Introduction

Ease of Use

The Sony A390 is virtually identical to the previous A380 model, with the exception of its restyled handgrip and relocated shutter release and On/Off buttons. Therefore most of the comments that we made in our A380 review apply equally to the new A390.

In terms of DSLR sales, in the UK at least Sony - a relative latecomer to the party - claims to be snapping at the heels of the traditional 'big two' in Canon and Nikon. So it's worth asking if the 14.2 effective megapixel A390, coming so soon after the A380, has what it takes to consolidate its manufacturer's market position and possibly even leapfrog its closest compact DSLR competitors like the Canon EOS 550D and Nikon D5000?

Like its rivals, Sony's APS-C CCD sensor sporting A390 is targeted at both the hobbyist and family user, trying to entice those trading up from a compact or bridge camera with a promise of more professional looking images, ease of use and affordability. Although it feels surprisingly plastic in the hand, and lightweight too at just under 500g, the Sony A390 has a couple of neat and sophisticated features. These include an eye level sensor that switches off the rear screen's info display as you bring your eye close to the optical viewfinder, plus a facility that automatically flips the same display through 90° should you turn the A390 on its side to shoot portrait fashion. The LCD display itself eye-catching-ly resembles something from a school science textbook, complete with stick figures to illustrate the effects of shutter speed and aperture.

Size wise, when gripped in the palm the latest Sony A390 is almost a doppelganger for Nikon's D5000, and like that model, features an adjustable rear 2.7-inch LCD, still a relative rarity on a digital SLR. Since this can only tilt up or down to a limited degree, it's not quite as flexible as the Nikon's however, which can also flip around to face inward to the body and swivel to the left and right. By contrast the Sony's screen feels a bit stiff and awkward, even if overall the camera is reassuringly solid with rechargeable NP-FH50 lithium ion battery inserted and the 18-55mm kit lens we were supplied for our test attached.

The advantage of the Sony range over either Canon or Nikon is, of course, the fact that the A390 features built in sensor shift image stabilization - christened 'SteadyShot Inside' - hence no need to spend extra on specialist lenses to combat camera shake. As a belt to this brace, on the Sony light sensitivity stretches from ISO 100 up to ISO 3200, if a continuous shooting speed of 2.5 fps at full resolution (or 2fps in Live View mode) is less to get excited about (though again adequate for its target market). A useful on-board help is the reappearance of Sony's D-Range optimizer function to even out tricky exposures, for example where a bright background would normally throw the foreground into deep shadow.

Front	Rear

It has to be said that outwardly we think the A390's design looks a bit basic and seems to willingly suggest 'budget' model louder than most - even if its price tag says otherwise. A case in point: the sliding switch for alternating between optical viewfinder and Quick AF Live View up top (a bonus for access to that feature, granted), plus sliding door cover for ports to the side more closely resemble something you'd find on a boy's toy than a consumer range topping digital SLR. Plastic, yet not fantastic. More positively, you do get HDMI output in order to hook the Sony up to an HD TV (the cable once again an additional purchase), plus a choice of either SD or Memory Stick to save images to, alongside the expected USB connection.

From the front then, the Sony A390 certainly looks unthreatening to the novice DSLR user. Apart from the familiar ridge housing the pop up flash above the Alpha lens mount, its most distinguishing and only new feature is the bigger, more traditional handgrip, complete with leather-look rubberized covering. The A390's handgrip is a marked improvement on the A380, which was a squeeze to fit three fingers around and made it tricky to hold the camera completely steady for shooting handheld. Built into the grip itself is a narrow sliver of a window for the remote sensor, should use of one be required as an optional extra again.

At the top of this grip, but still at the front, is the camera's one and only control/command dial, situated beneath the main shutter release button and on/off switch, where it falls readily under the forefinger. In the absence of any top-mounted LCD window, users can twist this to rapidly scroll through screen menu options and folders, a task also achieved in slower, steadier fashion by tabbing through the same using the familiar four-way control pad at the rear.

