It's officially out for a month in the states and officially out in Singapore today. The Sony Alpha A700, the high amateur model of dSLR offering for the A-mounters, the daddy of A100. Packed with a weather sealed body, 5 fps burst, ISO6400 max (usable ISO 1600 from what I have seen), much improved AF in terms of speed and accuracy according to those early adopters and a useful DRO function (unlike the less than reliable gimmick version in A100) and a more consistent metering and a vertical grip to die for... I'm getting poisoned slowly....

On top of everything, its now offered with the kit lens of my dream, the Carl Zeiss 16-80mm lens. All for the retail price of $3400 in Singapore. The only antidote to this poison is to compare with Hong Kong price (less than $3000). Even if you include GST it's still about $3200. Now if only I could get my hands on it for $200 less than the retail price... or wait for the vertical grip to be thrown in and get it as a combined deal that might set me off by almost $4000. Gasp!

Then again, all my dream of the A700 will be gone by the time I put my name on the dotted line tomorrow. That is until next year (or when they have a Christmas promotion that I can't resist).