Alpha 500 and 550 in UK shops
According to Sony UK, the Alpha 5oo and 550 were shipped to UK dealers starting at the beginning of this week (October 19th) – though calls to WarehouseExpress, and to our local Edinburgh Sony ACE dealer, produced no knowledge of the new cameras. WE said that they expected the camera ‘hopefully within the next month’ and Edinburgh Sony Centre Shandwick Place said ‘we will have it in stock on October 29th’.
Paul Genge of Sony UK confirmed that deliveries had in fact been made by October 22nd to selected dealers and that ‘both cameras have been available since the beginning of the week’.
However, a Google search showed no for sale items except Hong Kong based grey market shippers. WarehouseExpress still showed a pre-order status for the Alpha 550 and its kits. We have been trying to obtain one for the past two weeks, as review samples were not available. The initial report in Photoworld magazine has been completed with the help of our Photoclubalpha subscribers round the world who already have the camera, and will appear in the edition printed next week.
UPDATE: Monday October 26th – WarehouseExpress had bodies, 18-55mm and twin lens kits all in stock this morning.
– DK
Paul Genge’s statement checks out in York, at least. The local Jessops and other chains don’t seem to have any information about the camera, but our local independent retailer (York Camera Mart) has stock. I saw an A500 there this afternoon when I was in there to pick up a new camera bag, and they said they’d received it some days ago. They sounded quite enthusiastic about the Alphas, incidentally.