» Sony Alpha DSLRA300X 10.2MP Digital SLR Camera with Super SteadyShot Image Stabilization with DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 & DT 55-200mm f/4-5.6 Zoom Lenses

Sony Alpha DSLRA300X 10.2MP Digital SLR Camera with Super SteadyShot Image Stabilization with DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 & DT 55-200mm f/4-5.6 Zoom Lenses Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent camera for the price
Comment: This is my second dSLR. My first dSLR was the Canon D350. It took excellent pictures, but dSLRs were still evolving and I found the 1.8 inch screen too small to view, and when I viewed pics taken on it, I missed defects in photos, like out of focus areas, because of this. Thus I sold it.

As an aside, I still have my film SLR Canon EOS 500 from ages ago. Took lovely photos but obviously not used anymore :)

Come 2008, I felt it was time to get my feet wet again. All dSLR's have huge screens (remember the 1.5 inch ones of yesteryear?) and there are more choices than ever before.

I tried to order the A300 from Amazon but they didnt ship to Singapore. I bought it from a Malaysian website instead for an equivalent price. As the camera comes with no memory card, I bought a 8GB type III compact flash card for SGD$120. I've since found ther camera is cheaper from Hong Kong. Any lucky travellers to HK wanting a Sony Alpha should go tot Mong Kok and ask around. Same for the Lens- 18-200mm was offered at HKD$3100- before any haggling!

Reasons why I chose the Sony Alpha A300:

1. Large LCD screen with tilt- I have loved tilting screens since I first got my Sony DSC 30 back in 2000. In fact, all my dig. cameras can tilt- Kyocera SL300R, Nikon S4, Nikon S10.

2. Price (of course!)

3. Longer zoom than the competitors. I've always found lens which stop at 80mm (35mm equiv) quite useless. It's just too little zoom for most people. Thus this lens was much better. In fact, combined with the 1.4x and 2.0x zoom ability (it's a button on the top right of the back of the camera) makes it even better. Doing this does reduce resolution from 10 to 5 megapixels, but it's there if you need it.

4. Good reviews from many people, including the 23 reviews on this site.

5. Relatively lightweight (see below)

How have I found it since?

I've only taken about 50 photos, but they have been quite good. As I am not a professional photographer who views photos under an electron microscope at the subatomic level, I have no problems with the photos at all. Ones taken in the day at great. Ones taken indoors are obviously not quite as perfect, but certainly quite useable. Face detection is good, and I always have vibration reduction on too.

In terms of user friendliness, It's not too bad. I can take most genral photos on auto, but I still need to consult the manual for some things, like how to zoom in when viewing taken photos.

The price of the camera means that I did compare it with prosumer cameras too. Many of them were had incredible zooms, but were correspondingly heavier eg Fujifilm s100fs is almost 1kg. I used to have a Sony f828, which was also almost 1kg, and it was a hassle to carry around for lengths of time. The weight difference between the A300 with kit lens and the prosumers is very noticeable and carrying the A300 is very easy.

I had intended considering the 18-200mm or 18-250mm lens, but at this stage, I dont think the weight addition offsets the benefits, especially since I can use the nifty 2.0x button I mentioned above. Obviously, using the 2.0x on a 18-200/250mm lens would be heaven itself, but for now, I'll make do :)

Woah, that's a lot of writing- if you made it to the end, thanks for your patience!

For the above 23 prior reviewers- thanks for your time in penning your thoughts. Every review helped!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: a great entry-level pro camera
Comment: i'm not a professional nor a novice, i have researched most of the entry-level DSLRs (going to the nearest bestbuy,is the best bet).Compared oly 510, canon xti,pentax 200d,and believe me this is over-all,one of the best built and most functional DSLRs in the market..altough two of them have in-camera image stabilization..the amazing lcd and the excellent live-view are just few of the features that got me hooked,the kit lens is not that bad either and the image quality is highly commendable..so what if it has a proprietary flash-shoe, it's not like u would buy all the accessories at once.. save up and buy the best(ahem, pardon me for the bias)if you are in the "professional" zone you wont be looking at these cameras anyways.. moreover sigma and tamron are already making excellent quality lenses for sony SLRs, stop fretting about flashes and lenses, if the body feels right, whether it's sony,canon or olympus,go ahead.. get the rest of the accessories slowly..i'm more than happy with this cam.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Forget about your old DSCF828 Accessories
Comment: Don't get me wrong; I do like this camera. BUT, if you're an old DSCF707 or DSCF828 user--such as me (I have both), forget about any of your old stuff working on this camera.

I'm disappointed that even the lens cap does not have a lanyard anymore. The high-end flash for my 828 will not fit the A300 and forget about the batteries, chips or even the USB wire plug being the same. Making matters worse my two Sony remote control tripods won't plug in to the new camera.

I'm more than a little bummed that as an avid Sony Pro-user (daily) that everything has to be bought again. The old 828 unit even came with a charge plug slot, now this new one you have to remove the battery. They could have done better. But, alas, in fairness, I paid more $$$ for the 828 so they had to cut somewhere...just didn't expect EVERYWHERE!

UPDATE 9/2/08--I may have to send this back--this camera does not appear to imprint a date stamp on the photo like the F828. It appears the date only imprints when your have a "compliant printer" which does me no good because I print to .pdf--for investigative work (email). I have a note into tech support but after doing a search of the issue I've come up with a blank. Had I known it would have been a no purchase for sure. I sure hope I'm missing something here. IF this gets corrected I will report back.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Love this camera!
Comment: Great camera for the price. Easy to use. Great pictures in the auto mode. Even better when I over-ride and try new things thru aperture or shutter speed variations. I'm really enjoying this camera!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Better Than the Alpha 350, IMO
Comment: I took the plunge, and purchased an Alpha 300; Sony being rather new to the SLR arena, there wasn't much information to go off of at the time. I'm happy to report that this camera performs VERY well, impressing all my Nikon and Olympus loyal friends during multiple photo shoots.

The Live View is very useful for awkward position shots; low down, up high, etc. and is the envy of most other camera owners.

Picture quality is very high, even in low-light conditions.

With the capability of 3 frames/second, I don't see any reason in going for the Alpha 350, which only manages 2.5 at best. 10.2MP is more than enough, even if you're shooting billboards, IMO.

All together a very versatile camera, with more than enough features and capability to keep you busy for a long time. I think only die-hard professionals would need much more.

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