MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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I've been wanting to upgrade to a Digital SLR for a while, I do like taking photos but will never regard it as a serious hobby.
I can get the Sony A200 with zoom lense kit locally for £247 which seems a good price.
Has anyone got this camera and like it or not? Any other reconmendations appreciated.
Ta
Yes its a good DSLR to get you started.It has now been replaced by the A230.
Have a look @ [url= http://www.dyxum.com/index.asp ]WWW.Dyxum.com[/url] the Sony DSLR forum.
I've got one, and for a beginner like me, I reckon its spot on..
Of course the "purists" will tell you to buy Cannon or Nikon, but for the money I reckon you can't go wrong..
If you think you are really going to get into photography and start wanting to buy lenses then it may be worth you considering the Canon / Nikon options. There are certainly plenty of second hand lenses for these brands.
That said the Sony cameras are superb and the built in Image Stabilisation is a great feature that you have to pay for in the lenses with Canon / Nikon. If you think you would always buy new on lenses then go with the sony you will not be dissapointed whatever choice you make.
I ended up buying nikon purely because of the great deal on a D40. Now 3 lenses later I am saving up for a replacement camera body still need £900!
The manufacturers know once you buy your entry level DSLR you will stick with that manufacturer, so they will all have competitive offerings at the £300 mark.
Simple answer is........yes.
Long answer is.......bargain.
Had a Pentax which I sent back. A200 is much nicer in the hand. Pictures compared to a compact are above and beyond. Compared to the competition you'd be hard pushed to notice a difference, and even then any difference you can see is down t personal preference (i.e. softness versus noise, colour rendition versus vibrance)
Only benefit of Canon and Nikon is the abundance of second hand cheap manual lens. Can use Konica Minolta lenses on the A200 if you want.
the Sony is a good camera and is compatible with minolta AF lens'
so you can get a 1.8 50mm (digital 70mm (ish)) prime for buttons
I would get the A320 rather than the 200 as it has more toys
I bought a sony digiSLR as I had an old minolta dynax 500 with a 100-400 lens which was transferabe, great camera's easy to use ..........oh and saved me a bundle on replacing equivalent lens
I've an a200, very good camera. It has an amazing battery life, i've taken 900 photos on 1 battery charge (not much flash use). It's light and has a good layout for easy use.
Old minolta lenses work including the autofocus so second hand lenses are easy to come by.
For £250ish is is way better than compact cameras, no real shutter lag and stuff like that.
Highly recommended by me!
Don't rule out slr's that can do hd video tho', hd video cameras are cheap at the mo tho'!
Rick.
Of course the "purists" will tell you to buy Cannon or Nikon
This "purist" is thinking that if he's started with Sony he could justify upgrading to a Sony A900 (or its successor) at some point, and he'd get a full frame DSLR for a lot less $$$ than Nikon is asking
I've got one & I like it.
I'm no expert but you can see some of my results [url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnhooper_drum/sets/72157621868287748/ ]here[/url] and [url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnhooper_drum/sets/72157617102373776/ ]here[/url]