Sony Alpha A200

[pengelli]

I have a Sony DSC H3 which is an excellent little camera. I want to move up in the world and get a DSLR. I am tempted by the Sony A200 especially as I already know my way around Sony menus.
Does any one have one if so how do you get on with it?

Thanks

Tim

[Reef bloke]

Your lens choices maybe limited and im not sure i like the shape personally.If you have a selection of Minolta/Sony fit lenses it may well be worth it,if buying into a system then id be looking at Canon's/Nikons myself.

[hermitz]

My father used one and said they are a great little camera, having said that, he has now gone back to using a canon.
I think the biggest problem was the cost of the lenses.

[fras]

i've used one of these and i think they are good cams, Sony bought out Konica M a few years back so they actually use a KM mount. This means that you can use the old auto focus Dynax lenses(of which there were some really nice ones), or if you don't mind manually focusing there's a vast lineage of sweet KM mount lenses to be had - and because the KM mount can't be adapted to Canon/Nikon fit they are also amongst the cheapest.

One drawback though is the noise, particularly at iso800 and above it's noticeably worse than my Canon. The fact that it has a shake reduction system makes up for some of the defecit, but i'd personally swap it for a clean sensor any day.

If I wanted a cam with the a200's features then i'd plump for a Pentax, they too have a compatible lens lineup going back for many years (way longer than Canon). They do cost more than the KM alternatives, but the pentax has a cleaner sensor than the Sony which makes it well worth while.

If you plan on buying 3rd party lenses anyway then I think these cams can make a good choice. As a Canon owner i'm very envious of the shake reduction..