Sony Alpha 450 at a glance:

  • Enthusiast level DSLR
  • 14.2-million-pixel CMOS sensor
  • SteadyShot Inside image stabilisation
  • 7fps speed priority mode
  • In-camera HDR images

Introduction

After almost four years in the DSLR camera market, Sony is no longer the new kid on the block. In fact, during this time the company has released 13 DSLR models, a quantity matched only by Canon and Nikon. However, when Sony brought Konica Minolta’s DSLR division in 2006, it inherited just two KM cameras: the Dynax 5D and 7D.

It then took a while for Sony to get up and running. Its first camera, the Alpha 100, inherited much of its technology from the Dynax 5D, and it wasn’t until more than a year later that the company announced its second DSLR, the impressive Alpha 700.

As the Sony Alpha lens mount is identical to that of Konica Minolta (the latter was, in fact, known as the Alpha mount in the Far East), existing Konica Minolta users were extremely happy to learn that there would be new cameras to which they could upgrade and still use their existing lenses.

Sony, however, had set its sights a lot higher. With its huge global brand name and a strong background in compact and video cameras, the company has since tried to establish itself as a viable alternative to Canon and Nikon, particularly at the entry-level and enthusiast end of the market.

Realising that it could use its strong branding and existing consumer loyalty to entice first-time DSLR users to the Alpha system, Sony now has no fewer than eight DSLR models listed on its website, with all but two aimed at entry or enthusiast-level photographers. Of this range, the Alpha 450 is the newest, announced at the beginning of January.

With so many of the Alpha cameras sharing the same features, it can be confusing when trying to decide which model to buy. The Alpha 450 is aimed squarely at the enthusiast photographer on a budget, and it is probably best to think of it as a slimmed-down version of the existing Alpha 550. Both cameras share the same
14.2-million-pixel, APS-C-sized sensor and a speed priority mode thatoffers a shooting rate of 7fps. However, the Alpha 450 lacks the Quick AF Live View mode of its stablemate, as well as its accompanying tilting screen.

With the Alpha 450 priced at around £100 less than the Alpha 550, it is currently the most affordable of Sony’s three 14-million-pixel DSLRs.

With in-camera HDR and dynamic-range optimisation features included, the Alpha 450 looks as though it could be a great choice for the developing enthusiast photographer on a budget.

Features

The Sony Alpha 450 uses a 14.2-million-pixel CMOS APS-C-size sensor to capture images. This sensor was first used on the Alpha 350, and has since been included in the Alpha 380 and Alpha 550 cameras. Image processing is handled by Sony’s Bionz processing system, which is found in all its cameras. This enables the use of such features as in-camera dynamic-range optimisation and the in-camera creation of HDR images, but more on these later.

Unlike Canon and Nikon, which uses lens-based image stabilisation, Sony makes use of an in-camera, sensor-based system known as SteadyShot Inside. The advantage of this is that camera shake can be prevented in all images regardless of which lens is used.

The downside, however, is that the effects of sensor-based stabilisation cannot be seen in the viewfinder when shooting. To help get around this problem, Sony has included a SteadyShot scale indicator, which is displayed in the viewfinder and measures how much the camera is moving while in use, allowing the user to time when best to press the shutter to capture a blur-free image.

Having inherited much of its technology from Konica Minolta, Sony therefore uses the same lens mount on its DSLRs, although it is now known as the Alpha mount. It is a credit to Sony that there is already a full complement of lenses available to accompany its cameras. Better still, the company has Carl Zeiss designing and producing a range of high-quality lenses to accompany its own high-end G and standard series of lenses.

Sony also holds an 11% share in Tamron, and it is reasonable to expect that some of its lenses are designed and produced in association with this firm.

When it comes to saving images, the Sony Alpha 450 can use either Sony’s own Duo Memory stick or the more common SD/HC card. It is also possible to view images on a television via the Alpha 450’s HDMI cable socket.

If you are fortunate enough to own a Sony Bravia television with HDMI input, you can take advantage of the fact that each image file produced by the Alpha 450 has a built-in preview image. The size, colour and contrast of these preview images are specifically designed to be viewed on Bravia televisions.

One of the more interesting features of the Alpha 450 is the speed priority shooting mode. This allows up to seven frames per second to be captured, but it sacrifices focusing between shots. Consequently, the mode is only really suitable for subjects with a restricted zone of movement. For example, a footballer could move completely in and out of focus across seven shots, but a tennis player about to hit a ball will be positioned on roughly the same spot throughout, so if a small enough aperture is used a good level of focus should remain.

