Tested Reviews

Digital-only speedsters in the 16–55mm range are at home in the Canon, Nikon, Pentax, and Tamron catalogs. All offer fast f/2.8 constant apertures and image stabilization (except for the Pentax, which puts IS in the camera). Now Sigma joins them with this 17–50mm OS ($670, street), its first high-speed, stabilized, wide-angle zoom made for APS-C bodies.

At a time when many new interchangeable-lens cameras have been forgoing reflex mirrors altogether, Sony’s new Alpha 55 (and Alpha 33) take a radically different approach. Instead of ditching the mirror—and with it, speedy, reliable autofocus—Sony gave these two DSLRs a semi-transparent mirror that doesn’t flip up and down. The result: Cameras that can autofocus continuously while recording high-definition video, and fire off stills at high burst rates—and that keep the existing Alpha lensmount for compatibility with the entire Sony lens catalog.

Plenty of DSLRs put a limit on how long video clips can be. Canon's 7D and Rebel T2i cap out at 12-minutes and even the current king of video DSLRs, the 5D Mark II, maxes out at 29:59 or when the file size reaches 4 GB. But, Sony has recently stated that their new A55 and A33 cameras will overheat after a couple minutes of video capture when the in-body SteadyShot is turned on.

FROM OUR EDITORS AT PHOTOKINA: Fujifilm entered the all but non-existent large sensor compact camera category this morning, with the launch of the Finepix X100—a 12.3MP APS-C sensor camera with a 35mm equivalent f/2 lens, a newly developed EXR processor and a 1970’s feel.