I've had a Panasonic FZ30 "bridge" camera for five years. It is the type of camera without interchangeable lenses and a small sensor. I've really enjoyed that camera as it had good ergonomics, a great 35mm to 420mm 12x zoom lens, shot video, a good set of features, and pretty good stills. However I found it limited me in three areas (there's always something right?):

1) I wanted better image quality.
2) I wanted better low light capability.
3) I wanted better video performance.

Not wanting to carry and change lenses I searched for another bridge mega-zoom type of camera but they all suffered from the same small sensors and limited low light capability. So I decided I had to make the leap to an interchangeable lens camera. I would search for one that had a sort of mega-zoom lens available so I could just have one lens.

I looked at DSLRs but they are so big, so expensive, and so heavy that I shyed away from them.

Recently... Read more

This camera is probably the best compact DSLR in its segment right now. Here's my summary:

Pros:

1. Extremely fast and accurate AF. It's as good and sometimes better than my Nikon D90!
2. Image quality from ISO 100-800 is good as my Nikon D90 and is as good or superior to anything near or in its segment! Images above ISO 800 are still very decent and competitive with anything with its class.
3. Images from the kit lens are sharp and vibrant.
4. EVF is accurate, detailed, and provides all the info. you need
5. Excellent quality HD (1080i) video.....better than most DSLR's in its class. Low light capability is excellent.
6. Best Live View of any DSLR around....w/very fast AF.
7. Excellent tilting LCD screen....vibrant and hi-res.
8. Light and compact body.....easy to travel with.
9. Tremendous value.....beats anything in its class (best bang-for-buck)
10. Received dpreview.com's coveted Gold Star award... Read more

The a55 makes it easy to shoot great photos in very challenging lighting conditions. The Auto-HDR (digh dynamic range) takes 3 photos and combines them perfectly into one photo, so that very bright sky and darker landscape both are exposed properly in the final photo. The camera also uses a similar process for doing low light situations (where subject movement would cause a blur if no flash was used). These are in-camera processing features that only Sony is offering at this point.

The continuous auto-focus during video is also a first for inter-changeable lens cameras. Overall, it's a great photographic tool.

By the way, one reviewer compared the a55 to his Canon 7D. That's a $1,600 camera, body only, while this is $750 body only. In a way, it's a compliment that a camera costing so little has to be compared not to others in its price class, but to a camera double the price.

William