Sony Alpha DSLR-A200

I wanted to start with DSLR cameras and I heard about Sony alfa A 200. I consulted it with my fried. He is professional photographer and he was surprised how good deal it was. He assured me that it is the best what you can get for good price for beginners. So for now I am satisfied with it.

I started to look into dSLR's a while back and wanted a solid entry level camera at a reasonable price. A lot of factors such as "fit in my hand" (I have medium to large grip), Steady Shot, Versatile Lens' (not being sure how and what I will enjoy shooting), Ease of Use and Quality were very important.

I love my Sony A200 the picture is Vibrant and with the Right memory can be really fast. However the lack of compatibility with flash's and mount has once again alienated sony. The functions are easy to use and the lense is perfect for any entry level photographer. Its main completion i believe is the Nikon D40X formally the D70, which in my opinion is a superior camera for usability.

The Sony is a great camera for the Price, But Due to sony's annoying compatibility i have only gave it 3 stars.

Having used film for the last 50years I decided it seemed time for me to try this digital thing and bought a sony compact. Liked the instant playback on the rear screen and decided to look for an slr type digital camera,purchased a sony a200 based on price and spefication this camera was perfect to introduce me into digital photography good picture quality and colour,good frame rate,well made lenses,super steady shot which was a boon cosidering my age. I was so impresed with tha a200 that I decided to go the whole hog and bought a sony a700 and an a350 as back up, the wife had comandeard the a200. Now i am slowly investing in some used minolta glass to build up a system which I beleave to be second to none.

I bought the Sony A200k (comes with 18-70mm kit lens) in a desperate plea to get into the DSLR world. I have now been using this camera for a couple of years and have found very few faults in it. As a beginner camera, it is perfect, I have nothing bad to say about it; it handles perfectly, has an unbeatable ease of use and the quality of image produced (when done properly) lives up to my expectations. After using it to learn my way through the world of SLR, I can safely say the A200 is ideal for anyone with no experience in SLR and you wont regret buying it.

The only doubts you should have is whether Sony is definately right for you. I thought so, and still stand by them, build and image quality is fantastic, their lenses are great and they are more reliable than any company i know of...but in the camera world, Canon still do rule. I am now studying photography and wish I had gone for Canon! I may even change.

In all, the Sony is great, buy it and you probably wont look back. Just keep in mind, the A200 is very much a beginers model and like everything photographic, you get what you pay for...if you want to go for something that you can keep as your knowledge expands maybe look into the A700. If you are wary of what you can handle, the 200 is perfect. Also consider canon. Do a LOT of research and in the end, go with your gut.

The Sony A200 is an excellent starter DSLR, 3 frame per second particualrly useful for sport photos, had mine for about 9 months and has totally changed how i take photos, very easy to use with good software

The Sony Alpha 200 overall it is a good beginner dslr.

The only problem for sony dslr is that there are not too many choices of lens

Absolute Bargain price online for a DSLR,

Shake Reduction built into camera body - works with any lens..

For the money you can't go wrong.

USB connector port hidden under plastic flap is annoyingly placed

Very fast AF and on off shutter lag better then the some of the competition for this price point also.

I did about 4months of research and found this better ( at least for me ) then even the nikon D40, or D60 maybe even the d80 for that matter as well as the canon XS XT XTI and XSI it performed more too my needs then those cameras did and if your thinking of getting it just make sure you really want a DSLR for the full manuel control such as aperture shutter DOF etc etc etc but also be prepered to upgrade in the future as your buying into a system so be prepered to spend big money on lenses and stuff in the future once you need it.

I bought this camera as a replacement for a Fuji S9500, although the pixel count is not that much different, 9 million on the Fuji and 10 million on the Sony, I find the Sony blows the Fuji away, but then we are talking compact camera verses DSLR, so not really a fair comparison.

My camera came with the supplied kit lens, a Sony 18-70mm F3.5-F5.6 and a dealer supplied lens, 70-300mm F4.5-F5.6.

I've found the 18-70 mm lens to be pretty good quality, unlike some bundled lenses with other cameras, the images come a little soft out of the camera, I shoot with no sharpening, preferring to sharpen with a dedicated image program on the computer.

I've just shot this years Christmas cards using the lens and the results are excellent.

Images from the 70-300mm lens, which is a Konica-Minolta lens are good, the lens does struggle some what in less then good light, an issue easily resolved by pushing the ISO up.

There are a lot of Konica-Minolta lens that fit the Sony range, browsing Ebay and second hand shops there's a lot of choice.

ISO range is 100-3200, I wouldn't use anything over 400 and have some good results with no noticeable noise.

The camera has image stabilisation built in to the camera, the advantage being that any lens you attach will have the benefits of image stabilisation, then manufacturer believes this gives you a 2.5 to 3.5 stop advantage when shooting held hand.

The camera focus's fast and has an eye start up system where the camera begins focusing as soon as you put your eye to the view finder, this means the camera is already focusing before you even line up the shot.

Burst mode is a 3 frames per second in any format, images can be captured in Jpeg, RAW or Raw+Jpeg, there are also a number of image quality modes.

The camera has a 2.7" monitor with all relative information displayed in either a simple mode or an advanced mode, you also review images through this monitor.

The sensor has a cleaning system which shakes dust off the sensor at start up and shut down, the sensor is, I'm reliably informed, is an updated version of the sensor in the Nikon D200, a camera that cost a lot more then the Sony A200.

If you want live view then Jessops have the A300, which is the same camera with a few design tweaks to accommodate the live, Jessops are the only outlet for the A300 in the UK, unless you're doing a lot of macro photography, then personally I don't think live view is worth the extra cost.

All in all I'm very pleased with my Sony A200, and can recommend it to any one wanting a first DSLR.