When in the standard continuous high shooting rate, the Alpha 450 is capable of an impressive 5fps for 32 JPEGs, 14 raw images or seven raw + JPEG images. In all, the Alpha 450 is a well-specified camera for its price. Although it lacks a few bells and whistles, there are enough features included, such as in-camera stabilisation and a fast shooting rate to satisfy the needs of enthusiasts.

Feature in use in-camera HDR

High dynamic range (HDR) images have been popular for some time. Until recently, we have only seen dynamic range optimisation effects in DSLRs. However, Pentax and now Sony have introduced fully fledged HDR imaging in the cameras themselves.

In the Alpha 450, the HDR feature is available in the D-Range menu. The camera takes two exposures in quick succession with a single press of the shutter release and each image has a different exposure. It then processes and combines these two images into one final processed image that merges the highlight detail from the darker image and the shadow detail from the lighter image.

In the Alpha 450, you can specify an exposure difference between the two images of between 1EV and 3EV, at intervals of 0.5EV. Alternatively, you can let the camera automatically decide the exposure for you. The greater the difference in EV between the two images, the more dramatic the HDR effect. For example, for a subtle lifting of shadow areas you may wish to use the 1EV setting, but to produce an image where much of the image is nearly a midtone you would be better off using the 3EV setting.

The HDR effect can be used handheld as the camera aligns the images as best it can during the processing stage. Of course, if the camera or something in the image moves, the processing won’t be able to align the image accurately and the result is a ghosted effect. For this reason, it is always advisable to use a tripod if your images require a slow shutter speed.

As the HDR image is a processed effect it can only be applied to JPEG images and not raw files. This presents a number of possibilities for creating some interesting in-camera effects. For example, you can set the image style to vivid and the effect to its maximum 3EV setting to produce a bold and bright picture. It also works with black & white images.

Used at its minimum setting of 1EV, it can be used almost as fill light, or for effectively dodging the shadow areas of an image. At its maximum strength, images are very flat in terms of contrast and look like etchings.

Build and handling

As you would expect, the Alpha 450 bears more than a passing resemblance to the Alpha 550. The differences between them largely come down to the extra buttons and controls on the latter for using Quick AF Live View and the tilting screen. So similar are the two cameras that it appears the smaller non-tilting screen of the Alpha 450 has simply had a plastic surround added so that it slots perfectly into the space required for the larger tilting screen of the Alpha 550.

The body of the Alpha 450 is plastic with a metal lens mount, but it is well put together. Even so, it has what can only be described as a ‘plasticky’ feel to it, perhaps due to the smooth rather than textured body, and because it is slightly larger (though lighter) than some of its competitors.

One part of the body that is textured is the large grip. With a rubber coating and contoured design, it is extremely comfortable to hold and the shape of the grip guides the forefinger naturally to rest on the shutter-release button.

Like other entry-level and enthusiast Alpha cameras, there is no rear control dial, only a single front control. This is generally not a problem – most other cameras at this level have only a single front control. However, there are a few buttons on the camera that could be better positioned.

For example, annoyingly, the ISO button is on the camera’s top plate in no-man’s-land, where it’s too far from the shutter button to be easily pressed with your forefinger and too far from the rear of the camera to get at it easily with your thumb. The result is that it is awkward to change the ISO sensitivity single-handed.

The menu button is positioned at the top left of the rear of the camera, which makes it easy to reach with your left thumb when holding the camera. However, it would have been better placed in the position occupied by the AF button – that is, in the centre of the cursor control dial.

Similarly, the playback and delete buttons would be better positioned at the top left of the rear of the camera, replacing the menu and display options. It is likely that you would be using both hands to review your captured images, and locating the buttons here would make it easier to search through and delete images.

Most of the key shooting settings can be found by pressing the Fn button on the rear of the camera. The only option I found that couldn’t be changed in this shooting menu was the image quality, which is changed in the main menu. This was a mild annoyance when I wanted to change from shooting raw + JPEG files to JPEGs alone, which would allow the HDR mode to be used.

There is nothing particularly restrictive about the build or handling of the Alpha 450 – it is just that a tweak here and there would have speeded up and improved its overall handling.

Viewfinder, LCD and Live View

Surrounded by a large rubber eyepiece, the Alpha 450’s viewfinder offers 80% magnification and a 95% field of view. This is a fairly typical specification for a DSLR at this level, and while I found the viewfinder fine for framing subjects, accuracy when

focusing manually through the viewfinder was a little hit and miss. As with most DSLRs, I found myself using the focus confirmation in the viewfinder to confirm I had manually focused correctly. This somewhat defeats the purpose of manually focusing in the first place, as relying on the confirmation produces the same result as the AF.

