My α Journey: My Friend’s Sony Alpha A300

Well, after a month I bought my Sony Alpha A200 (original post here: http://alpha.lifeinkl.com/2008/10/my-%ce%b1-journey-the-purchase/), Sony reduced the prices of the Alpha range by about RM300 for each model. It didn’t affect me that much as I got my A200 at a very reduced price. Anyway, after the price reduction, my friend who was initially interested in getting an Alpha after I bought mine (and finding out that his old Minolta lenses could fit and work perfectly on the Alpha cameras) finally bought one. At a special price too, heh!

One interesting thing to note is that all our other lenses are old Minolta lenses! Kumbang has a Minolta 35-70mm/f4 AF and a Minolta 70-210mm/f4 AF lens. Oh, and for those who didn’t know, then 70-210/f4 lens is very widely known as the Beercan lens due to the fact that it does not expand when it zooms (well, it does expands when it focuses). I personally have the Minolta 50mm/f1.7 AF lens (original post here: http://alpha.lifeinkl.com/2008/10/my-%ce%b1-journey-my-first-lens-minolta-50mmf17/) which is superb for low light conditions and also bokeh shots.

Well, what’s new in the A300? The specs are similar to that of the A200 and the only thing new is the Live View function. The LCD screen bulges out from the body a tiny bit and it can be extended out from the body and be titled upwards 90 degrees and downwards at 45 degrees. No sideways rotation though. One interesting thing to note is that when you are in the live view mode, the LCD shows the ‘expected’ exposure based on the current shutter speed/aperture/ISO settings. At least you can judge how bright/dark your image is when you are playing around with the settings. The auto focus is fast indeed, doesn’t have the lag that I expected it to have.

Then again, it’s a really weird to use the live view to shoot pictures on a DSLR. Heck, feels like an all new experience altogether!