Sony Alpha A550

Another function is for making the most of overcast or difficult situations, where there is large latitude of light in the frame – Bright sky and shawdowy foreground. With a dedicated button D- Range and High Dynamic Range (HDR) are the options for controlling how much film type latitude you have. They work in slightly different ways with both offering an Auto option and manually setting by degrees.

Both Memory Stick and SD card storage formats are supported

First off, the D-Range Optimiser alters the brightness in the shadows and out of the two methods offers more subtle changes, especially in Auto. This lighter touch is fine though, because this option could easily be left on all the time. Indeed, it’ll suit people who definitely want all processing done in-camera and rather than doing it in software later.

The manual mode offers five stages of adjustment, so plenty of choice; however I think most users would opt to make these adjustments in software, it is just so final writing a JPEG, that already has processing and compression applied. Yet choose to operate the camera in RAW mode and you can tweak afterwards anyway, so that decision can be made during the processing stage.

More interestingly, the second method has the ability to take two images very quickly together, to create HDR images in camera. Again, there’s an auto mode or three stop in manual mode, in half stop steps. The camera merges the images together into a single shot. What sets this camera apart is the in-built stabilisation. Shots can be taken hand held as the processor can compensate for any small movements between the shots with acceptable amounts of shake being dependent on the shutter speed.

The results don't really compare with some artists using ten or more shots to create unique looks; but for landscape/architecture use it is great for pictures with huge latitudes; bright skies, not having to be compensated (blown out) for shadowy foregrounds.

The rechargeable lithium battery life is excellent and capable of around 950 shots

There are two ways of composing your shot. One is through the optical viewfinder in OVF mode; this allows you to shoot traditionally. Visible are two sliding scales of shutter speed and aperture constantly moving in Program modes – showing graphically the difference in exposure in a scene, and in Manual mode, showing how incorrect it thinks your settings are -2 to +2 EV. There are two different layout versions of this screen and important information about all parameters is displayed on the rear panel.