#1. Cheap Sony Alpha DSLRA850 24.6MP Digital SLR Camera (Body Only) by Sony

Sony Alpha DSLRA850 24.6MP Digital SLR Camera (Body Only) Review

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I’ve owned it for about a month now, including some real-world use on a recent trip to Europe. It performed wonderfully and everything about the design is dedicated to shooting stills without distraction. It’s large but comfortable, not as heavy as it looks, and with a huge viewfinder and hard buttons for every critical adjustment, I found myself able to get in the zone very quickly. The camera gets out of the way.

The one exception to this - and the reason I’m rating four stars instead of five - is that Sony left out a software function critical for using manual-focus lenses. The function is called “Release w/o Lens”. It’s available on the A700, but inexplicably not their current top cameras, and allows one to use A-priority with lenses that have no electronic connections, such as a Lensbaby. Just to be clear - this is a software feature and could be added easily as a convenience. It’s available on just about every other DSLR out there including the cheapest Canon Rebel and I have not been able to get a response from Sony as to why they left this basic function out. This is the only unprofessional aspect of the camera and has made shooting with my MF lenses much less enjoyable.