Sony A500

Sony A500 is Sony's Entry-Level DSLR camera initially launched on August of 2009. The camera features a 12MP, CMOS APS-C sized sensor and has a full resolution of 4272 x 2848.

Sony launched the more recent Sony A560 (Read Full Comparison) as a way to replace this camera.

The A500 places at #50 out of 80 in Entry-Level DSLR cameras and over-all #404 out of 1465 for digital cameras in our collection. Please check out our Smart camera search to find camera listings based on your personal requirements.

The following is a graph of various factors used in the rating system.

The Sony A500 is part of a family of products. You can view the detailed range below.

You can see the A500 from various angles in the gallery here.

Below is a shortlist of good and bad points of the Sony A500 based on things that are often regarded as crucial in a camera.

The Sony A500 features the Bionz processor. The sensor dimension on the Sony A500 is 23.5mm x 15.6mm (APS-C). The 367 mm² sensor can capture 4272 x 2848 pixels at aspect ratios of 3:2 and 16:9. The camera boasts Image Stabilization (Sensor based). Sensor stabilization is better than digital stabilization since the latter may lead to cropping.

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The CMOS sensor boasts 12MP and includes a native ISO range of 200 to 12800. RAW format is supported which means that you have wider margin for error.

The image below shows the A500's sensor dimensions when compared to other common sizes. The A500 sensor comes with a crop factor of 1.5 and is displayed in green.

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To get an understanding of various aspect ratios, you should refer to the visual below.

Sony A500 is 1.39 lbs (630g / 22.22 oz) and the over all size of the camera is 137mm x 104mm x 84mm (5.4" x 4.1" x 3.3"). The weight of average Entry-Level DSLR camera is 540g and the Sony A500 is heavier compared with various competitors.

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The following is a photo of the Sony A500 next to a soda to help you to have a feel for its scale.

The top view here will highlight the button design on the A500.

The A500 works with the Sony/Minolta Alpha mount and has 145 lenses that are available. Below is a few of the lenses we have in our database which will work with the A500.

ModelVisualizeFocal LengthApertureStabilizedWeight

Sigma 18-250mm F3.5-6.3 DC Macro OS HSM18-250mmf/3.5-6.3 470g

Tamron SP 24-70mm F2.8 Di VC USD24-70mmf/2.8 825g

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Sony DT 18-70mm F3.5-5.618-70mmf/3.5-5.6 235g

Sony 70-400mm F4-5.6 G SSM II70-400mmf/4.0-5.6 1500g

Samyang 85mm F1.4 Aspherical IF85mmf/1.4 539g

Sony 500mm F4 G SSM500mmf/4.0 3460g

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Samyang 16mm f2.0 ED AS UMC CS16mmf/2.0 583g

The A500 has the following connectivity:

• USB Yes
• HDMI Yes

Digital cameras which have NFC and / or Bluetooth support are able to be controlled wirelessly with smartphones. You are able to send photos and oftentimes adjust settings without connecting directly to the camera.

Certain applications even allow a Liveview and release the shutter when you are not close to the camera. If the camera has a HDMI out, it can easily be connected to an external monitor. Nearly all cameras will allow you to charge the battery pack through the USB socket.

Sony A500 doesn't record video. If you are wanting a camera to take only pictures, this is not a problem.

Sony A500 does not include environment proofing so damp conditions can easily damage the camera.

The Sony A500 features a 3 inch tilting display screen boasting a resolution of 230 thousand dots.

Unfortunately the display screen is not a touch screen.

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The ViewFinder details regarding Sony A500 are below:

• ViewFinder Optical (pentamirror)
• Coverage 95%
• Magnification 0.53x

In those bright outdoor conditions which make the camera displays washed out and difficult to view, viewfinders are pretty valuable.

Sony A500 continuous shooting speed is 5.0 frames per second. The highest shutter speed is 1/4000 seconds.

Sony A500 boasts both built-in flash plus external flash support. The max flash sync speed is 1/160 seconds.

Sony A500 boasts both Phase Detect Autofocus and Contrast Based Autofocus. Phase Detection autofocusing is a lot faster & exact compared with Contrast Based autofocusing. The camera features Face detect which can be handy for portrait photography.

The Sensor features 9 focus points to select from. Sony A500 can use manual focusing if required for low light scenarios or you want to have more accurate control on focusing.

The battery life (NP-FM500H) for the Sony A500 is fashioned to last for 520 shutters based on the CIPA benchmarks making it lower as compared with its competition. The average Entry-Level DSLR camera battery life is 589. Pentax K-x has got the best (1900) battery life for this group of cameras.

Following is a number of Entry-Level DSLR cameras with the strongest battery life:

ModelVisualizeBattery LifeRAWNFCBluetooth

Pentax K-x
A500 vs K-x1900 yesnono

Nikon D3500
A500 vs D35001550 yesnoyes

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Nikon D3400
A500 vs D34001200 yesnoyes

Canon SL3
A500 vs SL31070 yesnoyes

Sony A450
A500 vs A4501050 yesnono

The following graph shows a rundown of the Sony A500 for various forms of photography. To read more, visit the specific paragraph below.

The Sony A500 receives a points total of 63 which is above average, meaning that it is a respectable pick for portraits. Shooting portraits favors heavily to sensor resolution, support for RAW files together with the option to use off-camera lighting.

Having a very good points total of 74, the Sony A500 is a fine fit to buy for street photography. A very good street photography camera has a fine balance of image quality plus portability.

A reasonable sports photography points total of 51 suggests the Sony A500 is relatively acceptable for taking pictures of sports. A camera needs good tracking and fast continuous shooting for sports photography.

Portability is extremely critical in picking a camera for travel. Over-all, the Sony A500 gets a terrible 43 for a travelling camera which makes it not suitable to take with you on your vacations.

For anybody planning to buy a digital camera for landscape pictures, the biggest factor will be image quality. The Sony A500 at it's moderate score of 60 for a landscape camera is fairly acceptable amongst its competitors.

A camera for vlogging should really have a moving screen, microphone port and if possible image stabilization. Taking everything into account, the Sony A500 is not suitable for vlogging as it receives a terrible rating of 9.

If you are interested in alternatives to the A500, here is a list of the highest placed cameras that fall into the category of Entry-Level DSLR.

The chart followed below offers you a bird's eye view of the A500 compared to it's top scoring competitors listed earlier.

There are more cameras you may take a look at as alternative options. To go through a full comparison, visit the "compare" link.