A200 or A700 - Big decision!

George7

George7

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George
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I am relatively new to photography. I bought my Sony A200 in May and have been loving it ever since. Took it to Spain and Germany with me and got loads of shots I loved, then in september time I found the Sony A700 for 499. I wasn't planning on an upgrade so soon, but I thought the a700 was too good a deal to pass up, so I bought it, and I don't know what it is, but I just don't feel at all 'in love' with it like I did with my A200, and whilst it's obviously a vastly better body, I still prefer my A200. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because I've had so many great experiences with my A200 and since I've got the A700, I've stagnated on the photography front and pretty much taken hardly any good photos, although I know this is the not the camera's fault, the weather has been awful and there's not much stuff to photograph around my area anyway. Also, I'm really not seeing any noticable difference in the photos I'm taking which makes me feel I've wasted my money a bit. This is probably because I'm still relatively new to photography and I'm not sure if I'll make better use of the A700 as I get more experience. I'm feeling there's few extra features I make use of on the A700 to make me really think I've spent my money well :(

I still haven't sold my A200 and here is the dilemma I am facing. Do I sell the A700 and keep the A200, or keep the A700. This is a very hard decision at the moment because I'm still a noob in photography and what I don't want to happen is in about a years time, or less, regretting selling the A700 and then wasting a load of money upgrading to another better body.. The A700 was also always the camera I was always planning on upgrading to, but now I've got it, I'm not feeling it's worth it. Don't get me wrong, the A700 is lovely, it feels great to hold, magnesium body, better controls and having 2 wheels on the camera is simply awesome, but I still prefer my A200. What is wrong with me? :p Also, how much could I get for my nearly new A700 with less than 1000 actuations? And what do you guys think I should do? Should I give the A700 more time for me to get used to it? Sell the A700 and keep the A200? Or something else? Someone convince me to keep the A700 please :D

Really torn up about what to do. Help! :shrug:
 
Sounds as though the A700 really doesn't suit you. If you can't see your preferences changing then you'd be better selling it sooner rather than later as you'll get more money back.
 
The A700 is a better body, just try and get used to it :)

Im sure once you take a few really good shots with it, you will forget all about the a200 :)
 
It's odd. I'm thinking maybe it's not so much disliking the A700 but more really loving my A200, because I took it out with my friend a week or two ago and it was absolutely fantastic. It found AF in complete darkness very quickly and the flash on it was fantastic and just in general did a much better job and my friend kept telling me how much better it was than the A200. I think it may just be that I've been so many places with my A200 and had so many great experiences and taken so many photos I love with it, I don't want to part with it and I want to keep using it. This is an annoying situation to say the least :p
 
George7 said:
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Not allowed in this forum (see sticky at the top of the forum page)....

Staff edit: indeed not ;)

Check completed e-Bay auctions in the UK or have a check to see what retailers are still selling the a700 body for.
 
keep them both unless you need to sell one.i took some bird shots today in a fairly dark spot,and the gloomy day didn't help much..but they were shot at ISO 3200..if i had shot them on the A200 at that high an ISO,i doubt they would have been usable...

DSC05093_filtered.jpg
 
what lenses are you using on the both?

maybe it's the extra size and weight of the a700 compared to the a200 aswell?
 
I'd like to keep both but I don't think it's really worth it. I suppose as a back up cam it would be good but the A700 is unlikely to break and as I don't 'need' a camera for a profession or whatever, the downtime from a broken camera wouldn't effect me much anyway. Also, I can't think of any situations where I'd take the A200 out rather than the A700.

I'm using a 28mm prime and an 18-200mm Tamron, neither of which I'm really loving at the moment. I used to love the 28mm on the A200 but oddly I'm not liking it nearly as much on the A700. Not sure why. I think it might be the extra body size of the A700 making the 28mm feel small and odd. I also have the kit lens which will go with the A200 if i decide to sell that. Am probably swapping the 28mm Prime for either a 24-85mm Minolta or a 50mm Minolta soon (just need to decide between the two, or whether to swap it at all) and the 18-200mm isn't seeing much use at the moment as I don't really do any telephoto stuff so yeah, also in a bit of an odd situation with my lenses too... :(
 
I've thought a few times about dumping my A200 pretty much since the day I bought it (gear lust anyone?) but everytime I do, I just remind myself that the A200 is still ahead of my abilities. It's not holding me back at all and I've never once been disapointed with the A200 or even the A100 I had before it, but I totally understand not wanting to miss a bargain.

