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Product Description
Product Description
16.1-megapixel Exmor APS HD CMOS sensor and BIONZ image processor.
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At a Glance
Creative Shooting for Everyone
Time to get a bit more creative with your photography. Step up to higher quality shots with a digital SLR camera that's easy to use and carry around. Pro style photography with minimum effort and less to carry.
Translucent Mirror Technology
Looking for super fast auto focusing when shooting videos and photos? This very clever technology replaces the mirror box used in conventional SLR cameras with a newly designed one containing a fixed translucent mirror that doesn’t need to be raised and lowered each time the shutter is released. Perfect for catching fun moments with your friends, spontaneous smiles and frenetic sports action.
Ready for Speed
Here comes your mate about to catch some fat air on his mountain bike. Just as he takes off, you shoot. Just as he reaches maximum height, you shoot. Just as he hits the dirt, you shoot. Did you catch it all? Certainly with this camera as it includes high speed burst shooting with full continuous auto focus at up to 7 frames per second.
High Resolution
Shoot D-SLR quality images with intense colour, rich tonal gradation and subtle background defocusing effects. Despite being light and compact, this camera sports a large, high resolution Exmor APS HD CMOS sensor with 16.1 megapixels. Just what you need for capturing detail-packed photos and brilliant Full 1080 HD movies in smooth 50i or cinematic 25p.
Natural Images in Low Light
Dawn or dusk, dark rooms or dark days, it doesn’t matter. High ISO sensitivity of 100-16000 gives you the freedom to shoot at fast shutter speeds indoors or in dimly lit environments without the need for a flash.
Switch Lenses
Go on, push the boundaries. Interchangeable lenses give you the freedom to catch precisely the shot you want, whether a distant view or a stunning close-up. And with SteadyShot Inside, you can be sure that every shot will be judder free, no matter what lens you’re using.
Auto Portrait Framing: uses face detection and the compositional “rule of thirds" to enable the camera to trim the scene and create tightly-framed professional-looking pictures.
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Creative Shooting for Everyone
Pro shots with ease
You're looking to take your photography up a notch and really start exploring your creativity. You need a camera that will take high speed photos and finely detailed HD movies but you want it to be a doddle to use. This light and compact D-SLR camera puts pro shooting in your hands without the complication. Easy to carry, ready to capture anything at a touch, wherever you find yourself.
Simple sophistication
It’s so easy to take professional-looking shots. There’s Auto Portrait Framing so heads don’t end up squashed against the side of the picture, 3D Sweep Panorama for taking breathtaking wide angle landscapes and Clear Image Zoom which virtually doubles your zoom range. Everything you need to maximize every opportunity.
Be creative
Perk up your pictures easily using Picture Effects. Enhance mood and style by choosing from a full range of effects including Toy Camera, Partial Colour for stunning monochrome shots, Soft High-Key, trendy Pop Colour, watercolour and Illustration. This last effect is really cool, turning your pictures into great-looking cartoons.
Full 1080 High Definition movies in 50i for the smooth video quality as well as 25p for cinematic feel.
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Rapid Response with Translucent Mirror Technology
Never miss a moment
How many times have you seen the perfect shot, fumbled around with your camera and only captured the back end of it? You’ve got to be ready when that all important moment appears because it never announces itself. Translucent Mirror Technology puts you in charge, providing high precision, SLR quality performance for both photos and Full 1080 HD movies. How? By replacing the mirror box used in conventional SLR cameras with a newly designed one containing a fixed translucent mirror that doesn’t need to be raised and lowered each time the shutter is released. The result? Ultra high-speed continuous shooting and auto focusing, which is just what you need to catch once in a blue moon moments like your mate wiping out while showing off on his skis.
Shoot your way
What’s it to be? Live view shooting or through the viewfinder? With Advanced Quick AF Live View, high-resolution image data from the sensor can be displayed in the viewfinder as well as on the large tiltable LCD. You choose which you want to monitor while shooting. Switching is automatic for ease of use and you can activate Quick AF Live View in the viewfinder simply by putting your eye to the eyepiece.
