Hello my fellow photobiznatches! As I mentioned a couple of months ago I was going to buy a DSLR over summer, and having seen the Sony Alpha A-100 in my local camera shop for what I thought was an excellent £580 with two lenses I very nearly placed an order in work today (they needed to order more in).

But I thought I'd just make sure I was getting a good deal, and after checking eBuyer, Pixmania, Dabs, Amazon, Play.com and warehouseexpress I was even more impressed with my local shop's offer.

Then I checked what I usually associate as rip-off merchants, Comet, PC World, Dixons and Curry's. Dixons revealed the camera with a standard Sony kit lens to be just £400, which suddenly threw my thinking. Then over to Curry's where it was... £379. Crikey! Now all I need is the big lens... Oh, what's this, a special offer (£60 off) when you buy the camera? Get in!

So just a snip under £500 later I've now got one beast of a camera on its way. Plus Play.com have obscene discounts on memory cards too (4GB speedyCF for £36, was over £200?!) so one of those has been ordered.

I'm very happy right now and this is my new Most Expensive Thing to date. Poor Panda must be pretty sad. I was after a Nikon D80 but to get the same amount of kit would cost several hundred pounds more, and I was very impressed with the A-100 when I gave it a thorough workout in the shop.

I'll no doubt attack you all with photos once I'm set up.

As an aside, if you're after a DSLR now seems to be a pretty good time to buy, there are some superb offers knocking around on all manner of 350/400D, D40/D40x and stuff.

coolio. i did consider the sony, but it was slightly beyond what i was willing to spend. gotta draw a line somewhere, and stick to it!

if you're after a bag for it, i just bought a lowepro slingshot aw100 off amazon for £30. it's not a huge bag, but goes on me back and can be spun round very quick to get the camera out. hopefully off out to play this weekend, and will be much happier carrying the camera like this than with the huge nikon bag i had before!

yeah i never used my nikon bag either, its huge and looks like a womans handbag.,lol, I use the lowepro minitreker (think thats what its called) and its great, looks small but carrys everything I need.,

@ fuzzypanda, as regards the card you bought, i personally prefer to buy a few smaller capacity cards, that way you can always be sure you have some with you., i lost count of the amount of times ive been out with my camera only to find that i left the card still in the laptop.,lol

vtec said:

@ fuzzypanda, as regards the card you bought, i personally prefer to buy a few smaller capacity cards, that way you can always be sure you have some with you., i lost count of the amount of times ive been out with my camera only to find that i left the card still in the laptop.,lol

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this is why there is a 2gb card in the camera, 256mb in the bag and a 256mb in my wallet too!

Well the compact has never been without a card, guess I'll see if I start being forgetful once things have arrived. I remembered earlier that on the DPreview forums someone noticed the proper camera bag for the Alpha go for 99p on eBay.

*Goes to eBay*

Some from today, experimenting with lenses and settings...

really nice photos

i need to get a DSLR. i still using SLR

nice play shots

dof is fun to play with

this is what happens if ur bored on the sofa, with the camera in arms reach!

arc said:

this is what happens if ur bored on the sofa, with the camera in arms reach!

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:nono: people dont want to see you doing that

the sunset one looks really good.,

Last edited by dave : 39 Minutes Ago at 00:48. Reason: removed the pic of arcs willy

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after i was kind enough to share as well!

Thanks for the praise, I was chuffed seeing as this was only the 2nd time I'd turned the camera on. Can't wait for the weekend though, I finally won't be stuck with fading light after work.

arc said:

after i was kind enough to share as well!

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:devil: its ok i moved it to mods area for sammi an helz to look at

This is my flickr for those that are interested. Cheers.

some nice shots there, liking "yawn" and also the colours in the purpley shots.

what kinda lens has your camera got on it, i've not attempted macro shots yet - but you seem to get better rather cool dof effects on those shots

i really need to get a load of my pictures together, although.. i have a few images to sort

I've got the 18-70 kit lens and an 80-300 Sony lens too which was on special offer in conjunction with buying the camera. Interestingly my dad has these same lenses but made by Minolta, which'll fit... Ha!

The DOF in the macros is from the 300mm near enough at full zoom, but the kit lens is also good for DOF, especially when you play use manual focus.