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Sony Alpha A3000 review: Photos, price impress on this slow, faux dSLR

While it provides excellent photo quality for its low price, the rest is pretty uninspiring.

Lori Grunin Senior Editor / Advice
I've been reviewing hardware and software, devising testing methodology and handed out buying advice for what seems like forever; I'm currently absorbed by computers and gaming hardware, but previously spent many years concentrating on cameras. I've also volunteered with a cat rescue for over 15 years doing adoptions, designing marketing materials, managing volunteers and, of course, photographing cats.
Expertise Photography, PCs and laptops, gaming and gaming accessories
Lori Grunin
9 min read

Editors' note, September 26, 2013: I removed the paragraph about Sony's noninclusion of a USB charger; it definitely ships with one. I'm not sure what brain spasm caused me to believe it didn't. However, the presence or absence of the adapter had no bearing on my ratings for the product, so those remain unchanged.

7.3

Sony Alpha A3000

The Good

With an attractive $400 (or less) price, the <b>Sony Alpha A3000</b> delivers excellent photo quality for the money.

The Bad

It's slow, with a poor LCD and only slightly better EVF. Plus Sony doesn't include a charger, which may be an issue for some folks.

The Bottom Line

If you're just looking for better photo quality than a point-and-shoot on a really tight budget, but not better performance, the Sony Alpha A3000 meets that criterion.

Despite being one of the few growing segments of the digital camera market, mirrorless versions of interchangeable-lens cameras still don't get no respect. For one, there's a perception in some quarters that they don't produce the same image quality as dSLRs, even though they're nearly identical in all the ways that affect image quality. I also think there's a grip issue; for the most part, ILCs tend to sacrifice a decent grip for compactness and sleek design. Only the Sony NEX models offer a substantial grip, and I think that's a large factor in their popularity. Finally, because they're smaller and tend to be targeted at folks stepping up from point-and-shoots, we all expect at least the entry-level models to be cheaper than they are -- not the typical $500-plus at launch. Sony's Alpha ILCE-3000 (aka the Sony A3000) attempts to jump all these hurdles at once by stuffing one of its NEX cameras into a dSLR body and pricing it aggressively at $400 for the kit.

Rather than shrinking one of its single-lens translucent (SLT) models the way Canon compressed a dSLR for the SL1 -- which likely would have resulted in a more expensive model -- Sony based a mirrorless dSLR-style body around its E-Mount lenses and NEX menu and control system. Overall, the idea makes a lot of sense. Once you drop the mirror, the biggest constraint to shrinkage becomes the lens mount. And on the surface (though not necessarily in practice), the NEX menu system looks a lot friendlier for the presumably novice buyer of this camera. It's telling that the closest price competitors for the A3000, like the Canon T3, are generally about two years old.

Unfortunately, the result is a really confusing camera. Because it's got to go somewhere on the web site, Sony buries it in the middle of the SLR page, which itself is misleading because the SLT cameras aren't SLRs. The thing is, people upgrade from a point-and-shoot for two main reasons: better photo quality and better performance. The A3000 succeeds on the first but not on the second. For the most part, the ability to change lenses tends to be an ancillary desire -- most people stick with the lens bundled with the camera. Unlike petite dSLRs like the Canon SL1, Sony's use of the E-Mount system means smaller lenses, compared to the full-size EF-S lenses.

There's also some cost cutting to make the price: no 1080/30p video, a small EVF, and a low-resolution LCD. But unless you really want the better image quality and don't really care about any other aspect of the photographic experience, there are better alternatives everywhere.

Image quality
This is the one thing the camera gets truly right; it really is the best image quality you can get (at the moment) for $400. It delivers really good JPEGs up through ISO 800 and relatively usable ones through ISO 1600, depending upon image content. And if you're stepping up from a point-and-shoot you might even be OK with ISO 3200. The image processing is quite good, though you can probably eke out slightly better results if you shoot raw+JPEG and process the raw; you get more detail, but only in exchange for granier pictures.

Sony Alpha A3000 photo samples

See all photos

The tonal range is pretty typical for an entry-level APS-C model, in that it clips highlights and doesn't preserve much detail to bring out, but it can recover shadow detail without adding a lot of noise. Colors are saturated and contrasty, with some hue shifts in the reds, but they're pleasing nonetheless. There's no neutral color profile option; you can tweak the existing presets but not save as a new one.

Click to download ISO 100

ISO 800
ISO 3200

Video also looks good for its class. Yes, it's a little washed out and there are aliasing artifacts (jaggies) on diagonal or movie edges, but the detail resolution isn't bad. As you'd expect, artifacts increase as ISO sensitivity rises, but overall I think the video quality suffices for vacation, school and other casual uses.

