Save $930 on the Sony A99 in a bundle with vertical grip and flash

posted Tuesday, April 2, 2013 at 1:29 PM EDT

The Sony Alpha A99 is Sony's current flagship full-frame camera, and our review showed that it lives up to its prime position in the company's lineup. For those wincing at the rather hefty list price of around $2,800, you'll be pleased to hear that Sony has announced a new bundle which packs in a flash and vertical grip, and saves you more than $900 off the regular cost of all these components when purchased separately.

The bundle is priced at the same US$2,800 price point, and comes with the Sony A99, an external flash / video light (HVL-F60M), and a vertical grip (VG-C99AM). Sony says that's $930 off, and given that the flash generally fetches $550 on Amazon and the grip goes for $380, it sounds like they're right. These are high-priced accessories that you're essentially getting for free with the A99. While lugging around a full frame A99 with a battery grip and flash may be a weighty task, you can bet the mammoth increase in battery life, better portrait-shooting ergonomics, and high quality strobe will be worth it.

You can buy the bundle through Sony directly, and there is also an Amazon listing for the bundle, but the latter doesn't appear to be available yet. Hopefully it will be up soon, for those who have discounted shipping through Amazon Prime.