Over at the other side of the lens mount we find a comfortably large button to release the lens, adjacent to which is a self-explanatory slider switch for alternating between auto and manual focus. Sony has subtly incorporated instances of its Alpha trademark 'cinnibar' (orange to the rest of us) colour on the camera, here only visible in the Greek symbol for Alpha that makes up the logo and thin line encircling the lens surround. As regular readers will be aware, the Alpha mount also offers compatibility with A mount lenses from the Minolta and Konica Minolta range, Sony having bought up that company's expertise wholesale in 2005 to launch its own range.

Front	Tilting LCD Screen

The A390's equally unchallenging top plate features the aforementioned shutter release button encircled by an on/off switch that visually apes the zoom levers found on compact cameras; said button has a definite half way point, focus points (a choice of nine) rapidly illuminating red in the viewfinder and a confirmation bleep signaling focus and exposure has been determined and the user is free to go on and take the shot. Go on to take the shot and with imperceptible shutter delay a full resolution JPEG is committed to memory in just over a second in single shot mode, a Raw file in three.

Interestingly, adjacent to this control we find an oddly placed 'smart teleconverter' or digital zoom button - which, if shooting with Live View and as JPEG only, zooms into (or rather crops) an image to an equivalent of 1.4x with the first press, or 2x with the second. Obviously accessing this function results in a drop in the images' overall pixel count - to 7.1MP or 3.8MP accordingly. The feature feels slightly pointless on a DSLR therefore - surely it was bought to deliver quality first and foremost? - but, on a more positive note, its inclusion contributes to the overall user friendly feel for those trading up from a point and shoot compact.

Next on the Sony A390 we come to the aforementioned and well-labelled Live View/OVF slider switch, nudging against the pop-up flashgun. If choosing 'OVF' with camera set to AF, bringing your eye level with the viewfinder and sensor below will neatly prompt the camera to automatically focus on whatever it's aiming at. Quick it is too, and the optical viewfinder is reasonably large and bright if not   patch on Sony's own admittedly higher end A900 model. Switching to Live View automatically blanks out the viewfinder, with the rear screen bursting into life instead; again, so far so user friendly. As expected the Sony's top plate also features a shoe for accessory flash situated just above the optical viewfinder. Curiously though there's no dedicated button to manually release the pop up flash situated just in front.

Over at the far left of the camera's top plate is a shooting mode dial sunk into the bodywork - thus preventing the user accidentally slipping from one setting to another when placing into or retrieving this Sony from a camera bag. Arranged around this are 12 selectable options, running from full auto to the creative quartet of program, aperture priority, shutter priority and manual, and including pre-optimised scene modes for common subjects such as portraits, landscapes, close ups (macro), sports, sunset and night view. Note that unlike the 'big two' Sony has yet to include video, high def or otherwise, in its Alpha DSLR series.

Pop-up Flash	Top

While that's it for the relatively uncluttered and unfussy top plate, at the rear we find the aforementioned tilting 230,400-dot resolution LCD screen, nestling centre, ranged left, to aid shooting from either high or low angles. With the impressive Quick AF Live View selected it's sufficiently bright and clear to do the job, and of course if harsh sunshine should obscure your view, it can be angled for a better one. While an adjustable screen is undoubtedly a helpful addition, to our minds it could do with being physically more flexible - being able to tilt or rotate it through more than one axis would be a definite boon. Still, perhaps we should be thankful for small mercies. Since the screen sticks out slightly proud of the back plate in its dormant state - and the viewfinder is recessed into the body work just above with the eye relief therefore blending into the body work - the user's nose inevitably butts up against the screen when using the optical viewfinder, smudging and smearing the LCD.

To the right of the viewfinder is a small wheel for dioptric adjustment that for once on a DSLR isn't stiff and rigid. Just below and to the right of this is a dedicated button for adjusting exposure compensation (+/- 2EV) in P,A,S,M modes, that doubles up as a means of zooming into images and magnifying detail when in playback mode. Using the cross keys/control pad at the rear in tandem, you can then pan around said enlarged picture.

Over at the opposite side of the viewfinder we find a fractionally larger button marked 'menu'. Press this and as expected a number of shooting and set up folders appear on screen, with clear black text on a clean white background aiding visibility. The two shooting folders allow users to select image quality and - if JPEG (RAW and RAW+JPEG also available) - compression rates too. Here users can also switch on SteadyShot, long exposure and high ISO noise reduction - all in fact seemingly activated as a default, as is the likes of the eye start feature. One playback and three further set up folders allow the likes of LCD brightness to be adjusted, the help guide to be turned on or off, plus user languages, folders and file numbering to be specified - all pretty run of the mill stuff.

