Got to hold the a700 today!

[LightBright]

Hi this is my first post here on this site. I have researched many different dslr's and to tell you the truth Sony was last on my list. I mean, I would never think of buying a Sony camera. My personal experiences with Sony were rather bad. I bought there tv's and one word "Junk". There tv's would always break. Others may have different views and experiences on this but this was mine. Sony for cameras didnt really capture my eye until I found out Konica Minolta joined sony (Just discovered this today lol). Than things changed! Sony seemed to be more appealing now. And today I got to hold the a700 in my hands at frys electronics. One word "AMAZING"! I fell in love with the design immediately. It fit like a glove. The controls were so easy to use. This is very important for me because I have very bad ocd and am very sensitive when it comes to my hands. Non of my twitches got the better of me with this camera, thanks to the quality of the body and controls! The ease of use was great too. I was able to take perfect exposure pics at full manual and in MF in a couple of minutes with this camera. Im sort of new to photography and I bought a Pentax Spotmatic F film slr for my class's and its a great camera. I love my Pentax, but film prices are getting the better of me. Also, I don’t get to see right away how my pics came out. So that’s why I am planning on purchasing the a700 to use along side with my film body. I have heard great reviews for this camera in British magazines. No wonder I haven’t heard the greatness of the a700, its cause ive been only reading American mag's this whole time which hardly ever shows sony products. I don’t really care for live view; I find that looking through the view finder of a camera to be much more fun. I now have new found respect for Sony. Can’t wait to get mine. Do you guys/galls have any recommendations on what lens to start out with? Thanks all

[Anbesol]

Beercan, (70-210 f4, vintage Minolta line), great color and sharpness and a great soft out-of-focus blur.

the 50mm f1.7 - with multiplier its a great all-around lens, particularly for portraiture. Its also an outstanding quality, ultra high speed at a very reasonable price ($100-$130).

If you have a rather generous budget, definitely look at the G series lens and the Zeiss lens. Dyxum.com has a really good lens review section.

[Canuck935]

Hi there!

I'm sure you will be very happy with the a700. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever heard of anyone not being happy with it. You can read our own a700 user reviews on this site and be sure to add your own once you've had a chance to put it through its paces.

As for lenses, I'm extremely happy with the following kit:
Sony 11-18

Fantastic ultra-wide, great distortion control. A little slow, but not a big deal with a700. Tamron version basically the same but cheaper. Another popular one is the Sigma 10-20. Also Tamron is coming out with a 12-24 that's been getting a lot of hype.

11-18 example:


Sony CZ 16-80

It's a Zeiss, 'nuff said.

16-80 example:


Konica Minolta 28-75 f/2.8

Fantastic! Talk about bang for the buck! This was my most used lens until I got the Zeiss. You lose the wide end because of the crop factor, but it's still very usable and gives great results. The KM version is hard to find these days, but the Tamron again is very similar and more widely available.

28-75 example:


Minolta 70-210 f/4 "Beercan"

A cult classic. This lens dates back to 1985, but it is still one of the most sought after lenses in the Minolta lineup. You definitely get a lot of bang for the buck out of this one. It's popularity is mostly due to it's fantastic bokeh. In fact, this thing produces nicer bokeh then lenses three or four times its cost. It can suffer from CA, but if you are careful about avoid such situations it shouldn't be a problem.

70-210 example:


I also have the Minolta 50mm f/1.4, but honestly don't use it much. It's nice to have for extreme DOF control and low light though. I also have a Minolta 75-300, and honestly it's nothing more than an expensive paperweight. Of course don't take my word for any of these lenses, you have to find what works for you and your style of shooting. Like Anbesol mentioned dyxum has the most extensive a-mount lens database to be found anywhere.

[Pink Dragonfly]

I'll just join the other dogs and howl :-) The a700 is great! We just celebrated his 2 month birthday yesterday LOL...

Canuck, those are GREAT photos (as always!)

