With my recent purchase of a Nikon D50 and assorted accessories I suppose I shouldn't really be looking at other cameras but I was curious about the new Sony alpha -- the first output of the recent takeover/purchase/joint venture of Konica Minolta DSLR division. A "Sony Store" recently opened around the corner so I thought I would pop in and take a peak. I came out not excited about the product but not totally turned off either.
It seems to have a number of things going for it -- 10.2 Megapixel size, some form of the old Minolta body based image stabilizer, a sensor dust removal system (a la Olympus?), small compact size.
The price seems a bit on the high side ($1199 Canadian with the kit lens, $999 U.S. at B&H). Sony (Minolta-Konica) lenses seem a bit highly priced and not being Canon or Nikon compatible the selection is fairly small. For some reason the camera seemed a bit light with the lens -- but checking the specs it seems like it is about the same weight as my D50.
All in all not bad but not totally compelling. The store I visited had only one unit -- they were taking orders for August delivery.
