Labs

When we first looked at the A100, it cost £581, and even at that price it was great value. Now, only ten months later, it's dropped to £391 and that includes the 18-70mm lens. It may only offer a little more magnification than the 18-55mm lenses with the 400D and D40x, but it makes a noticeable difference in day-to-day use.

Crucially, it also has a 10-megapixel sensor, so it can resolve as much detail as its rivals. And like the Pentax, which costs over £100 more, it has a Super SteadyShot mode, which compensates for shaky hands by moving the CCD up to 5mm. This means any lens you use will benefit from the system, and there's a decent selection of Alpha-mount lenses to choose from.

The A100 is only a little bigger than the Canon, but weighs 150g more. Build quality is similar, but the extra mass gives a more

ADVERTISEMENT

reassuring feel. Like the other DSLRs, there's a 2.5in LCD, but no status LCD, which means you have to use the main screen to view and change many of the settings. It's good that an orientation sensor keeps the information the right way up when you're shooting in portrait, and that an eye-piece sensor turns off the screen when you put your eye to the viewfinder.

In addition to the main programme dial, there's a dial providing indirect access to metering, flash, focus, ISO, white balance, colour correction and dynamic range settings. The latter has off, standard and advanced modes, but they made little difference in practice. Importantly, there's spot as well as multisegment metering, plus a nine-point focus system. A separate button lets you choose the drive mode, which includes a 3fps continuous mode (which we measured at 2.4fps) and exposure and white-balance bracketing.

In terms of quality, the A100 is just a little behind the Canon and Nikon. The A100's shots display plenty of detail and vibrant, realistic colours. There's a slight excess of noise at ISO 800 and 1,600, but the anti-shake mode may mean you don't need to use these settings. We like the auto mirror lockup when you use the self-timer, which reduces camera shake.

The proprietary hot shoe is limiting and the LCD's anti-reflection coating is easily smeared, but despite these foibles the A100 represents excellent value.