It now reads '100%,' in addition to displaying four bars to indicate battery status.
The old battery icon has been augmented with a 'percent remaining' indicator on the Sony A300 and A350. Like most other digital SLRs, the user deploys the flash with a button on the left side of the lens mount housing, by the big orange Alpha logo. Now these consumer cameras can deploy the flash in auto modes when necessary. The Sony A300 and A350 also have a new pop-up flash, rather than the old 'pull-up' type. The same LCD-based function menu that appeared on the A200 earlier this year replaces the old dial-based function menu on the Sony A100, and many of the menu items and systems from the Sony A700 have made their way into the Sony A300 and A350. Shaped to better match the sensor's 3:2 aspect ratio, the Sony A200's 2.7-inch 'Clear Photo' LCD has an anti-reflective coating for easy viewing in the sun, and 230,000 pixels, but the version on the A300 and A350 tilts up and down for easier viewing while shooting low or overhead. Autofocus in Live View is also as fast as it is in optical viewfinder mode, a major breakthrough among digital SLRs. Like the A200, Sony says that improvements to the A300 and A350's AF have made focus acquisition 1.7 times faster, thanks to the high-torque AF motor and improved AF sequence borrowed from the A700.
