Q&A with the SLT Development Team

[WaltKnapp]

The ringflash could come back. It will depend on the number of people willing to buy one. Once again, Sony knows all the KM sales numbers and profit margins.

And just how many of the LED rings has Sony sold. I'm sure they make a profit off something that ebay sellors make and sell for practically nothing considering the price Sony charges for that useless accessory. That ring is, however, an admission by Sony that such a product is needed in the system line.

And don't tell me 4 flashtubes, 4 mini lights, a few wires, a plug and a plastic ring and diffusor is all that expensive to make. That's what the 1200 macro ringflash head is. The cheapest part. Both the MFC 1000 and the 2400 twin macro head system are more complex and more expensive to make. Because Sony has never offered the 1200 macro ringflash head they have no clue how many they would sell, or the relative sales of that vs the 2400 twin flash head system.

KM sales numbers are old old history now. A different time and a considerable different economy. Minolta found reason to sell the macro ringflash from the MF days until they ended operations. That's a very long time, so I expect that they did make money off it. I paid the price they asked several times, and if necessary would have paid more. It's that essential to my macro.

Note that Canon and Nikon have their versions of the macro ringflash. And Canon has the MP-E 65 1x-5x macro. No sign those companies are discontinuing those products. Is Sony competing or not?

Quite simply if Sony depends on only advice from bean counters they are lost as far as advancing and staying in the upper end of DSLRs. We are not buying beans, we are buying photography equipment that's designed for the photography we do.

DSLRs are a system as a whole. If you have a workable whole system then you have a chance of making a profit on the whole system. If you break it up into independent stand alone products each of which is managed on a independent profit and design basis it's unlikely to gain much interest in the long run in upper end photography. And that will take down the entire system.

Walt

[agorabasta]

I'm not certain that raising the price of proprietary batteries is a suggestion you want to pass along...

I knew that we agree on the rest of my passage

And mind that I didn't propose to jack up the batteries price. They are grossly overpriced as they are now.
I just proposed to sell more of them, like by adding some increased capacity heavy-duty range ones. E.g. there are some third-party high-capacity batteries for the Nex, but it's kinda spooky to carry that much juice of unknown origin - we all know what happens if it catches fire or explodes...

But the 'battery proposal' is mostly a joke, really. There are more serious things I could propose. Those LEDs emit light also when fed a short pulse of reverse polarity, one just must make sure that the total energy supplied in the pulse and its voltage are not too high and don't physically destroy the junction. Essentially it means that the LEDs may be used to act much like the flashtubes, producing very short and powerful light pulses. Such pulses may be very fast, about 1ns range; so it's quite possible to fire a controlled sequence of them and synchronise with fastest shutter speeds.

Now that was a real suggestion...

[bakubo]

I just proposed to sell more of them, like by adding some increased capacity heavy-duty range ones. E.g. there are some third-party high-capacity batteries for the Nex, but it's kinda spooky to carry that much juice of unknown origin - we all know what happens if it catches fire or explodes...

With Sony's history of exploding lithium batteries, I think they had to recall something like 10 million, it might be safer to buy the off-brand batteries.

[agorabasta]

Exploding/melting notebook batteries plagued the main brands for years. Sony's not alone here. Still those batteries (and often the notebooks themselves) are often made for the brand and not by the brand.

[bakubo]

Exploding/melting notebook batteries plagued the main brands for years. Sony's not alone here. Still those batteries (and often the notebooks themselves) are often made for the brand and not by the brand.

My recollection when this whole exploding laptop battery news blew up in about 2006 it was all Sony batteries. Dell, IBM, etc. were using Sony batteries. Anyway, that is just my recollection. Maybe there were other battery sources that had problems too, but the ones I remember were Sony batteries.

[agorabasta]

You may be right, I don't really follow those battery debacles. It seems to me they happen every year...

Frankly, I think those batteries are quite dangerous things. And they get the more dangerous the more energy is stuffed into them...

[bakubo]

Frankly, I think those batteries are quite dangerous things. And they get the more dangerous the more energy is stuffed into them...

True. Now we are starting to have automobiles with lots of big lithium batteries right under your seat. Is it worse than having 20-30 gallons of highly flammable liquid though? I don't know.

[agorabasta]

Flammable liquids need oxygen to burn. Batteries have all it takes already packed inside. It that regard the batteries are more like explosives rather than fuel...

[Dusty]

Products made for photographers by photographers. I simply don't care about "soccer mom" not in the slightest bit. NEX may well be a soccer mom product I am certain it has great potential if only it had hit the hands of somebody that had an interest in photography..and knew how to design a user interface.

