The Picture Desk: I shot 73 images with the A500 and got 22 shots

I worked a local game and had a chance to try out a couple of the Sony cameras in this low light situation.

I really tried to shoot half the game using the Sony Alpha A500 and the other half using the Sony Alpha A55. I thought I was very fair in splitting the shooting between the two cameras each period. To continue to make a fair comparison I also used the same lens on both cameras the Zeiss 135mm F1.8. I usually use the 70-200G F2.8 but wanted to give the 135mm a workout.

A usable image is one that is in focus, doesn't cut out the players hands, doesn't have too many distractions from other players and doesn't look exactly like the frame before it or the one after.

All of my shots are isolated action. They all tend to look the same anyway, just a different face and a different brand of gloves.

Although I used the A500 for half the game I only fired the shutter 73 times. This gave me 22 usable images.

With the A55 I fired the shutter 248 times and ended up with 57 usable images.

All of these shots came from the A500, mostly at ISO 1600 although I did try using ISO 800 and shooting wide open at F1.8. The lens is very sharp at F2.8 but a little soft at F1.8.