The A230 is the cheapest and lightest digital SLR camera in Sony’s Alpha range. It costs just under £460 and weighs 450g, including the 18-55mm zoom lines in the standard kit.

It has a robust plastic construction, large controls and a new on-screen help guide that makes operation easier to understand for those trading up from a smaller point-and-shoot camera for the first time.

Given its price, the A230 misses out on some of the features found higher up in the range, such as Live View, the means by which the rear screen can be used to compose pictures. In this case the 2.7in screen is fixed and cannot be tilted, as on the Alpha A380.

It does, however, retain a few innovative tricks, such as eye-controlled auto-focus. Sensors in the camera detect when the user’s eye is against the optical viewfinder and it promptly sharpens the image without the need to press a button as on other cameras. Turn the A230 on its side to shoot portrait-fashion and the information display will flip through 90 degrees too so it can be easily read.

Of further use is image stabilisation which can decrease the number of blurred shots when shooting handheld. If we’ve one grumble it’s that the A230’s handgrip is unnecessarily small, so it's a bit of a squeeze to wrap even three fingers around it.

In terms of connectivity, beneath a sliding door on its side the A230 offers a joint audio-video and USB socket, separate HDMI connection for hooking up to a suitable flat-panel TV (though the necessary cable costs extra and there’s no video mode). Images are stored on memory cards – the camera will accept Memory Stick or SD and SDHC cards.

In practice the kit lens was impressively sharp on a clear and bright winter’s day, with very little of the distortion common on cheaper lenses. Performance was more than ample given the beginners at whom the A230 is aimed, with bold colours and decent low-light shots relatively untroubled by noise.

The Sony A230 is a sound camera for those who want better-quality photographs without having to spend a fortune.