Haven't posted for a while for the usual reasons: bought a new house, moved into new house, change in employment. I finally bought a DSLR, the Sony A300, along with a 55-200mm lens and a couple books on using the whole thing. I love it so far, the live view is great, battery life is superb, and it feels good in my hands. I spent much time in stores handling the variety of entry level DSLRs and read way too many reviews before picking this one. One thing I don't love about it is the bracketing mode (only 3 shots at either 0.3 or 0.7 range) but it is easy to change the EV settings while shooting, so it wasn't a deal breaker. Going to attempt to shoot some fireworks tonight if the weather holds off. [This attachment has been purged. Older attachments are purged from time to time to conserve disk space. Please feel free to repost your image.]
Indeed - congrats Jeremy on all the news - new job, new home, new camera, and back on the boards! We've got cameras in common - I bought an A300 myself a few months ago - I bought the SAL 18-250 lens to go with mine (the kit lens is still in the box), as well as a Tamron 200-500 for wildlife shooting and long range stuff. I love the camera - as you mentioned the battery life is superb and nicely gives you an accurate percent remaining meter rather than just the usual 4-position indicator...the focus is excellent, ergonomics are great, live view is a nice extra perk for tripodded night shots and such, and the stabilization in body saves a bunch on future lens purchases, giving you stabilization for all lenses. I can heartily recommend the 18-250 as a great walkaround all-purpose lens with a ton of range - it's amazingly compact yet delivers an extremely useful 27mm to 375mm range in 35mm equivalence. Also, if you're looking for a cheap low-light lens, look around for a used Minolta 50mm F1.7 - it's a great, sharp lens that can usually be found for under $100 in good condition, and will let you shoot handheld at night when combined with high ISO. Those are currently my 3 lenses - the only other thing I'd look to add would be a wide zoom, in the 11-18 range, preferably one with a decent F2.8 sensitivity or so. Welcome back to the boards, and I look forward to seeing how you get along with the cam.
Thanks for the advice Justin. I'm still using the kit lens while I learn about the camera, but plan on upgrading before going on any vacations (got my fingers crossed for WDW this year and Yellowstone next year). I was gifted a Minolta 35-70 AF lens with macro. Its great for being free, but I plan on upgrading sooner than later.
