ahpingko : Bracketing is for times when you do not really know which exposure level would be the best for your pic. Should you slightly over expose or slightly under expose? If you want to know then bracket them and the cam will take 3 pics and let you choose which one you like.

The 3 pics are one slightly underexposed (-0.3/0.7 EV), one is at zero EV and the last at +0.3/0.7 EV which is slightly overexposed.

zstan : Bracketing is not really for HDR merging. If you want to merge a few shots, best to do your own metering and shoot in RAW.

wingster : It's smaller than the A200/A300. That's why I said it's a bit too small for my hands.

zstan : I prefer the term E.V.I.L (electronic viewfinder, interchangeable lens) simply coz it's more ... well... evil!! LOL

zstan : Hey, you can't blame me. Even if I have the CZ 24-70mm I will be using both ends of it most of the time. It's either 24mm or 70mm around 98% of the time.

I have a 24-85mm standard zoom lens and most of the time it's 24mm or 85mm when I shoot portraits. So I'll rather have the 24mm Zeiss (if and when I get it) plus the 85mm SAM that will weigh less than the 24-70mm zoom.

And did I mention that 50mm on a FF is one lens that can be used to shoot most of anything? Macro and long telephoto excluded, of course.

Ah Hao : Yeah but if you're 'lucky' those 3 combined will last just about as long as a single ori Sony batt. There are cases where third party batt discharging way too fast to be of much practical use.

You have to understand how the market is. To us the consumers, we know very little about what goes on behind the scene. The sales people will try to sell the brand which will give them the highest commission. It may be that C and N offer higher commission for camera sold so these people push the brands harder lor. It's not really professional conduct as sales persons are supposed to sell to the customer's needs and not sell product with highest commission.

Reviews in magazines and even some websites are also sometimes biased because they need the revenue from advertising. Imagine you have a website that deals with photography gears. C or N advertises heavily on your website thus giving you revenue. Will you post reviews that is not so positive on the cams that C or N produce and heap praises on non-advertising brands like Pentax or Samsung? Are you not afraid that C and N will pull their advertisement and go to other sites and you will lose the revenue? It's just business and money is the bottom line. Sad but true.

dirk877 : Is the memory card that you use new? Have you ever used the memory on another alpha body? If you have then the file number would have carried over and that just might explain the high shutter count.

What can the A55 do? Well....

1. It can take pictures!!
2. It can take videos!!!
3. It can go up to 10fps!!!!
4. It has GPS for tagging your photos!!!!!

That's basically what it can do.

If I sound a bit sarcastic, it's because I'm taking the literal interpretation of your question. Dun be mad, ok?

Before getting to the lens choices, here's one question that you need to ask yourself:

Do you use telephoto a lot?

I am assuming that you have the 18-55mm kitlens. When you shoot, do you always go to the 55mm end of your kitlens and then wish that you can zoom in further? Like about 70% of the time?

If you do then it's clear you need a telephoto lens. If not then you're probably just thinking that having a telephoto lens would be convenient if and when you need to use it.

If you are just thinking about the convenience then I would suggest you go for the SAL18250 lens which has better IQ and faster focusing speed. The Tamron 18-200mm is cost effective but has slightly lower IQ and slow focusing speed compared to the SAL18250.

The 55-200mm has the best IQ but you need to swap lenses. If you're sure you need telephoto then get this one.

Leave the 70-300mm for now. Until you are very, very sure you need 300mm then you might be better served by getting the Sony 70-300G SSM lens instead.

I have a suggestion for you:

Tape your 18-55mm kitlens to the 28mm mark and shoot for one week. This means your kitlens is now stuck at 28mm. See if you can live with that. If you can then you can get the 28-80mm lens. If you cannot then it's best you hunt for another replacement for your kitlens with a wider end as you're gonna need it.

28mm on APS-C is really not here and not there. Not wide enough to be really useful not tele enough for most shots. If you do not like the 28mm on APS-C, it's just gonna be one frustration after another when you get the 28-80mm.

Lens starting with 24mm or 28mm are really meant for full frame cameras.

You cannot compare it like that. The two lenses are built for different crowds.

For sure the 55-200mm will beat the heck out of the 18-250 in the same ranges both in terms of IQ and aperture ratings but the 55-200mm is specifically a tele lens. You cannot leave the 55-200mm attached to your camera and go out with just that one lens. You will probably miss quite a number of shots if you do. (Landscapes and groups come instantly to mind.)

