certainly stick with the d40 you have, its a great camera. I work in a Henry's (camera store) and play with all the cameras, and this camera is a great value and offers significantly more then the d40 at a better price. Sony's Alpha line is really one of best options for beginner/prosumer/family use. Now with the a900 coming out for the professionals who demand full frame and 20 plus megapixels. They are certainly giving Nikon and Canon a run for their money and the competition is great for the industry. Nikon and Canon fanboys bother me when they spout that Sony is making inferior DSLR's. I bet 95% have never even touched an Alpha. Maybe it makes them sleep better at night. Maybe they are just bitter because they bought an HDDVD player.
The a900 is going to be crappy at the 24.6 megapixels or whatever. Do you know how much noise it is going to generate?
Most pro's don't even shoot their high-end Nikons and Canons at their max megapixelage.
If you want 25 megapixels, get a digital medium format back. Larger sensor = better images.
Not that I really care...I'll stick with film and a scanner, as I do not make money off my photographs so I do not need to shoot hundreds at once and unload them at once.
Anybody that is seriously considering moving up in the photography world in equipment as time goes on should not choose Sony.
There is a reason every pro that uses the 35mm format is shooting Nikon or Canon - fantastic lens selection and long running backwards compatibility, not to mention company stability. A Nikon lens I buy now will be mounting and working perfectly on cutting-edge camera bodies 25 years from now.
Given Sony's recent activities (R00tkit scandal, PSP blunders, PS3 disaster, lack of backwards compatibility on new PS3 models), it is clear that they could care less about backwards compatibility, opting instead to try to get you to re-purchase all of your accessories with each new revision. As a photographer, my lenses are my accessories and I have no intention to re-purchase them in this manner.
Only a fool would buy this camera over similar or cheaper offerings from the market leaders, Nikon and Canon. The OP has it right; the d40 is superior to the A200 in the long run.
"Anybody that is seriously considering moving up in the photography world in equipment as time goes on should not choose Sony."
Let me debunk your issues with the brand one by one.,.
"There is a reason every pro that uses the 35mm format is shooting Nikon or Canon - fantastic lens selection and long running backwards compatibility, not to mention company stability."
Pros shoot with what they own or what the company they work for have in their pool. That is not a market Sony have gone after - yet. But the alpha 700 is decent enough to be a pro photographers tool if you would have wanted to use Sony. Just as others use d300 and 40d for pro use.
"A Nikon lens I buy now will be mounting and working perfectly on cutting-edge camera bodies 25 years from now."
Who say you can't do that on a Sony camera? My oldest Minolta auto focus lense still works perfectly on my Sony camera - And that lense is older than any Canon auto focus lense ever made. So the mount have a long history.
"Given Sony's recent activities (R00tkit scandal, PSP blunders, PS3 disaster, lack of backwards compatibility on new PS3 models), it is clear that they could care less about backwards compatibility, opting instead to try to get you to re-purchase all of your accessories with each new revision."
That is why all my lenses, flashes and so forth from the Minolta line work with my Sony alpha? Even the remote I bought in the early 90s works. And that after Sony took over the heritage. Now why on earth do you think bad about Sony when they clearly do promote backwards compability.
"As a photographer, my lenses are my accessories and I have no intention to re-purchase them in this manner."
I guess you are just ignorant.
"Only a fool would buy this camera over similar or cheaper offerings from the market leaders, Nikon and Canon. The OP has it right; the d40 is superior to the A200 in the long run. "
This is quite funny, since you backward compatible wondercamera does not support anything else than AF-S lenses. So the a200 supports older lenses from mid eighties until now, the d40 only supports modern lenses with built in motor. unless you like to focus manually. And god forbid you mount an older manual lense, you don't even get light metring. On the a200 if you do that - with an adapter cause the mount is different - you at least get stop down light metring.
Funny when people are ignorant and think just because the music division of Sony have hired the wrong company for a drm (rootkit scandal) that everything sony is bad.
Why exactly am I low ranked? It's true, no one actually shoots their D3 at 12 megapixels, or their 1D MKII at 16megapixels. Why? Because the images take up unneeded space and look like crap.
