Your First A-Mount Camera

My first SLR was an a290, which now belongs to my girlfriend. At first, I only knew Minolta from that Toyota 88 Minolta race car. When I went after my first DSLR, I was after a Canon Rebel, and when I saw the 290 was cheaper and had more features, I had to go with it. My only regret is the lack of lenses for Sony here in Brazil, but I overcame this - it is hard to find them, but it isn't a big problem at all (albeit, when I start to think, today I would have a 5D maybe with some white lens, whatever, that is no fun at all). What drew me in was image stabilization, really. Now that I am into the mount, I see that I made a wise choice - there is lots of stuff that I wish to own someday and as far as I can see, my style of photography is evolving towards a direction that is one of the strong points of my camera (mainly urban landscapes). Noiseless at ISO 12,000 is way too overrated - I can take incredible images in ISO 50!

When I got to know the Minolta legacy, I really came to a conclusion - Sony and Minolta have an unique mindset developed towards innovation, and that is an admirable quality in a market dominated by conservative users that refuse to move foward from what they have been given (this is beyond the usual OVF x EVF discussion).

Nonetheless, I like to maintain the spirit of minority - I am always different in my tastes.
My favourite guitars are the Fender Telecaster and the Fender Jaguar, while most people like Les Pauls and Stratocasters. People like Marshall or Fender amplifiers - I use a Hiwatt. Distortion pedals? People only like Boss, Marshall or the Ibanez Tubescreamer. Me? I use and love my Danelectro Daddy-O - nobody I know uses Danelectro stompboxes.
Computers? I like AMD and ATI. Pepsi is better than Coke and my favourite camera brand is Minolta - as I said, I am a minority person.

Minolta 500si back in 1996, then later to 700si, then Dynax 9 and onto KM5D, A100 and now A580.

Sold a few of my lenses a few years ago when funds were tight.

First SLR was the Dynax 7 with a couple of lenses, while on a long period business stay abroad, so I needed something to take good photos.
I then moved on to a700, and am now considering going to a99 before Xmas.

My first SLR was a Minolta Dynax 5, bought for my 21st birthday present in 2002. I picked it over the equivalent Canon and Nikon models due to a mighty 3fps continuous shooting mode (compared to 1fps for the others!).

Next up was an upgrade to a 2nd hand Dynax 9, which cost about the same amount due to the arrival of digital! He still lives in my camera bag although I admit doesn't see the light of day that often.

First DSLR was (of course) the KM 7d, a long while after it was released I seem to remember, which was amazing (free photos!) and frustrating (flash exposures and AF) in equal measure. In fact, I tried 3 of these as the first two both died within a few days of getting them.

And finally, once the 3rd 7d died a slow death, an upgrade to the a700 in January 2009. I'm really not looking forward to that one dying as I'm then faced with the tricky choice of EVF, significant Sony downgrade, old 2nd hand bodies or switching brands, none of which appeal at the moment!

My first slr was a Canon, then I had a couple of digital bridge camers: Minolta z1, Konica Minolta a200 and then... Sony a200

Uhm....
In every post the first thing i read is "My first slr..." ._.

Soo... I will join in.

My first A-mount and also first slr was the a580 bought it in january this year.
Choosing Sony dslr because after some research on the net, I found out I could use some old Minolta glasses my relatives have.

A100 in March 2007. A700 in 2008. A99 in 2012 (finally happy with the AF!)

If not for Dyxum, I would be shooting Canikon since that's what I used in the days of film.