Thanks Ron.
Yes I did research a few cameras. As you know I ended up with the Sony Alpha.
The other 2 that made it into the final running was the new Canon Rebel XTi and the Nikon D80.
The Nikon D80 camera dropped out rather quickly and it was down to the Sony Alpha and Canon Rebel XTi…………
I was already partial to Sony, as my other digital cameras were from them and I loved them. They also used Carl Zeiss lenses. They make some great glass.
My first was the Sony DSC-F505V 3 MP camera. (No longer have)
http://www.steves-digicams.com/f505v.html
Then I upgraded that camera to the Sony DSC-F707 5 MP camera. (No longer have)
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2001_reviews/f707.html
For my wife I bought her a Canon PowerShot A520 4 MP camera. (Still use)
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2005_reviews/a520.html
It is easy to operate for her. For me it still had all the manual settings that I wanted, and makes a great grab and go camera. I have been very impressed with the pictures from this camera, when I have played around with it.
Anyway, enough of my camera history………. Good thing I did not go into all the SLR 35mm cameras I have also owned.
I read articles in Photography magazines and reviews on the internet on the 2 cameras, Sony Alpha (
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_reviews/alpha100.html )and Canon Rebel XTi (
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_reviews/rebelxti.html )
Both cameras ended up being about equal in most the comparisons.
I know that I wanted to spend around $1000.00 for my camera setup.
What made the difference was the image stabilization that Sony had built into the camera body. This means that any lens that is placed on the camera body can get an equivalent to 2 – 3-1/2 stops in shutter speed. This is a huge plus to me as I mainly take nature pictures and many times I do not have the ability to throw the camera on a tripod.
Canon also has the image stabilization technology, but it is built into the camera lens themselves.
A typical 75-300mm lens is just over $200.00. If you want it to have the image stabilization, you will have to add approximately another $250.00 per lens for this feature.
So now I have the Sony Alpha and so far love it.
Here are 2 shots while playing around with the 70-300mm zoom lens from last Saturday when I took a little hike.