I've been able to handle an Alpha 350 one and off for about a month now, and I'm quite pleased with what I've seen so far.

First, the camera's appearance is very much like that of the Alpha 200, and identical to the Alpha 300. All share the same, comfortable grip that uses a full-size lithium-ion "info" battery, and should feel good in most peoples hands. The tilting LCD screen is added from the A200, and makes it a bit thicker at the back. This thickness doesn't seem to be much of a drawback for handling, but it might make it a bit more ackward for those who wear eyeglasses.

Most of the camera controls are located in easy to use places, although the rear toggle might be too easy to hit (by mistake) for some, the idea is for it to be quickly accessable.

Performance wise, the camera seems to be greatly improved from the older Alpha 100. Image Quality (IQ), both sharpness and color wise, appear to be very good. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to do critical, side-by-side, low-light/high ISO testing, something which is of a possible concern with such a high megapixel CCD sensor. Visually, those images I shot in poor lighting appeared reasonably good, but more serious testing needs to be done.

Autofocusing speed is very decent, especially when the eye-start feature begins the AF process for you. The 9-point AF seems fast and accurate. My only disappointment is that an upgrade camera such as this does not have the "instant" manual focusing ability of the Alpha 100. [This feature allowed you to use the camera in AF. Once the camera focused, it released the gearing, making manual focusing instantly possible to make corrections, without fiddling for an AF/M switch].

Of course, the built-in anti-shake ability is great. Although we can argue the merits of in-camera vs. in-lens, there is no doubt that this feature is much less expensive, and works with lenses that neither Nikon nor Canon offer with IS/VR (e.g. 50mm f1.4), and a whole bunch of older lenses as well.

Like the anti-shake system, everyone will have their opinion on what's the best way to implement Live View. I prefer the way Sony has chosen to use Live View, where AF speed is unaffected. The drawback is that only 90 percent of the actual image is previewed with Sony's system. Adding the articulated, nice quality LCD seems to me to make this system a bit more useful, and the 1.4x and 2x digital cropping may come in handy (but keep in mind, you're just cropping out megapixels).

Another feature I would have liked for this price is a wireless shutter release (it does offer a wired release).

It will be interesting to see how this stacks up to the competition. The biggest threat will come from the Canon Digital Rebel XSi. The XSi will be smaller (using a new, smaller battery), and have a 12 megapixel CMOS sensor, which may prove to be better from someone doing low light with high ISO speeds (such as museum or stage photography). Also, for $200 less, the Alpha 300 will need serious consideration. The only feature difference is it has 10 megapixels vs. 14, and this may actually improve IQ in poorer light.

Overall, a very fine addition to the Sony lineup!

Canon Digital Rebel XSI 12MP Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens (Silver)

Sony Alpha DSLRA300X 10.2MP Digital SLR Camera with Super SteadyShot Image Stabilization with DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 & DT 55-200mm f/4-5.6 Zoom Lenses

I already owned a Sony A100 and liked it alot, so when the A350 came out I was expecting it to be good - and it is. Some additional controls, true TTL viewing, even longer battery life than the A100 - which means I've taken more than 1,000 photos at maximum quality without a battery change - and it handles quickly and accurately. I have a few lenses, but like the flexibility of the Sony 18-200mm zoom so it's on the camera most of the time. The disadvantage with that lens is that it's slow (4.5 to 6.3 at 200mm) so it's not really suitable for people shots, unless they're in bright sunlight. However, the lens is fine for objects, buildings or anything that's not going to move quickly. I was in Marrakech recently and found the camera and lens a great combination, although they're big and obvious enough to make it difficult to shoot candid portraits. Now I'm looking for a 135mm f.2.4 lens so I can shoot in shadows.

After reading all the reviews I could find with pros and cons, I just purchased the sony a350, and am very pleased on its performance. The view finder is great (Some reviews said it was too small) I wear glasses and no problem. The color quality is very good, the camera in a nut shell just works great, reguardless of some less than favorable reviews. I have been doing photography for quite awhile, and I just like it ! Besides the camera alone, no matter what kind it is cannot take a great picture, its always the person behind it. So if you want it, like it, then buy it. Also remember Sony has been in the camera business for a while, (Movie cameras, etc. )So they know a little about good color.

First let me say I did not purchase this from Amazon (a first for me since I purchase everything from here). I did find a better deal at Circuit City BUT I would NOT recommend buying from there again. Very lousy customer service and little sales knowledge of product. Luckily I did some research before going there.
Now about the camera. I LOVED all the features and the ease of operation. I loved the focusing and the best feature I found to be the LCD screen that tilts allowing you to view images while holding camera above you or taking low shots.
What I did not like was the lack of picture quality. I found the pictures to be VERY blurry and not in focus. I tried manual focusing and auto focusing. I tried to make sure the camera had no movement when shooting. I tried everything. Out of the 200 or so shots I took with it I can say that only 10 or 15 came out acceptable. I love close up photography of flowers & insects, I couldn't do it with this camera.
I really wanted this camera but the image just made it unacceptable.

I got the Sony A350 about 2 months ago. The camera is great. I like the way it's laid out and it's easy to use. The live view and tilting screen is very hand when shooting small objects on the ground.

HOWEVER - I'm a bit disappointed in the 18-70mm lens supplied with it. Under certain conditions (which I'm not sure I understand what these are) there is quite a bad flair. Red on the left, green on the right of objects. Bright and contrasty pictures seem to show this up most.

When viewing the pictures normally, this defect isn't obvious. When the pictures are enlarged to the extent that you are starting to see the pixels, this flair becomes quite obvious. I'll try to submit a picture here illustrating this. If I'm not successful, trust me that it's poor.

The good aspect of this defect is that it's not obvious unless the pictures are enlarged quite a bit, so for most photographers, it's not an issue. Dispite this problem, I like the camera and I'm glad I got it. This amazon price was also good.

I bought the Tamron 70-300mm zoom and it works well on this camera and doesn't seem to have this red/green lens flair. The Tamron is a good companion at a great price.

This camera is the best product that Sony developed. I'm happy and I'll recomend to my friends.

I don't have several hours to do a proper review on this excellent camera, but I can quickly share the high points. It has great "human factor" engineering, meaning it fits your hands like a glove and all the controls are easy to access. The camera/lens combo is very light and easy to handle. If you have any Minolta lenses, they fit. The ability to view the picture on the large, bright LCD instead of through the viewfinder is a definite plus in many situations. 14+ megapixels ... really, how many more do you need?

Here's the bottom line ... I worked for Kodak, I've been a serious amateur photographer for decades, I've shot thousands of pictures (hundreds so far with this camera) and it leaves nothing that I can think of to be desired. If you want to spend more bucks on a Nikon or Canon, have fun. But for my money, this little beauty is a clear winner.

I bought this camera body a couple of weeks ago together with the Sony Zeiss 16-80mm lens. It is my first DSLR, with my most recent other camera being a Canon S2 IS superzoom point and shoot. Have not used a SLR camera since before the digital age. Am very happy with it! Image quality, as you'd expect, is *far* above that of the S2 IS... and there aren't any image quality issues that I can determine relative to other DSLRs. Resolution seems great, color is spot-on, etc.

Ergonomically, I'm also very happy. As I get back into using things like aperture and shutter speed settings, I find the controls to be well laid out and accessible. The Live View implementation is very easy to use...admittedly, I wish I could live-view things like depth of field et al, but for my uses, I don't really miss it. My only complaint is that when I hold the camera, occasionally my hand will press up against the AF directional-pad and alter the AF setting.

At the moment, I can't really imagining needing anything more complex than this camera. I'm sure that a pro photographer will want the flexibility of more lenses et al. But for me, I don't see myself needing a whole collection of lenses...maybe one more bigger zoom lens or something like that.

My first DSLR and what a great camera! Being Sony I'm confident it's from a company on the cutting edge of technology. Every feature I've ever wanted and then some!

Sony sent me a promotion for Mother's day advertising the alpha series cameras. I checked the specifics on the camera and decided to get it for my wife. One of the best decisions I've made in a while. The camera is easy to use. All features work as advertised. Picture quality is best I've seen. I also have a Canon EOS 20D so I think I can speak from experience.

I love this camera and all of it's many features. Don't buy the kit lens. It is not worth the extra money. I put a C. Zeiss 24-70mm lens on it and it is wonderful.

Not much can be said that hasn't been said. One Hell of a nice camera. Took out of box and began shooting excellent photos right off the bat. I did have to read the instructions to see what a couple of the control were and how to get to a couple of things. Excellent feel of the camera, Excellent location of control buttons. Love the anti-shaking, and live view. Owner of approximately 4 different sonys and have loved each, but the 350 is definitely the top dog. Have use the Nikon, and canon, they don't hold a candle to this camera. The company that sent the camera was also excellent, no problems, camera was waiting for me when I got home, no dented boxes.

One recommendation is to buy the added lens.

This camera is really unbelievable for the price. If we're talking about the camera body (with no lens), I prefer it over the Canon Rebel XSi anyday (and I've used both). The problem for Sony is that their lens is sooooo crappy that the image quality goes straight down the toilet, and Canons lenses are for the most part very sharp and colorful.

The solution? Minolta lenses. I got my camera in the mail this morning and have played with it all day. From the second I unpacked the lens I was disappointed- even before I put it on the camera. It has an extremely cheap and plasticy feel, probably because it is cheap and made of only plastic. I'm actually pretty sure there's not a single piece of glass in the lens (which means, for those of you are new to this, that it sucks). I put it on and sure enough the results were not pretty. Don't run off to Canon's page so quickly, though- remember that this IS a 5 star review.

What makes up for sony's crappy crappy lens is the fact that you can use any Minolta lens from the past 20 years. In anticipation of purchasing this camera I brought 2 Minolta lenses from a garage sale a few weeks ago for a hundred bucks, and when I put them on the camera it was like magic. The autofocus still works in an instant, and the sharpness and color combined with Sony's 14megapixel sensor have left this former film-snob utterly impressed.

So my advice to advanced amateur photographers is to buy this camera. But just the body only. Save the hundred bucks to buy yourself a Minolta lens (or two). I thought I'd throw in the extra hundred bucks with this cam just to have an extra lens for my collection, and it was absolutely not worth it. I don't even know if I'll mount it onto my camera ever again. Seriously- It's a big plastic turd. I wouldn't buy it again if it was 20 bucks.

Also- I learned the complete menu for this camera in less than a day. The only negative things about this camera (except for the crappy turd plastico lens) are that it's not a full frame sensor (look it up, and then decide if you really want to spend and extra 1300 dollars to get a full frame sensor DSLR), and that there's a really dumb and pointless digital zoom button that is a total tragic use of space. I could think of ten more used/usable functions that could have gone there instead.

Really though, I couldn't be happier with this camera.

It has been about 10 years since I put away my old olympus SLR camera away to gather dust for a few nifty small digital point and shoots. I bought this Sony about a month ago and have taken almost 2,000 pics. Took me a while to brush up on my technique and understand the new dslr lingo, but for anyone who has ever used a traditional SLR, I think you'll be most pleased. SUPER clear/hi res pictures, exceptionally quick focusing, even in live view mode, and easy to access options. Chances are, the things you are looking for the most are just a button, dial or quick click away. The ISO button is super handy, and with the touch of a button, you can change the setting up to 3200 to suit your needs.

I skipped the kit lens option and decided to buy the SAL18250 (18 mm - 250 mm. Stick with the Sony lens folks. It is solid responsive, and a great overall wide angle/telephoto lens. Why schlep around 2 kit lens' when you can virtually have it all in one? (:

OK back to the camera. OK now, some cons: The camera is a bit on the heavy side (But then again I'm really used to a point and shoot). This camera also lacks the ability to do a super magnified manual focus on the LCD during live view. This is not a real big deal to me for my needs. Auto focus works great, and manual focus works fine for me those rare times I use it.

I love the tiltable 2.7 in live view screen. Got some incredible shots at ground level looking up (From a dog's eye view) I should say an ants eye view! That with the wide angle... wowza.. seriously creative shots without breaking your back or twisting your neck!

I've been able to hand hold existing light shots down to 1/20 of a second, thanks to the anti shake feature. Pretty cool. I would have never thought I could take such a slow hand held pic without it being all blurred.

I highly recommend purchasing an 8 gig CF card for this camera to maximize your data storage. You should get about 1,700 fine res .jpg pics per disk. Go for the faster speed CF card like the SanDisk Extreme III. They're cheap now, under a hundred bucks. I also recommend getting a UV filter and circular polarizer. Again, stick with Sony filters. Now that you have such a great camera, you'll want the really nice quality filters.

