Walk into any shop in Sg. Wang and you will get much better prices than at an official Sony shop. Same original Malaysian stock, same warranty anyway.

I bought an A100 for the anti-shake. Also I can use it with the 50mm F1.4 for really dark conditions.

They have a 500mm F8 reflex lens that AUTOFOCUSES. With Super Steady Shot, you can shoot at 1/50s HANDHELD at F8! There is no other reflex lens that has VR/IS... which means you'd want 1/750s at F8. Where would you get that kind of lighting? (A very long studio room?)

They have Carl Zeiss lenses that AUTOFOCUS.

They have a 135mm F2.8 T4.5 Smooth Transition Focus lens that has very smooth, creamy bokeh (the out-of-focus areas).

Minolta lenses (and their Sony rebadges) were designed to have nice bokeh, which is why they were big with the Japanese.

They also have the excellent Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan lens, a cheap, solid and lightweight tele lens that is brighter than all the 70-300mm F4-5.6 lenses that are in the market now. I dare say I will stick to this and skip the heavy 70-200mm F2.8.

It's not about the price; if I had a Canon I'd get the 70-200mm F4 IS instead of the F2.8 IS for practical reasons.

Sony has good service, they fixed my Minolta beercan for FREE even though it was 20 years old. How's that for after-warranty servicing? They always have 2-4 days turnaround. I have not paid a single cent to a Sony Service Center.

You won't have cases of high-pitched VR lenses (annoying Nikkor 18-200mm F3.5-5.6!) or deteriorating SWM or dropping your expensive VR/IS lens, losing alignment and thus killing VR/IS on your lens.

"Oh but if you drop your Sony/KM and your AS/SSS dies then all your lenses have no AS/SSS."

Find me someone who has killed Anti-shake on their Konica Minolta/Sony then.

You can also find more rare old lenses in the A-mount and Pentax K-mount. Why? Not much demand. I just picked up a Vivitar Series 1 28-105mm F2.8-3.8 in Bandung. If it was a Canon or Nikon it would not sit there.

Sony unfortunately only retained the higher-spec lenses from the Konica Minolta days. Carl Zeiss IS a great, great brand to pay for. The sharpness and OOF rendition is amazing. Having tried the 135mm F1.8 I am convinced, and am saving up for one.

Waiting is a standard procedure. How long did people wait for Nikon after the products were announced?

Do you buy an SLR, then 2 months later, have ENOUGH money to buy the next big lens? Are you just sitting around itching to buy the next lens?

Pentax is a good system, too. They've been bought by Hoya. So if mergers are a sign, and one day, Hoya Pentax is bought by Microsoft, will you NOT buy one? There is more to a system than just your systemic dislike towards a brand.

Wow... Thanks 4 all the advise....

My 1st mind set was to Nikon then Canon.... Now.... more to Sony...

Walk into any shop in Sg. Wang and you will get much better prices than at an official Sony shop. Same original Malaysian stock, same warranty anyway.

I bought an A100 for the anti-shake. Also I can use it with the 50mm F1.4 for really dark conditions.

They have a 500mm F8 reflex lens that AUTOFOCUSES. With Super Steady Shot, you can shoot at 1/50s HANDHELD at F8! There is no other reflex lens that has VR/IS... which means you'd want 1/750s at F8. Where would you get that kind of lighting? (A very long studio room?)

They have Carl Zeiss lenses that AUTOFOCUS.

They have a 135mm F2.8 T4.5 Smooth Transition Focus lens that has very smooth, creamy bokeh (the out-of-focus areas).

Minolta lenses (and their Sony rebadges) were designed to have nice bokeh, which is why they were big with the Japanese.

They also have the excellent Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan lens, a cheap, solid and lightweight tele lens that is brighter than all the 70-300mm F4-5.6 lenses that are in the market now. I dare say I will stick to this and skip the heavy 70-200mm F2.8.

It's not about the price; if I had a Canon I'd get the 70-200mm F4 IS instead of the F2.8 IS for practical reasons.

Sony has good service, they fixed my Minolta beercan for FREE even though it was 20 years old. How's that for after-warranty servicing? They always have 2-4 days turnaround. I have not paid a single cent to a Sony Service Center.

You won't have cases of high-pitched VR lenses (annoying Nikkor 18-200mm F3.5-5.6!) or deteriorating SWM or dropping your expensive VR/IS lens, losing alignment and thus killing VR/IS on your lens.

"Oh but if you drop your Sony/KM and your AS/SSS dies then all your lenses have no AS/SSS."

Find me someone who has killed Anti-shake on their Konica Minolta/Sony then.

You can also find more rare old lenses in the A-mount and Pentax K-mount. Why? Not much demand. I just picked up a Vivitar Series 1 28-105mm F2.8-3.8 in Bandung. If it was a Canon or Nikon it would not sit there.

Sony unfortunately only retained the higher-spec lenses from the Konica Minolta days. Carl Zeiss IS a great, great brand to pay for. The sharpness and OOF rendition is amazing. Having tried the 135mm F1.8 I am convinced, and am saving up for one.

Waiting is a standard procedure. How long did people wait for Nikon after the products were announced?

Do you buy an SLR, then 2 months later, have ENOUGH money to buy the next big lens? Are you just sitting around itching to buy the next lens?

Pentax is a good system, too. They've been bought by Hoya. So if mergers are a sign, and one day, Hoya Pentax is bought by Microsoft, will you NOT buy one? There is more to a system than just your systemic dislike towards a brand.

I bought my A100 last December and I am happy with it, no regrets whatsoever.

Assuming your budget is RM3-4k, I think A100 offers the best value among the other competitors at entry level.

Get the body and forget about the kit lens, get the Tamron 17-50/2.8 and I am sure you will be happy with it for some while. There are a number of 3rd party lenses available for the A-mount.

On prime lens, KM 50/1.7 is quite affordable or you can go for Sony 50/1.4.

I am happy with my Beercan 70-210/4 as well, great quality for the money I paid for.

A lot of people are in doubt of Sony's involvement in dSLR. KM used to be one of the big player in the market and I don't think a big corporation like Sony bought over KM without a long term investment strategy plan. I think it'll keep growing and become more competitive in near future.

Good luck with your choice anyway.

How much is Tamron lens btw?

around RM1.4k.

seriously, for ur budget, u might consider Olympus E510 as well.

How much a?

I'm just wondering... Olympus good in nite shots? because my mind set is Olympus sucks at nite shots ( for PNS)

for previous model like E300 and E500, the high ISO noise is not really good, but the new lineup E410 and E510, the noise at ISO 800 and 1600 really acceptable and usable, competitive enough with the C and N