[hoffy]

I am sitting hear heart broken again. Sony strikes again.
How can they justify the price of £999.00 for the A700.

The camera looks good but not that good. Specially as they are selling it in America for £835.00. Looks like I will have to re-think and look at the new D300.

I have been with Minolta for nearly 20 years now and I love the camera's. But not to line the pockets of Sony. They cost me my job once. So not my favourit company.

Sorry rant over.

[Sonsey]

I dare say that price will drop after a short while which seems to be the norm with new DSLR releases when they get to the retailers, but considering your "relationship" with Sony I don't think anyone would blame you if you switched brands... you'll pay more for the D300 though, around £1100.

[Markulous]

Hmmm, seems Sony's playing the overprice card again! Don't get me wrong, I like Sony (and have a couple of their rather nice laptops) but they do seem to play the 'pay over the odds' card! Having said that, the A700, if it performs as well as they claim will be worth the money, I reckon (if only for the 4 stops, ISO and noise)

[silkstone]

We do get ripped off over here by hardware and software companies alike, but perhaps not quite as badly as it sometimes appears because US prices do not include local sales tax.

If you add 17.5% VAT to the US price it comes to £981, and as Sonsey says that is likely to fall quite bit once the early adopters have been caught.