Hello everyone from Bob in Warwickshire, UK,

I should have said hello a very long time ago but anyway here I am.
I have been around for a few years and still have a darkroom although I have not been in it for a long time. I have used many cameras but a constant has been Minolta and Sony ever since my first Minolta, an SRT101.
I have had an Alpha 700 for the past but about three months ago I bought an A77. After an unfortunate accident which hurt the A77 more than me I am temporarily back to using the A700. If anyone would like to know what I think of the A77 please let me know.
Like all of you I expect, I have many uses for my photography but my main interest is entering prints in amateur exhibitions.
I am looking forward to 'talking' to you all.

Cheers,

Bob Johnston

Hi Bob,

Let me be the first to welcome you to this forum! I know you'll have a great time here and will meet some very nice folks!

That's unfortunate about the A77. Is it in repair now?

Mark

Welcome, Bob. Please feel free to post some shots!

Dusty

And a welcome from me too Bob. Enjoy your surf here.
I am interested in your feelings and thoughts about the a77, and I do hope it gets back fully recovered.

Welcome from me as well Bob . Good to have another 'midlander' onboard (I'm from Worcestershire). I'd also be very interested in your feedback on the A77, and of course it is always great to see other peoples pictures.

Thanks guys for welcoming me to the forum. I will get around to posting some pics but for now a few words about the A77 accident that you don't have to read if you don't want to. I will follow with my impressions of the camera later today when I have more time. Should I put these in the Alpha 100-900 section or the one for digital non slr cameras? Most of the existing A77 posts seem to be in the A100-900.

I was in Cornwal. At the end of the day I persuaded my wife that we should visit one of the holy wells that are found in this part of the country. The narrow path was thick with ridiculously slippery mud and my wife wisely refused to go down it. The idiot that is writing this said 'it's only a bit of mud' and carried on alone. I got all the way there and had the A77 in my right hand when I slipped sideways. Of course I put out my hand to break the fall. There was an awful crunch as the camera hit a rock. It was a holy well. I doubt if it is now after the stream of expletives that left my mouth! It worked ok afterwards but had some external damage. more seriously I was not sure that the SS was working. I got a one-off error message but testing afterwards seemed to indicate that it was brocken. The lens had a UV filter attached (for the salt spray on the coast). I had to saw it off with a Dremel tool. This is the only serious damage that I have ever inflicted on a camera and it was only three months old. I was gutted. It is a great compliment to the camera that it survived in working condition. Sony's repair centre in the UK is in Bridgend. There is a company called Birmingham Specialised Services that claims that they have Sony alpha trained technicians and do work for Sony. They are very near to me but in the end I decided it was best to send the camera and lens to Bridgend. I have paid an initial fee for the work to go ahead and am waiting for Sony to contact me again. Does anyone have any experience of the Birmingham SS crew?
By the way, I meant to say in my first post that I have had the A700 for three years.

Ouch - sorry to hear about the A77 Bob and I hope it will be fixed soon.

You're right about the section for A77 discussion - everyone tends to use the Sony 100-900 one for the SLTs as well as DSLRs.