Sony A350 Review

The Sony A350 is identical in many ways to the entry-level A200 in terms of its design, so a lot of the comments that we made in our review of that camera will be repeated here. The Sony A350 is slightly smaller and lighter than Sony's first DSLR, the A100, but it's still quite a big camera when compared to its main rivals, the Canon EOS 450D and Nikon D60. On its own the Sony A350 body weighs just under 600g and measures 130.8 x 98.5 x 74.7 mm, rather dwarfing the standard 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens, which feels a little lightweight and out-of-place in this company. Build quality is very good, with a chunky plastic body that is well-suited to two-handed operation, unlike some of the more diminutive DSLRs that we've seen recently. The A350's design is dominated by the very deep, chunky rubberised handgrip, and the large, tilting 2.7 inch LCD screen on the rear. There is a pronounced curve/indentation to the back of the body, allowing a comfortable resting position for the thumb when gripping the camera, while the indentations on the rubberized front of the grip � which houses both card (at the side) and chunky info lithium NP-FM55H battery (at the base) � means that it won't easily slip from your grasp in the heat of the action.

The Sony A350 is quite complex in terms of the number of external controls that it has, with over 20 in total. The majority of the controls are clearly labeled and common to most cameras. There's a mode dial on the top-left of the camera that lets you quickly select the various shooting and scene modes. Also found on top of the camera are the Drive continuous shooting/bracketing button, very handy ISO button, and the shutter button, which is quite loud compared with other DSLRs and may deter some from using it for candids, but at least its definitive sound confirms for the less experienced user that the shot has actually been taken. New for the A350 is the prominent Live View/OVF switch, which as you would expect allows you to quickly change between composing in Live View mode or using the traditional optical viewfinder. When other manufacturers, notably Canon on the EOS 450D / Rebel Xsi, have buried their live view mode deep within the menu system, its very refreshing to see Sony making it so accessible on the A350.

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Mark Goldstein