The 18-250mm however is designed to let you attach that one lens and go out and you'll still be able to shoot most of anything. The price you have to pay for that convenience is to sacrifice a little in terms of IQ and aperture rating.

For a person to cover the range from 18-250, he/she will have to bring at least 2 lenses if they do not want to use a superzoom. If he/she has only one camera body then he/she will need to swap lenses to get to use the different focal range.

Imagine that while out for a little stroll during your vacation, you see a new species of bird never seen before in this world. It's about to take off and go into the woods where no one will probably see it ever again. Standing where you are you can get a decent pic of the bird at 200mm focal length.

If you had the 18-250mm attached on your cam you could zoom all the way and get a decent shot.

If you had the 55-200mm but it's not currently attached to your cam, you would probably have lost the bird in the time it took for you to change lenses. If you have had the 55-200mm attached, you would have probably gotten a better pic of the bird in terms of IQ and exposure compared to the 18-250mm but that's a big IF.

That's the difference between the 2 lenses.

mike : Thanks for the explanation. Yes. It's the convenience.

zstan : It's not all that hard to change lenses. Just that sometimes, the moment will be lost by the time you get your lenses changed.

When I had only one body and I'm shooting a wedding. The 18250 stays on my cam. I'm not taking it off once the ceremony starts. If you miss the groom kissing the bride on that day there will be no way to get it back and I for sure DO NOT want to be explaining to the couple that I missed the shot because I was changing lenses!

albnok : Yes, of course. Well these things you learn as you shoot - it's called experience. Just that newcomers to the world of DSLRs always have a tendency to want to shoot everything that they see and distract themselves. Been there, done that myself so I use that as an example lor. Hahahaha...

Batmaninkl : Take all reviews with a pinch of salt. Also be aware that it's not really good practice to shoot video clips that goes on and on and on for minutes and minutes. It'll bore the heck out of everyone!

Try looking at music videos. They are usually only around 5 minutes in length but notice how many times the view changes and how long on average a camera angle lingers on a specific subject before the view is switched.

Even in TV, the view will switch without lingering on for very long. Rarely will you see a dialog being recorded from on single POV for the entire duration.

I highly doubt anyone will be impressed with a 29-minute unbroken footage so that makes the overheating problem really just a minor niggle no matter what the brand.

Depends on whether you want the macro. Macro lenses have very,very short MFD so that will be useful if you're one that likes to shoot in that manner.

Just put the flash on AUTO and set the body to TTL. If there is a white, low ceiling then all you need to do is point the flash upwards and strap a small bounce card to it to get some catchlight in the eyes of your subjects.

Point flash up 90 degrees or 75 degrees. Most of the time your subjects will be near you. Using 45 degrees may cause your frame to be half bright (got flash, usually upper half) and half dark (no flash).

As for bright subject and dark background it's due to your ISO setting being too low to catch the ambient lights. Up your ISO or lower your shutter speed until the background is sufficiently bright. DO NOT be afraid to use ISO 800 even if you're using A2xx/A3xx. Just expose your frame properly (you can always dial in +.3 or +.7 EV) and the noise will hardly be noticeable. Of course DO NOT PIXEL PEEP lar... your friends are not going to pixel peep so it's fine as long as your composition is fine. If not you can always convert the shot to black and white.

If you're lowering your shutter speed do be aware of subject movement or hand shake that can affect your shot. I would advise you to up your ISO first.

Upping your ISO also has the added advantage of helping your flash to use less powerful blasts. This will enable you to reduce your flash recycle time as the flash will be ready to fire again faster. If you're firing full 1/1 power blasts all the way you also risk the flash overheating. When that happens you're bound to lose some shots!

albnok : ???!!!??? Don't tell me you have already bought the A55 that's now in stock at Zaloon...

mike : Certain lenses have a tendency to get gear stripped. The only SAL lens that is prone to gear stripping is the SAL1870. Albnok's Sigma's 17-35mm lens also got its gear stripped. There's a certain 70-300mm lens from either Tamron or Sigma (I forget, sorry!) that's notorious for getting gear stripped on the alpha bodies.

mike : SAM lenses are driven by their internal motors. They will not be gear stripped as they motors will be adjusted to a particular lens and will never be too heavy. They of course, can suffer from a motor breakdown that will render the AF to be unusable.

Haiyo bro.... your batteries gone case ady lar... please change new set and everything will be ok!