Video is not a concern. If it's about to be discontinued how old is this model?

It was announced in Aug/09. Since they don't usually start selling until a couple of months after the announcement, I'd say it's about 1 year old. But, because it was not the bottom of the line, it came with features that are still very current today.

It does look like the A500 is about to be discontinues. They have the A550, A560, A580 now, and the SLT A33 and A55.

Looks like you can't buy the 560 and 580 yet.

they will be here for black friday, sony is not going want to miss the selling season

Gotcha. How do these compare to the others we have been discussing. Should I wait on them or is video the big difference.

well the a580 is most like the best sony mid level dslr, they have done allot to catch up to the rest of the market in the dslr market.

Video is the big thing, but you have can lock up the mirror so that is handy at times. But you will be paying full price for it, as it is new.