Thinking Again...

[Mr_Mac]

If you have read my other thread then you already know we have a Sony Alpha in the stable where we were supposed to have a Canon P&S. That got me to thinking about my next move which was supposed to be a Nikon D-series (probably a 3200 or a 5100). Since we now have the A35 and we are already looking at lenses for it I got to thinking about having two makes of camera and having to duplicate all of our lens purchases. With that, wouldn't it make more sense to just buy another Alpha and forget the Nikon? In my gun safe I have two .270 Winchester's for the same reason, only have to buy one caliber bullet (or lens mount) even if the bullet weights (focal lengths) are different. Makes sense to me anyways.

So now, with the same $600-800 budget I think I might stop looking for a Nikon and go with another Sony.

Thoughts?

 

[jrizal]

Choosing a DLSR is also marrying into a system of which Canon and Nikon are the most popular brands out there. That said it means that accessories including third party gear area much easier to find compared to other brands. This by no means indicate that the other brands are inferior. In your case you have a Sony A35 which is a pretty decent camera. A modest upgrade IMO (in terms of price and features) would be the SLT-A57 Sony Alpha a57 Camera | Sony a57 DSLR Camera | SLT-A57 | Sony USA. By sticking with Sony, there will be no duplication of accessories primarily lenses which are quite expensive regardless of which system you use. In short, it makes sense to stick with Sony. Unless you really want a Nikon, then that's another story and a whole lot of expenses too!

 

[KmH]

As mentioned, when you choose a brand you also choose a system.

Sony bought Konica-Minolta's camera business back in 2006.

Consequently, Sony has much less DSLR market share, which means that for Sony DSLR cameras some types of 3rd party accessories offer few or no choices.

As a case on point, Sony inherited Minolta's odd-ball, not industry standard iISO camera hot shoe design. The industry standard design is the ISO 518:2006 design.
Hot shoe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia