[Leica] Something to consider for us old guys

[digiratidoc at gmail.com (James Laird)]

Thought I'd give you my little user review of the new Sony SLT-A55. As
you may know I own the Alpha 900 and use some Leica-R lenses with
adapters with it but I find walking around with that beast together
with the more than hefty R glass a bit of a chore. I've recently
purchased the the Sony A55 and I'm testing it out and so far very
impressed. It's a small, light and yet very capable machine. To give
you some background it's sort of a cross between and Panasonic GH1 and
a traditional DSLR. It has a pellicle mirror, which so far seems to me
to make low light shooting better, no mirror 'flap' to contend with.
And instead of a traditional prism it has a GH1-like electronic
viewfinder. The two advantages here are 100% field of view and like
the GH1 a very large, bright viewfinder, the main advantage being it
is VERY easy to focus the thing even with my 64 year old eyesight. And
the sensor seems to be a keeper. So far my shots have all been very
sharp with only minimal noise.
I tested it with my 400 Telyt today and was amazed at how easy it was
to focus, even compared to the A900 which has probably the best
viewfinder of ANY current DSLR. I'm finally able to focus that beast
accurately with the A55.
It does have its drawbacks as any camera does, mainly less than
admirable battery life with its stunningly sharp LCD, which is by the
way tiltable, and the EVF. But hey, who doesn't carry a spare battery
with their DLSR these days. And the EVF doesn't really have the
'immediacy' of a glass prism, but I find the added ease of focusing
more than makes up for that.
So if your eyesight is not what it used to be and you find focusing a
little bit of a chore, you might give it a try.

Example photo with the 400, showing it's astounding lack of depth of
field at full aperture. I focused on the 'ribs' of the cone on this
Braums sign.

<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/digiratidoc/Friday/A55_400+Telyt.jpg.html>