Here’s the summary of the field report at PhotoZone: “…An obvious strength of the camera is the build-in image stabilizer which helped in several situations especially when working with tele lenses. The AF is both accurate and responsive - at least with fast focusing lenses. Sensor noise is a weakness in comparison to the rest of the gang and the tonality could also be somewhat smoother in shadow areas in medium to high ISO image. The amount of details is pretty impressive as is the color reproduction quality. As of today the primary weakness of Sony Alpha system is lack of a critical mass of system lenses and no alternative below and beyond the Alpha 100. Most of the currently available lenses are old Minolta designs or even relabeled Tamron lenses. Even worse Sony decided to abandon some of the more interesting Minolta lenses, especially most of the APO and G series lenses which were popular among prosumers. Eventually new Zeiss or Sony lenses will probably fill the gaps but this will take time and regarding the strong competition time is a rather precious good. Naturally you will find some alternatives in the third party arena or bid for the old Minolta lenses over at eBay (which is what I did) but this is only a work around for the real stuff. On the upside Sony didn´t just change the brand name on the lenses but introduced a new mechanical design with a higher (subjective) quality perception compared to the older Minolta variants.

Regarding the perspective of the system I have no doubts that they´re here to stay. Sony isn´t exactly a niche player and their marketing-, production- and distribution power in the mass market may be only second to Canon in this market - certainly a worrysome situation for the other players who are also mostly dependent on Sony image sensors (…). I can surely recommend the Sony Alpha 100 to the average Joe out there whereas prosumers and more so professionals should probably wait and see till there´re more cameras and system accessories available.”

Website : Sony DSLR-A100 Field Report at PhotoZone