When is Sony going to start making an Alpha beercan (the Minoltas are very sought after in this part of the world and pretty hard to come by!)? Retro is "in" and a beercan would compliment the a700/a900 very nicely

Just out of curiousity, how much more DOF do you get with your 50mm f/1.4 compared to my Sigma 105mm f/2.8?

Mette

[Canuck935]

Well, I'd think it would be hard to compare the two for DOF. I'd imagine you could get nearly equally shallow DOF from both in most situations. I believe that Sigma is a macro, yes? If so, it definitely takes the cake in the macro category. The 50 I'd imagine would win for maximum DOF though, as it has the advantage of being 55mm shorter in focal length.

[LightBright]

Thanks for all the help!

Canuck935, wonderful pics you have there. Im dreaming about the a700 night and day can’t wait to get it soon. I will post a review on the camera after I get it. Those photos gave me a clear idea on which lens I should be shopping for. Again great photos, I dont know why my photo 1 teacher insulted sony's cameras. He said "Jezzzzz, don’t get sony" than he paused and said " no one here has a Sony right, good dont bother" lol Obviously, they take fantastic pics and they beat out there rivals in some recent magazines I purchased.

" Beercan, (70-210 f4, vintage Minolta line), great color and sharpness and a great soft out-of-focus blur.

the 50mm f1.7 - with multiplier its a great all-around lens, particularly for portraiture. Its also an outstanding quality, ultra high speed at a very reasonable price ($100-$130).

If you have a rather generous budget, definitely look at the G series lens and the Zeiss lens. Dyxum.com has a really good lens review section."

That 50mm f1.7 sounds good to me. Im in a photo 1 class and we mainly use 50mm focal length lenses.

[NoKnees]

Yes, unfortunately some old school camera folks still associate Sony only with Playstations, Walkmans, and P&S cameras. Never mind the Minolta heritage and experience they took on when they started making DSLRs, or the high end broadcast film/video industry they've been a part of for years...

Anyway, as any teacher should know, it's the user behind the lens that makes the most difference. Although some nice lenses help!

Be patient looking around for the Minolta 50mm f1.7 lenses... Some are going for too much on ebay these days. Check KEH.com as they usually have some for a decent price used... You may also be able to pick one up bundled with an old Minolta film camera for cheaper than the lens alone. Just keep your eyes open...

Anyway, enjoy the camera when you get it...

[Anbesol]

"Jezzzzz, don’t get sony" than he paused and said " no one here has a Sony right, good dont bother"

He doesn't know what hes talking about. Lots of sentimental elitists that are stuck to some convoluted notion of Canon/Nikon superiority.

Good lens are *not* hard to come by with the Minolta/Sony system. Noknees - I wouldn't say $130 is 'too much' for the 50, its more than they have been going for, but its still a better price than you'd find on any other system right now. The price is just adjusting now to its increasing popularity. KEH does have some great deals though.

[NoKnees]

Yah, maybe $130 isn't too bad, especially compared to comparable new lenses. I just wish my 401k gained valued in the last 4 years like Minolta lenses have. ;)

Having paid anywhere from $90 to $200 for the "Beercan" 70-210 f4, I just know you have to be patient but you can still get some good deals...

[LightBright]

Sry for the delay guys/girls, I hope to get the camera within 2 or 3 weeks. lol. I cant wait!!!! I want it now. Anyways, I like square photographs is there a way to crop the a700's view finder so its square? Mabye a product I could purchace. I was thinking to do the same with my film bodies with some tape lol.

[Canuck935]

I heard Sony dropped the MSRP on the a700 recently, so it is a good time to be in the market for one. I don't know of anything that will crop the viewfinder to a square for you. Up to you if you want to use tape over the eyepiece, but I would probably just eyeball it.

[LightBright]

True I could just visualize a square and chop it off later.

So far I found the a700 at a local ritz store for $1200 with the 18-80 lens I think. But at sonystyle I found it for the same price but with the 18-200mm.

