A850 and 28-75 in Jessops at £1299

[alphaomega]

Passed by Jessops in Glasgow and noticed (through the window) a Sony DSLR at £1299. I nipped in and saw a new A850 with 28-75 lens at £1299. Yes that is correct. I do not need new glasses just yet. In fact if were in the market for FF I would have pulled my credit card there and then. That is good value in my humble opinion. There must be a FF successor to the A900/850 combo on its way. As a commententator wrote somewhere, Sony would not continue to release FF lenses if they were getting out of this segment. Interesting times ahead. Noticed in my inbox a promotion for the new Nikon D7000. Proliferation of zeros. DPReview are hinting that this is the Sony A55 sensor in one form or another. More interesting times. Nikon developing their own Sony sensors and Pentax sliding back to Sony with their K-x??????????? Good times for the Barry Fs of this world - a wonderful choice of Sony sensors if they don't like Sony cameras.

[Birma]

a £1400 Camera and £500 lens for £1300! Must be worth it even if purely for selling on? Glad I didn't have to face that dilemma. (It doesn't appear on the Jessops web site - phew .)

[David Kilpatrick]

I've been using the Nikon D3X and new 85mm AF-S G f/1.4 this week. I can tell you, I'd rather have that A850 than a D3X any day. With the update to ACR/LR, there is no longer any advantage for the D3X in image quality (as I always suspected), and the colours are really not very nice at all compared to Sony. Not just the colours, when the exposure is correct for midtones in a raw file, bright highlights just can't be pulled in. The A900 allows that so much more easily, and the whole tonal-range/colour palette thing is so much better than the Nikon.

Also, I had forgotten what dust spots on the sensor were... the Nikon reminded me! And no stabilisation to help me get the most from that truly excellent 85mm f/1.4.

David

[mikeriach]

Yes you have to admit it is a very tempting offer for someone wanting a foothold on the full frame scene.
If it had been the A900 then maybe....

Mike

[levieuxrenard]

Well, Mr Alphaomega: I can’t decide whether I should be thanking you profusely or ... cursing you! Your post about the A850 with 28-75 lens going for GBP1300 at Jessops Glasgow sent me feverishly into call-in-the debts mode and this morning I took possession of an item I had been lusting after for a long time but just didn’t have the cash for. You posted on the Wednesday, I saw the post and rang tout de suite: Jessops were kind enough to reserve it for me until today. I was told over the phone that this was the shop’s display model but they had been unable to shift it in all the time it had sat in the display cabinet.
But imagine my surprise when I found this morning that the asking price was now down to GBP999. And this included the 28-75 lens. The sales guy couldn’t believe it either. His take on what amounts to a fairly staggering price drop on this combo - much less than half price - is that Jessops just wants to clear the decks of non-selling stuff in preparation for what he was confident would be a wave of new market-shaking items in the coming months.
Well, for me, a camera is a camera and I knew I wanted this one, DK’s sage remarks about the pros and cons of full format notwithstanding. As an otherwise happy A700 owner who is frustrated by the significant back-focus on my CZ16-80 at the 16 end, I want it mainly for the focus micro-adjust. And I want to be able to enjoy my wide angle lenses again.
Anyway, nearly a thousand lighter of pocket, I will gladly suffer the beckoning months of locusts and wild honey for the pleasure of using such a good camera at a price I could actually afford.
What a useful place this forum is! And thanks again to Alphaomega for a great tip-off!

[Dr. Harout]

Well, congratulations Mr Le Vieux Renard. Enjoy your new toy and enjoy this forum.

[bakubo]

But imagine my surprise when I found this morning that the asking price was now down to GBP999. And this included the 28-75 lens.

Wow! That is a fantastic price for the A850 + 28-75mm. I would have jumped on it too. Enjoy!

[Birma]

But imagine my surprise when I found this morning that the asking price was now down to GBP999. And this included the 28-75 lens. The sales guy couldn’t believe it either.