Class leading high-speed 7 fps continuous shooting with Full-time Continuous AF thanks to Sony unique Translucent Mirror Technology.
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Ready for Speed
You’ve got to be quick
Swooping birds, Moto GP bikes, hundred metre hurdlers. If you want to capture them, you’ll need a camera with high speed continuous shooting that can take multiple frames per second. This camera shoots up to 7 frames per second so everything stays clear and blur free.
Get closer
Maybe you want to get closer to the action? Tele-Zoom Continuous Advance Priority AE zooms in with around 1.4x magnification to keep your subject in precise focus in every frame – ideal for capturing fast sports and fleeting facial expressions.
SteadyShot INSIDE image stabilization: Effective enough at shutter speeds approximately 2.5 to 4.5 steps slower than would otherwise be possible while supporting all alpha lenses.
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High Resolution
Big sensor, big pictures
Top notch performance in a lightweight camera? Absolutely. A large, high resolution Exmor APS HD CMOS sensor with 16.1 megapixels works alongside a sophisticated BIONZ processor to capture images with intense colour, rich tonal gradation and subtle background defocusing effects. Even better, at around 16 million pixels, you can make impressive large prints up to A3 size - great if you want some framed shots on the wall.
Captures Full 1080 HD movies
Time for some action? Press the MOVIE button to shoot Full 1080 HD video in super smooth 50i or cinematic 25p. High speed full-time auto focus precisely tracks moving subjects and with SteadyShot Inside keeps everything stable and judder-free. Your video looks perfectly stable, even when zooming in for a close-up.
ISO 16000 maximum sensitivity with BIONZ processor noise reduction for natural-looking images, even in low light conditions.
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Natural Images in Low Light
It’s the prince of darkness
How many times have you shot at dawn or dusk, only to get back home and be royally disappointed with the dark, grainy results? Some of the most dramatic shots come at the beginning and end of the day but you need a pretty decent sensor to capture detail in that twilight zone. This camera includes a super-sensitive, high resolution Exmor APS HD CMOS sensor and high ISO sensitivity of 100-16000 to perfectly preserve fine details, no matter how dark the scene.
Switch Lenses
You choose which one you want
Lions stalking antelopes. Killer whales off shore. Eagles atop a distant peak. How many times have you wanted to zoom in and catch the action without moving an inch? With interchangeable lenses, you can capture precisely the shot you want, whether a distant view or a stunning close-up. There’s a full range of lenses to choose from including high zooms, wide angles, macros, primes and telephotos.
Product Description
Sony Sony a (alpha) SLT-A37K - Digital camera - 3D - SLR - 16.2 Mpix - 3 x optical zoom DT 18-55mm lens
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By Flembotembo
Colour Name:Black| Size Name:18-55mm Lens|Amazon Verified Purchase
Having bought an A37 in February, I have had the time to thoroughly assess its pros and cons. The camera's design is excellent, being light and excellently portable for a DSLR. The supplied lens will fit the bill very well for most users, however there is a wide selection to choose from if you choose to upgrade. The A37 is an SLT camera, and so has a translucent mirror rather than a moving mirror as typically found in DSLR cameras. This has a number of implications for how the camera performs. Advantages include the ability to have far higher speed image capture, quicker autofocusing in still photos, and continuous autofocus in video. However, the principal downside of this technology is the lack of an optical viewfinder in favour of an electronic one. Indeed, the electronic viewfinder for me is the sole downside of the A37, as the display is detailed but simply not bright enough for use in highly lit conditions. Nevertheless, in most circumstances the viewfinder, is usable enough, and as one plus point displays current settings such as shooting mode, aperture, iso and shutter speed in far greater detail than on most DSLRs with an optical viewfinder. The LCD display, also displaying this information, has an excellent `live-view' display which can be rotated in many different directions in order to manage the trickiest of shots. Image quality is excellent through and through, the array of settings available being superb. The camera has several additional features which are highly