Rated 
An excellent choice for a critical amateur or pro
Picture quality Ease of use Anti-shake Solid build
noise at ISO 1600+ New RAW format
Posted 1 year ago - Note: I tested with firmware revision 3. I found this to be a worthwhile upgrade over ver. 1: which came with the camera. I've been using the older KonicaMinolta 5d dSLR for several years and have always been satisfied by the quality of the pictures. I consider myself to be an advanced amateur and my primary output format is medium to large prints. Since I don't make my living from photography, it was difficult to justify the cost of a new camera body, so I spent quite a bit of time and effort comparing the choices: keep the 5d and my money; buy an Sony a350 and keep some money or spend my kid's inheritance and buy the a700. I went to the camera store and took several photos of the same scene with all three choices and using the same lens (the KM 18-70 kit zoom). Even in this casual setting, it was easy to feel the difference in build between the a700 and the other two. Not only the weight and size, but the solid sound it makes as it takes the picture and quiet control functions. It feels like a Mercedes compared to a Kia. The viewfinder is much brighter and it doesn't share the weird tunnel view you get through the a350. With just those few pictures, the photo quality seemed marginally brighter and clearly sharper than the 5d, but nothing earth-shattering. That'd come after I got it home, however! I bought the a700 and within a week, i took it on the family vacation. I did; however, bring my trusty 5d "just in case". There really was no need! Once I spent a few shots getting used to the new control placement, the a700 has many more buttons and there's less reliance on the LCD for basic adjustments, almost everything with the a700 was easy to do with your eye still planted in the viewfinder. Actually, I found the controls of the a700 much easier to use in daily life than the 5d. Many common adjustments can be made with a single button and the adjustment shows up in the viewfinder, rather than a top mounted LCD. Vastly easier than the Nikon's I've played with! Within a few days I'd "given" my wife the 5d as an upgrade for her P+S. This gave us an interesting experiment. She and I would often take a photo of a similar scene. Her artistic sense is much better than mine, so I won't comment on composition, but, after literally hundreds of photos the difference in quality was quite noticeable. Even in Adobe Bridge, the a700 shots gave cleaner, purer colors. They weren't snappier or over saturated, if anything the 5d was a bit more aggressive on reds, but just more true. Greens, in particular grasses, were much cleaner. As my wife and I played in the garden, she noticed a major improvement. Whilst trying to capture a bee on a flower, the shutter lag of the 5d made missed shots common. The a700 shot and recycled almost instantaneously. Whenever she saw an action shot, she'd immediately run to me a steal my a700. I'd hold the 5d and wait for her to give me the a700 back, that's when I knew the a700 was worth the investment! One other feature is of major importance to me. The a700 has a PC socket on the camera for use with studio flashes. The 5d needed a temperamental (and expensive!) external adapter. There are only two distractions I've found so far and one is Google's fault. The .ARW RAW format is not yet supported by Picasa. Adobe, Bibble and ACDSee all do, but I hope Google gets going. Also, in direct comparison to my friend's Nikon, the noise of the a700 at extreme ISO's is higher. It's WAY WAY better than the 5d and even ISO1600 is usable, but not state-of-the-art. Hopefully, another software upgrade will help out (Sony??). This is a very worthwhile camera and worthy of consideration both as an upgrade to an older dSLR or as a new urchase!
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