[Orbitcorbett @ May 17th 2007 3:11PM]

Every time I look at my Sony Alpha, I smile that I didn't buy a Nikon or Canon. As a wedding photographer, the image stabilization built-in to the body makes every Minolta Maxxum-compatible lens I attach to it (and there are millions of them) stabilized, and I can literally handhold the camera in a dark church 2 stops darker than I could with a non-stabilized camera. With Nikon or Canon, I would have had to buy hideously expensive stabilized lenses to do the same thing. Now, I have no beef with Nikon and Canon cameras in any other area but that, and in fairness, they are all awesome these days. But, that stabilization gives me an edge, not only in speed (not having to switch to a stabilized lens), but in price (reducing the cost of my gear). This is the ONLY Sony camera I've ever been a fan of, and I generally don't buy anything else by Sony.

[jasper @ May 17th 2007 3:20PM]

IS does not make you shoot at faster speeds, it only allows you to handhold longer shots better. A moving subject will still be blurry regardless of that technology.

[Raygun @ May 18th 2007 7:16AM]

The problem with A-100 (as opposed to Minolta DSLRs) is that it's NOISY. Okay, so is Nikon D80 (a bit less, though). 400D is the best of the crop (pun intended), but I'm not a fan of APS-C cameras with 10 megapixels.

8 is more then enough, IMHO, if you REALLY need more (landscapes, extra-large prints), why not look at the full-frame cameras (Canon EOS 5D springs to mind - it is THE ultimate low-light DSLR in my opinion, plus it's hard to beat in terms of real resolution). Or, good'ol medium format.