I've read many reviews now of the SLT A55 and only one the A580 (DxO). The SLT A55 reviews seem to say that the A55's DR while good its not nearly as good as the DR on the K5 and D7000, which have the SAME sensor. And they've demonstrated that the noise and NR eat into the detail as well (not sure what happens with RAW files).
Enter DxO. Not surprisingly, according to their testing, the A55, while quite admirable overall, also falls short of the DR and noise suppression at higher ISO's of the D7000 and K5. But, also according to DxO, interestingly, the A580 is right up there with the Nikon and the Pentax. And even though the other two cameras offer features and construction that set them apart, for the most part, with identical sensors (albeit with different image processing algorithms) according to DxO the images they produce in terms of noise and resolution are fairly similar.
I've got to assume that Sony for the most part in two different boxes for their two models, one with a conventional mirror system and one with the new fixed, translucent one, used identical 16 Mp sensors and, I also assume, identical image processing units.
Could it be that the pellicle mirror system affects DR and other matters (I know there's been some reports of ghosting but that must be a reflection anomaly that would result from having a permanent translucent mirror in the light path)? One third less light IS significant and could account for the discrepancy I'm seeing in these test results.
Any other thoughts on this?