Description: The new Sony A700 is a beefy SLR with a 12.2 megapixel CMOS sensor designed for the photo enthusiast. The Sony A700's sensor has a 1.5x crop factor and its body is a combination of magnesium alloy in the front and top, and polycarbonate on the back and other panels.
Summary: Fantastic camera. I couldn't ask for more. Well I could, but I wouldn't. I won't upgrade now until this thing dies or full frame becomes affordable for me.
Strengths: Interface, screen, images, everything. I have no complaints.
Weaknesses: No reasonable ones that I can think of.
Summary: I was looking at the best digital SLRs I could buy for my budget of around $1000. I settled on the Sony A700 because my old digital (Cybershot f717) is still working after 5 years & exceeded my expectations. And the A700 got great reviews, & uses all my Minolta lenses.
My background is an experienced amateur who has taken college classes in visual arts. My goal are just pleasure : lots of outdoot shots, fast moving shots such as events, and low light.
I paid about $1250 for the A700 with lens on sale at Circuit City. I cashed in my Sony Rewards points and for free got the external flash designed for the A700, MS-PRO-HG 4 gigs,& extra battery.
I personally am a believer in the extended warranty because I take so many pics & drag the camera everywhere, that I literally wear cameras out. I paid $299 for an all inclusive insurance deal through a Circuit City provider: it replaces the camera NO MATTER WHAT even if I dropped it in the toilet. Only exception is theft or fire. Full coverage for 4 years. It's expensive but all it takes is one drop just the right way and your SLR is dead (this is how I killed my film SLR Minolta). It's peace of mind.
I've only used it for a few weeks. So far it's been great. I've gotten wonderful shots of galloping horses and scampering cats. Menus are easy to use and rear LCD easy to read. Newer joystick replaces old touchpad to tab through images, and it's so much easier to use (and FAST!). Pretty well balanced and nice feeling in the hand. Looks professional, especially once I snap on the extra flash unit. The on camera flash isn't bad, and it's neat how Sony now turns flash on and off (you can flip it up rather than flip through menus), but with the optional external flash it's even better. Sony camera also supports wireless flash, so I can put external flash on its holder off to the side and use the on-camera flash from the front. Neat!
Strengths: 1. Uses standard lenses (Minolta). Despite being older I had no problems using my old Quantaray and Sigma Minolta-compatible lenses. It was so nice to be able to snap on my 300mm and shoot! And since I'm using normal lenses, all my old filters, hoods, etc also fit.
2. Is actually an improved version of the Minolta digital SLR that Sony bought out, so you're getting the best of Sony & Minolta
3. Sony electronics and sensor are usually top quality, so you're getting a good brand
4. extremely fast. I haven't missed a shot. Shutter lag very tiny, and I can shoot several pics in series without waiting for a camera who has to slowly save each one to memory (faster memory). AF is also pretty fast.
5. Came with a pretty decent lens which meeds the needs of most beginners
6. Lets you use MS-PRO or Compact Flash. I can put one of each in the camera for twice the storage.
7. Good value for the money. Try to find a 12+ Megapixel digtal SLR with all the same features and the good lens for under $1500.
8. Came with a remote including a shutter control. Now if you're shooting off a tripod and are afriad of bumping the camera pushing down the shutter, you can do it hands off (or without spending more $$$ on a remote shutter control). AND it uses Minolta's standard remote wired shutter control. I took the one I used on my old Minolta SLR and it worked perfectly on the sony.
9. External camera grip is nifty and holds 2 batteries (though pricey). Also, a bunch of other neat accessories.
10. Newer memory cards are so much bigger so I can fit about 700 images if I put in both 4 gig cards, even in x-fine mode. WOW!
Too many features to mention!
Weaknesses: 1. My Photoshop CS2 is giving me trouble reading their version of the RAW files the camera produces. Not sure why and the info that came with the camera didn't help. Maybe it's just a setting, who knows? Their included "lightbox" software is a little lame.
2. Unable to use anything from my former Sony camera. The A700 won't take the standard Memory Sticks. The AC adapter for some reason is a teeny bit different on this camera. The battery is identical but this one has a notch, so I'm stuck buying a new battery fi I wanted a 2nd. Even the USB cable isn't standard nor is it the mini-USB from the Cybershot... but they don't tell me what it's called so I can't order a spare except from SONY.