Performance
The A3000 may look like a dSLR and produce images like one, but it doesn't shoot like one. That's partly because it uses the old-school contrast autofocus system -- not the newer hybrid AF in Sony's higher-end NEX models and not the fast phase-detection AF from real dSLRs -- and relatively slow processing. Even its megazoom doppleganger the HX300 is generally faster.

Time to power on, focus and shoot takes 1.9 seconds; that's slower than the similarly-priced-because-it's-been-replaced Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF5 mirrorless ILC, and a lot slower than competing dSLRs. Focusing and shooting in good light takes 0.5 second, rising to 0.8 second in dim conditions. It takes about 0.7 second to shoot two sequential photos, either JPEG or raw+JPEG (the camera doesn't support plain raw). In general, that's barely fast enough to keep up with your kids and pets. And its continuous-shooting speed of 2.6fps falls short, though it can sustain a burst indefinitely, at least with a fast 96MBps card.

In video you can use continuous or tracking autofocus, which work fine -- about the same as other inexpensive cameras. The tracking AF is a tad annoying, since you have to go into the menus every time to turn it on and initally frame your subject in the center of the screen, plus it's as likely to jump subjects as most tracking AF implementations.

Just as problematic, the LCD and the electronic viewfinder are, well, bad. Worse than on a typical point-and-shoot. The LCD is extremely low resolution given its size, which makes it difficult to tell if your shot's in focus, and it's nearly impossible to view off-angle in direct sunlight. The EVF is tiny and the colors are off.

Design and features
Lighter than a dSLR but significantly heavier than the more compact ILCs, the best aspects of the A3000's design are the relatively big grip, large stereo microphone and placement of the memory-card slot on the left side rather than in the battery compartment. On top there's a hot shoe, a rare feature at this price, button that toggles between the viewfinder and the LCD, a mode dial with the usual manual, semimanual and automatic modes (actually two auto modes, auto and even-more-auto) plus panorama, and a playback button. I have to say: you really don't appreciate the eye sensor on higher-end models until you're forced to manually toggle.

On the back is the EVF, a big, nicely placed movie record button, a surprisingly slippery unrubberized thumb rest and NEX-like controls. The latter consist of ISO sensitivity, drive mode, exposure compensation and display options, though they're all reprogrammable. The two buttons above and below the adjustment dial are context sensitive, with soft labels that appear on the LCD.

The NEX menu system is deceptively complicated. Though it's broken out into big, friendly categories at the top level, once you're another level in it's hard to quickly find the settings you're looking for. However, it does remember the last place you were in every submenu, which is nice.

Canon EOS Rebel SL1 Canon EOS Rebel T3 Nikon D3200 Sony Alpha ILCE-3000
(A3000)
Sony Alpha NEX-3N Sony Alpha SLT-A58
Sensor effective resolution 18MP Hybrid CMOS II 12.2MP CMOS 24.2MP CMOS 20.1MP Exmor HD CMOS 16.1MP Exmor HD CMOS 20.1MP Exmor HD CMOS
22.3 x 14.9mm 22 x 14.7mm 23.2 x 15.4mm 23.5 x 15.6mm 23.5 x 15.6mm 23.2 x 15.4mm
Focal - length multiplier 1.6x 1.6x 1.5x 1.5x 1.5x 1.5x
Sensitivity range ISO 100 - ISO 12800 ISO 100 - ISO 6400 ISO 100 (exp)/
200 - ISO 6400/ 12800 (exp)
ISO 100 - ISO 16000 ISO 200 - ISO 16000 ISO 100 - ISO 16000
Burst shooting 4fps
8 raw/ unlimited JPEG
3fps raw/2fps JPEG
5 raw/ unlimited JPEG
4fps
n/a
2.5fps
5 raw + JPEG/ 13 JPEG
(3.5fps with fixed exposure)
2.5fps
5 raw/9 JPEG
n/a
5fps
6 raw/7 JPEG
Viewfinder (mag/ effective mag) Optical
95% coverage
0.85x/0.53x
Optical
95% coverage
0.80x/ 0.50x

