Ridiculous pricing - RX1 finder

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David Kilpatrick
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Ridiculous pricing - RX1 finder

Unread post by David Kilpatrick »

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/e11020.m4 ... AGB%3A1123

And this will not be some excessive price - it's Adrian, who runs Photostore. £449.99 for an optical finder, and not even a very exciting one - a 35mm field of view. I have to say that I'm no longer very happy to be associated with Sony. This sort of pricing strikes me as just plain cynical exploitation of a market. I have never had any trouble understanding why Leica, or Arca Swiss, etc exist. I didn't find the Konica RF system too hard to live with, though it was overpriced.

But this sends a signal to me that I can no longer trust Sony to deliver tools to do a task at a fair price.

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Re: Ridiculous pricing - RX1 finder

Unread post by alphaomega »

That looks excessive, but is probably based on an expected small number of potential buyers who can afford the RX1.
My recent experience has been reasonably good. I got a NEX-5N body for a net £300.00 (Sony £50 cashback). Last month I got the NEX-6/16-50mm kit for £729 and a fancy Sony bag was included. Then this month I bought the RX100 at net £407 (Sony cashback £50) Considering the quality of these cameras I cannot complain, except I don't like the £750 or so price for the 10-18 E-mount. I would have expected £500 based on the cost of other similar lenses for A-mount type cameras. At £500 I would have bought one and sold my 16mm pancake & W/A converter.
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Re: Ridiculous pricing - RX1 finder

Unread post by pakodominguez »

yeah, because 300$ for the FDAEV1S is a fair price? or 140 $ for the FDASV1? or 200$ for a Nikon; Minolta or another big manufacturer right angle like yhidhttp://www.adorama.com/NKDR6.html is?

There might be (many) reasons why accessories in general are more expensive than what we think they must cost. The one reason is because manufactures CAN charge that price -specially because they are targeting a public that CAN pay those prices.

I personally find the optical viewfinder useless since you can not confirm focus (you have not distance marks on the RX1 lens in order to exercise your hyperfocal skills...
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Re: Ridiculous pricing - RX1 finder

Unread post by Dr. Harout »

This was years ago, while in a bazaar (market), asking for orange prices. Mean price was around 1.5 USD/kg and I find this strange person asking 5 for a kilo... asked him why? His reply was obvious: desperately needs money...
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Dr. Harout
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Re: Ridiculous pricing - RX1 finder

Unread post by Dr. Harout »

David, I can send you such an optical adapter with an angle of view for 35mm lenses (made for Zorki, FED and Kiev) for free.
I can even inscribe Zeiss on it, if you like.
Or even DK, Cameracraft or PCA. Just name it.


On a second thought, I guess Sony has to listen your... let's call it rants. And that goes for Snapfish too :twisted:
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Re: Ridiculous pricing - RX1 finder

Unread post by bakubo »

Some years back I saw something, maybe it was a movie or TV show, where people are selling stuff in a market and there is one guy, all alone, trying to sell something that shouldn't cost much, but his price was some ridiculously high price. Someone stops and asks him how many he thinks he's going to sell at that outrageous price. His reply: "I only need to sell one." :lol:
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bfitzgerald
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Re: Ridiculous pricing - RX1 finder

Unread post by bfitzgerald »

I doubt the product is going to be a big seller very niche, expensive camera (no doubt some will look at it but not many)
Camera accessories have always been overpriced even those cheap remote controls cost pence to make yet can sell for £20+ huge margins.

I'm not that shocked this viewfinder is so pricey, but give it time and some dudes in China will make one..that's still pretty good for a much cheaper price!
I suppose £200 would be a "fair price" sort of
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Re: Ridiculous pricing - RX1 finder

Unread post by artington »

Sony has along history of making premium products at premium prices. In the past this was possible because not only was it the innovator in the field but also first out of the trap. I bought one of its gorgeous little 14 inch colour TVs in the mid 1970s - remember them, they came in white and yellow? It cost £200, which was a helluva lot then but the picture was outstanding and a mile ahead of the pack (it lasted for 20 years too). The Trinitron designation, which was later transplanted to other, bigger sets, knocked the competition into a cocked hat. But the other Japanese makers took note,Panasonic inparticular, and started to compete for market share (the old Japanese business model). It took a while to dent the Sony magic but eventually price told, particularly when the Koreans, Samsung and LG, got in on the act. Net result: misery for the Japanese TV makers. Hitachi and Sanyo could not stand the pace, Sharp is having real problems, and Sony and Panasonic are losing an arm and a leg on every TV they sell. You can write the same scenario for many other consumer items - CD players, DVD players, Walkman type players, etc. Often, Sony was first and best and priced accordingly, sometimes eye-wateringly so. Only when it entered the serious camera business with the purchase of KM was it a Johnny-come-lately and this was reflected in pricing. Both the a700 and a900 were very competitive, particularly the latter. Now it is clearly firing broadsides at Canon and Nikon but is not employing predatory market pricing at the top end. This is certainly a marketing decision but personally I suspect it is not yet well enough established to get away with it, particularly given the expense of changing systems. But make no mistake, Sony may be on its uppers but it is cash rich and much bigger thanmost of the others, particularly Nikon which is a minnow by comparison, and if it subsequently decides to start predatory pricing it will still be standing when others are not. Right now, it's strategy is clearly not pointing that way but this could change quickly.
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bfitzgerald
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Re: Ridiculous pricing - RX1 finder

