. Three settings are available, Off, Standard and Plus, allowing you to customise the effect.

Focusing
A nine-point AF sensor does the work of making sure your images are sharp. The centre point is a cross type sensor, sensitive to both horizontal and vertical contrast, whilst each of the others are linear type sensors. As the camera comes out of the box, the AF system automatically detects which AF points to use for each shots, which is quick and easy for snapshots. The AF points cover a good amount of the image area, allowing for creative composition when overriding the AF system yourself.

I found the AF adequately quick when using the viewfinder and when using Live View, locking onto most subjects swiftly and accurately. As the centre point is the only cross-type sensor, I find it pays dividends to use this sensor in low light and low contrast situations.

Resolution
The 14.2 megapixel sensor fitted to the Sony A390 is certainly capable of recording a lot of information, with excellent clarity suitable for large prints.

For this shot I selected the RAW plus JPEG quality option so that I could easily compare the two formats. Although the RAW file does look a little sharper, the JPEG image still records plenty of details. Every nick, scratch and rub mark has been rendered superbly by the camera.

ISO and noise performance
As manufacturers squeeze more and more pixels into the same space, this reduces each pixels surface area to react with the light forming each image, which in turn generally results in more noise in the final image at high sensitivities. Great advances have been made in the past few years in terms of noise performance, although most of the class leaders in this respect utilise CMOS sensor technology, rather than CCD as used in the A390.

Saying that, Sony's noise reduction and image processing engine does a fair job of keeping the dreaded coloured speckles at bay. A little noise is present between ISO400 and ISO800, but not so much that it will be at all disturbing when printed. The noise levels begin to increase to more noticeable levels at ISO1600, although it still isn't too bad when compared to older generations of cameras. ISO3200 has obvious noise present in images, especially in shadow areas which take on a multicoloured speckled effect. Quite a bit of detail is lost at higher sensitivities too, leaving images take at ISO1600 and above looking a little soft.

Sony Alpha A390 Outdoor ISO speed test: Click on the thumbnails for larger images.
ISO100	ISO200	ISO400	ISO800
ISO1600	ISO3200

Sony Alpha A390 Test chart ISO speed test: Click on the thumbnails for larger images.
ISO100	ISO200	ISO400	ISO800
ISO1600	ISO3200

Colour reproduction
With standard colour settings chosen, the A390 reproduces natural colours accurately, whilst giving primary colours a bit of a boost. Colour styles for a variety of different scenes are provided, including Landcape, Night and Portrait, which all effect the colour reproduction differently. The landscape mode tend to increase contrast and colour saturation, whilst the portrait mode produces more subdued results.

Sony Alpha A390 Colour test: Click on the thumbnails for larger images.
Even in the standard colour mode, primary colours are quite punchy.	The landscape colour mode has increased colour saturation and contrast a little, without making the scene look unnatural.
The vivid colour mode boosts primary colours and contrast.	Here the standard colour mode has reproduced colours accurately.

White-balance
In general the A390's Auto White Balance performs very well in a range of conditions, just leaving a little bit of an amber cast in images taken under incandescent light. Under the warm white fluorescent lights in our studio, the AWB setting performed very well indeed, in fact the result was a little more accurate than with the fluorescent preset. Using the incandescent preset under incandescent light actually resulted in a slight cool cast. Luckily each preset can be fine tuned easily to provide more accurate results.

Sony Alpha A390 White-balance test: Click on the thumbnails for larger images.
Auto white-balance in incandescent lighting	Incandescent White Balance in Incadescent Light
Auto White Balance in Fluorescent lighting	Fluorescent Preset in Fluorescent lighting

Battery life
We did not have the camera for a long enough period of time to complete any formal battery life tests, but during use, taking 246 shots in a mixture of JPEG and RAW quality and using Live View for about a quarter of those images, the camera still showed full charge on the battery. Sony rate the camera as being able to take approximately 500 shots with the viewfinder or 230 shots using Live View, which may be a slightly conservative estimate, depending on how much image reviewing and use of the built in flash is done.

Lens performance
Although quite a basic lens, Sony's standard 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 SAM lens that comes bundled with this camera has proved itself capable of producing very good results. We did a full test on the lens where the lens her  showed itself capable of producing images with excellent resolution.