Was in a camera shop today looking at the Cannon 60d & 650d packages. Chatting to the guy about what was what as I’m fairly out of touch he suggested the Sony 57 Creative Kit as an alternative.
Linky Here
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sony-alpha-slt-a57
Camera uses will be..
Sports/Action/Bikes
HD Video to compliment a GoPro
Landscape big Scenery

Now from the chats we had it seems like a goer. They take any of the old minolta lenses which I have. The lens range is expanding and has some seriously good looking glass in it.
The digital viewfinder was very good and it uses SD not the stupid Sony Memory Stick.

Any body got any experience of them? I saw the previous ones with a rubbish grip but this looked and felt on par with the EOS.
The kit with 3 lenses came in about the same as the EOS 650 package with 2.

Thought please

How did you feel about the electronic viewfinder? that would be the biggest issue for me. Will the shop let you go outside and try shooting moving cars with it for example?

I started with Minolta, then changed over to Sony when they bought Minolta’s camera business. The ability to use old Minolta lenses (and get image stabilisation with them) is a big advantage, but even without that they’re easily as good as similar cameras from Canon or Nikon.

They are very good cameras, with some interesting features – the frame rate is pretty impressive for starters! Work has an older Sony, which is too small for my hands – I just can’t hold it comfortably. I also found it very very ‘plasticky’ and the menu system didn’t seem to have much logic at all.

It seems the body is quite a bit bigger now, and I guess as you were chatting in the shop that you’ve held the camera, so are happy with the way it feels?

May only bugbear would be the EVF – I can’t stand them personally, and a proper optical viewfinder is a significant portion of the SLR experience for me. Anyway, if you’ve compared it side by side with a proper optical viewfinder like on the Canons you mention and you’re happy, then fair enough.

I have an a900 which has an optical view finder and a Nex7 which has the electronic one.

The electronic viewfinder on the new Sony DSLTs (DSLTs) is what differentiates them. There are pros and cons of optical and electronic. When I use the a900 I miss the EVF, and when I use the Nex7 I miss the OVF so for me there isn’t a ‘best’ solution.

The main advantage of the Sony is the in-body stabilisation so all those old Minolta lenses are going to be stabilised. There’s some very good Minolta lenses too…

alak’s suggestion of trying the evf is a good one, but unless you really don’t like it I’d give it the benefit of the doubt. They grow on you as you realise all the new stuff they let you do.

The evf was interesting will probably go back and try it on something fast moving. On top of the list so far

May only bugbear would be the EVF

EVFs can offer good advantages though.

– they can be brighter than the scene you are viewing – MF in an optical viewfinder in the dark is hard, which is also when I am likely to use it.
– you can zoom into a point in the picture, which is handy for MF too
– you can see special effects through it
– no mirror, hence the high frame rate in the camera you are looking at
– you can overlay a histogram or highlight shadows/highlights etc
– I think some new cams have focus peaking so it highlights the bits that are in focus – brilliant for MF.

Basically all the stuff you can do in live view, but in a viewfinder.

Yeah, that’s the thing – I absolutely love the optical viewfinder in my A900, it’s gorgeous, but that’s not really the point of a viewfinder. For actually taking pictures, it’s often tricky – can’t see much in the dark, hard to look through in odd angles, stuff like that, all stuff an EVF solves.

I would like my OVF a lot more if it had a split circle mind.

You can get different focus screens for some cameras – I’ve changed the one in my A900 for example.

We have an “old” 300D EOS bought as an upgrade for a film EOS – both are such fabulous cameras that I cannot imagine buying anything else (I am very much a average punter in terms of photographic ability)

I would say the reason the kit is priced attractively vs the EOS is that it’s the only way they can compete. We use the lenses from our old film EOS so that wasn’t a factor. We have found 2 lenses perfectly fine although of course it does depend which you buy (we chose ours rather than they being included in a kit chosen for us) and what you want to use them for.

You can get different focus screens for some cameras

Yeah just looking at those.

The reputable brand ie Katz Eye apparently doesn’t fit my exact camera. There’s a Chinese job that’s much cheaper that apparently works, but it makes me a little nervous.

However I really really would like it, so I think it could be worth the £20 or so.

Worst that can happen is it doesn’t work very well, so your focus is off – unless you’re terminally ham-fisted you can’t break your camera 😉

Concerned about the effect of a cheapo part of unknown provenance on my camera. But it’s only going to affect the viewfinder I guess, and the optical quality isn’t much of an issue. and brightness isn’t a big deal either since a) it’s already dim being a 4/3 camera and b) the whole point would be to remove one of the main issues with a dim VF.

There’s some suggestion they may affect metering, but I can apply automatic compensation across the whole camera so that would not be a problem.

been very happy with my A35 as a first decent camera but i wont add too much as I dont really have anything to compare to!
Has taken some fantastic photos though

nicolej – Member
I also want to look for a good brand of action camera with quality lens and big storage capacity because my old action cam has already a problem and I think it is the time to replace it.

Thanks Spam Monkey will be clicking that link right now…. where is the find his PC and make it go bang programme they use in films