[Canuck935]

Depending on your budget, I'd recommend the a700 + 16-105 kit over the 18-200 or 18-70 kit. The 16-105 is the best of the three kit lenses as far as IQ, and thus is a better match for the a700. In fact, it often draws close comparison to the CZ 16-80 lens.

[Anbesol]

They do make stickers you can place on the pentaprism to give you the visual of the square, I am not sure where to get them though, I looked through bhphoto.com and couldn't find them. I know my employer supplied them on all of their equipment (though ours show an 8x10 and 5x7 crops)...

[LightBright]

Great, so they do make stickers! I am looking through adorama, I got to get those stickers to put on all my camera bodies lol. I think its a fad....

"Depending on your budget, I'd recommend the a700 + 16-105 kit over the 18-200 or 18-70 kit. The 16-105 is the best of the three kit lenses as far as IQ, and thus is a better match for the a700. In fact, it often draws close comparison to the CZ 16-80 lens."

Will defiantly try to go with your recommendation for the 16-105 when im shopping. I don’t do much telephoto, I usually do really wide to standard and some macro for fun.

[LightBright]

Hello everyone. I finally got my a700 with the 18-70mm lens. First with the good, wow!! It is so ergonomic and easy to use. The screen's detail and resolution feels like a miniature HD TV screen. Its super quick, with little or no lag time when going through menus and pictures. They were right this is a great fun camera to use. Almost everything in and on this camera body is simply perfect. Others have looked at the a700's lack of live view as a problem, however I find it a good thing that they did not add it. Perfect blend of electronics and mechanics. O ya, it looks great too... The right amount of boxy and round. The strap has orange highlights and the body has an orange (a alpha) symbol on it. Orange by the way is my favorite color. I havent tried the software yet but will try makeing time to install it on my pc.

Now with the not so good. I tried to get the 16-105, but it’s a little out of my price range. I got the 18-70 instead. The 18-70 is extremely hard to focus sharply on subject matter. The zoom is smooth but the focus ring is rather fiddly and makes a anoying squeaking noise when I manually focus (I don’t use af). This lens is definitely not bad for only $100! I got the a700k bundle with lens for only $1,100 at fry’s electronics. So that being said, I shouldn’t complain much about it, you get what you pay for.
But I am curious though, I still consider my self new to photography. I dont know if its my camera settings or my lens selection but I feel like I need a much much higher iso in combonation with a lower F stop to take correct exposure pictures with a relatively slow shutter speed. I ask this cause some of my pics come out underexposed when test shooting in my modertly bright living-room at night. Mabye its cause the lens I am useing???

I am thinking about buying some old cheep Minolta lenses from KEH.com. That should make things right.

Thanks for all the help. Very satisfied with my camera. Going out in a little bit, to have some fun. Can’t wait to show up in class with it

[Anbesol]

Minoltas legacy lens' are fabulous performers, particularly those built around the late 80's early 90's. I can't say I had those same issues with the 18-70, the squeeky issue sounds unusual as well. The AF won't do so wonderfully on that zoom with its slow speed (it goes up to f5.6 pretty quickly). But, you will be surprised how quickly the AF targets with faster lens, that 50mm f1.7 will have it finding focus super snappy. I also use a Nikon D200 for my job, and its AF is a snail in comparison to the A700, sony did a fantastic job with its AF on the A700, I would not worry about that. You can also set the AF speed in the menu to fast or slow. "Slow" is still fast, it is just not as fast..

I would definitely say that the 50mm f1.7 and the 70-210 f4 are both must gets, you will maximize the performance of your camera with those lens. I would also look at the legacy wide angle lens (after you get those other 2), and get one of those as well, I grabbed the 24-50 f4 and its an incredible performer! I also am going to pick up the 35-70 f4 before too long as well for portraiture. As was said before, KEH.com and ebay are good places to look.

If you plan on doing a lot of portraiture, the 35-70 would be great, its a very unpopular range because its a weak wide to weak telephoto, so its very cheap, but its right in the spot you want to be for portrait range.

