Big Relief for Minolta Lens Owners!

I was sick when I first hear that Konica Minolta was getting out of the camera business, but pleasantly surprised about their partnership with Sony. I've owned 2 Sony camcorders, and several VCR's and DVD players over the years. So, I had no concerns about the SLR. Got this for Christmas - a surprise from my wife - and LOVE it. I didn't really need the lens, and I am using my Tamron lens instead which is much faster and better quality. You definitely need to know a little bit about SLR's to be able to use all the camera's features. However, if you don't, just set the camera to fully automatic and start shooting. The camera will do everything it can to save you! It has some picture enhancing features which make outdoor shot have richer colors which has resulted in some beautiful shots of my kids playing outdoors. It is definitely more camera than one needs if you are just going to point and shoot at birthday parties, vacations, etc. For that, my $250 Kodak EasyShare does GREAT. However, if you want to dabble in photography a bit, and have some fun, I highly recommend this camera. It had Minolta camera history combined with Sony electronic history behind it! Especially if you already have any Minolta lenses and/or flash equipment, you can still use it. Apparently, if you have older lenses the auto-focus may or may not function properly, but my lenses (all less than 6or7 years old) work fine. The camera is a snap to connect to my computer and to transfer pictures into my Kodak software where I already had a gazillion folders set up with my EasyShare, so I just wanted to keep this up. We now use both cameras depending on the event. Would highly recommend if you are in the market for a digital SLR!