upgrade from Alpha200 ?

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wildman

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I got an a200 around 2 or so years ago. Initially I went for a relatively cheap(ish) DSLR as I wanted to try things out first to see if I would keep photography as a hobby. SO now that I know its something that I want to contiune with I think its time for a new camera.

The a200 has served me well, but I feel it is starting to show its age a bit. Also the lack of a few features such as DOF preview, live preview on screen etc can sometime be a bit annoying.

Another bugbear is also that the used market for alpha mount lenses isn't really that great, I know there is a lot of old minolta stuff out there but getting your hands on decent used lenses is really hard. Every shop i walk into has canon and Nikon gear falling off the shelves but sony offerings are often light.

Also the propriety hot shoe boils my blood, further increasing frustrations in finding gear !!

I would say I am at an intermdiate stage in my development as a photographer now and am looking for camera that would suit my needs. ANyone got any suggestions on what an appropriate upgrade would be. I would consider fully switching system to canon or nikon as i could likely trade in the gear I already have for a few hundred quid towards the cost of a new camera.

Looking around a few stores online I have seen a Nikon D80 for £280, a SOny A700 for £500 and a canon 50D for 500.

I imagine that the D80 is not much of an upgrade from my current set up. The idea of the 700 is appealing because it means I can keep my existing glass and add more to the collection, and the 50D is appealing because its canon so the 2nd hand glass market is good, but I thin the 50D doesn't do video, although thats not a show stopper.

Truth be told I am at a bit of a loss :( . The last time I looked at DSLR it was the sony A200, A390, A550 range but thins seem to have moved on a lot since then ?

Budget wise I am looking at around 500 - 750 quid, for this I am after

live preview
DOF preview
Body
Kit Lens and Maybe 1 more lens if possible
video (but not essential can live without this feature)
 
wildman said:
Also the propriety hot shoe boils my blood, further increasing frustrations in finding gear !!
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why? it's an improvement for mounting/dismounting & whilst e.g. Canon & Nikon may use a common ISO mount the electronics are incompatible so if you want to take advantage of advanced capabilities you have to buy "for Canon", "for Nikon" so "for Minolta/Sony" isn't a big deal.

Anyway, the going rate on a forum these days for an A700 is ~£350-400 depending on condition, accessories etc. It's still a great handling camera but lacks some of the features (LiveView, video) of a more recent body.
Other than handling the D80 isn't an improvement on what you have & the 50D imo is roughly on a par with the A700.

A580 is an excellent body in terms of features & performance but lacks the build & handling (e.g. 2nd control dial) of the A700.
& then there are the various SLTs depending upon your needs/wants.
A33, A35, A55 & poss. the A65 may be in your price range.

but some more info on what/how you intend to shoot would help.

P.S. welcome to the forum :)
 
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Hotshoe isn't a problem as interfit do a converter with a pc sync doofer. Think it is about £15.

The a580 is a great camera. Same sensor as nikon d7000. If you can find one they're about £500 or so. Build quality is squeaky.

What sort of lens are you after? Ffordes usually have a reasonable range of second hand sony/minolta ones in.
 
I upgraded from the A200 to the A700 and it was the perfect choice for me.If you can live without liveview & video then you can't go wrong with the A700 as an upgrade imo.Still a great camera with plenty of life in it and will serve you well until you decide for the next upgrade.Got mine for sale as it so happens in the classifieds which is like brand new with the Sony 35mm lens(Which is brand new) as I have just gone full frame.
 
wildman said:
Another bugbear is also that the used market for alpha mount lenses isn't really that great, I know there is a lot of old minolta stuff out there but getting your hands on decent used lenses is really hard.
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It's not that great *here*, but this isn't the place to go for a mount stuff. With patience, keeping an eye on dyxum and ebay it's possible to pick up good glass at reasonable prices. My 300/4, 70-200/2.8 SSM, 100/2.8SF and and 135/1.8 all came 2nd hand from those two sites from UK sellers.


The A700 is an excellent camera, but lacks live view and video, which may be important to you. Then again, when I upgraded mine I went to another camera that lacks both of those things, so you can see how important they are to me :lol: ...
 
onomatopoeia said:
It's not that great *here*, but this isn't the place to go for a mount stuff. With patience, keeping an eye on dyxum and ebay it's possible to pick up good glass at reasonable prices. My 300/4, 70-200/2.8 SSM, 100/2.8SF and and 135/1.8 all came 2nd hand from those two sites from UK sellers.