useful, such as the night portrait mode designed for shooting at night without a tripod, giving excellent results. Other additions include HDR, creative filters, panoramas (3D and 2D) and both manual scene selection and intelligent auto. There are as ever the P, M , A , S settings for manual controls. Another very useful tool is the ability of the camera to take multiple images at high ISO settings in low light conditions, to form a low ISO image. The camera also has inbuilt optical image stabilisation, working brilliantly, and something you have to buy special lenses for with many competing DSLRs. The picture quality is truly fantastic, with tremendous amounts of detail and very accurate colours. When turning to video, which can be recorded either in AVCHD format in Full HD 1080 at either 50i/25p, or MP4 format at 720p, the results are similarly first-rate. Here the continuous auto-focus really comes into its own, allowing you to record film-maker quality videos with great depth of field, with excellent ease. Battery life on the camera is also very good, the info-lithium battery technology (also a Sony exclusive) giving you exactly the percentage battery life remaining. To top off the fantastic package offered by the A37, the value offered at this price is nothing short of outstanding. Whilst some may think that £300+ is a lot for a camera, it is well worth it if you want great results every time, and compared to rival cameras, is far better value. For these reasons, which far outweigh the rather dark viewfinder (which can easily be avoided by using the live view more often), this camera deserves 5 stars and more!
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
By Nessy76
Colour Name:Black|Size Name:18-55mm Lens
Having used a Sony A200 for the last few years, I bit the bullet and upgraded to one of these SLTs.
It's still an entry level model, but the features and image quality are all vastly improved. The EVF viewfinder technology is clearly sill at an early stage, and it takes a little getting used to having an electronic screen rather than a mirror to look into, but the advantages this brings far outweigh the initial reservations I had. In low-light, the viewfinder will turn up the gain, giving you an image where previously you'd have just had a dark optical viewfinder. The image can be a bit grainy under these conditions (in good light it gives a very clear picture indeed) but it's obviously better than seeing nothing. Low-light also lets it show off its vastly improved handling of high ISO settings (far less image noise than the earlier generation at ISO 800+)
It has a full range of features and shooting modes - most clearly aimed at those point-and-shoot users who usually shoot in auto-jpg mode, but by going into one of the manual or part-manual mode and shooting RAW, you can really start to see some impressive results here.
The small size may not be to everyone's taste (I found it a lot easier to handle than I'd expected) so make sure you get hold of one before buying, if you can.
It's still an entry level model, but the features and image quality are all vastly improved. The EVF viewfinder technology is clearly sill at an early stage, and it takes a little getting used to having an electronic screen rather than a mirror to look into, but the advantages this brings far outweigh the initial reservations I had. In low-light, the viewfinder will turn up the gain, giving you an image where previously you'd have just had a dark optical viewfinder. The image can be a bit grainy under these conditions (in good light it gives a very clear picture indeed) but it's obviously better than seeing nothing. Low-light also lets it show off its vastly improved handling of high ISO settings (far less image noise than the earlier generation at ISO 800+)
It has a full range of features and shooting modes - most clearly aimed at those point-and-shoot users who usually shoot in auto-jpg mode, but by going into one of the manual or part-manual mode and shooting RAW, you can really start to see some impressive results here.
The small size may not be to everyone's taste (I found it a lot easier to handle than I'd expected) so make sure you get hold of one before buying, if you can.
41 of 46 people found the following review helpful
The SLT-A37 is Sony's new entry-level DSLR camera for beginners. Technically it isn't a DSLR, it's an SLT (Single-Lens Translucent); Sony's award-winning innovation that uses a translucent mirror. But, for the purposes of this review, I'll refer to it as a DSLR. Also, because I don't have another DSLR to compare it to, I'll be comparing it to my Sony DSC-RX100 (the world's best compact camera).