3. Tough to find on sale, at least right now. I had to wait and wait, comparison shop, and then also use a AAA 10% off coupon. The good news was since I picked it up in store there was no shipping or sales tax. Most places still show the body and lens for $1500 +/-
4. Some people won't take it seriously, even know it's as good if not better as other prosumer digital-SLRs... even though it's basically a Minolta SLR with improvements Sony electronics brought to the table. As Rodney Dangerfield used to say "No Respect!"
5. It's a little on the heavy side but I got spoiled by the lighter weight non-SLR digital so I guess this is normal... though admittedly some of my attached lenses are quite heavy.
6. Battery must be removed from camera to charge. You can spend $$$ and special order an AC charger, but it's kind of expensive... and the AC charger that hooked right intot he camera was included with my old Sony Cybershot. Now you have a little black box with an AC cord and each time to charge you snap batter onto box, wait, then put back into camera.
7. Ended up special ordering a bag for it. The Cybershot's old bag was too small. SLR bags aren't congifured well for digital SLRs, eg no pockets for memory cards & cables. So I found a really neat Case Logic backpack that holds it along with 3 lenses and my laptop for $53.
Similar Products Used: Sony Cybershot f717 (my previous camera, bought 5 years ago as their former prosumer model for $1000)
several brands of digital SLRs at the college photography dept
several brands of regular [film] SLR cameras
Summary: I bought a Sony a100 because it was cheap and just needed a camera but then i really got into photography. soon the A100 wasn't good enough and i was disappointed because i had bought lenses but there was no upgrade. But then the A700 came out and i was thrilled. I bought it and I love it! It's a lot better than the A100.
Strengths: 12 megapixels, 5 fps, very fast auto focus! bigger body makes it more durable and better for bigger lenses, has vertical grip add on!, 3inch screen and many more!
Weaknesses: be careful in dim light, i have had problems with graininess but it can be fixed just be aware.
Similar Products Used: I have used a Nikon D200 and D300 and the Sony A700 is a lot better than the D200 and can compete with the D300!
Summary: Auto-focus:
Extremely fast. With a f/2.8 lens it's pretty much instantaneous. Auto focus tracking is also fast and accurate. With previous camera's I've owned, AF tracking was pretty much a joke. With the a700, it's proven very useful. In dim light the a700 slows down a little but it is still very fast thanks to it's AF assist lamp. I used to miss shots all the time due to my a100 focus hunting. Not so with the a700.
Responsiveness:
Like all DSLR's, there is really no noticeable shutter lag. Also no lag when entering playback. On power up, I find that it often takes it a second to 'find' the memory card. Maybe I need a faster card? This is not really an issue though, because by the time I've pulled the camera up to my eye after turning it on it is ready to shoot. Sony claims 5 shots per second in continuous shooting. It seems to be pretty much dead on in use. Continuous shooting definitely benefits from faster memory cards. I found that for short bursts, there's enough buffer that I don't notice any slowing down.
Flash:
Flash performance was the biggest issue with the a100. It was pretty slow and caused a lot of lazy eye issues. That means there was enough time between the pre-flash and the exposure flash to allow people to partially blink (thus the term lazy eye) by the time the exposure was made. With the a700, this problem is gone. I just spent a week in Vancouver with my family. Not one lazy eye issue.
The a700 also produces more consistent flash results. The a100 would get thrown off occasionally, especially by shiny/reflective surfaces, and grossly underexpose. With the a700, flash results are generally dead on. I did have a couple of shots that were a tad underexposed, but not nearly as bad as the a100 by any means.
In use:
The a700 feels great in the hands. All buttons/dials/controls are positioned for quick and easy access while holding the camera in shooting position. I wish the ISO and WB buttons on top were more towards the front of the camera though. I also noticed that I tend to accidentally hit the af/mf button with my thumb. Perhaps my long lanky fingers are to blame. I also find that I often sling the camera over my shoulder while it is still on (traveling short distances or a pause in the action), and sometimes buttons and dials get bumped and settings get changed unintentionally.
In the field, the a700 is a dream. No more menu diving!! Changing settings on the fly has never been so easy. The quick navi feature is what makes this camera shine. Many settings also have dedicated buttons as well. With quick navi, you can either push the joystick to access the menu for a particular setting, or just use the finger and thumb wheels to scroll through the settings without directly accessing its menu. You can also set the custom button for a particular setting, in my case it's the focus area.
