Just saw that on Dpreview a few minutes ago ...

Why they need to had this small comments at the end of the announcement : ???

If the image quality is the same as the A550 ... this is for me a very good backup APS-C for the A900 for the moment. I hope it will not be that expensive.

This is the first time we have a decent viewfinder and liveview CMOS at the same time . The LCD is not that high resolution ... but we can zoom to see detail. To my taste the camera will be perfect it the lcd can tilt for a killer macro camera

As usual with Sony, small model in beginning of the year, Advanced model in autumn. With the LCD live view only ... I think we are starting to see avenue for Film in the next model ...

Regards,

Frank

I'm disappointed to read that there was no improvement in the specification of the viewfinder. It appears to be set lower in the camera, so there must already have been some significant re-engineering going on in there.

Hmm, unless it's a lot cheaper then the A550, don't see the point of A450, Sony took away the QuickLiveView and 3" HiRes screen and added nothing in it's place, has the same small OVF has the A550/A500 and no MLU (DPR could be wrong, will need to see full spec from Sony)

Need to see Sony full specs, but at this stage, I don't know what Sony are doing even the A230 has a bigger OVF then the A330/A380 and now the A450
They now have 6 models under $1000.00 and none between $1000 - $2000 (all right the A850 is listed at $1999) , I can't see many buyers who don't like the A5XX because of the small OVF buying a A450.

Pretty sad really, no improvements at all, same VF size.

A big yawn around here..
Somebody needs to tell Sony how to do a model line up, they just seem to bash stuff out without even thinking about it.
No sorry, this won't do at all..

Sorry, But I'm waiting to the A472.45, which would be probably the same but with double the blink rate in focus confirmation mode!
Seriously, can't get into the minds of SONY. Hope they release a good replacement for the A700 soon.

On my side I will put my last evaluation on the A450 on the price in store ... If the camera is around 400$ CAD, I will probably love the camera (for the stuff in it).

I'm agree this is probably a strange line up of different option, but ... for me, this camera means: ++ on image quality and resolution and battery life, -- on the rest ...

Almost like an old Subaru WRX ... where you have the motor , the handling, but all the rest of the car don't looks like a car able to compete with competitor three time the price in performance. .

Regards,

Frank

While we would all like to see some forward thinking, "cannibalising" may make sense given the mistakes that have been made. No point in stuff just sitting around. The mysteries of the Alpha line continue.

I'd rather see sony add some new lenses to their line up...

Design looks a bit unfinished..

http://presscentre.sony.eu/imagelibrary ... sID=179977

Note the large gap around the bottom of the eyepiece. Looks like they run out of cash and had to stop!

Jessops have it pre-order for £550 odd..
http://www.jessops.com/online.store/pro ... /show.html

Not my idea of cheap!

I wonder what is gained by lowering the OVF and moving the senors to the top?, looks like it would not work with any of the current magnifiers.

I think the idea of having QLV and non-QLV models OK but the non-QLV need to have a much better OVF then the QLV models or why bother.

I guess Sony never bother to design a large version of the new dynamic OVF in the A5XXs

Sony does what Sony does , I'm happy with the A550 (So far) it has most of the features I want at the price I wanted, I have never spent more than $1000 on any SLR body film or Digital. But I hope Sony really do bring out a upgraded A700.

Personally, I think we are LOSING THE MIND OF MINOLTA ... and being brainwashed by the SONY P&S crowd

Who's with me on this? Good grief!

I think Sony are losing the plot ! There, I've said it.

Couldn't agree more. I converted from Nikon to Minolta many years ago and never regretted it, they were superb cameras , especially the fantastic Dynax 7. Sony certainly have the ability to produce amazing cameras and to come up with cutting edge designs and features, but they have no idea whatsoever about how to build a SYSTEM of bodies and lenses.


YES, YES, YES. What a hotch potch - ancient Minolta rebrands, plasticky budget zooms, overweight, overpriced but optically brilliant Zeiss jobs, but where is a 100mm macro with fast internal focussing to match the Canon IS or Nikon VR models ?


NO it won't do, Sony really need to get their act together or the ex-Minolta enthusiasts are going to get fed up waiting, and desert to Nikon and Canon. Come on Sony, where is the successor to the A700 ? Toys like the a550 are not what serious amateurs are looking for ! I want to upgrade from my a700 - FAST, SILENT autofocus, flash sync at 1/500, a 3.5" screen, and full weather sealing would be a good direction to go. I suppose to remain competitive , the a7xx will get live view, movie mode and other gimmicks but I can live with that if they get the rest right.

I still think Sony really believe that the A850 is the replacement for the A700 and the A550 is their idea of a top of the line APS-C camera. They have no interest in competing with Nik/Can on high end APS-C models or the high end pro models, I think they would rather try and move the whole DSLR market in a new direction, maybe mirror less design, where Can/Nik will have to start from scratch .

They brought Minolta SLR IP for the IP, not because they wanted to continue the Minolta "way", they started off with the A100 and A700 both top models at their time, but looks like new management has taken over and decided that both the A100 and A700 where both to well featured and to cheap, better to turn DSLR into PnS add some new features but take some away at the same time. Make lots of models and try and get customers to upgrade every 12 months, and it's sort of working, My first Minolta film SLR (3xi) lasted 5 years,
I replaced that with a 600si kept that for 10 years, now I've brought 2 DSLRs in 16 months Time will tell if I get 5 years out of the A550, but I doubt it will last that long.

but if they gain 2 P&S upgraders for every Minolta enthusiast they lose they may possibly be happy with that for now ...

True, bottom line for Sony is number of units sold/profit made