Sony Alpha DSLR-A700 Review

It's been about two years back Konica Minolta pulled out of the photo business and transferred its absolute camera analysis to Sony, and able-bodied over a year back the aboriginal Sony DSLR (the DSLR-A100) was announced. Two years is a continued time in the agenda SLR market, but the three years Minolta (latterly Konica Minolta, now Sony) SLR users accept been cat-and-mouse for a top end archetypal to alter the avant-garde Maxxum (Dynax) 7D accept to accept acquainted like a lifetime. But, finally, it's here, and it looks actual abundant like the mockup apparent beforehand in the year.

Like the A100, the new camera still wears its Konica Minolta ancestry actual abundant on its sleeve, and if you alpha to attending a little added carefully at the blueprint it's accessible that there's still an abominable lot of Konica Minolta DNA in the A700. This is hardly hasty accustomed that the affairs abaft its development.

And, just as the A100 was acutely based on - and advised to be a almsman to - the KM 5D, the A700 follows on from the 7D, and - admitting lots of Sony touches and an adorable new architecture - 7D users are acceptable to acquisition application the new archetypal reassuringly familiar.

But of advance Sony doesn't alone accept absolute arrangement users in its cantankerous hairs; the A700 is advised to go arch to arch with the latest 'prosumer' models from Nikon, Canon and Pentax. Whether the A700 offers abundant to absolutely put Sony on the DSLR map will be absitively if we get to attending appropriately at the angel quality, but on specification, appearance and administration it absolutely seems to accept what it takes to play with the big boys.

Interestingly the one affair the A700 doesn't accept is any anatomy of reside view; if we batten to Sony about this the acknowledgment was simple; they accept that the compromises complex in accepted systems are satisfactory, and they won't apparatus reside appearance until they can 'get it right'. Whether the abridgement of reside appearance has any absolute appliance in a camera at this akin charcoal to be seen; we agnosticism it.

The A700 shares abounding technologies with beforehand Konica Minolta models (including, naturally, the lens mount), additional all those alien in the A100 - admitting around all accept been uprated or upgraded in one way or addition (we've been told the A100 and A700 allotment around no components). From the sensor to the architecture of the physique to the GUI to the all-encompassing affection set, this is a actual altered camera to the entry-level A100 (more of which after in this review).