One of the major compromises made in the Alpha 450 is the LCD screen. The 3in tilting screen currently fitted to the Alpha 550 has gone, only to be replaced with a somewhat lacklustre 230,400-dot, 2.7in screen. It is the same LCD screen as that fitted to the Alpha 380, 330 and 230 cameras, which are lower down the range thus reinforcing the Alpha 450’s position as above these three models but below the Alpha 500 and 550.

As I mentioned earlier, Sony’s unique Quick AF Live View system isn’t featured in the Alpha 450, which is another major difference between this camera and the Alpha 550. The Quick AF system uses a secondary sensor in the viewfinder to produce the Live View image, which means that uninterrupted phase-detection autofocus can be used when shooting in this mode.

Live View is still present in the Alpha 450, but contrast-detection AF is not. This means that Live View must be interrupted while the usual phase-detection focusing takes place, before the Live View image returns to the screen. A further annoyance is that, having released the shutter and captured an image, the Live View does not automatically restart.

With its somewhat restrictive nature, Sony has named the feature Manual Focus Check Live View, with the obvious intention of it being used solely for the purpose of checking manual focusing. When used in this manner it performs well, with 1x, 7x and 14x magnification views to allow the focus to be checked at particular points in an image.

I rarely use Live View modes, and when I do it is usually only to check that I have manually focused correctly. The only exception to this is when I am using a Sony DSLR that features the Quick AF Live View. Taking this into consideration, it is a shame that the superior Live View system has been sacrificed to bring the camera in at a lower price point, although I found the omission to have little overall effect on how I would use the camera.

Autofocus

With nine AF points, the Alpha 450 utilises the same AF system found in all Sony’s current APS-C-format DSLR cameras. The centre AF point is a cross-type sensor, which means it can autofocus across both the horizontal and vertical axes for more accurate focusing. When using this centre AF point in good light with the standard 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 SAM kit lens, I found the focusing to be fast, snappy and comparable with the equivalent Canon and Nikon cameras.

However, the Alpha 450 struggles a little in low light. On a few occasions it actually seemed to give up, at which point the camera would not let me press the shutter released to take a photograph as the lens wasn’t focused. It was a little frustrating, to say the least.

The problem isn’t helped by the fact that there is no AF Assist illumination in the same way as other manufacturers have adopted it. Rather than employing a powerful LED on the front of the camera to act as an AF assist beam, the Sony Alpha 450 uses its flash bulb to strobe rapidly. While this is fine inasmuch as it does its job, it doesn’t work automatically.

For example, in aperture-priority mode you must first pop the flash up for the AF Assist to work. However, with the flash popped up, the Flash Off menu option becomes disabled, so the flash must be used to take the image. In auto exposure mode, the flash does automatically pop up and the AF Assist facility automatically activates. You also have the option to turn the flash off, but if you do so you cannot then use the AF Assist.

The result is that, if you don’t want your low-light images to use flash, you have three options: either to choose your focus point carefully, focus manually, or use the AF Assist and then hold the focus point by switching to manual focus and then popping the flash back down. None of these options is ideal, and I can’t help but think that a light could have easily been fitted and would most probably use far less battery life than the strobing of the flash bulb.

For me, Sony’s Eye-Start AF is like Marmite: you either love it or hate it. Two sensors under the viewfinder start the autofocus as soon as the viewfinder is held up to the eye. I find it extremely useful when set to centre-point focus and I am shooting moving subjects. However, it is annoying when you are walking along and the eyepiece rubs against your hip, activating the AF and in turn wasting battery life. I tend to leave the Eye-Start AF turned off unless I need it for a specific situation.

Generally, the AF of the Alpha 450 works well in most situations, but it is again a little sluggish when photographing moving objects. I found that in this situation I got the best results in AF-C mode with the Wide AF point setting.

Resolution, noise and sensitivity

Oddly, the Alpha 450’s images of our resolution chart resolve slightly more detail at ISO 800 than at ISO 200 and 400. With the camera on a tripod and a 10sec self-timer used, there is a slight blur at lower sensitivities. Images look sharper as the sensitivity, and shutter speed, are increased, so it would appear that mirror slap is causing the slight blur. Sadly, the Alpha 450 has no mirror lock-up setting to counter this.

After ISO 800 the detail resolution of raw and JPEG images incrementally drops until, at about ISO 3200, it reaches 20 on our chart, which is still impressive. By the time the maximum sensitivity of ISO 12,800 is reached, the Alpha 450 still manages to resolve detail to nearly 18 on our chart, although there is a noticeable softening in JPEG files due to the effects of noise reduction.

Overall, noise is well controlled and barely noticeable until about ISO 800. At this point luminance and colour noise are just starting to creep into the image. Luminance noise does not become much of an issue in well-exposed areas until ISO 6400, but both colour and luminance noise are noticeable and a little problematic in shadow areas, particularly if you try to lighten them.


