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Played with a A900

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Well dropped my dear wife off at the airport and ran over to Tempe camera. They have Sony gear there so went to go play a little. They had the A900 and a 24-70 Zeiss used but not used. Some guy bought it and traded it for a d700 a couple weeks later. Yea and the price was nice too 1500 for the lens and 2400 0r 2500 for the body. I did not pounce on it like a idiot. Maybe i should but it felt really nice and the controls are very simple , my kind of camera . No one told me it had a AF clutch built into the lens for manual focusing. Love that style. The lens very quiet to focus a little stiff too zoom but that is a good thing. The shutter had a nice sound to it also. Pretty darn fast focusing and fast enough FPS. LCD screen looked good but did not have a card in it so could not review. The menu was pretty simple and also clear on controls. The body a touch boxy feeling but hey i shoot a phase body and that is a square box almost. No 70-200 or the 135 so i will wait to try them next week at PMA but my first impression is very good. Have to say if i had the money in my hand well this thread would be different.:ROTFL::ROTFL::ROTFL:
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Yea and I got 12 days of freedom. LOL

John she is in your neck of the woods. LOL

hell I could buy a system use it enough to look like a beat up rag by the time she got home.:ROTFL::ROTFL::ROTFL::ROTFL::ROTFL:

I am Soooooooooooooooooooo bad.
 

KurtKamka

Subscriber Member
What have you done with Guy?

OK, who's hijacked Guy's account. Obviously this is an impostor ... there's no way the Guy we know would've been able to hold off.

If it is the real Guy, knowing it is still available at the camera shop has to be just killing him. ;)
 

KurtKamka

Subscriber Member
I've been trying to practice great restraint myself ... but, it's difficult. The images from the system look great. Just the thought of fast Zeiss AF lenses is enough to send me into the "gotta haves".
 

Bob

Administrator
Staff member
Guy sent his wallet to me for safekeeping, or he said he might (Guy, is it in the mail yet?)
-bob
 

LJL

New member
I would just bet that Tempe camera shop would be glad to hold that A900 and Zeiss 24-70 for you....on your CC....until you got back up there (tomrrow?) to pick it up ;-)

You gotta love all this immoral support we provide in your quest for new gear ;-)

LJ
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Okay wise guy. I was thinking of you when playing with it. It has your name all over it too. It was fast enough for your needs , now your turn to get in trouble. LOL
 

Eoin

Member
the 135 & 85 ZA's don't have the focus slip clutch. Not SSM lenses like the Vario-Sonnars. But just hit the at/mf button to switch to mf and take control.
 

LJL

New member
Okay wise guy. I was thinking of you when playing with it. It has your name all over it too. It was fast enough for your needs , now your turn to get in trouble. LOL
Thanks for the condiseration :ROTFL: I have been scoping the entire system out, and you are correct, it may meet most of my changing needs. However, I have disciplined myself to wait to see what if anything Canon may drop into the soup over the next few months. If that fails, and the S2 prices are beyond the pale, I will probably start angling something on the A900....after dumping a lot of Canon glass and several bodies. Will just have to wait and see on this, but if I were more impetuous and had some truly spare coin, I would have jumped on this in a heartbeat.:D

LJ
 

DavidL

New member
I also had a play with one at Focus on Imaging (Photo show in the UK) last week. I tried the Zeiss 16-35 f2.8 and the 135 f1.8, both I which were impressive. The thing I was least impressed with was the AF point layout and the fact only the centre point is really sensitive.
Sony had a very big stand, in a corner with a lot going on. Jacobs who are a retailer in the UK sold out of a900 with 24-70 Zeiss kits.
I'm kind of hoping I loose my PR contract this year so I can loose the Nikons and get a Sony. Not sure what I'd do with it, professionally, as none of my current clients require such large files
The prices at the show were low. £1500 for the body and just less than £1000 for the 135 f1.8. No 16-35's available.
There was a competition to win a 900 with a 24-70 Zeiss, Can't see why I won't be the winner, unless someone else bothered to enter;).
The only negative thing I heard about the Sony system, from other pros is their lack of pro backup/support, compared with the big two.
David
 

douglasf13

New member
I also had a play with one at Focus on Imaging (Photo show in the UK) last week. I tried the Zeiss 16-35 f2.8 and the 135 f1.8, both I which were impressive. The thing I was least impressed with was the AF point layout and the fact only the centre point is really sensitive.
Sony had a very big stand, in a corner with a lot going on. Jacobs who are a retailer in the UK sold out of a900 with 24-70 Zeiss kits.
I'm kind of hoping I loose my PR contract this year so I can loose the Nikons and get a Sony. Not sure what I'd do with it, professionally, as none of my current clients require such large files
The prices at the show were low. £1500 for the body and just less than £1000 for the 135 f1.8. No 16-35's available.
There was a competition to win a 900 with a 24-70 Zeiss, Can't see why I won't be the winner, unless someone else bothered to enter;).
The only negative thing I heard about the Sony system, from other pros is their lack of pro backup/support, compared with the big two.
David
Yeah, I'm assuming/hoping that Sony integrates pro DSLR support with their already established pro video support. We'll see.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Well it is something I am looking at and do have concerns is how much backbone is in this system and how far they will expand it. Obviously more lenses and stuff make a system. They seem to have a nice start and as we have seen on the forum there is a wish list going around on what lenses and such folks would like to have. As a secondary system for me not the biggest deal but most folks this will be the primary system or the go to system and for them this comes into play much more. Repair and turn time as well and we have yet to see much evidence of that. I asked one store in town why no Sony and they said they did not like there attitude on repairs and could care less. Now i take that with a grain of salt too, simply speaking there margins may suck with selling Sony as compared to selling Nikon or Canon. You have to know the industry a little to know when things are spoken out of the back end too. I would like to see hard data that actually confirms that if you know what i mean. i have yet to see anyone moaning and groaning about this system yet and that is a good sign.
 
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