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Its mostly going to be everyday shooting with photos maybe taken on holiday trips. he wants the photos to be very crisp and the camera should be easy to use. Ultimately he wants the best picture for his money.
Which one would you suggest and why ?

I would rather suggest Pentax Kx + 18-55mm and 55-200mm kit. Reason being, it is cheaper than both and blows both away with low light performance and Pentax is good at Auto mode too ;)

Cheers

Canon has offers now. D1000 with kit lens for 24k something , 500D for 45k something; 5k off I guess.

placed an order for Manfrotto 234RC head for my monopod. lets see how it goes. ;)

I'm happy with their service. Once i place an order i get a confirmation call from them (and an email), and they intimate via email once the order has been authorised and despatched. Or if there is some delay they call and let me know.

I have made three separate purchases from them and the first two reached me within 7 days (Aramex-Air). The third purchase was the Kata bag which they didn't have it in stock, so i was intimated about this and told me it shall take couple more days and it reached me within 2 weeks (Blue Dart-surface).

Items such as lenses etc would be sent via air, and bags etc will come by surface transport. No troubles so far.

Sorry for troubling you so much .But pentax is a brand that he doesn't want to go for. Between the alpha 550 and the d90 which one would you suggest ? He is buying withthe kit lens !
Uses : for everyday shooting on holidays with lots of light.

Sourcing lenses for Sony will be tougher than Canikons. So if your friend wants to buy a new lens in future, it would be easy if he has a Nikon.

Having said that, you can get old Minolta lenses for Alphas, which has same or even better optical quality than new lenses and comes for cheap from ebay and such shopping sites.

Sony has sensor stabilization while Nikon you have to have a VR lens. So Sony can take advantage of SSS (VR equivalent) even with old Film SLR lenses. Remember you've to pay the premium for VR when you buy any new lens in future.

Consider these aspects also.

So if low light performance is not very important, he can even go for an an A230 which is VFM. Or an A450 is nothing but a 550 minus the live view. I am not sure whether A450 available in teh market yet. If your friend has some more Vitamin M to spare, go for nothing less than than A700.

Well if Money is no issue and he's not going to need Low Light performance, then go for Nikon.

A550 is good but colors are a bit off and there is too much saturation. Also Wb is way off most of the times.

D90 has no real competitor to it when it comes to ergonomics. In order to find similar ergonomics one either has to compare it with 1D or Dx bodies. Also AF system on D90 is argueably better than Alpha series.

Alpha series is very good and are improving with every new model but sony still needs a fair bit to go.

Also as said above Sony does have the benefit of In body IS while for Nikon, it depends upon the lenses.

Cheers

Actually for low light the higher end Sony's like A700 are really good(same sensor as nikon as sony makes nikon sensors)
Other than that canon is excellent for low light photography. 50D is the exception, not the rule. 7D shots I have seen (30 minute exposures) are really good.

I have gotten really good 15-20 minute exposures(and some even longer) from my 350D

I guess it has got to do with the creative settings in jpeg mode, for example the Vivid mode just makes the jpeg with strong colors. RAW files doesn't get affected - of course optics will anyway play good role in color reproduction.

I've been using an Alpha and I've not had any issues with the WB. I don't know whether 550 has such issues. I mostly shoot with Auto, Daylight & Cloudy and all give good results. The camera has an option to select the white color from the frame you want to shoot, while looking through the viewfinder and then calibrate accordingly before actual click.

Nikon designs there own sensors and get them manufactured by sony.

Any camera is good with long exposures. To be honest, Canon has the worst amount of hot pixels due to long exposures.


I have only used A550 for few hrs and i felt jpg processing was not good enough. Too warm and too much saturation. This was at default settings not using vivid mode. And so was Custom white balance. For example one doesn't REALLY NEED strobes with real colors in studio. A whole shoot can be done with greed/red/blue/whatever color strobes and it should be all fine as long as photographer is using custom white balance. I personally found A550's white balance off everytime.

Cheers

How much Nikon D90 (Body Only) would cost with or W/O warranty! Any particular shop recommendations in Navi Mumbai Or Mumbai?

My Alpha has a bit aggressive Jpeg processing, I've seen some users complain about it.

Too much saturation - I can put it in standard mode and bring down RG&B one level below zero and the jpeg output will be very less saturated. I think it is is just that Alphas have got their default values with a bit higher saturation.

or as long as you shoot in RAW!

Thanks a lot guys and will definitely ask him to get the D90 over the alpha 550. He is also getting it with the kit lens that is 18-105 mm. Just have a doubt whether this lens is equipped with Vibration reduction ?

yes, the 18-105mm comes with a VR, at least the one i've seen. better get it confirmed before purchase.