I brought the a200 home, Fri Mar 14/08 at 9:30 PM, removed it from its package prison assembled it and added strap, lens and Lexar 2G card to it. I put the battery in the charger, the a200 in its new case and went to bed.
5:00 am - up and at it! Put the battery in and took my 1st pictures (on AUTO) by 5:10.
WOW!!
The pics showed great detail, great colour and great clarity of the lamp base and antique dresser. My wife said the furniture never looked better as she personally supervised the deletion of pics that captured her glorious awakening.
At first blush
, the array of controls and buttons on the a200 seemed like the cockpit of a 747. However, a quick read of the well-written intelligently laid out manual, tweaking and pushing each of the buttons soon told me that Sony put a lot of thought into this camera. It all made good sense for me in short order. That evening, I took a few outdoor shots of the bride and our senior fastidious feline checking puddle content for future consumption. After a couple shots of our timid male tat indoors, I called it a day.
I put the a200 to work at my grand-daughter’s 2nd birthday bash on Sunday. 3 hours later and 464 shots in tow, I sat at the computer wondering how I managed to take so many and more importantly, why?
Most shots were Auto with a few Flash Off. The majority were taken at the 70mm end of the lens, a couple at 18mm and one or two somewhere in between. Stabilization and Auto-Focus were on throughout.
Throughout this orgy of excess, the a200 performed flawlessly, whether shooting, reviewing or deleting. At the end, the battery still had an impressive 48% in reserve.
I ran the pics into the computer via USB, salvaged 37 as keepers for cropping and some other work, put the battery into the charger and the a200 in the bag.
2nd Impressions in the cold light of St. Pattie’s Day dawn
The Sony a200 and I will spend a lot of happy time together.
Using it that much in a short period of time confirmed it was a great choice for me.
The manual, button layout, and menus were very easy for me to use competently.
Auto focus more than matched my needs and timing.
The pics, clarity colour, and detail are superb compared to my Fuji S700 and will no doubt get even better once I become more familiar with my new found friend.
Image stabilization is a must for a 66 year old geezer. Incidentally, the a200 shows it graphically working in the lower right corner of the viewfinder. Apparently, the flatter the graph, the better the shot.
I miss the 10x zoom of the Fuji S700 and will be getting the Sony 75mm-300mm lens as soon as the wife will allow it.
I’ll venture away from Auto in the next while and let you know how that goes.
For me, the Sony a200 is a great camera at a great price at a great time for me.
Stay tuned.