peterottaway wrote:Barry as I recall you were criticizing Sony for too many models updated too often and now it is too few and not often enough ?
Would the idea that we are in a transition phase and Sony are re-aligning their product range be a factor ?
Don't remember saying Sony were updating models too often!
I do remember saying that they had too many models with only minor differences (like the A300/A350) and A500/A550, A560/A580
One of each is all that was needed.
I've no idea what Sony have planned or if there is a "transition phase" in the works.
As the E mount bodies have no IBIS and don't offer me what I'm looking for (in terms of design of value for money) There is a danger that any game plan will involve the loss of some users.
No doubts in my mind that if Sony are planning a phased A mount wind down, pushing people to E mount, they could lose a substantial number of their current users. Looking at the prices of their lenses on E mount, I can't see a huge native adoption of that system.
The long update cycles of the A700 and A900 probably lost Sony quite a few users, add to that the SLT angle they probably lost a good few more with that.
Every interview I've read from Sony is all about the next party trick, and nothing about looking after their current customers. If you can't keep people onboard you're wasting your time longer term. Listening isn't something Sony are good at, sadly.
No doubt Olympus lost quite a few users with the 4/3 disaster, adaptors won't convince everyone. I saw years ago that 4/3 was doomed to fail. Micro 4/3 will never be in a position to challenge the top makers, the company is too risky to invest in their products, second mount dump after the OM mount was killed off. 2 dead mounts doesn't convince me an awful lot. If Sony follow the same path, quite a few A mount users will run into the "safe" arms of Canikon.