Sony SLT-A35

Don't be fooled by the Sony SLT-A35's diminutive dimensions. A true photographic powerhouse, it boasts a 16.5-megapixel sensor and, for £486 all in, a great 18-55mm kit lens.

It faces stiff competition from the long-established dSLR brand leaders, but on the evidence of our tests, it's well-equipped to take them head on.

Shooting and test shots

The A35 feels great in your hand. It's smaller than you'd expect, and very well balanced with the kit lens attached. The relevant switches and buttons are perfectly placed, with notches at the front and back of the grip for greater support.

The focusing ring on the front of the kit lens is fat and coated in rubber, which greatly eases the process of getting a quick fix on your subject.

However, in common with many mid-range rivals, it's a fixed part of the barrel, rather than a cuff that sits around it, so it also rotates any attached filters, and thus change the orientation of a polariser of gradated filter. If you're using one, you'll need to set the focus first and then, if you're using manual focus, be careful when correcting the filter not to knock the focus out of line.

In use, the lens is sharp and the A35 itself hugely versatile. We performed the majority of our tests with the camera set to Aperture Priority, in which the front-mounted wheel that sits just above your index finger lets you quickly dial in your chosen settings. For the first of the images below we set it to f22; for the second, f3.5. The results speak for themselves, with a nice tight focal point in the latter, throwing the rest of the scene into soft focus.