You'll have fun with this camera and your friends will drool over your pictures!!!

To start off, I don't really write reviews on products, and I am new to digital photography, so you can really take this review with a grain of salt... However, I just thought I would share why I gave this product a 5 star rating.

The five star rating simply put is because I love this camera. As stated earlier I am new to digital SLR photography so I won't be nearly as insightful as the Nikon/Canon buffs.

Why get the A350? 14.2 megapixels. Live view. Ease of use. Super Steady Shot built into the camera.

The high megapixels enable you to take high quality photos that will look great when blown up. Does this mean that this camera will take better pictures than a Nikon D300 because the megapixel count is higher... No, not at all that was a common misconception I learned. But knowing that I wanted to take a lot of pictures and make large digital prints to make my office look less lame, I figured I should go a step higher to get the blown-up image quality that I want.

The live view is great for so many reasons. Right on the display, it tells you all your settings from battery life, flash, aperture, etc... all while giving a great idea what your image will look like. Keep in mind, what you see on the live view isn't 100% what you'll see when you load the photos on computer or photoshop.

Ease of use: Grab the camera, go over the manual, play with the settings, take pictures. Coming from someone who knew nothing about cameras until about 2 weeks ago, the learning curve was easy with this camera. Right out of the box, you can set everything to auto and take great pictures just like a small digital camera. But for more advanced photos you simply learn by trial and error and the live view helps you see what you might need to adjust when taking photos. So even if you've never touched an SLR camera, you begin to learn what ISO, f/5.6, and all the other settings are and how to use them just by taking good pictures... or bad ones!

Super Steady Shot: Clear images, built into the camera, not the lens like other manufacturers. Down the line it can help you save some money because you can buy less expensive lenses because you don't need to pay the extra money to get the image stabilization in the lens like Canon or Nikon.

So why get this camera vs. other brands? First off, this camera is great for anyone wanting to get into digital SLR's. If you have old Minolta A-mount lenses you can use them with this camera. There are websites that give compatibility charts with some of the old lenses that you have.

If you have a bunch of DSLR Nikon and Canon gear, well that sucks for Sony because you won't be buying an A350 anytime soon. If you did, then you're either dumb or have a lot of free time and money to blow. However, if you're thinking about getting a camera, Sony makes a great product and offers tons of features in the camera at a low cost. Down the road, Sony will launch more professional and higher priced cameras so if you're starting out on a DSLR journey, you can begin it with Sony and start collecting lenses, tripods, filters and all the other happy stuff that goes into the expensive hobby of digital photography.

Side note: I think this camera was $100 cheaper when I bought it 2 weeks ago. I got the Sony A350X kit (The X is the 2 lens kit, the A350K kit is a 1 lens kit) so I don't know what the deal is there. But all in all, it's a great buy.

Oh yeah, if you're trying to decide whether or not to buy the A300 or A350, in case you didn't know the only difference, literally is the megapixels. So unless you are going to blow up your images, go save yourself $200 bucks and get the A300. If you're going to make large prints like I am, then go with the A350.

A350 was my first DSLR... I only buy it because of it's Quick AF Live View feature: Very Good, like a compact camera.

I just don't use the viewfinder... I Don't like to put my eye directly on the camera !!!

I bought a 100mm Macro Lens... but the photo quality is not what I've expected... maybe I need some time to improve my shots!

The LCD is Bad in Outdoors... you just can't see anything - In comparison with Sony DSC-H9's LCD.

No Trimming option on the menu is Bad!

This is a fantastic camera. 14mp DSLR at under a grand is a bargin at this time. I have owned 35mm SLRs and digital point & shoot cameras over the years. This is my first DSLR. I have been pleased that given the complicated nature of such a device that it has been relatively easy to learn and use. I like the Tilt LCD but I wish it would articulate like some Point and Shoot cameras to be able to avoid glare from direct sun.
The body seems quite well made and comfortable to the hand, allthough the shutter button doesn't seem to to be intuativly placed to my hand. But I'm sure I'll get used to it as my experience with it builds. Sony eliminated the Depth Of Field Preveiw button that I understand was on previous models. I would have appreciated that feature. I use it often on my 35 SLR. I would like to see a Focal Length readout in the veiwfinder.
The 18-70 lens(28-135 in 35mm) is a good Focal Length choice and starter lens. That give a very wide angle up to mild telephoto. It gives sharp colorful images. Being a inexpensive lens, it has a couple of down sides. The worst trait is that the outside of the lens rotates when focusing, which when using a Polarizing Filter alters the filter setting. You just have to remember to focus first and adjust the filter after. The other is that 3.5 aperature is a bit slow, but a 2.8 is going to be a lot more money.
There are a number of lenses to fit availible from Tamron, Sigma, as well as Sony. Accessories from Sony tend to run high. But there are ussually less costly alternative brands for such things. Sigma makes compatible flashes for example, that are much less and do as much or more. Sony has a policy of not allowing retailers to discount. So don't expect any free printers or sales.

