A700

Hey to all good Sony people
I looking for a good price on a new A700 any one have a tip for me???
thanks:) for your help

They are pretty well price controlled, finding a variation in pricing is unlikely, and if it happens I would even be weary about it. The MSRP is pretty fair, I would not get the 18-70 kit, the 16105 kit is only $100 more for a much better lens, or I would get body only and supply your own lens.

One important thing to remember, as *soon* as you get your A700, make sure it is version 4.0 firmware, if not, upgrade it to 4.0... Do you already have lens in the Sony mount?

thanks guy
I don't care much for kit lens.
but a good macro , have you any feelings:idea: about that
your input would get great

How much magnification would you want on your macro, and at what focal length would you want the macro? The Minolta 70-210 f4 (Beercan) is a must get for its price and performance for all people with a Sony body, it is a *bit* of a macro lens, with a 1:4 Magnification at the 210mm range (315mm field of view 35mm equivalent).

If you need something with more magnification, minolta has in its system Macros that go as close as 3:1, and at ranges between 50mm and 300mm.

thanks again
AH yes the Beer Can-- this camera is a replacement for my wife so weight and size are very important
Thinking more in a 70mm to 105mm macro range or even Better a good combo carry around
Sorry I have been buying nothing but lens for a Nikon mount or Olympus gear for years
so I am very ignorant on what's available for Sony gear
thanks for all your help

As you might know Circuit City is going out of business, you might want to check your local store for bargains. From what I heard they raised their prices and had a 10% discount so nothing good yet, may improve in the following weeks.
I read that last week the A700 was on sale $ 999 Sonystile.

well I have managed to find a new A700 Yes its big but not nearly as big as my Nikon d300
I was impressed with the picture quality and view finder was big and bright.
my birthday search is narrowed down to the Sony A700 and the Pentax k20.
I have not been able to find a Pentax to hold or try out.
My wife's birth day is coming up fast.
I will go out today again to try to find a Pentax.
Pentax Advantage is weather sealed Lens's and a very well seal body and Price
Advantage Sony I have a kit lens and a top end flash in house and availability
size is very important Having not seen a Pentax or taken and sample shots makes it hard to go in that direction, But price is less
I will keep all posted:rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by pisco

As you might know Circuit City is going out of business, you might want to check your local store for bargains. From what I heard they raised their prices and had a 10% discount so nothing good yet, may improve in the following weeks.
I read that last week the A700 was on sale $ 999 Sonystile.

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stopped by short circuit city a little while ago
they had one an obvious demo scratched and dirty no box the quoted me $$999.00
LOL
on sale what a joke
it was worth a try thanks for the tip:idea: :mad2:

thanks for the Tip on the firmware
Question I hope you can clear up what does the latest firmware improve
Interesting you mention that 2 of the camera sales people told not to buy an old model A700
that the newest models were better in several way's ?????
If that's true what improvements were they talking about?
They both told me the same thing , at 2 different companies.
A sales pitch or the truth both said that their cameras were of the news designs and had the latest updates:confused:

thanks for your help

Well $1000 is a good price, but the last thing you want is a demo from circuit city, I worked at a Compusa way back when and one of the favorite things kids like to do with those cameras is stick their fingers in the pentaprism.

New ones will have version 4 firmware, old ones you have to update to version 4...

big question !!!:idea:
Firmware the original and the latest 4.0.
I have been seen a box full of samples on line of mushy soft photos from the A700
with muddy colors.
I have been told the new firmware fix's this problem!!! boy I hope so
do any of you have any samples with the latest upgrade.
Sharp , clear clean sharp photos I hope:idea:

thank you

Well, honestly the only actual important thing it changed was noise performance, when I upgraded from 1 to 3, then 3 to 4, I immediately noticed a difference in 400-3200 (each time) ISO noise performance. *HUGE* difference. It also added a few new features, you could change noise reduction off for high ISO use (1600+) plus a few other small things I don't really remember.

I suppose the high saturation/muddy colors could have been an example of the high ISO noise reduction process of the 1.0 firmware, other then that 1.0 did damned well.
Not organized enough to have samples ready... Sorry, please trust that noise is significantly reduced.

I was on 1.0 for a while,

Hey Blizzard,

Like Anbesol said, the v4 firmware was mostly a high ISO noise fix. It also extended the auto-bracketing range as well as a couple of small bug fixes. The a700 is very capable of sharp pictures, but it really depends on a number of factors. People who shoot JPEGs on the a700 generally add +1 or +2 to the in camera sharpening.

