Sony A500 Review
Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 12 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 4.5Mb.
The Sony A500 produced images of excellent quality during the review period. The Sony A500's first impressive feature in terms of image quality is the extensive and very usable ISO range of 200-12800. ISO 200-800 is noise-free, whilst ISO 1600 and 3200 produce more than acceptable results, and even ISO 6400 is OK for emergency use (though we'd avoid the headline grabbing ISO 12800 setting).
The second one is the effective Dynamic Range Optimizer function, which extracts more detail from the shadow and highlight areas in an image, without introducing any unwanted noise or other artifacts. The new High Dynamic Range mode combines two shots taken at different exposures to produce one image with greater dynamic range than a single image would produce. It only works for JPEGs and for still subjects, but does produce some very effective results.
The 12 megapixel images are soft straight out of the camera using the default creative style and ideally require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, or you can change the in-camera sharpening to one of six different levels. The built-in flash worked well indoors with no red-eye and good overall exposure. The night photograph was excellent, with the maximum shutter speed of 30 seconds and the Bulb mode offering lots of scope for creative night photography. The built-in SteadyShot anti-shake system works well when hand-holding the camera at slower shutter speeds.
Overall then an impressive performance - just make sure that you either increase the in-camera sharpening level for JPEGs, or you're happy to post-process the images in Photoshop later.
Noise
There are 7 ISO settings available on the Sony A500. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting for both JPEG and RAW files.
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ISO 200 (100% Crop) |
ISO 200 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 400 (100% Crop) |
ISO 400 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 800 (100% Crop) |
ISO 800 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 1600 (100% Crop) |
ISO 1600 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 3200 (100% Crop) |
ISO 3200 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 6400 (100% Crop) |
ISO 6400 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 12800 (100% Crop) |
ISO 12800 (100% Crop) |
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Sharpening
Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are soft at the default sharpening setting and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. Unfortunately you can't change the in-camera sharpening level.
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Original (100% Crop) |
Sharpened (100% Crop) |
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File Quality
The file quality settings available on the Sony A500 are Standard and Fine for JPEGs, plus there is the option of shooting in RAW. Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various options, with the file size shown in brackets.
| 12M Fine (3.65Mb) (100% Crop) | 12M Standard (2.68Mb) (100% Crop) |
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| 12M RAW (12.4Mb) (100% Crop) | |
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Flash
The flash settings on the Sony A500 are Off, Auto, Fill-flash, Slow Sync, Rear Sync and Wireless, with a Red-eye Reduction option in the main menu. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.
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Off - Wide Angle (28mm) |
Fill-flash - Wide Angle (28mm) |
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Off - Telephoto (82mm) |
Fill-flash - Telephoto (82mm) |
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And here are some portrait shots. As you can see, neither the Flash On or the Auto/Red-eye Reduction settings caused any red-eye.
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Fill-flash |
Fill-flash (100% Crop) |
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Red-eye Reduction |
Red-eye Reduction (100% Crop) |
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Night
The Sony A500's maximum shutter speed is 30 seconds and there's also a Bulb mode for even longer exposures, which is excellent news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 15 seconds at ISO 200.
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Night Shot |
100% Crop |
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Anti Shake
The A900 has a SteadyShot INSIDE function, which is an improved version of Minolta's Anti Shake technology; an image stabiliser that is built into the camera body itself rather than the lens, adjusting for external hand-shake by counter-moving the CCD in a compensating manner. Crucially, it works with any lens that you attach to the camera, removing the need to buy more expensive lenses with anti-shake. This allows you to take hand-held photos at shutter speeds that are critically slow for the focal length used. SteadyShot is activated with a sliding switch on the back of the camera, which requires a reassuringly firm flick of the thumb, meaning that accidental activation or deactivation isn't a problem. The crops below are from two photographs taken at 1/5 second at 28mm and 82mm. As you can see, anti-shake does make a difference at shutter speeds like this. Importantly though, it won't help when even longer exposure times are required – in those cases, switch off SteadyShot and use a sturdy mount such as a tripod.
| Shutter Speed / Focal Length |
Anti-Shake Off (100% Crop) |
Anti-Shake On (100% Crop) |
| 1/5th sec / 28mm | |
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| 1/5th sec / 82mm | |
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Dynamic Range Optimizer
D-Range Optimiser (DRO) is Sony's solution to improve shadow detail in photos taken in contrasty light. The selectable settings are Off, Auto and Advanced Level 1-5. Especially the last of these, the ability to set DRO to one of five levels, is very effective, as our examples show.
