The new Sony Alpha α700 has been announced, and it is awesome! It’s pretty much the successor to our Konica-Minolta Maxxum 7D, and it looks pretty damn impressive. My 7D is still a wonderful camera, exceeding my abilities as a photographer, and I will use it until it breaks and cannot be fixed (or the repairs are too expensive), but the α700 would be the one I would get if I ever needed a new dSLR. What is so cool (to me, at least) is that Sony is keeping much of the Minolta tradition alive. The controls are an evolution of the 7D, which was evolved from the Maxxum/Dynax/Alpha 7, which evolved from the 600si/507si.

Sony seems to also be keeping the model numbering system of Minolta, where the 7-series (X-700, Maxxum 700si, 7, 7D) is the advanced amateur designation, while the 8 and 9 series are the semi-pro and pro models. I would not be surprised if the new pro-level dSLR from Sony will be the α900 or simply Alpha 9D.

Preview of the Sony Alpha α700 at DPReview.com (photo above from the DPReview preview)