Sony claims to have improved the Super Steady Shot in the a700. I can't say for sure, since I haven't pushed it's limits. If I had to guess though, I'd say there is a slight improvement because I'm not seeing as many shake bars with the a700 as I usually saw with my a100.
The body is also built like a tank with a magnesium-alloy body and dust/weather seals. During my week in Vancouver, it did get banged by accident on some metal thing sticking out of a post. It wasn't a huge hit, but it was plenty enough for me to get upset about it. The body held up just fine though. It also had a few drops of juice spilled on it by one of my 5 year old nieces, and it seems the sealing didn't allow any of it under the buttons. I take great care of my equipment, so it's not like I go out looking for ways to abuse my camera. Sometimes these freak things just happen though.
One of the improvements over the a100 that I enjoy most is the bigger and brighter viewfinder. I can't tell you how much this feature alone improves my photography. It's much easier to compose my shots with the a700.
I also have to mention the giant 3 inch high resolution LCD screen. It is amazing. It can easily be used to judge the sharpness of a photo, and allows for very smooth looking text. It's also easier to see in direct sunlight than the screen on my a100. I suggest finding an LCD protector for it ASAP. I think Sony should have included one, but instead you can buy it from Sony for like 11 bucks.
I also have to mention that I immediately purchase the vertical grip for the a700. I highly recommend it. It holds two batteries and duplicates many buttons and dials so it's just as easy to use and change settings when holding it vertically. I found that it also helps the horizontal holding by slightly extending the grip for my pinky finger. I never used vertical grips until I bought a 3rd party one for my a100, now I live by them.
Imaging:
The a700 has a 12.24 APS-C sized CMOS sensor with 1.5x crop factor. The images are sharp and clear. I heard that the a700's JPEG's were a little soft with firmware version 1.0, but the issue was resolved with the release of the 2.0 firmware. I couldn't tell you personally, since I've shot nothing but RAW with my a700.
Speaking of RAW, the a700 also has a compressed RAW (cRAW) format, which Sony claims is lossless. I've been using cRAW, since it takes up far less space than uncompressed RAW; and since it's lossless, I see no reason to choose the uncompressed format over cRAW.
The huge improvement though is in the high ISO image quality. Sony heard all of the moaning and groaning caused by the a100's poor high ISO performance, and fixed it in the a700. I missed shots with my a100 because I refused to shoot above ISO 400 due to bad image quality at 800 and 1600. With the a700, you can feel free to crank up the ISO anytime you need it. I've shot up to ISO 1600 consistently during my time in Vancouver, and the shots look great!
Final thought:
This is the camera that we (Minolta users) have been waiting for. The a700 is a dream to use, and performs well in all aspects. Sony has done a great job in taking a struggling camera system and turning it into a true contender. For me, the a700 proves Sony's commitment to the Minolta user base and to Sony's own goals for it's DSLR camera business.
Strengths: AF speed
AF tracking
Continuous shooting
Flash consistency
Ergonomics
Tough Body/ Sealed buttons
Quick Navi
In body stabilization
Big bright viewfinder
High resolution LCD
Excellent High ISO
Weaknesses: Should have included some sort of LCD protector for that 3 inch screen.
I think it could be useful to have a feature that disables buttons and dials to avoid accidentally changing settings.
Similar Products Used: Sony a100
Minolta Maxxum 7
Canon EOS 20D
Canon EOS 1D mkII
Summary: Having owned a couple of DSLR's this last year (along with the Sony A100) and must say that I have enjoyed using the A100 but being a person that like to be on the edge of technology I bought the new Canon 40D thinking that it will have what will carry me for awhile (it specs out very nice) But to my disappointment the 40D had quality issues (blown pixels) I know that there is a limit to what is allowed but for a new product out of the box I found it to be unacceptable, So I waited a few weeks and decided to stay with Sony. I bought the A700 and must say I am very glad I did. This camera adds a new enthusiasm to shooting. From the 12 meg. pix to 5 frps and the feel of this camera is very good. Also I am not sure that live view is a deal breaker compared to image quality.
What is the next one going to be? wow
Strengths: 5 frps
12 m/p
feature set is very good
layout and controls
Overall Quality
Weaknesses: I wish it had live histogram
Overall not anything that makes this camera under perform
Similar Products Used: Sony A100
Canon 40D
Pentax K10D
Customer Service: N/A
I did however buy an accidental (if I drop it) warranty
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