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Off (100% Crop) |
Advanced Level 1 (100% Crop) |
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Advanced Level 2 (100% Crop) |
Advanced Level 2 (100% Crop) |
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| Advanced Level 4 (100% Crop) |
Advanced Level 5 (100% Crop) |
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High Dynamic Range
High Dynamic Range Optimiser (HDR) is Sony's solution for capturing more contrast than a single exposure can handle by combining two exposures into one image. The selectable settings are Off, Auto and 1-3 EV, as shown in the examples below.
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Off (100% Crop) |
1.0EV (100% Crop) |
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1.5EV (100% Crop) |
2.0EV (100% Crop) |
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2.5EV (100% Crop) |
3.0EV (100% Crop) |
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Creative Styles
Sony's Creative Styles are akin to Canon's Picture Controls in being preset combinations of different sharpness, contrast, saturation and brightness settings. The default Creative Styles include Standard, Vivid, Neutral, Portrait, Landscape and Black-and-White, and are accessed by pressing the 'C' button, unless another function has been assigned to it. They can also be changed on the interactive status screen. There are other "image styles" available, some of which – such as 'Sunset' and 'Autumn' – are almost like scene modes in that they override the white balance setting too. Within each Creative Style and "image style", the user can fine-tune the sharpness, saturation, contrast etc. settings. Shown here are the six default Creative Styles for illustration.
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Standard |
Vivid |
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Portrait |
Landscape |
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Sunset |
Black-and-White |
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Sample Images
This is a selection of sample images from the Sony A500 camera, which were all taken using the 12 megapixel Fine JPEG setting setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.
Sample RAW Images
The Sony A500 enables users to capture RAW and JPEG format files. We've provided some Sony RAW (ARW) samples for you to download (thumbnail images shown below are not 100% representative).
1/30s · f/3.5 · ISO 800
27mm
Download original
1/320s · f/5.6 · ISO 200
82mm
Download original
1/100s · f/5.6 · ISO 400
82mm
Download original
1/320s · f/8 · ISO 200
67mm
Download original
1/800s · f/5.6 · ISO 200
82mm
Download original
1/100s · f/5.6 · ISO 200
27mm
Download original
1/100s · f/5.6 · ISO 200
82mm
Download original
1/30s · f/3.5 · ISO 250
27mm
Download original
1/50s · f/4.5 · ISO 1600
52mm
Download original
1/100s · f/5.6 · ISO 1600
82mm
Download original
1/60s · f/8 · ISO 200
27mm
Download original
1/100s · f/5.6 · ISO 400
82mm
Download original
Sample Movie & Video
As of February 2025, we are no longer providing full size sample images or videos for download.
Please contact us if you have any feedback on our new policy.
Product Images
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Front of the Camera |
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Front of the Camera / Flash Raised |
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Front of the Camera |
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Front of the Camera |
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Isometric View |
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Isometric View |
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Rear of the Camera |
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Rear of the Camera / Turned On |
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Rear of the Camera / Image Displayed |
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Rear of the Camera / Main Menu |
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Rear of the Camera / Function Menu |
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Rear of the Camera / Live View |
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Rear of the Camera |
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Rear of the Camera |
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Rear of the Camera |
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Rear of the Camera |
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Top of the Camera |
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Bottom of the Camera |
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Side of the Camera |
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Side of the Camera |
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Front of the Camera |
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Front of the Camera |
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Memory Card Slot |
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Battery Compartment |
Conclusion
The Sony A500 marks a return to form for Sony in the mid-range DSLR market after the backwards step of the A330 / A380 models, which although cheaper and lighter suffer from an un-intuitive control layout and poor handgrip.
Live View mode is an area where we didn't expect too many improvements, but Sony have made several advances that puts their system even further ahead of their main rivals. Face Detection and Smile Shutter may be squarely aimed at beginners, but they are useful technologies for the uninitiated, while the new Manual Focus Check Live View is a real boon to accurate focusing for macro shooting. The A500 makes a great choice for a compact camera user looking to upgrade to the scary world of DSLR photography.
Equally excellent is the A500's image quality, with the new 12.3 megapixel CMOS sensor and improved BIONZ processor combining to produce great looking images all the way up to ISO 3200. The Dynamic Range Optimizer reliably improves shadow detail and highlights, while the new High Dynamic Range Optimiser combines two exposures into one image and produces quite natural HDR images (if you could ever call HDR images 'natural').
Our main criticisms of the Sony A500 are what it doesn't offer, namely a large and bright optical viewfinder and any form of video recording. The first issue is a necessary by-product of the excellent Live View system, which leaves the OVF rather small when compared to other DSLRs, even those with a similarly sized sensor. Manual Focus Check Live View partially alleviates this problem, but is no substitute for a better OVF.