My SLT-A37 arrived with the battery almost empty. A lot of Sony cameras these days can actually be charged via USB, but the SLT-A37 isn't one of them. So to charge the 1080 mAh NP-FW50 battery pack, you'll need to take it out of the camera and put it in the supplied BC-VW1 battery charger. Charging time is approximately 4 hours.
If you're "stepping up" from a compact camera to a DSLR, you'll immediately notice how solid and professional the SLT-A37 feels in your hand. This is a serious piece of equipment. The ergonomic rubber grip is a pleasure to hold and makes the camera relatively difficult to drop. On the back of the SLT-A37 there's an angle-adjustable LCD, which can be tilted through 135˚, enabling you to take photos from otherwise challenging positions. This is an incredibly useful feature. Sony call the 2.7" LCD "high quality" but it isn't. It's a QVGA display with a resolution of just 320 x 240 pixels; a quarter of what the DSC-RX100 has! Plus it flickers slightly and solarises easily.
Fortunately there's an electronic viewfinder (aka Tru-Finder) which, with its SVGA resolution of 800 x 600 pixels, is much higher quality than the rear LCD. There's a diopter-adjustment dial, which changes the focus of the viewfinder to better suit your eyesight. There's also a Viewfinder Magnification setting, which shrinks the image down so that it's easier to see in its entirety. But even with these settings, if you wear glasses you'll find that you can't get your eye close enough to the viewfinder to see the whole thing. It's just too small.
My SLT-A37 came with the Standard Zoom Lens (a Sony DT 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 SAM). With the lens attached to the camera body, the whole thing weighs 725g (3x the weight of the DSC-RX100) and measures 15.3 cm from front to back (4.4x the thickness of the DSC-RX100). If you're new to DSLRs, you might look at the SLT-A37 with its big lens and assume it has a big optical zoom. Unfortunately that's a common misconception. The 18-55mm lens only gives you a 3.1x optical zoom, which is actually less than the DSC-RX100's 3.6x. The good news is, because this is an interchangeable-lens camera, you can take the lens off and replace it with an even bigger one! The SLT-A37 is compatible with all Sony A-mount (aka α mount) lenses, such as the 55-200mm lens which extends the camera's telephoto range. SteadyShot technology is built into the camera body meaning you don't have to worry about your lenses having it.
So what's the SLT-A37 like to shoot with? Fast. Very fast. Assuming the lens cap is off, you can turn it on and take a photo in about 1.6 seconds! Try doing that with a compact camera. In Single-shot AF (AF-S) mode, holding down the shutter button halfway causes the SLT-A37 to lock focus almost instantly with amazing accuracy. In Continuous AF (AF-C) mode, holding down the shutter button halfway causes the SLT-A37 to continually adjust its focus as the camera and your subjects move. Changing the Drive Mode from Single Shooting to Continuous Shooting Hi enables you to take seven photos per second; invaluable for shooting fast-moving subjects such as kids and pets.
What about image quality? I put the SLT-A37 head-to-head with the DSC-RX100 and shot 26 test photos with both cameras in Intelligent Auto mode. The results surprised me. Outdoors in daylight, photos taken with the SLT-A37 exhibited shallower depth of field (DOF) and slightly more accurate auto white balance (AWB). However, photos taken with DSC-RX100 were dramatically clearer, showing razor-sharp detail and textures that the SLT-A37 rendered as a blur. Obviously, with a better lens, the results would be different. But if you're buying the SLT-A37 with the 18-55mm lens, don't expect any of your photos to be sharp. Indoors, things got worse. Despite having an APS-C image sensor, the SLT-A37 struggled in low-light, repeatedly choosing f/4 ISO 1250 and getting soft splotchy photos full of chroma noise. The DSC-RX100, on the other hand, was in its element, choosing f/1.8 ISO 320 and getting incredibly clean photos with very little noise.