fue un placer esta compra , proceso rapido de mi pago y entrega en la fecha establecida. amazon sigue siendo mi sitio preferido de compras.

Please read all comments to this posting as I may add comments as I gain experience. I have taken photos with the A350 using both the 18-70 (f3.5 to 5.6) Sony lens and the 75-300 (f4.5 to 5.6) telephoto Sony lens. I shot pictures of a tree a few hundred feet away. I am surprised that non-SLR cameras show the leaves clearly, while the leaves are very blurry in my A350 photos, even after image stabilization turned on. I tried various f-stops and shutter speeds yet the results are disappointing. Anybody notice this? Does this imply the lenses are not "fast" enough?

I enjoyed A350 a lot. The image quality is very high. I shot some awesome family pictures, portraits, our vacation photos: everything came out superb. For an amateur as I am it is dream camera! I user DSC-R1 from Sony before and it also was terrific camera. If you aren't satisfied with the pics from this cam you need some real expensive lens and pro level equipment.
I'm very happy with this DSLR!

I waited a long time for the Nikon D80 to come down in price. While I was at the store ready to purchase the D80 the guy behind the counter introduced me to this A350. I have a few Minolta Lenses so it seemed like a great fit. I was a little skeptical at first but let me tell you, this is a great camera. I have taken more than 700 photos including my kids playing, storms, Lightning, and even long exposure night photos of the sky. I have had some KILLER photos come out of this camera. I am highly impressed and I have no regrets in choosing this camera over the D80. The only downside that I saw in the beginning was the 2.5 photos per second vs the d80's 3.? per second. I can handle that. I would highly recommend at least a 4 gig card but get the 8gig.I have the 8 gig and I currently have about 720 photos stored at highest res. about 14mb per photo on the card with plenty of room left.

I purchased the Sony A350 primarily to have an up-to-date, medium-high end DSLR that would accept my Minolta lenses: I have seven. Professional photography was my first career, and had other opportunities not presented, I likely would have remained a photographer. I remained an avid amateur photographer throughout two subsequent careers, and now in retirement. I've found the the A350 a competitive DSLR, with most or all of the functions and modes of similar price-range cameras. Couple that with allowing me to use my collection of Minolta lenses, I've made a good choice. One feature I particularly like since I print large format copies of many of my photos is the menu selection "Creative Style" allowing shooting in Adobe Photoshop color space.

Two downers:
1. The LCD screen is particulary vulnerable protruding rearward to accommodate the LCD tilt function. Moreover, when using the viewfinder, skin oils and sweat--I shoot a lot of equine sports action--soils the LCD continuously. This vulnerability is why I rated the camera 4 stars rather than 5.

2. I find the Camera Shake warning indicator distracting, and essentially useless. Even when I use a tripod the indicator indicates maximum at the slightest touch. I'll rely on controlling shutter speed.

Nonetheless, I am satisfied with the camera, and would recommend it to others.

great camera. The one thing I wasn't expecting was that it takes so great pictures that it will make an inexpensive lens look cheap. These Kit lenses were fine for my smaller processor cameras and gave some very good pictures but this one simply shows any and all imperfections in my older, inexpensive lenses........tried one of the newer, more expensive lens, made for this model, and took great pictures.... guess I learned my lesson that if I'm going to use a great camera, don't try to shoot cheap... the pictures will tell the story... new lenses coming to my collection, soon.

Sony Alpha DSLRA350X 14.2MP Digital SLR Camera with Super SteadyShot Image Stabilization with DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 & DT 55-200mm f/4-5.6 Zoom Lenses
This one of the best shopping I ever did in the past 2years. The camera is performing to best of my satisfaction. I love my Sony A350x

This product is awesome !!! It's a must for every family that wants to have a record of memories with good quality.