The second issue is also presumably a technical limitation of Sony's Live View, and one that is even more pressing now that many competitors offer 720p video, and even full 1080p with the recent launch of the Canon EOS 550D / Rebel Ti2. It's obviously not a problem if you have no interest in using your DSLR for moving images, but Sony must be losing customers lured away by all the excitement surrounding video on a DSLR. With the annual PMA show literally around the corner, it surely can't be too long before Sony introduce a range of video-capable DSLR cameras...
Despite these shortcomings, there's no denying that the Sony A500 is a user-friendly DSLR camera that delivers excellent results for both beginners and shutterbugs alike, and is easily worthy of our Highly Recommended award.
| Ratings (out of 5) | |
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| Design | 4.5 |
| Features | 4 |
| Ease-of-use | 4.5 |
| Image quality | 4.5 |
| Value for money | 4 |
Review Roundup
Reviews of the Sony A500 from around the web.
alphamountworld.com »
The Sony Alpha DSLR A500 is Sony's latest released DSLR this year, along with the Alpha A550. The Alpha A500 and A550 are so close in specifications (a common strategy with Sony DSLRS within the DSLR lineup) that there won't be too much new information to report here in terms of 'paper performance' when compared to the A550 review I prepared, yet I will report on various areas of difference in details that I think are truly worth reading and hit areas that I didn't cover for the A550 review. Together both reviews should give the reader a combined and informative article in total between both cameras, and clarify some key differences that you would experience had you bought both cameras and compared them yourself.
Read the full review »
Specifications
| Sony α mount | YES |
| Compatibility with A-Mount bayonet lenses from Minolta and Konica Minolta | YES |
| All types of Sony α lenses | YES |
| Minolta & Konica Minolta α/MAXXUM/DYNAX lenses | YES |
| Image sensor type | CMOS Sensor |
| Image sensor colour filter | R, G, B, Primary color |
| Size (mm) | 23.5 x 15.6 (APS-C size) |
| Total sensor Pixels (megapixels) | Approx. 12.9 |
| Effective Pixels (megapixels) | Approx. 12.3 |
| Automatic White Balance | YES |
| White balance: preset selection | Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Flash |
| White balance: custom setting | YES |
| White balance: types of color temperature | 2500 - 9900 k with 19-step Magenta / Green compensation |
| White balance bracketing | 3 frames, Selectable 2 steps |
| ISO Sensitivity Setting | ISO200 - 12800 equivalent |
| System: Sensor-shift mechanism | YES |
| SteadyShot INSIDE scale (in viewfinder) | YES |
| Camera-Shake warning (in viewfinder) | YES |
| SteadyShot INSIDE capability | Approx. 2.5 EV - 4 EV decrease in shutter speed (varies according to shooting conditions and lens used) |
| SteadyShot INSIDE compatibility | All Sony DSLR lenses and A-Mount bayonet lenses from Minolta and Konica Minolta |
| *SteadyShot INSIDE was previously known as Super SteadyShot |
| Double anti dust system (anti-static coating and CCD shift mechanism) | YES |
| TTL phase-detection system | YES |
| Sensor | 9 points with centre cross sensor |
| Sensitivity Range (at ISO 100 equivalent); EV | 0 - 18 |
| Eye Start AF System (on off selectable) | YES |
| AF Area: Wide focus area | YES (auto with 9 areas) |
| AF Area: Spot | YES (center cross sensor) |
| AF Area: Local focus area selection | YES (9 local areas) |
| AF Modes | Continuous, Single Shot, Automatic, Manual Focus |
| Predictive Focus Control | YES (with moving subjects in AF-A and AF-C) |
| Focus Lock | YES (with Shutter button or AF button) |
| AF Illuminator | YES (with built-in flash) |
| AF Illuminator range (meters) | Approx. 1-5 |
| Light metering type | TTL |
| Light metering cell | 40-segment honeycomb-pattern SPC |
| Light metering: Multi segment | YES |
| Light metering: Spot | YES |
| Light metering: Center weighted | YES |
| Exposure: Automatic | YES |
| Exposure: Program Auto | YES |
| Exposure: Shutter priority | YES |
| Exposure: Aperture priority | YES |
| Exposure: Manual | YES |
| Exposure: Scene selection | YES |
| AE Lock | YES |
| Exposure compensation | YES (+/-2.0 EV, 0.3 EV step) |
| AE Bracketing | With 0.3 EV / 0.7 EV increments, 3 frames |