The lens you are using should have no impact on how accurately the camera is metering, but with the aperture range on that lens, you would need a fairly high ISO in indoor settings (800-1600). Could you explain to more detail the issue you are having with indoor metering?

[Canuck935]

Congratulations! :thumbsup:

Glad to hear that you are happy with it so far. The 18-70 kit can isn't all bad. You can get really good results if you shoot in it's "sweet" spot of around f/8 to f/11.

[LightBright]

Anbesol those are good recommendations. Keh.com might have those in stock, I have to check right now.

About the squeaking noise, my hands are rather skinny but my fingers are somewhat awkwardly long, so my posture when holding it is very odd. So, I think this is causing me to push to hard on the right side of the lenses with my left hand index finger; this causes an imbalance on its turning axes and causes a noise. I found another way to hold this lens and it hasn’t been making this noise anymore.

"The lens you are using should have no impact on how accurately the camera is metering, but with the aperture range on that lens, you would need a fairly high ISO in indoor settings (800-1600). Could you explain to more detail the issue you are having with indoor metering?"

Ya, actually I don’t think its a problem, I think its quite normal now. Since my perception on what’s bright and dark is way off. That room had 3 lights but they were all on one side, so 2 walls were underexposed because they were behind the light source. So no problem there. Also I forgot to set my camera temp for fluorescent light, that mistake gave me a yellowish tint to the whole image. I shot the pictures using a rather high iso of about 800 and up. You are right the largest aperture opening makes it difficult to shoot in dim light.

One more question. Ummm. The lowest F-stop on the 18-70 is 3.5. When I set the zoom on the lens to about 30mm, will that be enough to get a great enough dof in combo with F 5.6 (30mm@F5.6)? Because my old camera went down to f1.4 and the lens is a focus length of 50mm and a 50mm combined with a 5.6 f stop would make the photograph have a relitvely low dof.

The Image stablisation and the bright screen tends to use alot of battery life. I just lowerd the brightness -5 on the screen and shut off the IS when I dont need it. That should help.

"Congratulations!

Glad to hear that you are happy with it so far. The 18-70 kit can isn't all bad. You can get really good results if you shoot in it's "sweet" spot of around f/8 to f/11."

Thanks Canuck935! Ill try to keep that in mind. Thanks for all the help :,)

[NoKnees]

Glad to see the lens is working out for you... Yah, you can get some great Minolta glass to improve your range, but for $100, that kit isn't bad.

I do remember having some issues with MF on my kit lens. The resistance in the focusing mechanism just wasn't that smooth, leaving me feeling like I wasn't getting the same precise adjustments I was used to with other lenses...

Most of the older Minolta AF lenses feel soooo much better when manual focusing. The only exceptions for me are some of the 1st gen AF lenses from the 80's. If there is an RS or D version of an old lens, you can almost guarantee it has an improved focus ring.

I'll second a vote for the beercan family of lenses.. I have a 35-70mm f4, as well as a few regular beercans at 70-210mm f4.. Never owned a BigBeercan, but demoed one and liked what I saw... The 35-70mm or 24-50mm f4 are some of the cheapest, yet best little zooms you can get. Limited range, but nice quality.

When checking KEH for some old glass, be sure to cross reference the lenses over on Dyxum.com in their lens database. Many good reviews there that can help steer you to the correct choices, and good bang-for-the-buck lenses. KEH usually has a fair price, but not always...

When checking eBay, the best steals can be found on old 7000i and similar era Minolta AF cameras that come with lenses in the packages... Common lenses thrown in are the 50mm f1.7, beercans, 28-85mm, etc.. No one wants the old film body, so any lenses thrown in are often overlooked...

- Greg

[LightBright]

Same here NoKnees. The lens I am currently using has the same problem. You can feel the notchyness from the auto focus wheel. Very difficult to focus indeed.

Great tip btw on the RS or D.