A500/550

[Filmmaker]

How about if Sony implements the video (high speed electronic shutter) functionality properly and uses it to take a few frames before you press the shutter? Forget getting real video, but it could start recording frames the moment you touch the shutter, or put your eye to the viewfinder. And how about having the ability to add video sequences to your still pictures, or in between shots, from which you could also extract frames later? The shutter speed would not be anything spectacular, but it could be OK for most shots, and you'd have a lot less missed pictures. Let's see how innovative Sony gets. As for microphone noise. Here's a solution: Taped-on wireless shotgun microphone to the photographer's head. Just don't grind you teeth or pop a gum, and hide well, so the anti terrorist squad does not shoot before you do.

I think that you could get 100 MP from primes with a new mount, with close distance of the rear element to the sensor. OVF would have to go, but I still believe that 100 MP and video function that takes pictures before you do will be the way future cameras will be. Your shot will not be tied to a pint in space and time. You could extract a frame before you push the shutter and you could use a small section of the whole picture and still have excellent resolution. The Japanese plan for decades ahead. I'm sure they already envision 1GP cameras. 100 MP is so much turn of the century stuff.

With EXMOR-R and future digital processing and other technologies, the FF cameras will take place of today's MF and LF ones. EVF will give better low light visibility than OVF. The mirror box will become history! 100 effective MP from a 50 MP FF sensor will be the future 35 mm FF standard. Just a guess. Maybe it will be 3D too with 4th dimension of time, 5th dimension of smell... Stinking Canon! I would not want to look at their pictures!

[Greg Beetham]

As long as they leave me with the choice of a nice quality plastic bodied still camera 'with' an OVF that is somewhere between the A100 and A700, an AEL button and a DOF button that works like the ones on my A100, add an x-sync socket that the A100 didn't have (a seperate ISO button like on my KM5D would be nice), 12 or 14MP low noise sensor....fix the Macro flash system and I'll be perfectly happy....
They can build a 100MP video capable DSLR if they want, but I'll just watch from a safe distance.
Greg
ps. Some attention too the requirements of the travel/sports/nature photographer in the lens department would be good also, ie. a couple of high quality f4's would be nice, at least let us have a confirmation on the 24-105 G SSM f/4 that was rumoured, is it real or not? and when is the 400mm f/4 going to be announced?

pps. BTW I never even touched on the issues of processing power, bus band width, storage, battery usage and probably most important of all a real time fold out EVS like you get on an actual digicam....we'll let the angle adjustable EVF slide for the moment.

[bfitzgerald]

As for lower quality and less features on the A100-A500 series? Actually Sony's philosophy is very similar to Minolta's. Minolta too cheated the low end models. You had to get higher Minolta models to get DOF preview - compared to Canon. Minolta was always very innovative. So is Sony. So it may not be so much that Sony continues with Minolta philosophy, but rather that the philosophy is the same. KM 5D being different from A200? Minolta would had moved in the same direction.



Hmm so what decade are we working in here? 300si era?

Let's take the 3L, 4 and 5 series...not the last gen of film bodies, but still recent enough. 3L was indeed pointless crippleware P mode auto shooting only, the 4 was decent with a plastic mount, minus DOF preview, fewer AF points, slower FPS and other 5 features etc. Then the real deal started at the film 5, which was a mere £200 I believe with a kit lens.

Have a look about, you will find a significantly higher number of film 5's, than 4's. Reason is the 5 was only a "bit" more (I think £40 odd) than the 4. So guess what most people bought?? Oh it's got a DOF preview as well. The only 2 features it did lack (of any significance) were MLU and DMF.

I know back then some folks who bought a film 7 back then were unhappy, complaining the 5 was "too well featured for the price", and we got exactly the same thing with the 5d v 7d. I am not talking handling, but features spec etc.

So £200 buys you a DOF preview on an 8 year old film camera, well more like £20 now on ebay

Today, the A200 is the only passable choice for budget shooters who want something decent ish. My views on sony ripping out MLU and spot metering AEL toggle, DMF etc still hold, but..the price is good. When the A200 is gone, you have the even worse spec A230 as the only choice..unless you want to pay more for the LV ones (which are still weedy on spec and features). I very very much doubt Minolta would have gone back to P mode ultra cut down cameras, and no maker would dare do that nowadays. It might have passed back in the film era, but not any longer. And even if you don't like the 3L, 4, 5 series..there was, unlike today's 3 line up entry models, significant differences in spec, even the 4 to the 5 had a fair few.

This 3 line entry Sony experiment has a lot more in common with compact cameras, than DSLR's. People forget time moved on, and Minolta just like all makers ended up putting more into cheaper bodies, as the tech matured. Sony are taking a very different line, aiming 3 models very close on spec, to a specific user type. Take a poll of film 5 folks who bought it, and it probably ranged from new users, to more experienced ones. And unlike the new newbie models from Sony..most 7 and semi pro film users would be happy to use a film 5 as a 2nd body, I wouldn't be seen dead with the new Alpha entry level. It will never grace a camera bag of mine, if Sony gave me one for free, I would ebay it

The major problem for Sony is, you pass on the A230, and spend more..and get simply a different sensor and or LV (and a worse OVF). Nothing else at all, you don't get a better spec camera. That's the point that is puzzling and odd. Pay more get nothing much more..Unless the A500 and 550 are priced so amazingly low as to shock everyone, Sony are going to have a real problem with their one hit market girlie entry Alphas.

