I fondled it and I liked it.

[jdbfreeheel]

I wouldn't know Minolta glass, other than my Rokkor 58/1.2 in EoS mount, from a tree stump.

The Sony body is GREAT bang/buck. Nice IQ. However, the glass, while overall excellent from what I read, is spendy, limited in selection (for now) and not universally a knock-out (100 macro, CA with some ,etc). There is also the Sony warranty, which I understand, like Nikon's, is nation-specific, thus requiring me to buy all this gear new (the used market for Sony in canada being miniscule) domestically.

I am coveting the A900 too, and, as a replacement to my D300 kit. I decided that I've decided to go FF and since I shoot MF more now, big files have become what I want to look at and play with. As a result, the D700, though fantastic, doesn't quite do it for me. I'm not a super low light shooter, so while the high ISO performance of the D700 and D3 are truly noteworthy, they aren't what I need. I mean, I loved my Kodak SLR/n and you could use files above iso 100 on that

Re: glass, one note, as I continue to research this platform shift, is that there does exist quite an active used Minolta glass fan club and you can pick up good glass for cheap (though popularity of the alpha system seems to be raising the prices). Now, I'm not talking all 'pro' glass, but certainly decent glass that can be used without fail if you find good copies.

I demoed the a900 with the 24-70 Zeiss glass and it's just downright beautiful. Oh boy, here we go again...

 

[robmac]

I'm probably lucky they didn't have the 24-70 in stock...

 

[Guy Mancuso]

YUP you are. That lens was pulling on my pocket hard

 

[jdbfreeheel]

And BTW, there's the deal right now where if you buy the a900 and the 24-70 at the same time, you get $500 off. It appears Amazon and BH take the discount instantly at time of checkout however the local SF Calumet quoted me that it was a mail in rebate meaning I would have to pay tax on the full kit.