IMO you've upgraded too early, and you aren't quite ready to fully appreciate the extra features/quality of the A700. But for £499 what you've done is 100% understandable! I think you need to put the A700 back in it's box, hide it under your bed, and get it back out again in about a years time and see if it makes more sense then.

I also think that a hardly used A700 in a years time will still fetch very good money. You've bought it at such a good price you can't really lose too much on it!

I'll probably use my A200 until it breaks beyond repair and then upgrade.........

Saying that, those A550's look very nice indeed!! (sorry, gear lust again!!)
 
sell the a200 and lenses and buy some new glass to suit ;-)
 
Slimbert said:
I've thought a few times about dumping my A200 pretty much since the day I bought it (gear lust anyone?) but everytime I do, I just remind myself that the A200 is still ahead of my abilities. It's not holding me back at all and I've never once been disapointed with the A200 or even the A100 I had before it, but I totally understand not wanting to miss a bargain.

IMO you've upgraded too early, and you aren't quite ready to fully appreciate the extra features/quality of the A700. But for £499 what you've done is 100% understandable! I think you need to put the A700 back in it's box, hide it under your bed, and get it back out again in about a years time and see if it makes more sense then.

I also think that a hardly used A700 in a years time will still fetch very good money. You've bought it at such a good price you can't really lose too much on it!

I'll probably use my A200 until it breaks beyond repair and then upgrade.........

Saying that, those A550's look very nice indeed!! (sorry, gear lust again!!)
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Putting the A700 away for a year sounds a bit mad but it's an idea I actually quite like :p And yeah, what I've done is I've upgraded too early. I've also never been disappointed at all with my A200 and I've never felt it's held me back in any way so I guess the A700 will seem a bit of a pointless upgrade to me as it's not really making much of a difference in photo quality in comparison to my A200. There's a difference in handling in that the high iso performance is better, the camera processes shots a lot quicker (anyone who does long exposure shots on the A200 will feel my pain :p) and takes many more shots a second and a few other differences but in terms of the end results the difference between the shots taken on the A700 vs the A200 is negligible. I've had many shots from the A200 that I've absolutely loved but only really 1 shot from the A700 that I really like but then again I've not really been anywhere with my A700 yet. I think what I may do is go on a few bikerides or something and get the feel of the camera and then decide exactly what to do..

Also, I really need to sort out my lens situation! I've got the 28mm Minolta on the trade forum thing and I've been offered a 24-85mm Minolta and also a 50mm F1.7 but I'm really not sure which one to go for.
 
Staff Edit: post removed
 
Hiya George,

I also have the a200 (had for a year now) and get along great with it, but like yourself I have just upgraded to the a700 (yesterday in fact) for £550 body only. I just couldn't let it go at that price, I had just sold my a300 and if hadn't upgraded the the money would have gone elsewhere.

I am still learning with the a200 but will require soon to start using the a700, until then I will put it aside. It is handy having a back up camera, one with my macro lens on and other with either walkabout 18-125 or 70-300. If I do sell the a200 with grip then i will probably get a good wide angle lens, 10-20.

My advice for what it's worth is keep both for as long as you can.

Andy
 
I never advertised selling anything !!!
 
Oh dear, this has gone off topic :p And I apologise for the 'How much is this worth' post, I didn't realise it was a breach of the rules.

I took the A700 out yesterday and tbh, I really do prefer my A200 for some reason. Feels right. Now I'm not sure whether to sell my A700 or keep it and put it away for a bit. What would be the smart thing to do?
 
I think there are two main factors:

Firstly, do you need/want the money out of your A700? I you don't like the idea of having £500ish sat doing nothing then you should sell. You won't lose much at all so no real harm done.

Secondly, if it's the "feel" of the A700 you don't like, then maybe come upgrade time, (dare I say it?!) you should try other brands. In my hands Canon feel closer to the Sony DSLRs than Nikon do but they are still different. You're £500 won't go as far with Canon/Nikon unless you buy second hand and get yourself a 500D/40D/D90/D200 and you'll have to change your lenses which I think could be a bit of a pain!

If it's just a case of, you aren't ready for the A700 yet, keep it until you are. If it's a case of you don't like the feel of it, you probably never will and should sell.
 
having had an a300 i looked at sony upgrades, but the a700 was just too chunky for me

i've now moved to nikon, having had one before.

sounds like there's nothing wrong with the a200. why not sell the a700 if the a200 does everything you want and build on the lenses. and in the future you'll have more sony fit lenses and when it's really time to move up, there will be better used a700 prices out there or even the newer models
 
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