Sony has yet another addition to its NEX series this year; it is the Alpha A55V digital camera. It is available in the market along with it’s moderately prices avatar; the A33.

These cameras have new features to differentiate them from the other traditional DSLR’s currently available in the market.

Design Features
The Sony Alpha SLT-A55V is a 16 megapixel camera with a classic black finish. It is a relatively small camera; about 15 ounces in weight and has a width of around 5 inches. The decrease in size of this digital camera as compared to the others in the market can be attributed to the new translucent mirror technology.

The technology eliminates the need to move the camera up and down, thereby enabling the camera to be manufactured in a smaller size.

There is a lens button and a jog wheel for operating the camera. But the new button you are looking out for is the mode dial.

It features all the different approaches to shooting; and has the operations of auto, aperture- and shutter-priority, manual and scene modes, and 10 frames per second. It also has a 3 inch LCD and full time live view.

Technology Features
This new camera boasts of the new Translucent Mirror Technology, a vital breakthrough. It actually has an advanced translucent mirror; which remains fixed during operation.

It allows for most of the light to easily reach the imaging sensor, and only a small percentage of light is reflected to the autofocus sensor. This allows focusing while the camera is in the shooting mode.

Due to the Translucent Mirror Technology the motion of raising and lowering the camera gets eliminated. This allows focusing while images are being captured, the result is simply marvelous.

Furthermore, it has a 15 point autofocus system; which allows capturing moving objects.  In addition, it incorporates the 3D sweep panorama mode and 1080i HD video recording. The camera also has Face Recognition Technology, and can be programmed to recognise 8 faces.

The A55V model can capture about 10 frames per second, while the A33 can capture about 7. This is simply remarkable, when compared to other DSLRs which can capture only about 3 or 4 frames per second. There is another camera by Canon that can match the A55V in this respect, but it is rather costly. While, these two cameras are available at a much reasonable cost.