If you need 25 megapixels and up, you use a medium format digital back.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
tyten @ Mar 27th 2008 12:02PM
I'll stick with my Nikond d40x, thanks.
unboring @ Mar 27th 2008 12:52PM
certainly stick with the d40 you have, its a great camera. I work in a Henry's (camera store) and play with all the cameras, and this camera is a great value and offers significantly more then the d40 at a better price. Sony's Alpha line is really one of best options for beginner/prosumer/family use. Now with the a900 coming out for the professionals who demand full frame and 20 plus megapixels. They are certainly giving Nikon and Canon a run for their money and the competition is great for the industry. Nikon and Canon fanboys bother me when they spout that Sony is making inferior DSLR's. I bet 95% have never even touched an Alpha. Maybe it makes them sleep better at night. Maybe they are just bitter because they bought an HDDVD player.
Jesse S @ Mar 27th 2008 2:11PM
The a900 is going to be crappy at the 24.6 megapixels or whatever. Do you know how much noise it is going to generate?
Most pro's don't even shoot their high-end Nikons and Canons at their max megapixelage.
If you want 25 megapixels, get a digital medium format back. Larger sensor = better images.
Not that I really care...I'll stick with film and a scanner, as I do not make money off my photographs so I do not need to shoot hundreds at once and unload them at once.
Josh Warner @ Mar 27th 2008 2:14PM
Anybody that is seriously considering moving up in the photography world in equipment as time goes on should not choose Sony.
There is a reason every pro that uses the 35mm format is shooting Nikon or Canon - fantastic lens selection and long running backwards compatibility, not to mention company stability. A Nikon lens I buy now will be mounting and working perfectly on cutting-edge camera bodies 25 years from now.
Given Sony's recent activities (R00tkit scandal, PSP blunders, PS3 disaster, lack of backwards compatibility on new PS3 models), it is clear that they could care less about backwards compatibility, opting instead to try to get you to re-purchase all of your accessories with each new revision. As a photographer, my lenses are my accessories and I have no intention to re-purchase them in this manner.
Only a fool would buy this camera over similar or cheaper offerings from the market leaders, Nikon and Canon. The OP has it right; the d40 is superior to the A200 in the long run.
Geir E @ Mar 27th 2008 2:29PM
"Anybody that is seriously considering moving up in the photography world in equipment as time goes on should not choose Sony."
Let me debunk your issues with the brand one by one.,.
"There is a reason every pro that uses the 35mm format is shooting Nikon or Canon - fantastic lens selection and long running backwards compatibility, not to mention company stability."
Pros shoot with what they own or what the company they work for have in their pool. That is not a market Sony have gone after - yet. But the alpha 700 is decent enough to be a pro photographers tool if you would have wanted to use Sony. Just as others use d300 and 40d for pro use.
"A Nikon lens I buy now will be mounting and working perfectly on cutting-edge camera bodies 25 years from now."
Who say you can't do that on a Sony camera? My oldest Minolta auto focus lense still works perfectly on my Sony camera - And that lense is older than any Canon auto focus lense ever made. So the mount have a long history.
"Given Sony's recent activities (R00tkit scandal, PSP blunders, PS3 disaster, lack of backwards compatibility on new PS3 models), it is clear that they could care less about backwards compatibility, opting instead to try to get you to re-purchase all of your accessories with each new revision."
That is why all my lenses, flashes and so forth from the Minolta line work with my Sony alpha? Even the remote I bought in the early 90s works. And that after Sony took over the heritage. Now why on earth do you think bad about Sony when they clearly do promote backwards compability.
"As a photographer, my lenses are my accessories and I have no intention to re-purchase them in this manner."
I guess you are just ignorant.
"Only a fool would buy this camera over similar or cheaper offerings from the market leaders, Nikon and Canon. The OP has it right; the d40 is superior to the A200 in the long run. "
This is quite funny, since you backward compatible wondercamera does not support anything else than AF-S lenses. So the a200 supports older lenses from mid eighties until now, the d40 only supports modern lenses with built in motor. unless you like to focus manually. And god forbid you mount an older manual lense, you don't even get light metring. On the a200 if you do that - with an adapter cause the mount is different - you at least get stop down light metring.
Funny when people are ignorant and think just because the music division of Sony have hired the wrong company for a drm (rootkit scandal) that everything sony is bad.
Jesse S @ Mar 28th 2008 2:07PM
Why exactly am I low ranked? It's true, no one actually shoots their D3 at 12 megapixels, or their 1D MKII at 16megapixels. Why? Because the images take up unneeded space and look like crap.
If you need 25 megapixels and up, you use a medium format digital back.