The A700 is an excellent camera, but lacks live view and video, which may be important to you. Then again, when I upgraded mine I went to another camera that lacks both of those things, so you can see how important they are to me :lol: ...
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Had that debate if I needed liveview and video before I went for the A850...Then thought to myself that I have lived this long without it and not had any problems so went for it.:)
 
DEANSUPREME said:
Had that debate if I needed liveview and video before I went for the A850...Then thought to myself that I have lived this long without it and not had any problems so went for it.:)
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Thats kind of what I was thinking too. I think live preview would be hnady in some situations when you are shooting in some odd positions. Video is not really a deal breaker. I guess my line of thought was if I am upgrading to get the most ammount of features for the money, but in some cases I think this might be a bad idea as more features for less money means they must cut corners in other essential areas.

The A700 I saw comes with an official sony grip and additional batteries. Is that still a decent deal at 499 GBP ?

Also when I look at my position again consiering I alrady have some sony glass maybe its better to stick with this system rather than sell up and start again ?
 
wildman said:
Thats kind of what I was thinking too. I think live preview would be hnady in some situations when you are shooting in some odd positions. Video is not really a deal breaker. I guess my line of thought was if I am upgrading to get the most ammount of features for the money, but in some cases I think this might be a bad idea as more features for less money means they must cut corners in other essential areas.

The A700 I saw comes with an official sony grip and additional batteries. Is that still a decent deal at 499 GBP ?

Also when I look at my position again consiering I alrady have some sony glass maybe its better to stick with this system rather than sell up and start again ?
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It's quite a decent price for an a700 then. the grip retails at 130-150 second hand ;)
 
If you upgrade to the A700 (which I would agree is a great choice, I certainly never regretted the upgrade for a moment) there's a lot more than just DOF preview you'll be getting.

Dual control wheels - once you've used a camera with front and back control wheels (Front for Aperture or Shutter, rear for exposure comp if using A or S, or one for Aperture the other Shutter if using Manual) you'll wonder how you ever coped without!

Viewfinder - The A200 has a pretty reasonable viewfinder for an entry level camera, but the A700 is a big step up.

Burst rate - 5 fps over 3fps doesn't sound that big a difference, but in practice it is.

The only downside to getting an A700 is that you soon get used to the 'solid' feel of it, so find yourself thinking that the next upgrade needs to be an A900...:D
 
the A700 is a great camera,that i would still have today if it hadn't been for it having an accident.it did everything i asked of it,solid build with magnesium body,twin control wheels,5 FPS etc....

i now have the A900,which is a different beast again :love:
 
In my quest to search for an upgradeI went in my local store today checking out some new bodies as I looking to upgrade from my a200. In store they had a 55, so I thought ok i'll give it a go.

I pick up the camera look in the view finder and thought wow, thats pretty bright. I think the guy saw my suprise and then proceeded to tell me that this range uses a translucent mirror ? and that the viewfinder is like a mini live view as it uses OLED technology ?

The next tthought that entred my head was no way, thats what I used to have on my bridge camera 5 years ago so that can't be good surely.

Does anyone have one of the new sony's and if so how are you finding the view finder. I played around with the camera in store for about 30 mins or so and I simply couldn't really get used to it. I also got the feeling that the view finder wasn't really giving me a WYSIWYG view as everything seemed unaturally bright compared to what my eye was intereprting .

I am thining seriously of getting that A700 now as the new sony range are really not appealing to me now that I know the viewfinder is a 'mini electronic' view :(
 
Hi Wildman

Have not tried the a55 but I have both a700 (OVF) and a77 (EVF). There are obviously pros and cons but the implementation of the EVF on the a77 is simply remarkable.

It is NOTHING like on pointy squirty cameras.

For a start it can gain up so you can shoot in near complete darkness (should you wish) also the majority of settings can be displayed so it is a mini (not so mini actually it gives 100% coverage) head-up display. You never really need to take your eye out of the viewfinder so long as you know where the (customisable) buttons are.

I've owned quite a lot of good gear with OVFs like the Canon 5D, 5DII, 1DIII, 1DsII and 1DsIII and think the EVF on the a77 has advantages over all of these.

The lag is insignificant as well so apart from the loss of light through the use of SLT I'm not sure what the cons are ?

It is probably a marmite thing though. I'm sure some (like me) love it and there will be haters as well.

My advice is to go give the a65 or a77 a go, I think you will be impressed (?).

