Sony A200

There are nine autofocus points arranged in a three-by-three grid. Users choose between Spot focus (the middle point), Wide (the camera chooses the most prominent object in the frame as the focal point) or Local, a very strange term for what is really manual mode – you choose the focal point using the four-way controller. The problem with all of these options isn't so much their accuracy as the near impossibility of seeing the highlighted focal point indicator in the viewfinder. The center point is a perfectly visible square, but the other focus sensors are indicated by thin lines in the viewfinder. The chosen point blinks briefly when focus is achieved, and you hear a quick focus-confirming chirp sound, but figuring out which focal point is being used requires ESP.  Far easier to just point the central spot focus at your intended target and hold the shutter halfway down to focus-lock it, but certainly not the quickest way to shoot.

There is no dedicated auto focus assist lamp on the A200. The flash is used instead – it emits a single bright burst when you press the shutter halfway down in a dark environment. That's all well and good when it comes to effectively illuminating distant objects you want to focus on, but it also draws a lot of attention when you're trying to capture candid shots. We'd prefer to see an auto focus assist lamp, with the flash available as an optional subsitute under difficult conditions.

Our other quibble with the auto focus performance is the unpleasant noise it makes. Particularly in continuous autofocus mode, the camera sounds like an old Chevy grinding gears.

Manual Focus (5.00)
The Auto Focus / Manual Focus switch is located on the front left side of the camera body, just below the lens. We weren't happy with the feel of manual focus. There's very little resistance as you turn the front ring on the lens, making it difficult to hit a precise spot. The problem is exacerbated by the lack of a depth-of-field preview function, so you can't really tell what's in or out of focus at a particular aperture beyond the precise focal plane.

ISO (8.50)
The ISO range runs from 100 up to 3200 in full-stop increments (100,200,400, 800, 1600, 3200), plus Auto.  It would be nice to have finer controls at intermediate steps, but the fact that the range tops out at 3200 is welcome, exceeding several other cameras in this class.

White Balance (8.25)
The A200 provides a range of white balance options to please even the most anal retentive prosumer. In addition to the automatic mode you get Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent and Flash modes, each of which can be further adjusted using the four-way controller along a seven-step range from reddish to bluish. Advanced users can also directly dial in a color temperature value, or set the digital equivalent of a color-correcting filter to compensate values of green or magenta. Finally, you can take a manual white balance reading by pointing the spot metering area at a white area and pressing the shutter.  You can't save multiple white balance readings to recall later, but that's about the only function that isn't included here. Is all of this overkill for the intended audience? Absolutely, but it's all tucked away in a menu the average user can ignore without feeling intimidated, so why not.

Exposure (9.00)
The basic manual exposure settings are provided: Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority and Manual. Controls are an issue, though. First, there's only a single control wheel. You can decide whether the wheel controls shutter or aperture by default during manual shooting, but either way you'll have to hold down the exposure compensation button while twirling the dial to change the second value. And, as careful readers may remember, the control dial stinks – it's tiny, ratchets around with difficulty and is poorly positioned on the top rather than the front or back of the camera..

Metering (7.50)
Three metering modes are available: Multi segment, Center weighted and Spot. Multi segment metering uses the full 40-segment honeycomb-pattern light sensor. Center weighted also reads the entire meter, but tweaks the exposure setting to favor the middle, while spot relies solely on a circular area that's clearly delineated in the viewfinder.

Shutter Speed (10.00)
Shutter speeds range from 30 seconds down to 1/4000th of a second, a generous selection. A Bulb setting, which keeps the shutter open as long as the shutter button is pressed, is also available when shooting in Manual mode. Sony offers an optional wired remote control that makes shooting on Bulb setting practical. Flash sync speed is set at 1/160 second, which is fast enough to be useful when using fill flash outdoors, or trying to capture fast-moving objects.
.
Aperture
The lack of a depth of field preview function may not disturb consumers stepping up from a point-and-shoot, who aren't used to having this capability, and Sony certainly isn't alone in scrimping on this feature. The Nikon D60 reviewed recently has the same omission,, though it's worth noting that Sony's own previous A100 model did offer depth-of-field preview. Granted, being able to see depth of field with a stopped-down lens is less imporant in digital photography than with film, since you can take test shots and check the results ad nauseum if you like, but controlling depth of field is a key to careful photography, and making it difficult is a flat-out mistake, even in an inexpensive SLR.