Yes It's a Sony and for these reasons. . !

I find people wondering why not Canon or Nikon and I say: "Yes, its a Sony ! And that is what I wanted"

My use case is mostly bird photography out door usually in good light and stay low budget going forward with additional lenses. So I shortlisted Tamron 70-300 DiLD Macro (A17) and Tamron 200-500 (A08) before buying A58.

I wanted 

1. In body image stabilization (should work on cheap lens hand holding is 80% with birds, it works on prime lenses too)
2. Extra mpx for cropping. (more than 16 or 18 from competition)
3. Faster viewfinder focusing.

Build quality compromise was known.

I got what I paid for hence I am happy.

Some bonus

After using there are some bonus points I could identify and use

1. Focus magnification when using viewfinder.
2. Focus peaking in viewfinder.
3. No need for mirror lockup function.
4. AF tracking which is not very usual in entry level camera.
5. Tethering remote control from PC.

As compared to

Two camera competed in my budget Nikon D3200 and Canon 600D

Canon 600D offer of twin kit 55-250 lens was the real juicy but then I am at
18mpx and 250mm and with A58 I am 20mpx and 300mm.

Nikon D3200 only scored on 24mpx. Adding VR lens would put it out of my  budget. There is again AF motor related issue.

Am I happy ? Check my birds pics in first 15 days.

Bird watching second weekend . . .

After getting some hang of the new lens. This are some of the pics from second Weekend. These were enhanced by XnView

Brown-headed Gull Larus brunnicephalus

Little Cormorant

Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos)

Indian Pond Heron

Hunting in my Backyard. .

This is regular hunter in my backyard who got me into the bird photography.

White throated Kingfisher.

A58 Back Button Focus . . .

With Sony A58 there are buttons on the back side of camera which can be assigned different functions. AEL button is one which has maximum options.

The two functions that I usually attach to this AEL button is

"Focus" when using Autofocus and

"Focus Magnifier" when using Manual focus. With "Focus Magnifier" I can clearly see where the focus is and am able to get gr8 pics. This one more feature where Electronic View Finder (EVF) scores over Optical View Finder (OVF).

go to:  menu -> settings -> Pg 3 -> func. of AEL button.

Moon Hand Held. .

With my New Tamaron 70-300 I tried the Moon hand held last night.

This is straight out of camera JPG.

Birds in Flight - With 18-55 Kit lens

These photos are straight out of camera jpgs. Taken with 18-55 kit lens

Friends have arrived. . .

Friends have started arriving. Me and kids went to the bridge to check them out.

Canon point and shoot SX130IS is still kicking. 

First impression from my new Camera . .

Got my first DSLR Sony Alpha A58.   (yes It's a SONY)
Some of the photos shot in jpg, cropped to post.

"Pebble at beach"

"LED Diwali"