"Muddy colors" indeed sounds like what could have been a pre-v4 high ISO shot. Often referred to as a watercolor effect.

I haven't got time to post samples at the moment, but I'll try to stop by later to do so.

I added +1 to in camera sharpening for a very brief period but it butchered my photos, made processing much worse.

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Originally Posted by Canuck935

Hey Blizzard,

Like Anbesol said, the v4 firmware was mostly a high ISO noise fix. It also extended the auto-bracketing range as well as a couple of small bug fixes. The a700 is very capable of sharp pictures, but it really depends on a number of factors. People who shoot JPEGs on the a700 generally add +1 or +2 to the in camera sharpening.

"Muddy colors" indeed sounds like what could have been a pre-v4 high ISO shot. Often referred to as a watercolor effect.

I haven't got time to post samples at the moment, but I'll try to stop by later to do so.

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I just spent a few minutes on your gallery well done
congratulations:thumbsup:

I think you are right about older firmware and low end lens
My hope is to replace 2 older camera body's with a a700 next week
and my d300 with a a 900 by late spring
send a photo or 2 thanks:aureola:

You'll find plenty of my a700 images on flickr. Link is in my sig. Also, plenty to see on the a700 flickr group pool.

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Originally Posted by Canuck935

You'll find plenty of my a700 images on flickr. Link is in my sig. Also, plenty to see on the a700 flickr group pool.

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excellent work skillful stunning composition
clean clear color and sharp toooooo good job :thumbsup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Anbesol

Well $1000 is a good price, but the last thing you want is a demo from circuit city, I worked at a Compusa way back when and one of the favorite things kids like to do with those cameras is stick their fingers in the pentaprism.

New ones will have version 4 firmware, old ones you have to update to version 4...

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:) How right you are

can any one fill me in on the quality of the software that comes with the Sony???
One of my boys uses an a100 hates the standard Sony software and uses Photo something or other
thanks again :idea:

The packaged software is never something to sing about, Sony's raw process software is alright, does what its supposed to. I wouldn't put any concern in packaged software, Photoshop is the only one you need...

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Originally Posted by blizzard

excellent work skillful stunning composition
clean clear color and sharp toooooo good job :thumbsup:

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Thanks! :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by blizzard

can any one fill me in on the quality of the software that comes with the Sony???
One of my boys uses an a100 hates the standard Sony software and uses Photo something or other
thanks again

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Well, back when I first got my a100, I installed all of the Sony software, which included a RAW converter and Sony's Picture Motion Browser organizing software. The RAW converter is pretty quick and easy to use, and it'll do batch conversions too. However, I didn't use it much because RAW converters added more time and effort to my work flow.

The Sony Picture Motion Browser I used quite a bit. It quickly became my program of choice for quickly viewing and organizing my photo's. It was a real pleasure to use. I'd still be using it today except I have discovered Adobe Lightroom. It is the one stop shop for photo organization and editing. Add to that web gallery creation, printing directly from LR, and a slideshow module.

Blizzard, sorry for spamming your thread here...

Canuck, do you use anything apart from LR, like Elements, or can you do everything you want in LR?

Mette

Lightroom satisfies probably 99% of my needs. If you have Photoshop and you need layers or something else you can't achieve in LR, you can take an image from LR and send it to Photoshop. Then, do what you need to do in Photoshope, then save and close in Photoshop, and the image shows up in LR again with all your Photoshop edits. It's brilliant really.

Thanks, Canuck :) Then it will most likely satisfy 99% of my needs too, if not all! I've been making queries at http://forums.photographyreview.com/...ad.php?t=51637 but I'm not sure I understand it all, but you, that's straight talking, thank you big time :) :) :)

Mette

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Originally Posted by Pink Dragonfly

Thanks, Canuck :) Then it will most likely satisfy 99% of my needs too, if not all! I've been making queries at http://forums.photographyreview.com/...ad.php?t=51637 but I'm not sure I understand it all, but you, that's straight talking, thank you big time :) :) :)

Mette

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Thanks guys I will check it out

Hey hey in my search for a new camera one of the managers at a camera store hinted there may be a a New or upgraded a700 or something soon!
Have any of you heard that rumor:idea: ---------------keep me posted