The SLT-A37 has all of Sony's current software tricks, such as Clear Image Zoom, Sweep Panorama, Auto HDR, Face Recognition, Smile Shutter, Auto Portrait Framing and 11 Picture Effects. Switching the focus mode to manual (MF) activates Peaking; a sophisticated feature that highlights what's in-focus with a colour of your choice. Pressing the dedicated MOVIE button allows you to immediately start recording AVCHD video at 1920x1080 25fps; a format that iMovie '11 actually understands and allows you to import! On top of the SLT-A37 there's a built-in stereo microphone, but you can also connect an external one via the jack input if you'd prefer.
Overall, I think the SLT-A37 is a good camera. Its ultra-fast focusing, continuous shooting and shallow depth of field are perfect for shooting attractive portraits of kids and pets outdoors. However, its LCD screen is very poor quality, it struggles in low-light situations, and the 18-55mm lens is inherently soft. So, just because a camera is big and looks professional, don't expect it to automatically take better quality photos than a compact. I much prefer my DSC-RX100.
My SLT-A37 arrived with the battery almost empty. A lot of Sony cameras these days can actually be charged via USB, but the SLT-A37 isn't one of them. So to charge the 1080 mAh NP-FW50 battery pack, you'll need to take it out of the camera and put it in the supplied BC-VW1 battery charger. Charging time is approximately 4 hours.
If you're "stepping up" from a compact camera to a DSLR, you'll immediately notice how solid and professional the SLT-A37 feels in your hand. This is a serious piece of equipment. The ergonomic rubber grip is a pleasure to hold and makes the camera relatively difficult to drop. On the back of the SLT-A37 there's an angle-adjustable LCD, which can be tilted through 135˚, enabling you to take photos from otherwise challenging positions. This is an incredibly useful feature. Sony call the 2.7" LCD "high quality" but it isn't. It's a QVGA display with a resolution of just 320 x 240 pixels; a quarter of what the DSC-RX100 has! Plus it flickers slightly and solarises easily.
Fortunately there's an electronic viewfinder (aka Tru-Finder) which, with its SVGA resolution of 800 x 600 pixels, is much higher quality than the rear LCD. There's a diopter-adjustment dial, which changes the focus of the viewfinder to better suit your eyesight. There's also a Viewfinder Magnification setting, which shrinks the image down so that it's easier to see in its entirety. But even with these settings, if you wear glasses you'll find that you can't get your eye close enough to the viewfinder to see the whole thing. It's just too small.
My SLT-A37 came with the Standard Zoom Lens (a Sony DT 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 SAM). With the lens attached to the camera body, the whole thing weighs 725g (3x the weight of the DSC-RX100) and measures 15.3 cm from front to back (4.4x the thickness of the DSC-RX100). If you're new to DSLRs, you might look at the SLT-A37 with its big lens and assume it has a big optical zoom. Unfortunately that's a common misconception. The 18-55mm lens only gives you a 3.1x optical zoom, which is actually less than the DSC-RX100's 3.6x. The good news is, because this is an interchangeable-lens camera, you can take the lens off and replace it with an even bigger one! The SLT-A37 is compatible with all Sony A-mount (aka α mount) lenses, such as the 55-200mm lens which extends the camera's telephoto range. SteadyShot technology is built into the camera body meaning you don't have to worry about your lenses having it.
So what's the SLT-A37 like to shoot with? Fast. Very fast. Assuming the lens cap is off, you can turn it on and take a photo in about 1.6 seconds! Try doing that with a compact camera. In Single-shot AF (AF-S) mode, holding down the shutter button halfway causes the SLT-A37 to lock focus almost instantly with amazing accuracy. In Continuous AF (AF-C) mode, holding down the shutter button halfway causes the SLT-A37 to continually adjust its focus as the camera and your subjects move. Changing the Drive Mode from Single Shooting to Continuous Shooting Hi enables you to take seven photos per second; invaluable for shooting fast-moving subjects such as kids and pets.