Better to design cameras for the people who actually buy them.

And herein lies the rub. I want a camera for photographers. So do most of us. Sony wants profits, and if the 'real' photographers aren't supporting their products with sales, they'll go for the soccer-mom market. Soccer moms buy for convenience, not system. They could care less about a ringflash or T&S, because it doesn't help them snaps photos of little Johnny to e-mail to Grandma or post on facebook.

Photography is expanding past photographers, and that in some way is hurting 'real' photographers, because products are being made for the consumer class. Compare DSLR sales to SLR sales of the film days and you'll see what I mean. Today they sell way more, and include the P&S models and cell phones, and now everyone is a photographer!

Cell phones may actually be our salvation in this dilemma. As they get better and more ubiquitous, there's less reason to make P&S or DSLR models for the soccer-mom, and there may be a return to making cameras for photo enthusiasts.

Dusty

[tom power 53]

Not sure how advancements in photography are hurting "real photographers".

I mean the camera you are able to buy today is a quantam leap above the camera you could buy ten years ago - and cheaper.

It has diluted the perceived "status" of SLR shooters though

If we returned to lower volume production you could expect more expensive camers with slower advancements.

But higher status.

[stevecim]

I'm sure I read sony interviews online, where the Sony staffer has made comments like "sony have no chance of competing with Nik/Can in the high end market"

I think Sony is adding things (what it's thinks defines high end DSLR) like high fps and high ISO performance to low end cameras in hope that it will stop potential new DSLR buyers from looking at the higher end markets. Sony will never make a camera that will get high end Can/Nik users to swap their kit for Sony and every year the old "minolta boys" market gets smaller and smaller.

It's a pity because , clearly Sony can make sensors that can go head to head with Canon, body wise, it would only take a few software teaks to turn the A5xx series into a topline plastic body, Then not much more to turn the A5xx into a A7xx class. Someone at Sony needs to wake up and start thinking "we can be number 1" not just be happy has a strong number 3.

Some should also talk to the Lens department, it sucks that Sony G/Z lenses cost double in Australia when the Australian $$ has been around US$0.80+ for years. I'm happy to pay AUD$900-1000 for a US$850.00 70-300G, but not $1450.00

[bfitzgerald]

SLR type cameras have never really been for "soccer moms" I've seen a few with them I will say most likely due to low prices on these cameras.
On the other hand you don't have to "dumb down" these cameras to pander for that kind of buyer, I've seen p&s type users (no disrespect to them) with Nikon D300's and Canon 5dMk II's as well!

I doubt the cell phone will make a lot of difference, aside from some seriously ill informed Nokia rep who said nobody would buy DSLR's in the future (cough as if a cell phone will offer the same performance or expandability to users) It might nip some sales from budget compacts but I've seen a big desire for super zoom models compacts and bridge ones..you ain't gonna get that in a cell phone!

I just hope Sony can get back on track with things, some encouragement with recent announcements but they need to go further on this. According to Sony the A580 will be available to buy mid October..the A560 is March 2011, which doesn't really help a lot!

[BrianSmith]

Some should also talk to the Lens department, it sucks that Sony G/Z lenses cost double in Australia when the Australian $$ has been around US$0.80+ for years.

Absolutely. It would be nice if the worldwide ability to buy online led to consistent worldwide pricing. I've heard the same complaints about Phase One and Adobe pricing in Australia and that's not right. Is it just lenses or are cameras more expensive in Australia?

[peterottaway]

AUD = USD 0.94 at present. Prices will reflect 5% import duty plus 10% GST.

A33 B is $949, A33 L is $1099 and A33 Y is $1399.

A55v B is $1249, A55v L is $1399 and A55v Y is $1699.

Buying a A55v body only from the US including delivery will translate to about AUD 900. I would think many sales are being lost overseas which increases their local cost per sale. But this attitude has been par for the course since before the internet and the international transport companies made buying outside easy.

[BrianSmith]

AUD = USD 0.94 at present. Prices will reflect 5% import duty plus 10% GST.

A33 B is $949, A33 L is $1099 and A33 Y is $1399.

A55v B is $1249, A55v L is $1399 and A55v Y is $1699.

Buying a A55v body only from the US including delivery will translate to about AUD 900. I would think many sales are being lost overseas which increases their local cost per sale. But this attitude has been par for the course since before the internet and the international transport companies made buying outside easy.

Is this just Sony or all cameras? I'd agree that they'll lose a lot of local sales that way.