After leaking in pictures online recently, Sony’s new SLT camera, the A57, has been made official by the Japanese gadget manufacturer. It’s the natural successor to Sony’s popular A55 digital SLR, with some new and upgraded parts.
Starting off we have a new 16.1-Megapixel CMOS sensor with an updated and improved image processor. The SLT part of the camera’s name stands for Single Lens Translucent, which relates to the mirror design inside the camera. This allows the A57 to continually autofocus when capturing both still and video images, and also lends itself to allow burst-fire shooting at 12 frames per second. For video recording, the A57 will record in Full HD 1080p quality at 24 frames per second.
The A57 features an updated and improved viewfinder, offering two magnification modes for users to easily switch between. The electronic viewfinder gives 100% coverage, perfect for framing a larger composition. The option to switch between magnification modes could also come in handy for photographers who wear glasses.
On the back of the camera you have a fully rotating LCD screen to either view back your photos and videos, or for using as a live viewfinder. You’re able to rotate the screen up, down and sideways, which should give you the perfect viewing angle for any shooting condition.
As with many dSLR cameras, Sony’s new offering has easily hot-swappable lenses (which will go on sale alongside the camera), a host of shooting modes, auto and manual focus, a hotshoe for connecting an additional flash module or optical viewfinder, and connections on the side for remote shuttering and flash, HDMI and AV out, plus charging.
Sony has listed the A57’s key features below:
- New 16.1-megapixel CMOS sensor, improved image processor
- ISO range: Auto, 100 to 16,000 (expandable to 25,600)
- Image stabilization: Sensor-shift stabilization mode
- Recording format: JPEG, RAW
- LCD: Fully-articulating, 921k-dot resolution LCD screen
- Electronic viewfinder with 100 percent coverage
- Burst-mode: 12fps
- Video: 1080p full-HD video at 24 fps
The SLT-A57 will be available early April, although an official price hasn’t been set just yet. However, many expect the camera body alone to cost around $700, or $800 for the body and a 18-55mm lens.
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