Unread post by bfitzgerald »

Only Sony would make a full frame RF style camera without a built in optical viewfinder. With a prime lens it's really something many would want and it's not hard to do.
I would suggest if the X100s from Fuji wipes out most of the quirks from the first model, then it would be a much more affordable and sensible purchase, granted it's APS-C but hey they at least know what people want.
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Re: Ridiculous pricing - RX1 finder

Unread post by pakodominguez »

bfitzgerald wrote:Only Sony would make a full frame RF style camera without a built in optical viewfinder. With a prime lens it's really something many would want and it's not hard to do.
I would suggest if the X100s from Fuji wipes out most of the quirks from the first model, then it would be a much more affordable and sensible purchase, granted it's APS-C but hey they at least know what people want.
Even if the x100s is a nice camera, and they fix the slow focus and other missing things (like video) the RX1 is much smaller, and after the impressive score DxOMark gave to its sensor performance, I don't believe any other compact camera, with integrated view finder or not, will be able to take the lead.
But I'm not planning to buy one. At all. The NEX7+ZA24f1.8 is my kit. I hope we'll see a NEX7 replacement by the end of the year, with better noise control and it would be lovely to have the RX100/RX1 menu interface on it.
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bfitzgerald
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Re: Ridiculous pricing - RX1 finder

Unread post by bfitzgerald »

Pako I see the RX-1 as more a "flagship concept" than a model that is likely to be a big seller.
But it has to be said the target market is serious photographers no question, so it's pretty unforgivable to omit a viewfinder in this model, this is at odds with the buyer who most likely will want one. (and they could do a decent one too)

The X100s looks interesting, for an APS-C model it's heaps cheaper than the Sony..fast forward 10 months or so usual Fuji price drops it's a heck of a lot more affordable than the Sony is. I'm sure the IQ on the Sony is great but let's be honest very few would outlay that for a camera with a fixed lens. It's more a FF compact concept than a serious attempt IMO to capture any kind of FF compact market (which is about as niche as you can get)
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Re: Ridiculous pricing - RX1 finder

Unread post by pakodominguez »

bfitzgerald wrote:Pako I see the RX-1 as more a "flagship concept" than a model that is likely to be a big seller.
But it has to be said the target market is serious photographers no question, so it's pretty unforgivable to omit a viewfinder in this model, this is at odds with the buyer who most likely will want one. (and they could do a decent one too)
With or without viewfinder, it will be a big seller -not a mass product a la Canon Rebel.
bfitzgerald wrote:The X100s looks interesting, for an APS-C model it's heaps cheaper than the Sony..fast forward 10 months or so usual Fuji price drops it's a heck of a lot more affordable than the Sony is. I'm sure the IQ on the Sony is great but let's be honest very few would outlay that for a camera with a fixed lens. It's more a FF compact concept than a serious attempt IMO to capture any kind of FF compact market (which is about as niche as you can get)
The X100s does not compete with the RX1, but with the NEX6. The RX1 is unique. And I find hard to believe it will have competition any soon -look how long took to Canon to bring the EOS M camera!
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bfitzgerald
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Re: Ridiculous pricing - RX1 finder

Unread post by bfitzgerald »

I'd have doubts it will be a big seller just the asking price alone makes that certain.
It's unlikely to have any competition because most makers would see it as a risky venture. Now a FF NEX might have more appeal (purely on the lens change aspect), but even that I feel is a much smaller market than a FF DSLR type system, which is why I'm puzzled with Sony's NEX strategy but hey up to them I find the NEX range uninteresting being honest.

The X100s might not compete with the RX1 on the sensor aspect, but it's likely to sell a lot more than the Sony. And give it a while the price will drop down very nicely (X100 is just over £500 right now not bad eh?) I'd be much more likely to go with the Fuji it's the "good enough" thing again. That lack of VF is a sure fire turn off for many buyers, Sony messed up again without doing proper research.

Bit like Ricoh really they could have owned the premium compact market (they were there before most other makers), but sat on their hands and refused to listen to the viewfinder requests, didn't develop the products properly
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