What about image quality? I put the SLT-A37 head-to-head with the DSC-RX100 and shot 26 test photos with both cameras in Intelligent Auto mode. The results surprised me. Outdoors in daylight, photos taken with the SLT-A37 exhibited shallower depth of field (DOF) and slightly more accurate auto white balance (AWB). However, photos taken with DSC-RX100 were dramatically clearer, showing razor-sharp detail and textures that the SLT-A37 rendered as a blur. Obviously, with a better lens, the results would be different. But if you're buying the SLT-A37 with the 18-55mm lens, don't expect any of your photos to be sharp. Indoors, things got worse. Despite having an APS-C image sensor, the SLT-A37 struggled in low-light, repeatedly choosing f/4 ISO 1250 and getting soft splotchy photos full of chroma noise. The DSC-RX100, on the other hand, was in its element, choosing f/1.8 ISO 320 and getting incredibly clean photos with very little noise.
The SLT-A37 has all of Sony's current software tricks, such as Clear Image Zoom, Sweep Panorama, Auto HDR, Face Recognition, Smile Shutter, Auto Portrait Framing and 11 Picture Effects. Switching the focus mode to manual (MF) activates Peaking; a sophisticated feature that highlights what's in-focus with a colour of your choice. Pressing the dedicated MOVIE button allows you to immediately start recording AVCHD video at 1920x1080 25fps; a format that iMovie '11 actually understands and allows you to import! On top of the SLT-A37 there's a built-in stereo microphone, but you can also connect an external one via the jack input if you'd prefer.
Overall, I think the SLT-A37 is a good camera. Its ultra-fast focusing, continuous shooting and shallow depth of field are perfect for shooting attractive portraits of kids and pets outdoors. However, its LCD screen is very poor quality, it struggles in low-light situations, and the 18-55mm lens is inherently soft. So, just because a camera is big and looks professional, don't expect it to automatically take better quality photos than a compact. I much prefer my DSC-RX100.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sony camera
Spent ages deciding on which one to have. Very good value for money only thing missing was a memory card to buy separately.
Lens is general could do with a better zoom lens
Lens is general could do with a better zoom lens
Published 12 days ago by H
5.0 out of 5 stars
LOVE IT - so good
LOVE IT LOVE IT - really good. Excellent service and quality. Arrived in good time, packaged well, perfect. Nothing more to say!
Published 23 days ago by GARY DURKIN
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant
This camera is exceptional for the price. It has excellent video capabilities with full HD (looks broadcast quality on my 42" TV) which is a plus. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Alan H
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best camera I own
I bought this camera and as long as you are used to all the different controls and settings the pictures you get are amazing. Read more
Published 1 month ago by michael jones
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sony SLTA.37 Camera
Having been a 35 m.m. Minolta fanatic I wanted something that would take all of my Minolta lenses and I found it with the Sony SL.TA.37 l6.1 m.p. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Brian Dunbar
5.0 out of 5 stars
nice camera
bought this for my daughter. great for the money paid.she seems very happy with it. can say alot else. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Glenn Lambert
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very good value
I wanted a camera with a viewer and looked at a few. I'm happy I chose this one it takes good pictures and is relatively easy to use. Read more
Published 2 months ago by steve27
4.0 out of 5 stars
What a cracker
Just got this camera recently and so far I have been blown away by the image quality. I upgraded from the Sony a200 to this won and I don't regret it for one second. Read more
Published 3 months ago by G. Simpson
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great little camera
I was undecided, it was either the A37 or A57, in the end the A37 won as there really isn't a huge amount of difference to warrant the high price increase (£300 extra for the A57). Read more
Published 3 months ago by jadebythesea
3.0 out of 5 stars
Compact DSLR
An entry DSLR from a company going from strength to strength in the digital camera market.
The SLTA37 packs a feature set similar to its SLTA57 brother in a smaller body... Read more
The SLTA37 packs a feature set similar to its SLTA57 brother in a smaller body... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Andrew
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