Buddy at work wants to get camera for wife. Sony a37,t3i,d5100

Those are my thoughts. However, it can be said DSLRS provide the best image quality. So maybe that's their reasoning. A counter point to that is the nex 5n which uses the same sensor as the D7000.  However I was told his wife wanted a DSLR not a nex.  So I had to assume it was because of the viewfinder, which led me to explaining that Optical was much better. Comparing looking at a scene through your eyes and through what a computer monitor thought the scene should look like.

I wanted to ask others to gain perspective, since I have a strong bias and might be overlooking something.

I think the sony has some nice points. 7fps is cool.  But to me, excessive. I can just imagine hundreds of shots of the same thing. His main point is buying a used t3i/D5100 vs a new a37.  To which I replied you get what you pay for.  
I was hoping the a37 had the same sensor as the d7000, but it looks to be different.

I will talk to him again and ask him to ask her to go try them out. I have a feeling that a37's build is no where near the t3i or d5100, but I could be wrong.

--
never stop learning