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| Brand: Sony
Category: Photography
Buy New: $888.00
New (7) Used (6)
Avg. Customer Rating:  23 reviews
Color: Black
Media: Electronics
Batteries Included: Yes
Floppy Disk Drive: None
Includes Software: Yes
Optical Zoom: 1
Display Size: 3
Maximum Resolution: 12
Has Red Eye Reduction: Yes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 3.3 x 5.6 x 4.3
Warranty: 1 year warranty
MPN: B000VPNYSO
Model: B000VPNYSO
UPC: 027242714151
EAN: 0027242714151
ASIN: B000VPNYSO
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Will be a classic June 11, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I shot film for many years. Had a change of careers and was out of photography for a while. Then got back into it with digital. This is my third digital camera and my second DSLR. I used Nikons for many years but, knowing Minolta lenses are just as good and often better than Nikon or Canon or other brands, I took advantage of the momentary panic when Minolta lenses were cheap. I had also used Sony digital cameras with Zeiss optics and enjoyed the image quality, product quality and industrial design. I had also used Sony video equipment in professional settings and knew Sony made great stuff. Also, Nikon cameras use Sony sensors.
Now that Sony has fully taken over Minolta and is doing nice work and being innovative, I picked up the A700 on sale.
It is a terrific camera. But if you are new to photography and new to SLR photography, you might be better off starting with an A200 or A300 (or their successors if you read this a few months or years later). Then in a few years, pick up an A700 used or its successor (A750?)
In short, the A700 is an excellent DSLR camera. Combined with classic Minolta or new Sony lenses, you will have great results. For Sony lenses I have the 28mm and the 50mm Macro. Both are excellent. The rest of my lenses are Minolta or Konica Minolta zooms (for a brief time, Minolta combined with Konica before selling to Sony). I hope to pick up some of the newer Sony G or Zeiss lenses in time. But if you are just shooting for fun, the basic zoom is fine to start, then see what you like to shoot and get a "prime" like the 50 Macro.
Rock solid camera. April 8, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I've now had the A700 for 8 months. Totally solid reliability, not a problem one. I use a Sigma 10mm wide angle and the Sony 18-200mm lens. The camera feels just perfect to hold. Image quality is of course terrific. The wireless flash system is great, with 2 H56's you can do lots of creative lighting and is fun to use. Complaint would be high noise level shooting in low light with DRO turned up, but of course just turning it down fixes it. Great high quality DSLR, I am very glad with the choice I made.
Very nice camera to follow Sony's heritage April 1, 2008
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
By all means it is very capable, quick, and well made camera that takes big deal over Minolta's legacy. This camera is distinctively "Sony" while it still incorporates many of nice findings pioneered by swallowed Minolta.
I played with this camera for couple of days and found there's much to love about the ways it suggests. The lens is terrific. I guess it is the same lens that was permanently mounted to DSC-R1 and by all accounts it is glorious lens. The sharpness, clarity, transparency of it, all across the field is simply second to none. It is hard to touch another lens after trying this. In DSC-R1 just the lens itself was worth the purchase! The range of the lens is exceptionally convenient and extends trough the range that is appropriate with hand holding shooting. Reinforced by Sony's shake reduction it provides complete and very dependable tool for shooting anything with the lens under practically any condition. You must see the full size images this lens on the camera produces to concede it was worth many words. Today, there are many superb cameras on a market and Sony made smart move by offering premium glass in somewhat accessible price range as it makes the whole system very sweet and desirable.
Great camera, great lens.
BEST CAMERA IN SONY FAMILY !!! March 8, 2008
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
BEST CAMERA IN SONY FAMILY !!! ,, just now sony have a pro camera it can be in line with all best cams from canon and nikon....
No Regrets! So glad I chose Sony. March 7, 2008
17 out of 17 found this review helpful
I think it is a foregone conclusion that if you are invested in Canon or Nikon, then you have no compelling reason to even look at this camera. But for the first-time SLR buyer, there are a lot of reasons.
I am a first-time digital SLR buyer. I was looking at the Nikon D80 10.2MP Digital SLR Camera (Body only) for a very long time. I was also considering the Sigma SD14 14MP Digital SLR Camera (Body Only), as I preferred its feel and ergonomics (and I love Sigma lenses, I had used them on film SLRs before). I wanted an APS-sized sensor for my camera, so I din't consider any of the Four-Thirds models. I wanted a full-size, rugged SLR. Nikon, Sigma, Fuji, and Canon were all on my initial list.
