Sony A200: Entry DSLR Roundup

Sony A200 Competition

With the recent street price declines in the Canon XS, the $500 entry segment has grown by one. Three DSLR cameras in the market now sell for around $500 with a kit lens. How does the A200 compare to the Olympus E-420 and the Canon XS?

All three cameras are based on a 10MP sensor. The Olympus E420 is the smallest DSLR you can buy but it does not feature any kind of IS. The A200 features in-body stabilization that works with any lens to improve hand-held shooting 1-4 stops in low light. The Canon XS kit lens has Optical Stabilization, but you must buy additional IS lenses if you want that feature.

The Sony A200 has the widest ISO range of the group, as it is the only entry in its class that extends to ISO 3200. However, if Live View is important to you, you will not find it on the Sony A200 as you will need to step up to the $599 Sony A300 for Live View. The Canon XS and Olympus E420 both feature Live View, but it is the slow "grafted on" variety, where the Sony A300/A350 actually have a useful Live View with a tilt-screen and fast AF.

The balance of the entry class sells for a street price about 20% higher than the A200, and adds the Olympus E-520 (E420 with body IS), Nikon D60, Pentax K200D, and Sony's own A300. The Sony models, Canon XS, and Pentax all have more advanced AF modules, as the Nikon and Olympus models have just 3 AF points. The Nikon, like the Canon XS, ships with an Optical Stabilized kit lens featuring Nikon VR, but IS is only available if the lens features it. All the other competitors have body-integral IS that works with almost any lens you can mount.

The Nikon D60 and Pentax K200D, like the Sony A200, do not feature Live View.  The Olympus E520 and Sony A300 do feature Live View, but the $599 Sony A300 features the most useful Live View we have used in a tilt 2.7" screen - none of the other competitors has a tilt screen. The A200 has a brighter, larger, and easier to use viewfinder than the A300 - so you get truly useful real-time Live View on the A300, but with compromised frame coverage and a tunnel-like viewfinder.

The Sony 18-70mm kit lens also covers a wider zoom range at a 27-105mm equivalent than any of its competitors, which generally feature an 18-55mm kit zoom. This will be important to some potential buyers. The Nikon D60, which also features a Sony CCD sensor similar to the A200/A300/A350, is the only model to offer ISO choices to 3200 like the Sony entry models.

A pop-up flash is something most buyers expect in an entry DSLR and take for granted. However, not all entry flash is equal as you will see in the comparison charts above. Nikon and Sony both support a very good wireless flash system that can normally be controlled by the pop-up flash. As you can see, Canon does not have such a wireless flash system. However, many potential buyers do not realize that Nikon does not support their Creative Lighting System with the pop-up flash on the D60. This makes the Sony A200 a better choice than Canon or Nikon if wireless flash is a feature that matters to you. Wireless flash is also supported, in slightly different capabilities, by the Pentax and Olympus entry models.

Sony and Olympus are the only ones to offer two models in this entry DSLR class. The only real difference in the Olympus E420 to the E520 is the addition of in-body IS and a larger hand grip to the E520. For the Sony A200 and A350 the differences are huge and reflect solutions aimed at very different market segments. While they are based on the same 10.2MP sensor, the A200 is an updated half-price A100. It is a very capable camera that will appeal to serious amateurs looking for as many shooting options as possible at the lowest cost.

The Sony A300 is the ultimate Live View camera that makes no apologies for compromising the viewfinder and LCD frame coverage to provide what is arguably the best and easiest to use Live View in the market. If you want an even higher-res sensor with tilt-screen Live View you can move up from the 10.2MP A300 to the 14.2MP A350 for $200 more, which is a street price of $799 with a kit lens. This, however, is 60% more than the Sony A200, which is a different price class that includes several other midrange models.