Have you tried printing the pictures yet? Also, do you think you'll ever use
No, but I have taken a close look at them in Graphic Converter. At the highest resolution and medium compression the A70 takes nice clear prints (reducing the compression makes a difference in pictures with lots of shadow). You could print a beautiful 5X7 and on some pictures an 8X10. Whether it was clear enough for an 8X10 depended on the light where I took the picture and how I took it. The A70 offers a lot of control over how you take a picture and some choices are better than others (e.g., it took me a few days to figure out how to take a macro picture on a windy day).
This leads me to another comment (more directed to my own experience than anyone in particular). The camera is only as good as the photographer. If you go into a specialty camera store they will have samples from many of the cameras they sell and they all look fabulous. Even a 1 Mp camera can take good pictures in some situations. However, even a 5 Mp camera will take crummy pictures if you don't know how to frame the shot or what time of day to take a picture.
the interchangeable lens feature of the camera?
This is one of the features I liked about the A70. All A series cameras use the same lenses but have different adapters. This means that the lenses are more likely to be available if I ever want one and there will be more of them out there in the used market. However, they are not cheap. The adaptor for the A70 is $30 and the telephoto lens is $180. The wide angle is cheaper.
>Price: Prices are significantly better in the US. There are a fewreasons for this: larger market, different distributor, more competition, etc. I bought Canadian because I wanted the warranty and the price difference (taking into account exchange, shipping, border fees, etc.) was at most $100 Canadian (much less if the US cost was over $300).
I'm not worried about warranty (have never had to use one yet)-- convenience is more important. Since I'll have a close friend living in the US soon that last stumbling block will be overcome. I'd *rather* keep my $ in Canada (preferably local), but if that's going to make a 20-30% price difference on a big-ticket item (for a student, $600 is a big ticket item) I can't be that idealistic as a student, and am willing to take the risk of a hassle filled warrantee service (these items aren't without warrantee... it's just that you have to deal with the US branch for service).
In order to match the price I got at Downtown Camera (and assuming an exchange rate of 1.35) you would need to find a US store that ships to Canada and sells the camera + shipping + courier and border fees for less than $350 US. I decided that the small potential savings was not worth the risk both in terms of warranty and in terms of timing (e.g., I need the camera in a month and don't have time to ship it back to the US if anything was wrong with it)
>Best Canadian Price: I purchased from Downtown camera in Toronto. Iwas able to talk them down to $475 (they also had great prices on Nihm batteries). Henrys and Vistek would not budge at all. The problem is that it is a very popular camera and currently in very short supply in Canada. I actually found it for $468 with free shipping at McBains Camera in Edmonton but they didn't have any stock. If you are not in a rush I would recommend waiting a month or two for the various stores to replenish their stock and for the initial interest in the camera to decline. I am leaving for Australia in a month and had to buy now.
I don't quite get why some stores simply won't budge on prices. Not too long
Henrys and Vistek were crawling with people. In both cases I had to wait to talk to a salesperson and in both cases the A70 was selling fast. Downtown Camera is a long standing reputable business but was mostly empty and, when I came in, the salesperson was standing around talking to another salesperson.
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