If I were starting off now with nothing, I wouldn't even look at Alpha, I would with the last batch of entry models. It's going to be a costly mistake for Sony this time around.

[Greg Beetham]

Actually I'm sort of surprised that Sony didn't make them in a range of colour choices as well, with an anodized pink one available for example...kaf kaf...
probably would have if they'd had some pink lenses.

Now if Sony really wanted to get the jump on CON and do something innovative, they could figure out a way too upgrade the sensor in an existing camera..it being more like a simple service upgrade, drop the camera in and pay a reasonable fee (if you want it that is) and get the latest upgraded sensor for that model fitted in a day or so, nothing huge in the way of MP, just when or if a more advanced lower noise sensor comes along a year or two after you bought the camera, also comes with a service, a clean and a firmware upgrade.
When you stop and compare film cameras to these new fangled digital ones, with a film camera when you drop a roll of film in you get 24 (or 36) brand new dust free sensors and each one is it's own memory card, alas with no EXIF tho. With digital too actually get a new sensor you have to buy a whole new camera from the ground up.
That's why I can't really see the point in having a magnesium this and a titanium that in a DSLR when it all goes to waste in a couple of years anyway...just a high quality plastic body for me is fine, with at least the same features and interface that the KM5D, KM7D, A100 has/had, unless they can figure out a way of upgrading the sensor that is. (they can put video in as well if it can be done without affecting any of the pre-existing features, if not, put it in a co-existing model)
(would have an A200 if really pressed, and the A700 as well, although the A700 has a magnesium chassis and is twice the price, great features though)
Thing is, all these models above that have a great user interface for still photography are starting to show their age when compared to a similar Canon or Nikon model in sensor performance and implementation, and nothing on the horizon (except it looks as though the writing is on the wall for the A700)...but still no hint of a pending replacement...not even an 'accidental' leak..
Greg

[KevinBarrett]

I actually got the a700 for its level of control. I was still learning about photography and didn't want to risk getting a camera that I'd quickly outgrow. Looking back, it was a good call to receive the camera as a wedding present, to boot! But seriously, if you want to talk about durability of plastic bodies and obsolescence of older cameras, check out John De Bord and his deviantART account, populated with hundreds of fine images from a plastic-bodied Konika-Minolta 5D. That camera is still working for him in the Rocky Mountains today.

[Greg Beetham]

Perhaps I should elaborate a little, I think the KM5D is a great camera, it was a much better camera than any of the opposition brand cameras at the time with much better features/user interface and performance, and it will remain in my posession even after Sony manage to produce a camera that has similar low light perfomance and colour rendition, mainly because it is the last DSLR that KM produced and will end up being stored alongside my X700's one day.
Sony apparently can't produce a camera similar in performance to that wich Nikon turn out now using the same sensor or a slightly modified sensor made for Nikon by Sony, and that is a little puzzling to say the least.
Greg
ps. The KM5D has a glass fibre reinforced (non corrosive) composite chassis.

[Greg Beetham]

HA HA! Well done Don, I had a brief search but couldn't find out the actual manufacturer scoop, just reviewers statements that mentioned the glass fibre composite chassis.
Hmm I could still mount an argument that that plate is nothing more than a support/plate/stiffener, for the attachment of additional overalys, and the real chassis is that major housing over on the left with the lens mount on it, the criteria being: what is it that the attaching screws actually screw into?
answer: the major housing with the lens mount is the actual chassis, because all the visible screws screw into it and attach other things to it.
But I won't bother, we both have a high regard for the KM5D and I'm happy with that.
Greg

[fastson]

Cant be long till that Danish mag comes out. The guy wrote the message about a month ago, so the issue should be out in early august?

Btw, how does the 5D body compare to the A100? I was going to get the 5D at first, but got the A100 once Konica Minolta went belly up.

[fastson]

I bought a KM5D, then I bought an A100, I kept my KM5D, sold my A100, and then purchased the A700 and I still use the KM5D today. The A100 produces cold colors compared to the KM5D, and I think many will agree that the A100 slightly underexposes in comparison.

Thanks Sonolta.
Yeah even compared to the A700 it underexposes, I noticed that after having used the A700 alot and went to my A100 for a few macro shots, I was using +0.7 most of the time.

I think they are looking to 'make them cheaper' and get the cameras in as many newbies hands as the can...especially the hands of women and children. Notice I did not say photographers hands because it is becoming clear that Sony does not care so much about how the camera feels in one's hands, and on top of that they sometimes appear not to have a clue on which controls should be easily accessible to the fingers. If they think are trying to reinvent the photography rock they are doing a damn poor job of it.
-Sonolta

This is true, they said as much in the press release when they announced the new 2 and 3 series. IIRC they also said 80% of the DSLR market is with the entry level cameras and Sony controlls 12% of that.
However, I am sure they will satisfy the rest of us with the new series. Sony is a consumer and a prosumer company, I use a lot of Sony gear when it comes to audio so I know they can deliver stuff for both types of people. Imaging should be no different, so they better deliver.

Hopefully in early august we will know what the future holds.