Undecided about the A700

[craig_sager]

Hi... As a newbie to this form I thought i would go were all the knowledge

is. :) Im in my late 40's but when i was in college i bought my first slr

camera Yashika to be exact, and took a photo.class. but i have been out of the

slr/dslr game for quite some time now and am interested in getting back into

it. I have been researching alot of brands spending sooooooooooo much time on

the pc reading reviews and going to the local photo store asking questions and

handleing the camera brands they do carry since we only have one in town i

really need some more opinions. I really like 2 cameras Canon 40d and the

sony A700 Why? I like the lcd on the sony, the way it feels when i hold it ,

the anti shake thats in the body because of the lens cost vs having it in the

lens. and i think sony has more consumer frendly features. The canon has the

name, lower cost, 3 inch screen, more lens choices. But still for the life of

me i can't deside what to do so i'm leaving it up to you guys to persuade me

one way or the other. Signed... Going crazy

[david_glick1]

I recently went through this as I am becoming more serious and wanted to decide on a system before dropping a lot of money on lenses and the like. I started with the obvious two and added Sony because I like the established history of Minolta, and the in-body anti-shake. I ended up choosing the Alpha system primarily for the anti-shake and how it can apply to older Minolta lenses. To be honest, though, apart from the old glass, there really isn't a price advantage with the newer lenses. Sony has a history or charging a premium for the Sony name on electronics, and it appears they are going to do the same with their new DSLR division (at least with regard to lenses and other accessories).

 

Since this is your first forray back, you probably won't know for sure until you start using one. It will take a while before you start to understand what you like and don't like about whichever system you start with. Don't be afraid to pick one and then jump ship later if it doesn't suit you. That's also a good reason for holding off on a lot of expensive gear until you get the feel for it again. I would start with whichever one interests you the most right now - if it takes good pictures and you like the feel and ergonomics, then you can't go wrong (and nearly all DSLRs fit the "takes good pictures" category these days).

[tri-crescent]

I know this is a late entry since you posted this 6 months ago but I figured I would put my 2/100th of a cent in.

 

I bought the A100 back in November of 07 because I had been a Minolta user since they came out with the first AF SLR. even after I bought it I was unsure if I wanted to stay with Sony because of the high price on gear and eventually their SURE program that killed competitive pricing. I also had doubts that Sony would retain interest in the dSLR market. I had been looking at the Canon 40D myself and came very close to jumping ship.

 

ultimately I bit the bullet and made my investment by buying the A700. I decided to stick with it and I am surprised that I really dont regret the decision. the A700 is an excellent camera, far superior to the A100 and pound for pound it trumps the Canon 40D. though the Sony lenses are more expensive, if you are alert you can really make a killing on Minolta lenses, I recently found a brand new 75-300 4.5-5.6 telephoto still in the box at a local camera shop, it was on the clearance rack for 75% because they didn't carry Sony and had sold off their Minolta Bodies.

 

after a year the one thing I discovered that made more difference then anything else is the community support for the Sony Alpha, being the under dog in the Digital SLR market, Alpha users are very tight knit and very supportive. I have not seen for Canon or Nikon.

 

so here I am wearing my Sony boots and they feel pretty good :)