I've got a Sony A200, (upgraded from a Nikon Bridge). I've been using it for nearly 2 years now in all kind of enviroments (from the comfort of my living room to nearly being dropped overboard in a rough South Atlantic) and other than being seriously disapointed by high ISO performance I love it to bits.
it sucks doesn't it. i was looking at nikon d200's and all was looking well untill i saw they have a ccd sensor too. boooo!
The Sony a450, a500, a550, a560, a580, SLT-A33 and SLT-A55 all use the latest CMOS sensors and therefore better high ISO performance (although DXOMark rate the A33 down a bit).
One word of warning though, the a450, a500 and a550 have a base ISO of 200, which I found noisier than ISO 100 on the a100 and a200.
It's not sensor type, simply that newer is better in terms of ISO performance.
The A700 uses a 4 year old CMOS sensor and the high ISO performance is way better than the much newer CCD sensors.
was there a firmware update to improve the high iso performance of the a700?
There was but still only a year after 1st production (if that).
ah right, i thought it was towards the end of production but wasn't sure. did it improve the camera noticably? i've been trawling the flickr groups and as much as i've been looking towards canikon i keep getting drawn to the a700. i hate being so indecisive goddammit
It improved the ISO performance greatly and also allowed for the in camera noise reduction to be switched off.
that's good to hear. the a700 isn't looking like a bad upgrade, especially at the prices they can be picked up for now.