A550 or A700?

[Pen]

Ok if youve been looking in the nikon/canon forums youve probably already read a lot of my x vs. y camera questions (like T1i or XSi, or D5000 or D90) anyways i have a sony a330 at the moment, however it is actually my moms, i have simply stolen it from her but soon i will no longer have access to it and figured i need to begin my own camera/lens collection if you will. So basically im looking at cameras and these two sonys caught my eye, with the A550 being just $50 more, which is the better camera? thanks! (in this case the $50 difference in price isnt important to me, im looking purely for the better camera here, thanks again!)

[DonSchap]

In my opinion (IMO) ... having owned an a700 for two years, it is a terrific camera, but it does not have LiveView. If this is important to you, then the A550 is the way to go. If you haven't used LiveView ... the a700 is one of the best-all-round DSLRs. After two years, it still can put up an excellent 12.2 MP shot. Its controls have required no update, even today, as witnessed by the A850 (released in August).

So ... it comes down to LiveView, really. There are aspects of the A700 that are not in the A550. I would expect you would compare them to find out what.

The a700 originally sold for $1499 ... and can be had from B&H Video for a mere $850, because they need to make way for the new cameras ... but, you are still getting all that value and the warranty. That's not bad.

[MSidPhoto]

Well... the Sony A550 altough a newer camera is less professional than the A700 even though the A550 has live view. I think you have been using A330 quite some time. A330 is a beginner camera with few professional features so I think if you can go for A700 or A850, A850 is the newest release by Sony along with A550 and A500.
If you want to stick with something like a bit more than an entry level camera then go for the A550 but if you want a professional (high-level) camera then i'd suggest you to get A700 or A850. If its just the price you are looking at then also consider the features that you would like, the A700 having more pro features .....
I believe both (A700 and A850) are owned by Don Schap and he can give you the details about its
performance in a much better way

Hope this helped

[sdudra]

I upgraded from the A100 to the 700 a couple of yeas ago ( after my 7D failed under warranty). The 700 is just the cats meow- vesitile, 12 Megs, easy, a real pleasure to use.
I was never confortable using live view _ prefer to hold the camera up to my eye so I am very happy with the 700
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