Welcome to the forum Levieuxrenard and congratulations on the new kit at a fabulous price. I think it would have been almost rude to have not taken the 850 and lens at that price .

[alphaomega]

Reference Levieuxrenard's comments above, I am happy that this fine camera has now ended up with an enthusiastic user. Fortunately for him I have no intention of getting into FF at my advancing years. Had I been I would have picked up the combination even at £1299. I am sorry about the A700/16-80 back focus problems. I bought these as a kit when available at or just after launch and have never experienced any such problems.

[David Kilpatrick]

Well, anither auld tod catches a Sony chicken... well done!

[Dusty]

Oh, am I ever jealous!

Great find. If I were you I'd take a bit of that 300 GBP you just saved and take alphaomega out to dinner!

Dusty

[levieuxrenard]

Thank you to all members who have welcomed me aboard and wished me well with my bargain buy (A850 with 28-75 Sony lens for GBP999 at Jessops Glasgow).

I have to say, this is one friendly forum! Coming here from the DPReview forum is like landing in some tranquil Hebridean harbour after bodyswerving the slings and arrows of the Somali coast.

Dusty: your suggestion to treat Alphaomega to a free meal for his hot tip is excellent; I will gladly stand him a three-course dinner at my local place if he can manage to make his own way there. It’s just a wee bit south of Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, however: The PineTree Lodge in Mzuzu, Malawi, to be exact. Northern Malawi is where I live and work – this Caledonian jaunt that has allowed me to seize on the amazing A850 offer is a medical timeout.

I am presently holed up in a village not two miles up the road from a place that might have been named after our genial landlord: Old Kilpatrick. Sorry about that cheap one, David, but you did slip in a genteel dig at OK some time ago, describing it as ‘totally unmemorable’ or words to that effect. You had obviously missed the Auchentoshan Distillery and its 12-year-old malts, not a mile distant!

Incidentally, I had always marked you down as an enlightened Sassenach who had had the wit to choose a proper place to live. But on the evidence of your post: “anither auld tod catches a Sony chicken” I’m not so sure. Apart from always appreciating your enormous knowledge on all things Minolta-Sony and your largesse in sharing it freely, I’ve found you consistently the most readable and stylish of any contributor I know who writes on photography. Thank you for that and long may you continue to show the semi-literate parcel of rogues who have taken King Canikon’s shilling a clean pair of heels on the style front, Amen.

In the next few days I hope to share with fellow-forum members my findings about my new A850 and compare it with the A700 I already use with great pleasure, together with some unordered musings, for whatever they may be worth, on why we never seem totally happy with the equipment we have.

[David Kilpatrick]

English born but Scots father, and it was only a bit over the Border in Cumberland due to work - could easily have ended up back in Scotland, but he went further south, and became completely English himself. I've sort of reverted, always wanted to return to Scotland. Always loved Scots, written spoken or sung.

The A850 will surprise you. Duncan McEwan's work with the Alpha 900 is worth seeing if you can catch one of his talks. Be sure to make it to the next Edinburgh Photoworld/Photoclubalpha meeting which should be in February or March 2011, depending on Duncan's diary as he organises them.

David

[levieuxrenard]

Thanks David for this and for the Duncan McEwan tip. I don’t know if I will still be in Scotland by then but it sounds like anyone attending will be inspired and will learn a lot from his talk. Most of my own photography has tended to be of African countries: Cameroon, Mali and now Malawi, and not of the lovely land I grew up in – Scotland. I hope I can do justice to some of the magnificent vistas available in Scotland to expert photographers like Duncan. With a first-class tool like the A850 I now have no excuse for failing, at least technically.

[bakubo]

Most of my own photography has tended to be of African countries: Cameroon, Mali and now Malawi, and not of the lovely land I grew up in – Scotland. I hope I can do justice to some of the magnificent vistas available in Scotland to expert photographers like Duncan. With a first-class tool like the A850 I now have no excuse for failing, at least technically.

Show us your Africa photos!