Top right of the A390's screen we get a further Function ('Fn') button for those details we'd expected to find amidst the menus but didn't. Here for example we find the D-range optimiser, along with auto focus modes (a choice of single shot, auto or continuous), metering (multi segment, centre weighted or spot), white balance (including custom setting), AF area (wide, spot or local), plus Creative Style settings. These pre-optimised user selectable settings run from the default of 'standard' through the self-explanatory vivid, portrait, landscape, night view, sunset and black and white. For each of these creative options, contrast, saturation and sharpness can be individually adjusted.

Battery Compartment	Memory Card Slot

Beneath the Function button we find a familiar four-way control pad. Ranged around this are settings for switching on or off the on-screen display, selecting from the available flash settings (off, auto, fill in, slow sync, rear sync, or wireless settings), ISO (auto, ISO100-3200), and single shot/ burst capture, self timer or bracketing options (three shots at 0,3EV intervals). At the centre is a 'AF' button that comes in particularly handy when scrutinizing the screen in Live View mode. Press this and, as with a press of the shutter release button, the camera will automatically and rapidly determine a point of focus for you. Underneath these options is a self-evident trash can button for deleting duff images on the fly, and beneath that again a playback button for the review of images. As elsewhere, the A390 responds quickly and accurately to each button press letting the user concentrate fully on the business of taking great photographs.

At the right hand side of the camera - as viewed from the back - is an eyelet for attaching the provided shoulder strap, just beneath which is a plastic cover for a supplementary power port (power adaptor an optional extra). Over at the left side, we discover the aforementioned very plastic feel sliding door that protects four ports. These are a dedicated HDMI connection, USB connection, plus two card slots - for either SD/SDHC or Memory Stick. The camera doesn't automatically register which slot is in use - so a sliding switch is provided here too for the purpose of specifying recording to one or the other.

Flipping the camera over and examining its base we discover a screw thread for attaching a tripod plus a flip open battery compartment. Despite the supplied NP-FH50 battery for the A390 being physically small, it's mighty, delivering up to 500 images if shooting via the optical viewfinder, though a much less impressive 230 if using Live View - less than most compact snapshots in fact.

Giving the impression that the A390 is merely a beefed-up entry level model with a sensible new grip, it nevertheless has just about every box ticked for those who want to take better looking photographs on an amateur or occasional basis. But what of the photographs themselves? Do the results seem to make the most of the marriage between lens and sensor, does on-board noise reduction work satisfactorily, and can decent results truly be had with the minimum of user input - given the camera's intended audience.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 14 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 5.5Mb.

When you marry a sensor with a high pixel count to a standard kit lens there's always a question mark over whether the combination is truly capable of resolving all those self same pixels. For us, though there are plenty of subtleties of tone across the images from the Sony A390, occasionally they could do with being a tad sharper.

While such gripes can of course, to an extent, be 'put right' with subtle application of Photoshop's Unsharp Mask at the processing stage - or simply fitting a top-of-the-range Carl Zeiss branded optic - images also suffer from the very common complaints of barrel distortion at the lens' widest setting and pixel fringing, evidenced when zooming in close between areas of high contrast.

Still, when left on its default settings the A390 delivers a naturalistic array of colours, suggesting white balance is reliable, if grey featureless skies will inevitably result in underexposed foreground detail when shooting JPEG.

Considering its target market the Sony A390's ISO performance isn't bad - with on-board noise reduction implemented that is. OK, so image noise is noticeably lurking in the shadows at ISO 800, but by ISO 1600 noise reduction has kicked in, reducing the effects without smoothing out surrounding detail to a ruinous degree. At ISO 3200, as expected noise is more evident again and detail softer, resembling an Impressionist dot painting when zooming right in. But like those self same old masters, draw back from the image and everything comes back into sharp, clear focus. While Sony may not be pushing the envelope like Canon and Nikon when it comes to superior performance in low light, the A390 gives an adequate showing.

