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CAMERA TEST
Image quality is excellent for such an affordable and highly specified DSLR camera, finds David Kilpatrick. But it comes with a somewhat bewildering array of viewing, focusing and metering options.
Sony's 16.2-megapixel sensor has made an impact in the Nikon D7000, Pentax K-5 and its own Alpha 55. This latter camera is an oddity because it's an electronic viewfinder camera, not a true SLR. The Alpha 580, which uses the same sensor, is the closest that Sony comes to matching the Nikon and Pentax models. It has a tilting but not rotating 2.7-inch rear screen with a bright 920,000-dot image.
Where its rivals are both very solid, weatherproofed models aimed at the top end of the consumer market and light professional use, the Alpha 580 is little more than half their price level and built in a very different way. It looks and feels like a plastic-bodied camera no matter what metal skeleton exists inside, and the outer skin does not have the solid feel of the similarly constructed Canon EOS 60D.
The 580 is the first Alpha to offer contrast detect autofocus and sensor-fed live view with a true SLR optical finder (95 percent view, .80 magnification) , but inherits at the same time the Quick Live View function first seen in the Alpha 300 and 350. This provides a rear screen...