I've finally bought myself a new camera, after borrowing the MX600 (thanks, Natator!) for months, and getting stung on an eBay fraud for more money that we could afford.
After lots of research and too-ing and fro-ing between various cameras (F717, S7000, S602Z, 7hi, FZ10), I settled on the Minolta Dimage A1 - lots of features, good zoom, nice look, nice reviews. Plus, getting it through B&H, I'm saving almost 50% on RRP here in Australia. It should arrive some time next week.
Anyone here got any tips, comments, websites, etc for the A1?
I just got the Dimage A1 myself, I had used my brothers Sony 717 prior to buying, but had little or no experience with digital cameras. I love this camera. I have still not gottten around to using all the features on it. It seems a bit complicated at first, but after a day oor two of shooting I was familiar with the controls. The anti shake feature is great, i can shoot hand held shots as low as 1/8 that are perfect.
Sleekr - Good luck with the new camera. The dimage A1 does seem like quite a nice camera and for someone with shaking hands (ie: me) the anti-shake feature would be well accepted.
Like you I am based in Australia and am daunted by the local prices. Do B&H ship overseas quite happily? I'll be quite interested to hear if the camera arrives soon, and what kind of import duty you have to pay. I suspect I may buy my next camera from the states because the price difference is so excessive.
Like you I am based in Australia and am daunted by the local prices. Do B&H ship overseas quite happily? I'll be quite interested to hear if the camera arrives soon, and what kind of import duty you have to pay. I suspect I may buy my next camera from the states because the price difference is so excessive.
B&H ship overseas no problems. A friend of mine ordered a lens from them recently, was able to track the order all the way from B&H to the courier to delivery, and was pretty quick. For the first time you order from them, they do require a copy of the credit card via email or fax, so this might slow the process down a day. I ordered just under 24 hours ago, and the order is still in 'processing', hopefully it will ship later today / tonight.
B&H are apparently absolutely huge, and would probably be the only US online camera store I'd be happy using to ship to Australia.
In Australia, there is no import duty applicable to digital cameras - however, you do have to pay GST, if the GST works out to over $50.
My new Dimage A1 arrived today, just in time for the weekend :)
Was very happy with both B&H Photo, and the shipping carrier, UPS.
Ordered Friday Afternoon Aust time (probably about midnight Thursday night there) - they didnt process it on the Friday, and are closed on Saturday, ended up processing the order Sunday. Of course, UPS arent open Sunday, so they didnt get it until Monday. Great tracking system showed me it's progress (Maspeth NY, Jamaica Ny, Louisville KY, Ontario CA, Sydney, Brisbane). Arrived in Sydney Wednesday night AU time, paid GST and Import fee Thursday, delivered to me Friday morning.
So, overall, less than 1 week from Internet order to delivery. Nice!
For those who may want to know, Digital Camera's do not incur import duties, however you do have to pay an import fee of $48 for any incoming package valued over AU$250, and then GST on top of the total value of the package, including postage. I ended up paying $94 GST.
Total cost to me: $1067. Lowest price I can find in Australia at the moment: $1800.
I got my A1 a week ago. I was looking at the 5700 & 828 but after reading reviews for a couple of weeks went for the A1. Here in the UK cameras seem more expensive. the A1 was £999 at xmas and Jessops had reduced it to £799. They did a price match that reduced it to £569, less than the 5700 was going for!
Only 'gripes' thus far - Lens cap doesn't secure to body (I can never find it). The cover for the USB port is not the same high quality of the rest of the body and reading the manual is a pain - it needs hyperlinks. Glady, non of the above detract from the optical abilities of this fine camera.
Oh, and I'm doing the 1st recharge of the battery, its super fast and lasts for ages.
Until last week I was considering upgrading to a Canon EOS 300D. Found the Dimage A1 and decided to get it instead when I do purchase.
Reasons:
1. metal body
2. loads of full manual features
3. lower price than 300d
4. I'm still a beginner and don't really need interchangable lenses
5. Can't afford interchangable lenses for some time to come
6. Loads of features that are useful to me, tilt lcd screen, proximity eyepiece, auto start from standby on pu etc.
The problem is, I have to wait at least 6 weeks before I get to buy it.
Sleekr - I'm glad buying from overseas went smoothly for you. Thanks for explaining the import costs carefully - at least I can accurately predict the cost when I decide to buy.
Of course now that the Minolta A2 has been announced I will wait to see the new reviews. I'm sure the A1 is great, but the new viewfinder and increased resolution are very tempting if they turn out to work as well as promised.
