Of course.

I still am waiting for sony to send me some cameras to test, in the hope that I might give them some good feedback ;-)

Being serious, leaving aside the few nice bits missing on the A200, if the price drops down to new low levels, I might just check it out.

Gimme gimme gimee!! Oh wait, I have them all.

SONY MAKE MORE!

Seriously though..

I can see myself keeping one of new A-Series, haven't yet made up my mind however.

-Carl

. . . and sold my 8x10, 5x7 and 4x5 Cambo View Cameras. Still have my two 4x5 wood fields and graphic 4x5 pacemaker press as well as an Eastman 2D with 8x10 and 5x7 backs wood field. And a 1930's Charten 5x7 field. A real gem with a new bellows I had made for it.

My a100 system has grown!!! With a brand new Sony 36 flash in the mail (can't wait to try it out)and only one digital lens the CZ1680z which is really everything I could hope for it to be.

Then after hours of reading post and visiting these web pages:

http://www.dyxum.com/
http://www.mhohner.de/minolta/lenses.php?lang=e
http://www.photoclubalpha.com/
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1037

I have added 7 more, circa 1985, Minolta AF lenses, a Maxxum 7 w/vc(always have to have a film camera) and now I am redundantly reading and rereading info on the a700 and the a350 while I anxiously await the sails of the Flagship a900??? to appear on the horizon!

Meanwhile my a100 goes everywhere I go with a 50mmf1.7 and the CZ1680z as constant companions. If I know I will be on a nature walk I also grab my big beer can 75-300f4.5/5.6.

I'll probably cull out a couple of lenses and get rid of a few film cameras soon to prepare for purchasing another Alpha body.

. . .But I have to admit in my closing that the fun of using my a100 has rekindle a joy in photography that had dimmed for a long time.

I was the same way the A100 and even more so with A700. You will have a blast with the flash. I have the 56 and love it for off camera bouncing, really improves the pictures. I am looking forward to possibly using it for Macro...

What 7 lenses to did you pick up? I hope they are all gems...

You will have a lot of shooting and sharing to do once they arrive...

Hapster

Hi Hapster,
These are the lenses in my kit; And you know I don't think I counted my latest the 24mm f2.8 lets see how it adds up in a moment. . .

24mm f2.8 (just bought this last month)
50mm f1.7 (2x)
50 f2.8 macro
cz16-80z f3.5/4.5
35-70 f:4.0 (baby beer can)
35-105 f:3.5/4.5
70-210 f:4.0 (the beer can)
100-200 f:4.5
75-300 f:4.5/5.6 (new)
75-3004.5/5.6 (big beer can)

total=11 wow more than I thought

The extra 50mm and the 75300 (new) models came in with a camera kit purchase looking for one of the other permanent lenses in my a-mount setup. Sometimes I can find the item I want cheaper in a package somebody is selling off to go digital so I'll grab the whole thing and then eventually I'll sell off the items I'm not interested in.

Like two Minolta 7000 35mm bodies and a really nice 7000i camera body. These came in just as I described in my attempt to get the lens I wanted. Matter of fact I think I'll ask Carl and Eric if they need some samples for the websites museum of Minolta bodies Big Grinnnn ;-)

Ah barry - your confession there - should we paste it in DPreview :)

Was thinking of the A300, but the missus is pushing me towards the A700 - honest!

It really comes down to price v performance. I am much happier looking at the IQ, than I ever was with the A100 (high ISO esp), that is why I passed on that one, and the flash exposure was somewhat iffy too.

There are features missing that I do use, DMF, AEL toggle etc etc. I can work round that.But the price for me must reflect the reduced spec as such. Its not bad at £399 with a kit lens, needs to hit sub £300 for me to get intersted in a purchase. I am sure it will get down to that level in the not too distant future. As with everything, pay less..less fussy!

will depend on a few factors Barry.

1) price point of the A300 if/when it's released in the UK. Rumours have it priced at a similar point to the A200 - not going to sell many!

2) Sales against the more expensive D60. As far as feature sets go, the A200 more than matches the AF-less Nikon, but to the eye of joe public, the name (and pushy salesman) may force their hand. But a sizeable gap between the 2 will benefit Sony.

Though to be fair, since release, a price war is breaking out with Argos and now Jessops matching the £399 - warehouseexpress haven't - and if their 125% offer of price matching stands, makes them worth watching!

CJ

Not sure about the A300, I saw only the A350 on the sony site. I would expect it to be sold here too. As for the A200 being similar price, I would also think that it would drop down "below" the A300 fairly rapidly. It might take a while, but I think £299 is possible, very much so. K100d managed to nip down to £250 with a kit lens.

