Sony A33 camera

Way back in February of this year I spent $85 on this Sony A33 with two zoom lenses. You should appreciate I only got to spend that much because—

• the $100 lot was for sale on a Wednesday so I could get 15 per cent off (Goodwill Senior's Discount Day)

• I had a Christmas $50 gift card burning a hole in my pocket

• $35 is about the top end of what I feel comfortable spending

• you don’t see that many comparably recent modern DSLRs

• I hadn’t had any luck for days, and I was weak

It is only as I write this story it comes to me, I really never pause to appreciate what I have. Instead I am ever on the search for the next treasure. This is quite a failing. At least back in the days this obsession started—with film cameras and accessories—I used to run a roll of film through each new camera. Then I would write about the fun of the new camera, illustrated with shots I had captured with it. Now I am collecting so fast, and shooting so infrequently, cameras can disappear in the flood of new equipment pouring in.

There was another problem. This camera came to me with the two zooms, a 32 G memory card, a really memorable cap holder (right) but no charger. I have mentioned (many times) I can usually rig up a charger, but it does take some effort. Then I collected a Sony A5000 and it uses the same battery as the A33.  The A5000 charges its battery in camera, using the USB cable it came with. Now I could charge both camera’s batteries up! I did play with the A33 long enough to establish it was working, but the newer stuff—like the A5000—took my attention away. Perhaps we should return to the A33…

Back in 2010 Sony decided to reintroduce a concept not seen since the Canon Pellix. You can chose to use a semi-transparent film fixed at 45° in the space other cameras use a mirror to achieve the same aims. You use 30 per cent of the light coming through the lens piped off for viewing while 70 per cent of the light continues on to the film. 

The pluses to this are—

• you don’t have a mirror banging up and down

• you never lose sight of the subject

The disadvantage to this partial film system are—

• the loss of light being syphoned off

• possible damage to the half silvered film (to be fair the mirror can be damaged too)

In the case of the Canon Pellix they simply sold the camera with a f/1.4 standard lens. The faster optic made up for the light lost to the film/viewing losses.

In the case of the Sony system the light isn’t being syphoned off for the viewing system. The light is being syphoned off to the autofocus module so the camera can maintain autofocus while making movies. The A33 has an electronic viewfinder being fed the image from the sensor. The same “live” image can be shown on the articulated screen, on the camera’s back. 

The camera has 14.2 M imaging and Full HD movies. It has sensor stabilization. It has the Minolta “i” non-standard flash mount (right). It is relatively small (at least compared with some of the other companies). It has many, many built in shooting modes and exposure tricks. 

It also has covered inputs and outputs. One real plus for those interested in movies—besides built-in stereo microphones—it has an input plug for external microphones. 

It is a really fun camera to own, and I look forward to playing with it now that it has resurfaced!