Sony A55 DSLR: Hands On

View of the Grand Tetons in Wyoming, with the Snake River in the foreground. This was shot in Sweep Panorama mode; ISO 100, f/5.0, 1/160 sec. [Editor's note: Because these images were taken with a pre-production sample, no full-resolution files can be made available.] Apple Aperture mapped the exact location of the previous image using the A55's built-in GPS. You can see that there's plenty of parking for shooting from this vantage point, made famous by Ansel Adams. A sunrise shot at String Lake, also in the Tetons. The A55 does auto-bracketing, but maxes out at a range of .7EV, not always enough. But it worked for this image, an HDR made from three JPEGs. These horses at the Jackson Hole rodeo were backlit -- just the situation for the A55's automatic HDR mode. The original result was too flat for my taste, so I added contrast in Adobe Photoshop CS5. Auto exposure mode gave me some fill flash for this shot, but it still wasn't enough to add light to this cowboy's face. The Shadow/Highlight tool in Photoshop took care of filling in the rest of the shadows; ISO 100, f/11, 1/125 sec. Converted from RAW, I only needed to adjust exposure down slightly in this image. ISO 100, f/4.5, 1/320 sec. Handheld Twilight mode at ISO 6400 helped me get this shot of my bison dinner, shot in a classic, darkly-lit steakhouse. I corrected the color to neutralize what was originally too-warm a tone, and added some brightness. With the help of a polarizing filter, this JPEG image of Grand Prismatic at Yellowstone National Park needed no retouching; ISO 100, f/8, 1/100 sec. This close-up of the bacteria in Grand Prismatic needed no corrections either; ISO 100, f/8, 1/100 sec. Jimmie Marlowe (left) and Hanna Cheek were moving fast at an outdoor performance of their band Bambi's rock opera, Goodbar. But phase detection AF during burst mode had no trouble keeping up. ISO 3200, f/5.6, 1/320 sec. An even faster shutter speed kept Hanna Cheek sharp. ISO 3200, f/5.6, 1/500 sec.