Interestingly, if sony added a few bits to the A300, that are gone from the A200, I might even go for that, as its pretty much the same thing with LV put on it, its not grabbing me on its own.

Nikon made a major blunder IMO, with the D60..even hardcore nikon users were deeply critical. They could have really taken the market by storm, with added LV and a few more features, upgraded AF (3 point is not too great), but they didnt. Its so like the D40x its not funny, I think it will get replaced pretty quickly, ala E400..get shot of it. The price is pretty poor too, though it will drop.

I will give it 6 months..I bet its £299 by then. Reason I wont pay more, good old fussy me..well I paid a bit less than £399 for the KM5d, and I am looking for a lower price, for being honest, a lower spec camera. Always been that way..hold off for the bargains ;-)

Funny you should mention the swift departure, as DSLR user this issue (April) has the D40x cashback offer on the back. Well, it's going, see the D60, and the cashback offer ended 29.2.08!

Problem you have, and I face too, is that maybe Minolta made the 5D too good! Rated best of the 6mp cameras out there, it makes the upgrade choice difficult. Nice that my partner has said the A700 can be considered (hoping the price drops!), but I like the liveview implementation on the A3**.

Decisions, decisions...

Well Carl, some people complained that the 5d was too good for its price. And reviewers noted, bar the expected cut down on controls, small buffer and VF etc. You got 7d image quality and most of the features. The only reason I have not 7d'ed it so far, is it appears less reliable than the 5d, and Km did some work on the metering..I found it a good bit better overall. It was an easy choice. I never complained it was well featured!

In its class, it was a very appealing buy. Esp compared to the D50 and Canon 350d. So there was never a doubt that it was the camera for me. As you say, I can see how sony want something that they can sell for less (after a while), and attract new users in. As a companion camera, its a logical choice, not sure its a 100% replacement to the Km or the A100. As your review suggest, some issues have been sorted out, and some stuff missing too.

So I will stick around for a bit and see how the price pans out. I dont expect an A500 this year being honest, and the FF flagship is likely to mangle your credit card rather badly!

I knew this would come up hahahhahah

Interesting convo though, I'll join it!

If I was a novice picking one camera on a budget right now, I'd probably err to the side of the A300 (A200 IQ is outstanding) or A350 maybe.

Carl G (hehe)

-AlphaMountWorld Chief

Hey Carl..

I hear a few moans about the VF on the A300/350,..aka smaller than the A200. What's it like? Any drop in brightness either??

I honestly think its got def pull, but more so to new users. I guess some a mount users would look at it too, hence my A500 thoughts..ala drop one of the LV cameras. Not sure I see a place for 2 of them.

Hey who is Carl J anyway ;-) lol

I'm taking away your 5D, and forcing you to use a medion compact from Aldi, Barry!

Lol..

Well I know Carl G, and know what he looks like, dunno who this Carl J is though ;-)

I heard the aldi compacts were not that bad, cannot say myself..never touched one, but a guy on dp swears its nice enough!

Quick point here, from the A200 review.
"Auto focus assistance use in AFA is no longer available, now only usable in AFS. The A100 you could use in AFS/DMF/AFA modes"

My brain died a bit today, is this the flash AF assist we are talking about here? Cheers.
I guess the Carl J mystery will be solved soon enough ;-)

You will be :)

Now if Carl or Eric would allow avatars, the mystery would be solved!

Avatars eh, yeh we could enable those. The signature code has a few issues I've noticed so I haven't wanted to add anything new until that's fixed yet. I think ideally maybe allow avatars but allow people to not see them if they'd prefer not. Thanks for expressing interest I didn't know how others felt on that.

but back to the topic...sorta ;) IMHO, I think I like the a100 and a700(of course yes) over the a200, and I'm reserving judgment on the a300/a350 until I actually go test one out.

It seems like the a200 IQ is better than a100 after using it, and I think it might even be better than the a700s jpeg quality. But comparing just a100 vs a200, overall I still prefer the a100 due to the things that are important to me (build, better dro albeit noisy, mirror lock up etc).

As far as the a700, its dro, dynamic range, build quality and usability, I think it's so worth the price. I can't stand using anything less now which seems to be the sentiment often expressed by others.

I will say though that although the A200 feels more plasticy, I.E. "hollower", It's tolerances feel tighter to me and overall a tighter bit more compact unit. We'll see how it feels though after a year of heavy usage.

Barry, on the A300/350, I didn't notice the VF being any less bright, but you can tell the difference in the magnification. I'd like to get it out of a PMA setting and play around with it more to get a bit better overall judgment of it however.

Too bad the new A series cameras dont have MLU,DOF,DMF etc, if they did, they would knock the sox off the A100 and finally put the 5D to its grave :) Especially the A200, but alas, we have to wait longer.

Carl