Optical
95% coverage
0.80x/ 0.53x

EVF
0.5 inch/ 201,600 dots
100% coverage
0.70x/0.59x
None OLED EVF
0.5 inch/ 480,000 dots
100% coverage
0.88x/0.59x
Autofocus 9-pt AF
center cross-type;
31-point contrast AF
9-pt AF
center cross-type
11-pt AF
center cross-type
25-area contrast AF 25-area contrast AF 15-pt phase-detection
3 cross-type
AF sensitivity -0.5 to 18 EV 0 - 18 EV -1 to 19 EV 0 - 20 EV 0 - 20 EV -1 to 18 EV
Shutter speed 1/4000 to 30 secs; bulb; 1/200 x-sync 1/4000 to 30 secs; bulb; 1/200 x-sync 1/4000 to 30 secs; bulb; 1/200 sec x-sync 1/4000 to 30 seconds; bulb; 1/160 x-sync 30-1/4000 sec.; bulb; 1/160 sec x-sync 1/4000 to 30 seconds; bulb; 1/160 x-sync
Metering 63-zone iFCL 63-zone iFCL 420-pixel 3D color matrix metering II 1200 zone 1200 zone 1200 zone
Metering sensitivity 1 - 20 EV 1 - 20 EV 0 - 20 EV 0 - 20 EV 0 - 20 EV n/a
Best video H.264 QuickTime MOV 1080/30p/ 25p/24p; 720/60p/ 50p None 1080/30p/ 25p/24p; 720/60p/ 50p H.264 QuickTime MOV AVCHD
1080/60i @ 24, 17Mbps, 1080/24p @ 24, 17Mbps; H.264 MPEG-4 1440 x 1080/30p @ 12Mbps
AVCHD
1080/60i @ 24, 17Mbps, 1080/24p @ 24, 17Mbps; H.264 MPEG-4 1440 x 1080/30p @ 12Mbps
AVCHD 1080/60i/ 50i/25p/24p @ 24Mbps
Audio Mono; mic input n/a Mono; mic input Stereo Stereo; mic input Stereo; mic input
Manual aperture and shutter in video Yes n/a Yes n/a Yes n/a
IS Optical Optical Optical Optical Optical Sensor shift
LCD size 3-inch fixed touch screen
1.04 MP
2.7-inch fixed
230,000 dots
3-inch fixed
921,000 dots
3-inch fixed
230,400 dots
3-inch tilting
460,800 dots
2.7-inch tilting
460,800 dots
Memory slots 1 x SDXC 1 x SDXC 1 x SDXC 1 x SDXC 1 x SDXC 1 x SDXC
Wireless flash Yes No Yes No No Yes
Wireless connection No No No No Yes No
Battery life (CIPA rating) 380 shots 700 shots VF/ 220 shots LV 540 shots 480 shots 480 shots 690 shots
Size (WHD, inches) 4.6 x 3.6 x 2.7 5.9 x 3.1 x 3.1 5.0 x 3.8 x 3.1 4.0 x 2.3 x 1.5 4.3 x 2.4 x 1.4 5.1 x 3.8 x 3.1
Body operating weight (ounces) 14.9 17.5 17.6 14.2 7.4 (est) 17.4 (est)
Mfr. price $649.99 (body only) n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a
$799.99 (with 18-55mm STM lens) $449.99 (with 18-55mm lens) $699.95 (with 18-55mm lens) $399.99 (with 18-55mm lens) $499.99 (with 16-50mm PZ lens) $549.99 (with 18-55mm lens)
n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a
Release date April 2013
March 2011 April 2012 September 2013 April 2013 April 2013

The camera has a reasonable, but unexceptional feature set for the money. It's got the boring filter selection from older NEX models and only does 60i or 24p in real HD. It does support manual controls while shooting video, and in fact lets you set the shutter speed to anything you want, which can be nice for special effects -- most cameras stop you at 1/30 second.

For a complete accounting of the A3000's features and operation, download the PDF manual.

Conclusion
I think my biggest issue with the A3000's design is that it's just boring. It's not particularly attractive or streamlined for shooting, and the meh viewfinder and fixed, low-quality LCD made photographing feel more like a chore than I've experienced with recent cameras. Factoring in the mediocre performance, and it's a tough sell. The NEX-3N is available for only $50 more in places and it's a lot more compact with a better LCD. The Nikon D3200 kit can be found for as low as $550 and delivers comparable photo quality, a better LCD, optical viewfinder and much better performance. Sony's HX300 is similarly priced and has a better viewfinder, LCD, performance and a fixed zoom lens that would provide more flexibility for the typical buyer of the A3000 who probably won't buy additional lenses. It can't match the photo quality, though.

Shooting speed (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF5
1.4
0.4
0.3
0.3
0.2
Canon EOS Rebel SL1
0.6
0.2
0.3
0.8
0.3
Nikon D3200
0.3
0.6
0.5
0.5
0.3

1.9
0.7
0.7
0.8
0.5

Typical continuous-shooting speed (in frames per second)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
7.3

Sony Alpha A3000

Score Breakdown

Design 7Features 7Performance 7Image quality 8