I never have had a camera where the settings were so accessible and intuitive as the Aloha 350. Picture quality is excellent. The camera is lighter than expected, but seems plenty sturdy.

Sony has come a long way since the Mavica... I have had several digital cameras over the years. I had a Mavica FD-71 and then I stepped up to the F-828...I loved that camera as it was so easy to use and a lot of fun. Unfortunately I was duped into selling it to buy a Sony H7...boy what a mistake, the H7 was a real come down from the F-828. Well I got rid of the H7 and got an Alpha A-100...good picture quality but not a fun or easy camera to use.
Now to the A-350... From the moment I picked this camera up and took my first picture with it I knew I was holding something special, thoughts of that old F-828 came rushing back. Finally a camera that was easy to use again! Lets face it photography should be fun right? Well I think it should and the A-350 is just that. Granted there are a couple of things I would like to have seen different such as the grip below the shutter isn't as deep as the A-100...so it doesn't feel quiet right with my big hand gripping it and the other is I do wish Sony had put a better processor in it...not to say that is a bad processor but it could be better.
If the A-700 or A-900 had the live view and tilt screen well I may have just went hog wild and spent the extra for one of those models. But after hearing about the live view and tilt screen on the A-350..well...I knew it was as close to the F-828 as I was gonna get.
I also found the battery life to be a little disappointing. Now granted I haven't had the A-350 very long so only time will tell if and how my feelings may change but for now its like having an F-828 with the feature I always wished it had as in the ability to have a long zoom lens cause to be honest if the F-828 had the ability to zoom further then just 200mm I would never have sold it on amazon to someone in NY. After I use it more I will update this review and perhaps share some photos.

Writing this to help a new buyer to make a decision :-)
The Goods ....
1. 14.2 Megapixel ....the best in its class and price range
2. Live view LCD....a must have feature for thos graduating from point and shoot digital cameras
3. Anti shake control (image stabilization) in camera body .... Can use any lens compared to canon rebel and Nikon where the image stabilization is in the lens (which is expensive)
4. Good form factor ...fits nice in hands and Stylish
5. LCD tilts out ....very nice feature which opens up a lot of new "camera angles" for the picture.
6. Very fast autofocusing ....and produce really great pictures
7. Options to shoot RAW, Jpeg & RAW+Jpeg
8. Controls are very easy to use.....
9. Even beginners can take amazing pictures with this camera....dont get fooled by those pictures in various websites....( i had this doubt before buying and later found that the canon and nikon pictures given in net are mostly taken by hardcore proffessionals...where as sony pictures are from beginners )
10. Battery last long...it is of least worry
11. Nice fitting of parts .....and no squeaking sounds....except a little inside the grip under the trigger.

The Bads....
1. Slowest continous shooting in its class !! if you like your camera to take 3-4 pictures in a second go for cannon or nikon. This shoots continous pictures almost like a point and shoot.
2.Auto Exposure bracketing step is 0.7 which is way too Low in comparison to canon rebel and nikons....if you are into HDR this is not the camera
3.Sony lenses are very expensive and have limited choices....well i am yet to try others like tamaron or minolta .....carlZeis is too expensive !
4. the strap supplied with the camera is lousy
5. Body made in Japan...kit lens made in china ....and it shows the quality difference.
6. Flash timing is few micro seconds slow...then what ? some "subjects" who have higher reflex action will blink their eyes and they look "sleepy" in the pictures (I always blink and my wife dont so i look sleepy in all pics)
7. this camera and all SLRs use Compact flash card!! No SD,No M2, No produo, no micro SD......I realised this only after getting the camera and i didnt find this info in anyother review so i am writing it.so better order a 4gb card ( yes you need that) with 30mb/s speed when you buy this camera.

Tips
1.dont forget to buy a LCD protecting cover along with this camera ...LCD is tiltable and generic covers wont fit.
2. dont forget to buy a filter either UV or polarizer ....this will help you to keep finger prints out of your lens...and it is lot cheaper to change a broken filter than to change a Lens!
3. Dont get fooled by the high iso noise talk in net.....all cameras produce noise when in high ISO ....
4. This camera can take great pictures with stunning quality but
5. Remember that Buying an SLR will not make you a Photographer...it will only make you an SLR owner !!!