These images show 72ppi (100% on a computer screen) sections of images of a resolution chart, captured using matching 105mm macro lenses. We show the section of the resolution chart where the camera starts to fail to reproduce the lines separately. The higher the number visible in these images, the better the camera’s detail resolution is at the specified sensitivity setting.

Dynamic range

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to measure the dynamic range results for the Sony Alpha 450 at the time of going to press. Having studied the images I have taken using the camera, though, I would suggest that it has a dynamic range of around 11EV.

The Sony Alpha 380 uses the same 14.2-million-pixel sensor and measured 10.5EV in our dynamic range test, so it would be logical to conclude that the Alpha 450 is going to be about the same, if not better. We will, of course, print the results as soon as we have them.

There are a whole host of dynamic range (D-Range in Sony speak) options available on the Alpha 450. These can be accessed directly by pressing the D-Range button on the top of the camera.The D-Range Optimizer (DRO) has featured, in one form or another, in every Sony DSLR since the Alpha 700 of 2007. The version featured in the Alpha 450 has both DRO auto and manual modes. The latter lets you choose the strength of the dynamic range optimisation, ranging from one to five.

Each level adjusts the highlights and shadows in an image to give the effect that the dynamic range has actually been increased. At the minimum setting the effect is quite subtle, but by level five shadows are lifted and highlights are reduced – so much so, in fact, that images take on an HDR-like effect.

The downside is that the level of noise in the shadow areas is also increased. I found that the best results came from setting the DRO at around level two or three, to help lighten the shadows just a little without making the effect too extreme.

Another option in the Alpha 450’s D-Range settings allows the in-camera creation of an HDR image.

Metering


When shooting raw images at low sensitivity settings, it is possible to recover some of these shadows without introducing too much image noise.

Those photographers who primarily shoot JPEG images will benefit from using the DRO feature and setting it to help lift the shadow areas.

For more precise metering, the centre and spot modes work well. When I tested both of these against a grey card I found that they measured 130 out of 255, making them almost an exact midtone.

White balance and colour

Colour accuracy is, of course, extremely important to any photographer, and I found that the Alpha 450 performs well in most situations. Its AWB setting results are accurate in overcast, bright sunlight and tungsten lighting conditions. In fact, I discovered that in bright sunlight the camera performs better in AWB than the default daylight white balance setting. Images taken with the daylight white balance look a shade too blue, and the effect becomes far worse should the sun disappear briefly behind a cloud.

Manual and custom white balance settings allow you to use a neutral target to measure the precise white balance yourself. The custom white balance in particular is easy to find in the shooting menu and, once selected, pointing the camera at a white or neutral target and firing the shutter is all that is required to record, measure and set the white balance.

Like all modern DSLRs, the Alpha 450 features a variety of different image colour settings. A favourite setting of mine involved turning up the contrast in the black & white mode as high as it would go to produce dark, brooding images. In fact, this effect was very similar in look to using a red filter when shooting on black & white film.

Our Verdict

With Sony having so many cameras positioned in the entry-level and enthusiast market it might seem a little confusing, but each Alpha model attempts to fill its own niche in the market. The Alpha 450 warrants its place in the Alpha line-up by being an affordable 14.2-million-pixel camera with in-camera image stabilisation, dynamic range optimisation, HDR image creation and a 7fps shooting rate.

While I like the extra features of the Alpha 550, I don’t miss them when I use the more affordable Alpha 450. As both cameras feature the same sensor, they resolve a great deal of detail and, if images are correctly exposed, noise is well controlled up to around ISO 1600. As most photographers will rarely shoot much higher than this, the level of image noise beyond this point is acceptable, if not good.

The camera does have its quirks, such as the suspect placement of a couple of buttons and the AF illumination being tied in to the flash, but I wouldn’t spend too much time dwelling on these issues as you can comfortably work with them.If you already own an entry-level Alpha camera and are looking for a affordable upgrade, the Sony Alpha 450 could well be the camera for you.

The competition

The main competition for the Alpha 450 comes from its big brother, the Alpha 550.

Both feature the same 14.2-million-pixel sensor, but the Alpha 550 has the better Live View system and LCD screen, as discussed in the main test.

Apart from Sony’s own Alpha 550, the biggest competitor to the Alpha 450 is, in the short term at least, the Canon EOS 500D.

It features a 15.1-million-pixel sensor and HD video capture, and has a current body-only street price of just £80 more than the Alpha 450.

I would expect the price of the Alpha 450 to fall once it has been available for a while, but even then it will be hard for it to compete against the Canon models and potentially the next generation of Nikon DX cameras.