Sony Alpha 55

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I recently bought a used Sony Alpha 55 camera body on Ebay for almost $200. I think it was a good deal. The reason I bought it was so that I could use the old Minolta Maxxum lenses (Sony bought out Minolta in 2006). These lenses focus without requiring a motor, which is now incorporated inside the Minolta Maxxum (or now, Sony Alpha) body. My reason for buying the Alpha was the promise of sharp Minolta lenses at a bargain price.

My Maxxum collection plus the Sony Alpha 55

I have to admit, I was not blown away by the Minolta lenses, especially the zoom lenses. But I will have to say that the Sony compared well to my Canon T2i, despite the Sony only having a 16mp sensor, whereas the Canon utilizes an 18mp one. Regardless, I enjoy having a lot of lens choices with the Sony Alpha, since there are many Minolta Maxxum lenses to be had for cheap. My 28-300 lens covers a great range, but sadly, I can see some evident purple fringing (chromatic abberation). I suppose you really do get what you pay for.

70-210mm beercan lens in action. Take indoors without flash, straight out of camera. Not too bad.

So I'm probably looking at selling my Canon T2i, however I almost sold it before to a friend a work, and the camera just wouldn't cooperate, it wouldn't even come on. Once I got home, everything worked. This after I tried multiple batteries and multiple SD memory cards. I guess the T2i wanted to stay with me. Weird. Maybe I'll keep it. I already have a full frame Canon 6D, which I got on offerup for cheaper than Adorama or Amazon, and an L-series lens from my brother (not free from him, but discounted).

50mm lens without using flash, straight out of camera.

50mm lens without using flash, straight out of camera.

So anyway, you can see some images from the Sony on this blog entry, and decide if you like the pictures or not. I like the Sony because it has lots of extra features (panorama sweep mode, SCN/picture effect, auto, auto+, etc.) and even garnered a gold award from DPreview, plus like I mentioned before, lots of cheap decent lenses available on Ebay and local thrift stores. I did lots of research before I bought this camera, probably more research on this than my new house (sad, I know). And unfortunately, Sony no longer makes DSLR's with the A mount, from what I read. So the Alpha's will last only as long as the past inventory holds up. Pretty much the same applies to film cameras.

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Update 18 Aug 22

Used the Sony Alpha 55 last night with the beer can lens (70-210) at a concert at a local church. Small venue, and the lens' focal range was perfect. Thought I had some keepers, but after looking at some of the images, they were not sharp, and had a bit of noise. Maybe if it was outdoors during the day, the images would have looked better. Very disappointed, the lack of clarity, sharpness, and saturation means I will be selling this lens and probably all of my Minolta zooms. Maybe will sell the camera as well. And stick to my Fuji X-T10 and adapt some film lenses. I suppose you need to spend real money to get a tack sharp lens. The beer can lens is NOT that.

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