OK Thanks for the help some of you passed on when making up my mind......
It's now official... I'm a Alpha A300 owner and so far WoW. Everything I seem to snap at comes out like a good picture unlike my pocket Cannon camera. Been playing all afternoon trying out both lenses (2nd being the Tamron 55-200) trying out features as i catch up with long forgotton terminology from the early 70's. Already i feel conversant with the controls functions and variables, now I've got to put into practice combining them and camparing the different results.
I'd like to add what a difference it is to carry everything in a slingshot bag rather than the old cosmetic type bags we used to use many moons ago, plus the cheapest monopod is already proving buying one is worth the effort.
Even somebody that tried to put me off Sony is now well impressed.