But then Sony announced last year that they were going to make CMOS sensors for themselves and Nikon. I knew that such sensors should improve a problem I have been suffering with CCD sensors for years, which is noise. When I saw the first product pictures online, I immediately put it on my list of candidates.
And when I finally got to hold an A700 in November, it was love at first shot. The ergonomics are better for me than anything I have seen with Canon or Nikon. The grip, shutter release button, and thumb and index finger wheels feel like they are in the perfect locations. I love the speed. You can turn it on and take a picture in under 3 seconds. That's fast enough for an amateur like me. And it has the sweetest shutter sound I've ever heard on a digital SLR. Small details, but very appealing.
At a practical level, the camera's rich list of features and sensor stabilization make it a better camera than the D80, for just a few hundred more. The only thing it lacks that pro photographers would want is an LCD status screen up on top. But Sony assumed that amateurs like me wouldn't mind having the settings displayed on the giant 3" LCD on the back, and in my case, they were correct.
If you want live view and a second LCD status display, then the Nikon D300 is a logical choice. It's a great camera for a little more money. As far as image quality is concerned, I have to agree with the pro users that the Nikon D300 has fewer noise issues, while the Sony A700 has better color reproduction. (The minor noise issues with the Sony can be fixed with some software updates, and we A700 users are waiting for both Sony and Adobe to address them.) It's interesting since both cameras have a very similar sensor. But the difference lies in how the images are processed in the camera. Sony has a series of processing technologies in this camera, most of which work great for the amateur photographers who don't want to spend a lot of time with manual processing (Adobe Lightroom, Apple Aperture, etc.). The pros out there are a little annoyed that this Sony assumes that they want advanced noise reduction and some extra preprocessing. After all, an image in RAW format can have the noise reduced later on a desktop or laptop, why have the camera interfere?
Again, it was a judgment call made by Sony that most A700 users would not be artists, but rather photojournalists and amateurs. I can see the photojournalist influence in the camera's design. By having separate buttons for White Balance, ISO, and Drive, the camera can be easily adjusted by a user who is in a hurry and/or wearing gloves.
This is a camera made for outdoor use. The Sigma SD-14, in comparison, is a camera that is best in a studio. The Sigma is renowned for its use in the fashion industry. But its menus are not as intuitive as the Sony. And once outside, the Sigma has noise issues at 800 ISO. I don't detect noise problems with the Sony until I get up to 1600 or 3200 ISO, depending on the light source.
I should mention that the menus in Sony A700 main LCD screen are beautiful, easy to access, and make sense. There are multiple ways to access the grid of settings including the three dedicated buttons mentioned above. Want to adjust ISO and then exposure? Just push the ISO button, make the change there, and then use the joystick to highlight the exposure control, then center-click to save. The wheels (one for index finger, one for thumb) can be programmed to adjust aperture and shutter speed however you wish. You will be shooting crisp, professional looking photographs soon after you take the camera out of the box and charge the battery. It immediately made me a better photographer.
And for lenses, the news is just getting better. Sony is releasing at least 4 new lenses this year, including a 'beercan' style 70-300 telephoto, and an amazing 24-70 f2.8 Carl Zeiss, which could be the ultimate full-frame portrait lens. This camera is not full-frame, as it uses an APS-C sensor. But Sony is getting ready to release the A900 full-frame professional SLR, and we're already seeing some lenses designed for it. Also, Tamron and Sigma both support the alpha-mount (formerly Minolta), and their lenses are worth a look. I highly recommend the Sigma 18-50 f2.8 as a great walk-around lens to start with. And Sony has the wonderful 16-80 Carl Zeiss as a walk-around choice. Sony also offers a lightweight 11-18 ultrawide zoom for architecture photography (indoor and outdoor). And there are others in the pipeline. All total, there are about 40 lenses you can purchase for this camera brand-new, and any used Minolta or other alpha mount lens will work as well (most notable is the famous Minolta 70-210 "beercan" from the 1980s).
But no digital SLR should be purchased without picking it up and trying it out. Get yourself a Compact Flash memory card, go to a camera store, and take some shots. You might understand why we Sony users are excited.
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