Mmmm... Photos

Monday, December 25, 2006, at 09:23AM

By Eric Richardson

A week or so before heading back here to MI for Christmas I bought myself a present: a Sony A100 dSLR. I've coveted a dSLR for a while now and hadn't acted on that, but finally it seemed time to go ahead. After playing with a Canon 20D for the weekend and then handling both the Sony and the Canon Digital Rebel XTi in the store I ended up going with the Sony.

One of the big determinants in my decision was that there are tons of second-hand Minolta lenses available that work on the A100 and can instantly take advantage of its in-body stabilization.

Yesterday I got my first additional lens, as my parents gave me a Minolta 50mm 1.7f. With the A100's smaller than full frame sensor that makes the effective length of the lens 75mm, right in the sweet spot for portrait shots.

It's the first time I've shot with something that could do so much with available light, and the shots I took of family opening presents turned out great. Instead of posting those, though, I've posted this shot of the cat sitting in a basket my mom got for Christmas. It's amazing how well a cat will sit still for photos when there isn't a flash going off in its face.