Temptation is everywhere and the price offers may be dazzling. The questio is often asked: Is it possible to buy a digital SLR camera at half its usual price? Sure! These are expensive little gadgets and some Internet prices may be positively surprising. Unfortunately, real good bargains are are. For digital reflex cameras as for most things, if it’s too good to be true, you know it’s not true.

Let’s start by noticing that some local markets are very different from the rest of the global economy. For exemple, in some countries, custom taxes are pushing the costs so high that it’s unthinkable to buy imported products (I think about Brazil where I wouldn’t buy a computer or a camera for this reason). On the oppposite, the Japanese market is well known for its cheap photo camera prices (but never half of the European or American prices) if you are ready to go there or to fight your way through a web site with nearly no latin-based characters (just try once to find your way in an on-line Japanese camera shop to know what it means to be utterly lost in a place you thought would be yours in seconds. Frustrating!)

There are only a few solutions left:

• eBay sales made by well-identified vendors. Prices can be quite low even for brand-new products and prices do not always fly sky high. But, be very attentive and do not bite all abits. I like this possibility (but it’s time consuming).
• Market anticipations (that’s the name I use for them): Some vendors apply the common knowledge that prices are going down and attempt to anticipate this by offering you what they think they will be able to do next week or next month. Advantage: They and you surf the wave of prices going down. Bad, bad, bad: Even if it is not said clearly, you may have to wait even more than what the resellers was expecting and instead of a week’s delay, you may see your money gone and no camera back for months. Definitely not my definition of a bargain.
• Pure crooks and swindlers: On the Internet as elsewhere, some people would have you believe that fairy tales are true stories and either they will try to sell you another product at a higher price (replacement, my a..), or they will leave for a spending spree in Caiman’s islands with your money.

Don’t let them bite you now.

Nearly incredible, Sony let the cat out with information scooped on their Sony Style web site: New mid-range digital single lens reflex cameras. Not one, but two of them! One Alpha 300 with 10 mega-pixels and one Alpha 350 with 14.2 mega-pixels.

Beware, they will be quite easy to recognize because they bring LiveView (no need for the viewfinder, like on most compact point-n-shoot cameras) and a widely-orientable LCD screen.

See the images published here a few days ago.

After the shock of finding this rear screen there is another surprise. The race for more pixels has not ended for entry-level and medium-range cameras, even if the more expensive cameras for the enthusiasts and pros are more moderate and target more quality instead of more pixels (like the Sony Alpha 700).

Some Amazon stores are showing accessories compatible with the yet-announced Canon EOS 450D. The speculation is going fast knowing that it is the rumoured replacement for the entry-level D-SLR of Canon. But these Amazon stores are only slightly more regulated than eBay. It is probably only store owner trying to attract visitors.

It’s not only a naming game. Since people are waiting for a possible launch by Canon on the 24th of January, and since they don’t see anything coming during the waiting period, speculations abound. Now the rumour is that Canon will launch only a EOS 450D (or Rebel XTs, Rebel XTS, the silver version of 300D/Rebel XT) at the February PMA and the replacement for the Canon EOS 5D will wait until Photokina.

This would be the occasion for Canon to shoot higher than the supposed slight improvements over the 5D (with a slight name change like EOS 5D Mk II) and pile up major features to fight back Nikon and its most recent D3 and D300 (explaining a move to the more severe name change of EOS 6D or EOS 7D).

A photo has popped up on the Internet forums allegedly showing the Alpha 900 in Berlin IFA. If it’s a fake, it’s a rather good one.

From the look of it, I would draw a few conclusions and comments (only valid if the image is a real scoop).

• Sony has cleaned up the original design a little from what was shown last March. Specially the pentaprism, while still large, looks less rough and unfinished.
• No weather-sealing visible between the body and the lens, but there could be some level of weather protection for the body buttons and such.
• Upper LCD screen, probably in addition to the one on the back of the body. This was a feature disappearing from most cameras (think high-end customers, pro photographers in sight).
• Most of the interface elements have already shown on the Sony Alpha 700 (incl. the battery grip)

Anyway, it’s probably a fake model (look at the chamber closed by a black plastic, and the alignment of the top LCD with the rest of the body looks a bit low). But it could well be a reasonably good demonstration of the current state of the external design in the Sony labs.