# A few observations, questions, and concerns...



## hexagondun (Nov 28, 2010)

Hello everyone,

I'm in quite an interesting dilemma.  My family wants to go in for my first dslr this christmas.  I have done an immense amount of research and have narrowed it down to 3 prospects:

nikon d3100
canon eos t2i
sony a55...

I'm leaning toward the a55 for a few reasons:

Many of you will know that sony has its new translucent mirror which allows for continual autofocus at 10fps bursts.  That is incredible, and no one- at the moment -can come even close at this price point.  Also, the VF is electronic (though apparently a great one), but I've heard that this does drain the battery;  not such a biggie- I'll buy another battery.  I'm aware of the overheating issues, but dslrs aren't-from what I understand- meant for video; if I can get ten minutes of 1080p video with almost flawless camcorder like continual auto focus, I'm certainly happy. Ive heard the nikon d3100 continual AF is slow and clumsy, not to mention the lack of a mic jack leaves you stuck with hearing the loud lense adjustments in the video.  From what I have heard, the image quality differences of entry level cameras are minimal, any thoughts on that?  I also like the idea of auto HDR, sweep panorama, and built in GPS.  Also don't care about the external flash problems people are reporting with the EVF- I'm a noob and they'll likely fix it with an update.  Is there anything I'm missing?

Here's the potential deal maker for me: the image stabilization is built into the a55's body, so the 3 minolta maxxum lenses my grandfather gave me recently will slap right onto that a-series mount and AF right away.  Being a total beginner, I'd think that this is a huge factor for the sake of economy and common sense;  rather then stack up 4 or 5 expensive lenses and feel bound to either nikon or canon 5 years down the road when the technological landscape might have been completely turned on its head, I'll simply be able to sell my a55 and the minolta glass and assess the situation with nikon and canon prosumers at that time, if I so choose.  The a55 will at least allow me to learn a bit about photography without investing much past the body.  I have a nice maxxum telephoto, a small 50 mm for quick low light shooting, and some other lense.  I'll give sizes and specs if necessary for your assessment.  They all do, in fact, slap on the a55 and autofocus.  Is this economically oriented theory sound in your opinions?  

From what I've read, the sony a55 is getting rave reviews for what it is;  I don't really care about the overheating issue in video mode, and I think the fact that I can go on ebay and buy even more old minolta lenses and have them autofocus for me is huge.  

Having said all of this, I kinda wanna just throw in the extra $3-400 and get a prosumer camera so I can start building my nikon or canon glass collection now and have a more solid body to begin with.  Who knows, this might be my first and last dslr purchase and I'd like to have a good camera, but for the same reason it might not be necessary to get in over my head. $6-900 is a whole lot of money as it is, but if I threw in 3 or 400 of my own I could probably go prosumer with a kit lense which would completely change the dynamics of this whole decision making process completely.  I could very well be jumping the gun though, having never used a DSLR in my life, I really don't even know how far I'll go with this. I have a few nice minolta lenses, and 10fps continual AF is quite the achievement on Sony's part.   Coming from my perspective- having four decent lenses starting out- should I definitely do with sony?

I've held these camera's, but being so new, I haven't the slightest clue what to look for and I'm not really able to take them out and test them individually.  I'm worried that with the Sony interface dumbed down a bit I won't be able to really _learn_ photography as well as if I bought a canon will all sorts of physical buttons.  I have heard Sony's a33 and 55 interface is intuitive, though. Probably a stupid concern, but a real one nonetheless.

Sorry about such a lengthy, rambling and incoherent post,  I'm actually losing sleep over this decision; buyers remorse is a scary thing.  I'm aware that I sound like I've made up my mind, but the d3100 and t2i are alluring for there own reasons.  Are there any other options from either nikon or canon I should be aware of in a slightly higher price range?  Thanks so much to those of you who made it to the end- your patience is truly admirable


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## hexagondun (Nov 29, 2010)

the lenses I have are:

maxxum af zoom 70-210mm 1:4 (32)
marumi promaster spectrum zoom macro 80mm 1:3:5-4.5
maxxum 50mm 1:1.7 (22)


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## KmH (Nov 29, 2010)

hexagondun said:


> ...I'm actually losing sleep over this decision; buyers remorse is a scary thing....


Reputable sellers have very fair return policies.


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## hexagondun (Nov 29, 2010)

This is officially the first time I've seen a post viewed 60+ times and not responded to once, on any forum, in well over- Oh I don't know- a decade maybe?  Do the beginner _questions_ get too redundant in the _Q&A/Advice_ section?


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## hexagondun (Nov 29, 2010)

hexagondun said:


> Here's the potential deal maker for me: the image stabilization is built into the a55's body, so the 3 minolta maxxum lenses my grandfather gave me recently will slap right onto that a-series mount and AF right away.  Being a total beginner, I'd think that this is a huge factor for the sake of economy and common sense;  rather then stack up 4 or 5 expensive lenses and feel bound to either nikon or canon 5 years down the road when the technological landscape might have been completely turned on its head, I'll simply be able to sell my a55 and the minolta glass and assess the situation with nikon and canon prosumers at that time, if I so choose.  The a55 will at least allow me to learn a bit about photography without investing much past the body.  I have a nice maxxum telephoto, a small 50 mm for quick low light shooting, and some other lense.  I'll give sizes and specs if necessary for your assessment.  They all do, in fact, slap on the a55 and autofocus.  Is this economically oriented theory sound in your opinions?


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## Patrice (Nov 29, 2010)

Hello hexagondun,

You are lucky to already have a few lenses, but now you need a body to mount them on.

Get the Sony, learn to photograph, learn to process and above all else, go have some fun.
The experience you gain will help you tremendously down the road when you decide where to go with this hobby. The Sony is not a bad beginner camera, better than most in some respects.


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## KmH (Nov 29, 2010)

In-body image stabilization requires the lens to have a larger image circle, because the sensor is moved during exposure, and uses a larger part of the image.

One of the primary disadvantages of moving the image sensor itself, is that the image seen in the viewfinder is not stabilized in a DSLR, while it is stabilized in the viewfinder with in-the-lens IS systems.


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