Help with a very old sony A200

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Pablo666

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Hi. I bought a Sony A200 a very long time ago. Recently it has developed a fault. As I had numerous lenses and attachments, I did not want to throw them all away and start all over again with a new system. I new that Sony had developed a new camera system which is not compatible with my lenses. This is not cricket. People being forced into throwing away good equipment like that.

I found on eBay an A380 second hand going for £100. Slight ware and tare obviously. I need to know if I can buy this and use it with my existing equipment.

I have heard that Sony invented a mirrorless system but this would not be compatible with my lenses. This is very confusing as mirrorless lenses are SLT. I have found that all the original A100 - A700 are A mount but this also includes A33, a55 etc. These are SLT but are also A mount. E mounts are the NEX- range.

Can someone sort this out for me in a meaningful way please. Are there 3 types of lenses perhaps.
 
There are two mounts, A-mount for DSLR/DSLT (the SLT cameras use a different mirror design but it's the same mount) and E-mount plus there are two sensor sizes, APS-C and full frame. The A380 is an APS-C A-mount camera so as far as I'm aware it should offer exactly the same compatibility as your A200 which is also an APS-C A-mount camera.

The SLT cameras were a stepping stone from DSLR to mirrorless cameras, they still have a mirror but unlike a conventional DSLR the mirror is fixed in place and allows light to be received on the main sensor and the AF systems at the same time. The DSLR design has downsides with liveview and video recording since when the mirror is down the sensor is blocked while the light goes to the viewfinder and the high speed AF systems but when the mirror lifts to enable liveview/video, the optical viewfinder and high speed AF systems are blocked so the SLT design was an attempt to offer a more balanced camera. All the SLT cameras are A-mount and they're almost all APS-C apart from the two A99 cameras so you could use an SLT camera with your A-mount APS-C lenses.

The mirrorless cameras use E-mount which is a completely new mount although it is compatible with A-mount lenses through an adapter, it's been a while now so I can't recall how well the adapter works. Although unless you're particularly wanting features on an E-mount camera you're likely better sticking with an A-mount camera. The original APS-C E-mount cameras were the NEX series, the newer APS-C E-mount cameras are the A5xxx and A6xxx cameras while the A7 and A9 series use the bigger full frame sensor.
 
Okay that explains a lot. I think the A380 has live view where my A220 you had to look through the top whic blacks out while the picture is taken.

Do I not see live view with this with out pressing the shoot button? "The DSLR design has downsides with liveview and video recording since when the mirror is down the sensor is blocked "
 
Pablo666 said:
Okay that explains a lot. I think the A380 has live view where my A220 you had to look through the top whic blacks out while the picture is taken.

Do I not see live view with this with out pressing the shoot button? "The DSLR design has downsides with liveview and video recording since when the mirror is down the sensor is blocked "
Click to expand...
The A380 does have liveview and it has a clever little trick to allow you to have the liveview image and fast AF by using a second imaging sensor in the viewfinder chamber. So you can use either the optical viewfinder or the main screen to take photos.
 
As @JohnMcL7 said, A few years ago Sony switched away from the older A-Mount to use the newer E-Mount for all new cameras.
You can, in fact, still use A-Mount lenses on an E-Mount camera via a suitable adaptor - though Sony have made it a lot more complicated than it needed to be, with older E-Mount cameras requiring one of two different adaptors depending on the lens in question having an in-lens AF Motor or not, while newer E-Mount cameras use a third Adaptor that can work with all A-Mount lenses.
Given you are looking at an A380 for £100, getting an e-mount camera and adaptors is, however, probably way over your budget.
I would suggest you look at sites like MBP, which deals in second hand cameras and lenses.
A quick check on there shows they have a number of A-Mount cameras, and (for example) have the A700 available for £104-£124. The advantage of purchasing from somewhere like MBP is as a retailer they will provide a warranty - so you have the reassurance that the camera should be OK. (I picked the A700, as that was the model I upgraded to from my A200, before then upgrading to an a900, and then an e-Mount A7iv - I still use the A-Mount 70-300G which I used on my A700 via an adaptor on my A7iv, and it works perfectly)

https://www.mpb.com/en-uk/category/used-cameras/dslr-cameras/sony-dslr-cameras

If you want more details on the different Sony Cameras, Dyxum is a site dedicated to Sony cameras, and has a useful camera database (and another equally useful Lens Database)

https://www.dyxum.com/gear/camera/index.asp
 
Pablo666 said:
Thanks for that Faldrax. Just been on MPB and found a A700 in excelent condition for £119. If I went down the e-mount camera path.
I have used https://www.dpreview.com/products/timeline?year=2020&brand=Sony&category=slrs
But at a July 2020 camera A7S ||| The prices are through the roof at £2k
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The A700 is an A-Mount APS-C camera just like the A200, so any lenses you have will work in exactly the same way - but the A700 is a significantly better camera, with better controls, better AF and a much nicer vierfinder.
 
Thanks for all your help. The reason why I want to get it now is the up-coming solar eclipse on 29th. I did this back in 2000. I had a Tamron 300mm lens and a Cokin polariser filter. Can’t find the filter. Need to buy a new filter as I lost the last one. Cokin seem to be harder to get these days/ Seems to all be K&F.
 
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There's quite a few a mount Sony digitals (not digitalis, flipping autocorrect!). A580 is a good one to search out as well. I had one after a380.

A77 are bigger and heavier. There's also the A99 full frame.

I've got a load of old Minolta lenses and have used them with quite a few A mount sony cameras. There were the odd glitch with some makes and the SLT cameras to start with. Sigma seemed to be more prone to issues but I used an ancient 28-300 with several and not had an issue.
 
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srichards said:
There's quite a few a mount Sony digitalis. A580 is a good one to search out as well. I had one after a380.

A77 are bigger and heavier. There's also the A99 full frame.

I've got a load of old Minolta lenses and have used them with quite a few A mount sony cameras. There were the odd glitch with some makes and the SLT cameras to start with. Sigma seemed to be more prone to issues but I used an ancient 28-300 with several and not had an issue.
Click to expand...
A380 to A580 to A77ii was my progression. I liked the A580 much more than the A77ii. I now have an A6600 (E-mount), which is probably a 'better' camera - but still not as fun somehow as the A580. So - OP, if you can find a reasonably priced A580, snap it up.
 
Pablo666 said:
Thanks for that Faldrax. Just been on MPB and found a A700 in excelent condition for £119. If I went down the e-mount camera path.
I have used https://www.dpreview.com/products/timeline?year=2020&brand=Sony&category=slrs
But at a July 2020 camera A7S ||| The prices are through the roof at £2k
Click to expand...
The A7S cameras are video focused models and the mk3 version is expensive at over £3,000 new but I wouldn't consider one for photo work since they have a lot of compromises to improve their video side.

Apologies if I'm misunderstanding your comment.
 
I'm still using a pair of A65s - second from the top of the "A" series, if I recall correctly.

They have 24 megapixel sensors and are SLT designs. I like them because, so far as I'm concerned. they do as good a job as anything more modern and expensive. MPB will sell you a good one with a guarantee for under £200.

Sony A65s with Tamron and Sigma lenses GX7 P1140617.JPG
 
What is the difrence between auto focus and video focus? Also I tried to find out postage for cameras with MPB. Only get a bot that dosn't understand postage.
 
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