Noise

There are 6 ISO settings available on the Sony A390. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting:

JPEG	RAW
ISO 100 (100% Crop)	ISO 100 (100% Crop)
ISO 200 (100% Crop)	ISO 200 (100% Crop)
ISO 400 (100% Crop)	ISO 400 (100% Crop)
ISO 800 (100% Crop)	ISO 800 (100% Crop)
ISO 1600 (100% Crop)	ISO 1600 (100% Crop)
ISO 3200 (100% Crop)	ISO 3200 (100% Crop)

Sharpening

Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are soft at the default sharpening setting. You can change the in-camera sharpening level if you don't like the default look.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

File Quality

The Sony A390 has 3 different image quality settings available, with Superfine being the highest quality option. Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various options, with the file size shown in brackets.

14M Fine (4.56Mb) (100% Crop)	14M Normal (3.21Mb) (100% Crop)
14M RAW (18.6Mb) (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

The Sony A390 handled chromatic aberrations very well during the review, with limited purple fringing mainly present around the edges of objects in high-contrast situations, as shown in the example below.

Example 1 (100% Crop)

Flash

The flash settings on the Sony A390 are Autoflash, Fill-flash, Slow sync and Rear flash sync, with Red-eye reduction available in the Main Menu. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (18mm)	Flash On - Wide Angle (18mm)
Flash Off - Telephoto (55mm)	Flash On - Telephoto (55mm)

And here are a couple of portrait shots. Neither the Auto setting or the Red-eye reduction mode caused any amount of red-eye.

Flash On	Flash On (100% Crop)
Red-eye reduction	Red-eye reduction (100% Crop)

Night

The Sony A390's maximum shutter speed is 30 seconds and there's also a Bulb mode for even longer exposures, which is excellent news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 4 seconds at ISO 200.

Night Shot	Night Shot (100% Crop)

Dynamic Range Optimizer

D-Range Optimiser (DRO) is Sony's solution to improve shadow detail in photos taken in contrasty light.

Off	Standard
Advanced

Creative Styles

There are 7 Creative Style preset effects that you can use to change the look of your images.

Standard	Vivid
Portrait	Landscape
Night	Sunset
B/W

Sample Images

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Product Images

Front of the Camera

Front of the Camera

Front of the Camera / Flash Raised

Isometric View

Isometric View

Rear of the Camera

Rear of the Camera / Image Displayed

Rear of the Camera / Info Display

Rear of the Camera / Live View

Tilting LCD Screen

Tilting LCD Screen

Top of the Camera

Bottom of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Front of the Camera

Front of the Camera

Memory Card Slot

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

The Sony A390 represents one of the most minor upgrades that we've ever seen, effectively adding a better handgrip to last year's model. The A380 didn't really add much to the A350 model that it replaced, so the 2010 Sony A390 is effectively still using 2008's technology, and is subsequently looking dated compared to the competition.

The Sony A390 still doesn't offer HD video like those rivals - quickly it seems, becoming something of a must at this price. And it's an omission that feels odd given its manufacturer's expertise elsewhere with the moving image. The recently announced A580 and A55 models finally introduce video to Sony's DSLR range, providing even less reason to consider the A390. Also particularly off putting is the fact that the build of the A390 looks and feels a lot more plastic than its Canon or Nikon rivals.

While Sony hasn't brought a great deal that's new to the party between the A380 and A390, at the very least here is a DSLR that you'll be quite happy to take out with you for a day's sightseeing when you might have otherwise plumped for a less satisfactory compact for the sake of its perceived lightness and convenience. With kit lens and strap attached its portability is such that your shoulders and neck won't be aching at the day's end.

Also in the A390's favour is its competitive price, with lots of retailers currently offering the 18-55mm kit at under £450 / $550. When many high-end compacts and in-between mirrorless system cameras are officially starting to creep into this price-bracket, the A390 suddenly makes a lot more sense.

Still, we can't shake off the feeling that the A390 is the camera that Sony should have released last year. As a new 2010 model, it's more of a stop-gap until the new generation of video-capable DSLRs hit the shops, and as that day is now imminent, we'd advise you to hold onto your cash for the "proper" 2010 Sony DSLRs.

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4
Features	3.5
Ease-of-use	4
Image quality	3.5
Value for money	3.5

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Sony A390 from around the web.

Specifications

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