White balance and colour
Image: Skin tones are accurate and sharpness is impressive in this image recorded with the Sony Alpha 57 and 16-50mm f/2.8 lens
There are six colour modes, comprising standard, vivid, portrait, landscape, sunset and black & white, all of which can be adjusted ±3 for contrast, saturation and sharpness. As with other Sony Alpha cameras, the standard colour mode produces strong but realistic colours.
The saturation can also be tweaked to add punch, but it is easier to change to the vivid setting. I found the auto white balance in daylight to be a little on the cool side, but for most purposes it works well.
The process of creating a custom white balance reading is simple. Take a custom reading by pointing the spot focus at a white area in a scene, then accept the suggested Kelvin temperature. Manual Kelvin adjustment is also available along with nine white balance presets, of which four are varieties of fluorescent light.
In the drive mode menu, white balance bracketing is available over three frames at ‘Hi’ and ‘Lo’ settings.
