The Sony Alpha 35 ($699.99 direct with 18-55mm lens) is the current entry-level D-SLR camera in the Sony lineup. As such it demonstrates the company's belief in the SLT design, which eschews the traditional optical viewfinder for an electronic one. This is necessary because of the camera's fixed pellicle mirror—which is mostly transparent, reflecting just a little bit of light to the camera's phase detect autofocus sensor. The net result is a camera with fast autofocus and a fast frame rate, but the LCD technology that Sony employs in this camera lags behind the OLED display found in the more expensive Alpha 65 ($999.99, 4 stars). Despite grabbing photos at an impressive five frames per second, the A35's LCD EVF somewhat hampers its usability, making it unable to unseat the Nikon D5100 ($899.99, 4.5 stars) as our Editors' Choice for D-SLRs under $1000.

Design and Features
The Alpha 35 is one of the smaller D-SLRs that I've handled. The body measures 3.6 by 4.9 by 3.3 inches (HWD). Even though it's slightly smaller than 3.9-by-5.3-by-3.3 inch Alpha 65, both cameras weigh about 1.4 pounds. The camera has a single control wheel, located on the front hand grip below the Shutter Release. Rear controls include buttons to adjust EV Compensation, White Balance, ISO, and the camera's Drive Mode. The Mode Dial, which controls the shooting mode, is located on the top of the camera to the left of the eyepiece.

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While the camera may not have as many physical controls as a higher-end D-SLR like the Canon EOS 7D ($1,699, 4 stars), it does have a nice menu system that makes it possible to change settings without scrolling through page after page of options. Hitting the Fn button brings up an overlay menu that makes it possible to adjust any of 10 shooting settings, including the Metering, Flash mode, and Autofocus modes.

Like the A65, the Alpha 35 has a fixed pellicle mirror—Sony calls it a translucent mirror, but it's really almost transparent. It reflects just enough light so that the autofocus sensor can do its job; the rest goes straight to the camera's 16-megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor. Because the mirror doesn't move between photos, the camera is capable of shooting at faster frame rates than others in its class. It also makes it necessary for the A35 to use an electronic viewfinder rather than the traditional optical finder that you'll find in other SLRs. I raved about the Alpha 65's OLED EVF, but the finder in the Alpha 35 uses more traditional LCD technology. Despite it having a very nice 1.44 megapixel resolution, it suffers from a lack of contrast and noticeable refresh lag when there is motion. When I look through an OLED finder I feel as if I'm seeing the world as it's happening, but the A35's LCD finder is more like a representation of the world that is somewhat lacking in vibrancy. Sony has put a lot of eggs in its fixed-mirror basket—the Alpha 580 ($849.99, 4 stars) is the only traditional APS-C D-SLR that is currently in its lineup.

The quality of the camera's rear LCD is actually quite nice. The fixed 3-inch display is packed with 921k dots, and does a much better job displaying deep blacks as compared to the eye-level EVF. It still exhibits some lag during motion, but unlike other cameras like the Canon EOS Rebel T3i ($899.99, 3.5 stars), it focuses extremely quickly in Live View mode. Because there is no need to lock the mirror when switching to live view as there is with a traditional D-SLR, moving between the rear LCD and the EVF is seamless. The camera has an eye detect mechanism that automatically switches between the two modes.