Sony Alpha SLT-A35 Review

You’ll find this model on Sony’s Web site by looking in the DSLR department. But a DSLR it ain’t!

The entry level Sony Alpha A35 has no flipping mirror! Instead, it has a fixed, semi-reflective mirror placed in the light path that transmits 66.66 per cent of the light to the CMOS sensor in the back of the camera — and 33.33 per cent of it to a tiny electronic display built into the camera’s roof. When you move your eye from the large LCD at the camera’s rear to the eye level viewfinder you view the action via the smaller LCD. What you get is full time live view.

Remove the lens and you can see how it works, with the mirror in place whenever you shoot. If you need to, the mirror can be tilted up in order to clean the sensor, but normally remains in place at a 45 degree angle.
For what it’s worth, the 35 can use any of the A-mount interchangeable lenses Sony make as well as six Carl Zeiss lenses and the earlier Konica/Minolta AF glass.

Sony Alpha SLT-A35 Features

The review camera arrived with one of the kit lenses: the f3.5/18-55mm zoom … OK for general shooting but not much use for the more advanced photographer.

What did not arrive with the camera was any form of documentation such as a manual, neither printed nor PDF! Which made life writing a review fairly difficult.

Oh well. The A35’s CMOS sensor has 16.2 effective pixels and a 4912×3264 pixel maximum image size.

The sweep panorama feature can account for 3D panos up to 4912×1080 pixels or ‘flat’ panos up to 8192×1856 pixels.

Video-wise, the A35 can shoot a Full HD resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. Although you’re using an interchangeable lens, you can still shoot video with full AF and auto exposure in play. It won’t shoot stills during video shooting tho’.

The LCD screen status is quite useful, showing chosen exposure mode (P, A, S, M etc), battery charge, image quality and a graphic display of lens aperture and shutter speed.

An on-screen Help Guide gives a graphic explanation of selected functions and how they’re used.
A top panel button lets you call up any of 14 often-used functions and frequently used features can now be custom-assigned to the D-RANGE button for rapid access.

There is a Picture Effect (above) setting that can be previewed on the LCD screen, giving you preview of the effect. This includes ‘artistic’ treatments such as Posterisation, Pop Color, Retro effect, etc.

There is also a bunch of scene modes (portrait, sports, macro etc). In this section is found a bunch of Partial Colour effects (below), which lets you isolate and record a single colour, with the remainder of the scene picked out in monochrome.

The continuous shooting speed rises from 5.5fps (full size) to 7fps (reduced).

Sony Alpha SLT-A35 ISO Tests

From ISO 100 to 400 no probs. At ISO 800 noise began to appear. At ISO 1600 noise is still on the rise, although not objectionably. AT ISO 3200 even more noise and at this level you would have to select your subjects carefully. At ISO 6400, echo the latter comments.

Sony Alpha SLT-A35 Verdict

Quality: picture quality was OK but not brilliant.

Why you’d buy it: access to A-mount lenses.

Why you wouldn’t: LCD screen is fixed, doesn’t tilt; card slot in camera’s base;

So what did I think of the semi-reflective mirror viewfinder arrangement? Frankly, I found it awful: flat in contrast, noisy, with poor colour rendering. In a word: ‘useless’.

In bright light, you’ll experience flare in the viewfinder with a double image possibly arising from the internal mirror.

Solution: I used the LCD screen instead!

A nice, well-priced camera but the eye level viewfinder lets it down.

Sony Alpha SLT-A35 Specifications

Image Sensor: 16.2 million effective pixels.
Metering: 1200 zone multi-segment, centre-weighted metering and spot.
Effective Sensor Size: 23.4×15.6 — APS-C sized — CMOS.
35 SLR Lens Factor: 1:5x.
Compatible lenses: Sony and Minolta A-mount, Konica Minolta Alpha/Maxxum/Dynax.
Exposure Modes: Auto, Program AE, shutter and aperture priority, manual, scene selection, sweep panorama.
Shutter Speed: 30 to 1/4000 second, Bulb. Flash sync: 1/160 sec.
Memory: SD/SDHC/SDXC/Memory Stick Pro Duo cards.
Image Sizes (pixels): 4912×3264 to 2448×1376.
Movies: 1920×1080 to 640×480 at 25/29.97 fps.
Continuous Drive: 7 frames.
Turret Viewfinder: 1.2cm LCD (1,440,000 pixels).
LCD Screen: 7.6cm LCD (921,600 pixels).
File Formats: RAW, RAW+JPEG, MPEG4, AVCHD, Dolby Digital (AC-3).
Colour Space: Adobe RGB, sRGB.
ISO Sensitivity: Auto, 100 to 25,600.
Interface: USB 2.0, mini HDMI, microphone, remote, external microphone, DC input.
Power: Rechargeable lithium ion battery, AC adaptor.
Dimensions: 124.4x92x84.7 WHDmm.
Weight: Approx. 415 g (body only).
Price: The Sony Alpha SLT-A35 comes in a few configurations. Get a price on it at Amazon with: