Sony Alpha A290 - Any good as a first DSLR?

[Big Worm 1]

A friend of mine is looking at buying his first DSLR. He doesn't want to spend a huge amount and has seen this offer at Jessops.

Sony Alpha a290 with 18-55mm Lens + Tamron 70-300mm F4/5.6 DI LD Macro (Sony) + Sandisk 4GB Extreme HD Video SDHC Memory Card - £404.46

He has the following questions if anyone can help....

Is the Sony any good as a first DSLR?
Is that Tamron lens any good?
With the Sony, is he likely to need to upgrade quickly, or would he be better getting something like the Canon 1100D with 18-55mm lens for £379.95 then buying a second lens at a later date once he gets used to the camera?

Any advice gratefully received!

Thanks!

[nickcowen]

I have a Sony a390 with is pretty much the same camera. It's a good camera for bigginners I feel. Really easy to use but I feel I'm probably going to switch to canon or nikon at some point in the future purely because there is a bigger lens selection. I also have the tamron 70-300, it's gives good quality images but is slow at focusing and the macro mode is held back by the minimum focusing distance. Hope that helps