Sony Alpha DSLR-A200

It's early January 2008, and guess what - here comes the first signs of the tidal wave of technology in the form of new digital SLR cameras.

It makes sense why 2008 will be a banner year for new cameras: the annual PMA trade show takes place from January 31 to February 2 in Las Vegas and is always a time when camera manufacturers announce new models and show off their prototypes for upcoming releases.

As if PMA weren't enough, Photokina (a show that only takes place every other year) takes off in late September and you can rest assured that there will be plenty of new camera announcements leading up to that as well.

Let's get on with the first announcement of the year: the Sony Alpha DSLR-A200.

The DSLR-A200 is the follow-up to Sony's immensely popular first release: the DSLR-A100. The A200 borrows features from Sony's higher end DSLR-A700 (a semi-professional camera) and improves ever so slightly on the features available on the A100.

Here's the quick rundown

• 10.2 megapixels
• Dust control
• Built-in image stabilization (Super SteadyShot)
• Dynamic Range Optimization (DRO)
• 2.7 inch LCD
• 3 photos per second
• Eye-start autofocus system

The DSLR-A200 will be available in late February and comes with two different lens packages:

1. A200 camera body with 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 lens ($700)
2. A200 camera body with 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 and 75-300mm f/4.5-5.6 lenses ($900)

Comments

[Sony Alphah]

I have had several digital cameras, and this is my first dslr. I love taking pictures with it, especially action shots. Super fast auto focus, choices of programs etc. are found on lots of dslr's. The reason I bought this one is that it accepts Minolta af lenses and the anti-shake technology is in the camera and not in the lens. This makes additional lenses much more affordable.