Happy buying .......Enjoy this Camera !!!it smells quality !

By the way i uses 18-70 kitlens ....and so far happy ...and enjoying the ride ;-)

This is my 2nd DSLR I'm very happy with this product. I have not ventured into mannual settings yet. I'm pleased with the ease of use and ease of the super steady shot feature. I mainly wanted to to catch sports action shots which I have done, even in low lit gymnasiums.Sony Alpha DSLRA350X 14.2MP Digital SLR Camera with Super SteadyShot Image Stabilization with DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 & DT 55-200mm f/4-5.6 Zoom Lenses

I bought this back in April/May after the first couple of reviews came out. I was contemplating the Nikon D80, Canon XSi, Pentax K20/K200, Olympus E510, and the Sony A350. I really wanted a Sony A700 but I was constrained by pricing. Since I knew I had an African vacation coming (early October) I wanted the camera as an upgrade over the P&S that I had (Canon S70). I liked the S70 when plenty of light is available but lowlight and flash photography are way less than adequate and I wanted more zoom.

I ended up with the Sony A350, a SAL 18250mm lens, extra batteries, vertical grip, and when it came out, a HVL-F42AM flash. I based my decision on reviews and handholding but investigating menu systems. The Canon XSi did not show better image quality; Pentax K20 was too much $$ at the time (same for A700); Nikon D80 was old technology; Olympus E520 was a serious consideration but in my interpretation of the reviews the Sony A350 was better.

Pros:
-In camera image stabilization: nuff said
-Larger physical size than other entry level: Olympus and Canon are too small for me.
-Legacy Minolta AF lenses: I picked up Minolta 28mm F2.8 and it is a pretty nice lens.
-Reasonably easy to learn: menu system is simpler than the Olympus, Canon, & Nikon cameras in my opinion. I do not know about Pentax.
-Practice can make some great pictures.
-Live View: this single camera is still the best implementation of any on the market.
-With external flash pictures can come out pretty nice. IMO super fast lenses are not the panacea for lowlight shooting. Sometimes a flash is necessary. The F42AM is much, much better than the built-in flash.

Cons
-Sometimes I think I set a picture up correct and when I see the results, I go "HUH???": I know it is me but occasionally I do not know why.
-High ISO noise: stuffing lots of megapixels onto the sensor.
-Low frames/second
-Not weathered sealed (no Sony is): I knew this but did not realized the issue enough. Africa IS DUSTY. Local shop cleaned the camera and Sony cleaned the lens and did a great job.
-Compact Flash: SD is less expensive and not worries about pin issues.


This is pretty nice camera and perfect for those stepping up from P&S as the Live View allows P&S operation. The tiltable lens comes in handy although I wish it was fully articulating like the Olympus E3. The Auto mode works pretty well but the wealth of menu choices allows much customization for manual modes. In addition the availability of the Minolta AF lenses is plentiful although prices are creeping up. I do not regret the purchase at all although I am awaiting a firmware upgrade similar to what the A700 recently received.

I could write a very long review but will save you the time. This is an easy to learn and use medium/high-end DSLR. Very good auto features for beginners and great manual features for the more experienced. I would recommend buying one of the many Alpha 350 manuals (especially Friedman's) because the supplied manual is small and leaves out a lot of good stuff this camera is capable of. The ability to fire wireless remote flash is very nice.

I had a SLR Pentax for years and after film went south, and digital came I have purchased several digital over the years yet not a SLR. Finally I got tired of my pocket 10.0MP Olymipus and the krappy pictures it was turning out. So I looked at several SLR's in the stores and read up on all them. I wanted a quality camera yet at a reasonable price. Sony met that match. After purchasing it,and looking it over breifly I felt intimidated at first. Thinking heck, I bought a complicated camera I'll never get to know how to use! Butto my surprise all the features were easy to use. I love the flip up screen and the ease of taking the picture. So far I haven't had one bad picture yet. Someone here mentioned they couldn't take any good ones but maybe 10 out of 100. Well I think his camera is defective! Because mine take excellent pictures, in fact the best I have ever taken with any camera! Close up there perfect! I can't complain about this camera and look forward to years of use! If you buy this camera you won't regret it!