Sony a900 compared to the a700

I left out the most significant advantage (for me) of the A900 (A850 and A99 also) over the A700 - The 3 user memories are located on the mode dial and memory 1, 2, or 3 are engaged directly without having to also make a selection on LCD.  With my Maxxum 7 I had many occasions where I would just set the three memories before an event (#2 - my standard settings for the event, #1 one type of option - usually a flash setting, and #3 another option).

I normally kept the camera mode dial set at #2, and since I have a bad habit of absent minded fiddling with the control dials, I would just switch the mode dial one click either way and one click back resetting the camera to my default.  Also if I wanted to take the same shot with 2 different settings, it was just shutter release - click - shutter release - and click back to normal.  With the A700 I find I use the memories much less frequently because they are not as quick or convenient to use.

tom