I finally completed the "coming soon" list by finishing the Minolta 35-70mm F/4 lens review. This lens turned in a good performance, in fact, real good considering I've seen them sell on ebay for less than $10. I'm glad I got it off the list as it was pending for over a year now. There's nothing like a timely review.
I've been working on a tour of the Newcamerareview.com southern western command post. Look for the lame filler material this weekend, maybe I can come up with some real material in the near future.
I'm finally nearing the end of my backlogged lens reviews. Ready for your scrutiny are two lenses, the Sony 11-18mm super wide angle, which reviewed the same (no surprise) as the Konica Minolta 11-18mm, then the Sony 24-105mm zoom, another re-badged Minolta film lens. This is the first Sony lens that gets my "poor" build quality and "I wouldn't buy it" rating. Read the review to find out why. Stay tuned for the Minolta 35-70mm F/4 review coming up soon.
Not much is happening in the camera world right now. I though maybe at least one manufacturer would throw us a bone, like Nikon did last year with the D40. Sigma announced a couple of new fisheye lenses today, a 4.5mm and 10mm, designed specifically for the APS-C sensor. Unfortunately, they don't list Sony as one of the lens mount options.
I've completed my Sony 18-200mm review, and it's the same (as expected) as the Konica Minolta 18-200mm. I'd rather buy the Sony 18-250mm or Tamron 18-250mm, even for a little extra money. They're better in just about every department, and have a little extra reach.
The Sony A 700 is also available on the Sonystyle website, with the same bundle as the Bestbuy below for $1599, though with free shipping. I don't like the Sonystyle website, it's real buggy. It wiped out my information twice as I was trying to order something. I ended up ordering from B&H photo.
If anyone out there is thinking about buying the new Sony A700, you might want to check out Bestbuy.com. They're selling it for $1599 as a bundle, which includes the body and the Sony 18-200mm lens. The lens normally sells for $499, so you should be able to ebay it and get at least $400, which brings the A700 body price down to $1199, that's a pretty good deal considering it was just released.
For the lack of anything else better to do, I decided to post my latest "Idle chat room" article, this time on topics I'm sure are near and dear to your hearts. The first part is a quick and easy camera sensor cleaning on my Sony A100, then I ramble on about the crap gadgets I take hiking with me. Feel like wasting 5 minutes? check it out here!