A850 Body .. $2625

[bigdazzler]

These guys tell me they have the A850 in stock and ready to ship .. $2625

Obviously imported stock from Hong Kong .. Ive actually bought 2 flashes from these guys. They are legit.

http://www.electronicbazaar.com.au/products_search.php

[arthurking83]

And you reckon you still want an A700!? :confused013

I get the feeling the A700 has been shifted down the list of things to get now(I hope!) :th3:


But I'm thinking that Bella is going to have a dazzler version of a Tibetan delicacy (http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/144191/Hundreds_wait_in_line_for_more_than_an_hour_to_taste_sheep_testicles) for breakfast if she finds out! :D
(personally, I'd rather lose some manlihood, and have the camera, if it ever came to a point where I had to decide which was more important. Luckily though ATM, I'm free to my own devices.... for at least some time yet. So I'm making hay while the sun's still shining!)

[bigdazzler]

mate its very very tempting ..

[JM Tran]

I'd wait for a comprehensive review of it first. Went to the press release day of the A900 last year, got to shoot some models with the camera and some Zeiss lenses with our own memory cards - base ISO sharpness and detail is incredible, then noise started appearing at ISO400 or so and above - I wasnt impressed with the high ISO performance - had a talk with the Sony rep about it and he was like blah blah dismissing it

then it was highlighted when reviews came out:)

here is a short review by luminous landscape

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/alpha-850.shtml

makes for a great studio and fine art camera, for wedding and events photography not so sure yet, as the Nikon D700 is 100 dollars more and smiles at ISO6400 all the time.

[arthurking83]

....

makes for a great studio and fine art camera, for wedding and events photography not so sure yet, as the Nikon D700 is 100 dollars more and smiles at ISO6400 all the time.

D700 is $100 more than an A900 I assume JMT?? but the A850 is close to $1K cheaper.

There was a new firmware released for the A900 that supposedly fixed a few issues with noise.

The D3x has clearly shown what this sensor(also used in both the A900 and A850) is capable of and it definitely shows some good results at ISO6400.

They are a different beast tho. The D700 type of sensor is squarely designed for more dynamic range with a single shot, as the results on many test sites show, but the high ISO results simply mean that a bit of in camera electro-trickery can make this sensor as good as any other out there at least up to about ISO1600.

Unless there were any serious issues with the A700(which the A850 is based on, if I've read the specs correctly) there shouldn't be any issue to worry about. From my understanding tho the sensor is slow. slow to process images that is. In 14bit mode the bandwidth of the sensor(since the A/D chip is built into the sensor) slows the frame rate down to a paltry 1.5fps. If you shoot in 14bit mode, this has a serious consequence for fast shooting styles(as I use on kids). It's the same deal on the D3x(and D300 too). where the D3/D700 still maintain the max frame rates despite the bit mode setting.

[JM Tran]

oops forgot to mention that I was going by DWI's pricing, so about 100 dollars more, not the usual retail pricing:)

[bigdazzler]

Just spoke to my guy at Camera House and its confirmed the A850 OZ stock will be here in first week of October and will retail for $3499.

Interesting considering he can sell me an A900 right now for $3999 with a $500 cashback from Sony. So effectively same result for both cameras.

And then theres the grey market which you can buy an A900 for about $2900 or the new A850 for $2500 ..... geez decisions decisions ,,, :confused013

[N*A*M]

$1890 on dwi now which makes it hella good value

how are you finding it? considering it for food photography so speed isn't a big factor
how are the raw files at base iso? how well do they print large?

[bigdazzler]

I love it mate ... Only minor complaint is that noise is apparent from about ISO1600 in low light. Nothing that cant be fixed though. FPS is a touch slow at 3, but if you dont need it, who cares right ??

RAW files at base ISO of 200 (or 100 extended range) are very impressive. Full of detail, and colour and contrast are great. They are big though, at about 35mb each. To be expected though from a 24mb sensor. cRAW is good too, and saves a bit of file size.

Overall Im very very happy with it mate. I actually ended up paying just under $2300 for it delivered back when I bought it. It was very good value, even back then.

[mrslodger]

Now we're just waiting for some shots from it with the new 85mm.

[bigdazzler]

Now we're just waiting for some shots from it with the new 85mm.

me too .... :o No time at the moment.

[mrslodger]

Oh, come on surely you can put off the less important things for the pleasure of showing the non sony users just how good sony can be. :)

[DigitalRev]

The price is actually quite high for Sony A850. :)

[JM Tran]

The price is actually quite high for Sony A850. :)

because that was exactly 12 months ago. Would have changed a lot since then.

[DigitalRev]

Oh Yeah..you are right! I thought it was Sept 2010...missed it