On the other matter, if I were you I'd look seriously at DEANSUPREME's a700 plus lens if you want to go the a700 route. The a700 too is a very nice body, doubt you will be unhappy with it.

Good luck with your choices.

Gary
 
wildman said:
I am thining seriously of getting that A700 now as the new sony range are really not appealing to me now that I know the viewfinder is a 'mini electronic' view :(
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EVFs are the future (& they will continue to improve - e.g. the A65/A77 EVF is better than the A33/A35/A55).
They do away with the moving mirror which improves IQ by removing vibration.
On an APS-C body they give you a bigger & brighter vf than a typical OVF.
They also allow for higher fps than would be typical (no moving mirror) but this is where their 1 real current drawback comes in - once you start hitting ~6fps they struggle to refresh fast ennough to give you a realtime image.
However, from what you have said this is unlikely to interfere with your style of shooting.

Possibly 1 negative thing about moving from the A200's CCD sensor to a body with a CMOS sensor is that many people feel that at low ISOs CCDs produce a superior image (CCDs can't compete at high ISO though where they get noisier a lot faster than CMOS).
 
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I upgraded from a Sony a300 to the a55. The EVF is different but I find it an advantage I can see the histogram or level gauge and all the settings that you can't see with an OVF. Most photographers will look through their OVF take the picture then move the camera from their face to look at the LCD screen then start all over again for the next picture. With the EVF you just keep the camera to your eye and review the picture there. Plus you can see any changes you make with White Balance etc before you take your photo. I have never had an issue with the flash gun hotshoe mount in over 4 years i have purchased second hand lenses from the internet and 4 years later they are similar prices there seems to be enough lens choice for most amateurs from Sony and the independent brands.
I would suggest you look at the a700, a580 or a65. Sony have good sensors.
 
I upgraded from an a230 to an a55. The EVF is good, and the camera as a whole felt like a big jump from the a230 to me. The camera has a tendency to overheat during long video sessions - but for stills I think it's great.
 
gah, my plans are scupered !! I went back to the shop to take a proper good look at the A700, closer inspection revealed that something must have gone wrong with this camera at some point.

The screen looks like it has been remounted and the sony logo was back to front as if the screen had been reversed ? There was also quite a nasty scratch on the screen, the body looks like its been well used and the geeser in the shop said he wasn't sure how many shutter actuations the camera had done.

So i thought i;d rather not part with my cash as there were too many things that didn't seem right and its a lot of cash to put down if you are not sure.

So I guess my options now are

1. Sell all my Sony gear and switch to Canon / Nikon (although don;t really want to do that

2. Go for an A55 or A65 but if I am honest I really don't like the whole EVF / Translucent mirror thing. Maybe I am being a bit pedantic but I much prefer the old school OVF

would like to see some sample pics on a 55/65 if anyone in her owns one so I can at least put my mind to rest regarding IQ. Also when I asked the chap in the store about the 55/65 ISO range he said something like its not recomended to go above ISO 800 !! considering the range goes all the way out to 12600 I think ... thats bonkers to say don't go over 800 ?

Would really like to get some feedback from some owners and see some pics.

My last chance saloon I guess is to try and find another used 700, but they are as rare as rocking horse dung currently :(
 
there's at least 1 in the classifieds here ...
need to make more (useful) posts so that you get access.
 
wildman said:
some pics.

My last chance saloon I guess is to try and find another used 700, but they are as rare as rocking horse dung currently :(
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There was atleast 3 @ one point in the classifieds including mine.Still got mine for sale and it looks brand new.
 
heidfirst said:
couple on Dyxum.
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dyxum is based in the USA right ? does that mean i;d have to pay some kind of import tax and VAT on the top also.

Additionally is something like a DSLR safe in transit long haul like that or would I open the box to find a pile of smashed electronics ?
 
wildman said:
dyxum is based in the USA right ? does that mean i;d have to pay some kind of import tax and VAT on the top also.

Additionally is something like a DSLR safe in transit long haul like that or would I open the box to find a pile of smashed electronics ?
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Dyxum has members all over the world - a lot are in the UK, so if you get one from a UK seller things should be fine.
 
my journey to upgrade is now hopefully at an end, providing of course that DEANSUPREME has still got that body for sale :)

Dean if you are here check classifieds :)
 
wildman said:
my journey to upgrade is now hopefully at an end, providing of course that DEANSUPREME has still got that body for sale :)

Dean if you are here check classifieds :)
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Looks like you will be a A700 owner m8.:thumbs:
 
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