| Type | Electronically-controlled, vertical-traverse, focal-plane type |
| Shutter Speed Range (seconds) | 1/4000 - 30 and bulb |
| Flash Sync Speed (With Super Steady Shoot Off); second | 1/160 |
| Flash Sync Speed (With Super Steady Shoot On); second | 1/160 |
| Built-in-Flash Guide Number (in meters at ISO 100) | 12 |
| Flash Metering System | ADI / Pre-flash TTL flash metering |
| Flash Compensation | +/-2.0 EV (0.3EV steps) |
| Built-in-Flash Recycling Time (approx. time in seconds) | 4 |
| Flash Mode | Autoflash, Fill-flash, Rear flash sync. High Speed sync. with optional compatible accessory flash |
| Wireless flash mode | YES (with optional compatible accessory flash) |
| Slow Synchronization | YES |
| Red-Eye Reduction | YES |
| Flash Popup | Auto |
| Automatic Flash | YES (with AUTO and Scene selection mode) |
| Type | Fixed eye-level, penta-Dach-mirror |
| Focusing Screen | Spherical Acute Matte |
| Field of View (%) | 95 |
| Magnification (with 50mm lens at infinity) | 0.80x |
| Eye Relief | Approx.19mm from the eyepiece lens |
| Diopter Adjustment | -2.5 to +1.0 diopter |
| Type | YES - Quick AF and Manual Focus Check Live View |
| Other | Smart Tele Converter / Face detection / Smile shutter *with Quick AF LV mode |
| Screen Size | 3 |
| Monitor Type | Clear Photo LCD |
| LCD Total Dot Number | 230.400 |
| LCD on/off | YES |
| Brightness adjustable | YES |
| Tilting screen | YES - 2 way tilt |
| Drive Mode | Single, Continuous, 10 seconds and 2 seconds Self-timer, Continuous-advance AE bracketing, White Balance Bracketing, Remote commander |
| Continuous-Advance Rate (approx. frames per second at maximum) | Max.5 fps with viewfinder, max. 4 fps in live view mode (approx.) |
| Number of Continuous Advance | JPEG (L size, Fine): 12 images, RAW: 6 images, RAW+JPEG: 3 images |
| Recording Media | Memory Stick PRO Duo™, Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo™, SD memory card, SDHC memory card |
| Recording Format | JPEG (DCF Ver.2.0?Exif Ver.2.21, MPF Baseline) compliant, DPOF compatible, RAW (Sony ARW 2.1 format), RAW + JPEG |
| RAW (pixels) | 4272 x 2848 |
| Image Size L - JPEG (pixels) | 4272 x 2848 (12M) |
| Image Size M (pixels) | 3104 x 2072 (6.4M) |
| Image Size S (pixels) | 2128 x 1416 (3M) |
| Still Image quality | RAW, RAW+JPEG, Fine, Standard |
| Noise Reduction (Long exp.NR) | On/Off, available at shutter speeds longer than 1 second |
| Noise Reduction (High ISO NR) | On/Off, available at the ISO set to 1600 or above |
| Delete Function | Single, multiple, or all frames in a folder |
| Color Space (sRGB) | YES |
| Color Space (Adobe RGB) | YES |
| Color mode/DEC/Creative styles | Standard, Vivid, Portrait, Landscape, Sunset, B/W |
| Dynamic Range Optimizer | Off, Auto, Advanced: Level |
| Date/Time Print | With PictBridge |
| Information Display | YES |
| White/Black Out Alert | YES |
| Index Playback | YES (9, 4) |
| Enlarge (Maximum magnification) | L size: 13.4x, M size: 10.1x, S size: 6.7x |
| Image Rotation | YES |
| Auto Image Rotation | YES |
| Battery Remaining Indicator | YES |
| InfoLITHIUM Battery Indicator | YES (in %) |
| Histogram Indicator | YES |
| Exif | 2.21 |
| Exif Print | YES |
| PictBridge | YES |
| Menu Language | English / French / German / Spanish / Italian / Portuguese / Dutch / Russian / Swedish / Danish / Norwegian / Finish / Polish / Czech / Hungarian |
| Zone Matching | NO |
| Depth-of-Field Preview | NO |
| PRINT Image Matching III | YES |
| Remote Release Terminal | YES |
| IR Remote Control | YES (with RMT-DSLR1) |
| DPOF(Digital Print Order Format) | YES |
| Indicator of remaining memory space (CF) | YES |
| Beep Sound | On/Off selectable |
| File Number Memory | On/Off selectable |
| Folder Name Mode | Standard and Date |
| Operating Temperature (degrees C) | 0 - 40 |
| Video Out | NO |
| HD/HDMI™ Out | HDMI™ mini connector (Type C), BRAVIA Sync (Sync menu), PhotoTV HD |
| USB 2.0 Hi-Speed | YES |
| USB Mode | Mass Storage (PC connection) / PTP(PictBridge) |
| Battery System | NP-FM500H |
| Supplied Battery | NP-FM500H |
| Stamina (battery life in CIPA condition) | Approx. 1000 images with viewfinder, approx. 520 images in live view mode |
| Weight (g) | Approx. 597 |
| Width (mm) | 137 |
| Height (mm) | 104 |
| Depth (mm) | 84 |
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