Sony A68 Review
Image Quality
All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 24 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 6Mb.
The Sony A68 produced images of very good quality during the review period. The Sony A68's has an extensive ISO range of 100-25600. ISO 100-800 is noise-free, whilst ISO 1600 and 3200 produce more than acceptable results, with ISO 12800 and 25600 OK for emergency use. The RAW samples illustrate just how much processing the camera does by default, though, as they're much noisier at all ISO values than their JPEG counterparts. The night photograph was excellent, with the maximum shutter speed of 30 seconds and the Bulb mode offering lots of scope for creative night photography. The built-in SteadyShot anti-shake system works well when hand-holding the camera at slower shutter speeds.
The effective Dynamic Range Optimizer function extracts more detail from the shadow and highlight areas in an image, without introducing any unwanted noise or other artifacts. The High Dynamic Range mode combines two shots taken at different exposures to produce one image with greater dynamic range than a single image would produce. It only works for JPEGs and for still subjects, but does produce some very effective results. Sony's now tried-and-trusted Sweep Panorama is still a joy to use. The Creative Styles quickly produce special looks that would otherwise require you to spend a lot of time in the digital darkroom, while the Picture Effects provide a quick and easy way to tweak the camera's JPEG images.
Noise
There are 9 ISO settings available on the Sony A68. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting:
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ISO 100 (100% Crop) |
ISO 100 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 200 (100% Crop) |
ISO 200 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 400 (100% Crop) |
ISO 400 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 800 (100% Crop) |
ISO 800 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 1600 (100% Crop) |
ISO 1600 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 3200 (100% Crop) |
ISO 3200 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 6400 (100% Crop) |
ISO 6400 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 12800 (100% Crop) |
ISO 12800 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 25600 (100% Crop) |
ISO 25600 (100% Crop) |
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File Quality
The Sony A68 has 3 different image quality settings available, with Extra Fine 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.
| 24.2M Fine (13.9Mb) (100% Crop) | 24.2M Fine (6.15Mb) (100% Crop) |
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| 24.2M Standard (4.00Mb) (100% Crop) | 24.2M RAW (23.9Mb) (100% Crop) |
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Flash
The flash settings on the Sony A68 are Autoflash, Fill-flash, Slow sync, Rear flash sync. and High Speed 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.
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Flash Off - Wide Angle (27mm) |
Flash On - Wide Angle (27mm) |
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Flash Off - Telephoto (82.5mm) |
Flash On - Telephoto (82.5mm) |
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And here are a couple of portrait shots. Neither the Auto setting or the Red-eye reduction mode caused any amount of red-eye.
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Flash On |
Flash On (100% Crop) |
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Red-eye reduction |
Red-eye reduction (100% Crop) |
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Night
The Sony A68'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 20 seconds at ISO 100.
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Night |
Night (100% Crop) |
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Steadyshot
The Sony A68 has an antishake mechanism built into the camera body, which allows you to take sharp photos at slower shutter speeds than other digital cameras. To test this, I took 2 handheld shots of the same subject with the same settings. The first shot was taken with Shake Reduction turned off, the second with it turned on. Here is a 100% crop of the image to show the results. As you can see, with Shake Reduction turned on, the images are sharper than when it's turned off.
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Shutter Speed / Focal Length |
Shake Reduction Off (100% Crop) |
Shake Reduction On (100% Crop) |
| 1/5sec / 27mm |  |
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| 1/5sec / 82.5mm |  |
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Dynamic Range Optimizer
D-Range Optimiser (DRO) is Sony's solution to improve shadow detail in photos taken in contrasty light. There are 5 different levels and an Auto option.
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Off |
Auto |
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| Level 1 | Level 2 |
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| Level 3 | Level 4 |
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| Level 5 | |
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High Dynamic Range
High Dynamic Range Optimiser (HDR) is Sony's solution for capturing more contrast than a single exposure can handle by combining two exposures into one image. There are 6 different EV settings and an Auto option.
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Off |
Auto |
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| 1EV | 2EV |
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| 3EV | 4EV |
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| 5EV | 6EV |
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Creative Styles
There are 13 Creative Style preset effects that you can use to change the look of your images.
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Standard |
Vivid |
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Neutral |
Clear |
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Deep |
Light |
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Portrait |
Landscape |
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Sunset |
Night Scene |
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Autumn |
Black and White |
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Sepia |
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Picture Effects
Just like Olympus and Panasonic, the Sony A68 offers a range of 13 creative Picture Effects (JPEG only).
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Off |
Toy Camera |
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Pop Color |
Posterization |
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Retro Photo |
Soft High-key |
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Partial Color (Red) |
High Contrast Mono |
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Soft Focus |
HDR Painting |
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Rich-tone Mono |
Miniature |
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Watercolor |
Illustration |
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Sweep Panorama Mode
The Sony A68 allows you to take panoramic images very easily, by 'sweeping' with the camera while keeping the shutter release depressed. The camera does all the processing and stitching and even successfully compensates for moving subjects. The main catch is that the resulting image is of fairly low resolution.
| Standard |
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| Wide |
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