A380 330 230 details on Sony sites

[bonneville]

I have just received Gary Friedman's latest newsletter link and he makes some interesting comments about this discussion on other forums.

[bfitzgerald]

Problem is nobody liked "Microsoft Bob" even new users, it sucked!

http://cnettv.cnet.com/cnet-top-5-worst ... =cnetfd.mt" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Greg Beetham]

Yep, glancing through the thread on the new one's over there at Carl's site the majority seem not too care for them very much, Barry and a few others pointing out the missing features that beginners now will not have to eventually puzzel out, or have someone show them what they do....it's not an option, they aren't there in the first place...all in the name of creating a DSLR point and shoot....maybe.
One aspect that seems too have been overlooked so far is that Sony is sending these essentially frivolous babies out to do battle with the likes of the D40, D60 etc. and despite those baby Nikon's having a huge shortcoming of no proper AF usage of most of the large legacy Nikon lens list they were selling like hot cakes at one time, figure that one out if you can...not sure how they are doing at the moment though, by contrast these new Sony's still have full access and usage of the entire Minolta AF and Sony AF A-mount lens list...so it would seem, making them far more useful than the Nikon DSLRP&S's.
Greg

[bfitzgerald]

I think the D40 series sold a ton, mostly because it was cheap..I bet if NIkon put the AF motor back in..some users would at least be happy. They didn't take it out to save money or space, but to make the higher end models more appealing..that's my theory anyway.

The ball is over to Nikon now, to see what they do with the D60/D40..some say it's finished it's run..but Nikon need a more affordable body than the D5000.

Only then can we compare and see what is going on. I said it before, and to repeat it again Just because Nikon do something, does not mean Sony must always follow. Sony need in some ways to be the trend setter, but so far they have not been. I won't be suggesting these new lower end models to folks I know, I always tend to be neutral anyway, aka your personal choice..go try them in a shop, get what suits you. I have in the past suggested the A200 was worth a "peek" on bargain value. I won't be buying one of these models for my girlfriend either.

[Greg Beetham]

Yes the introduction of the D40 proved to be a master stroke of marketing for Nikon, nearly everyone including me initially thought it would be a dud right out of the box, how wrong was that?
But now after the horse has bolted, there might not be much meat left on the carcass for johnnies come lately.
Greg
ps. Yes it would be good if Sony could avoid pulling the odd whopper, messing stuff up that the Sony chiefs don't appear too understand, probably a lot of engineers/technicians that work for Sony scratch their heads a good deal, but they just have to follow orders.

[Allam2009]

Had a quick play with the 230 and 380 last night. Very light to hold - almost too light for a SLR - and very definitely aimed at the new users (the in camera tuition is quite clever)

[bfitzgerald]

http://www.dyxum.com/dforum/the-a330-ha ... page1.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Some more info here.
Now you know why companies use either the controller for AF point selection, or a button to hold and scroll through the AF points.
These new ones have neither..changing the AF point with eye to camera is going to be a lot of fun

[KevinBarrett]

Had a quick play with the 230 and 380 last night. Very light to hold - almost too light for a SLR - and very definitely aimed at the new users (the in camera tuition is quite clever)

I got to handle an a230 next to an a200 today and was disappointed with the newer body. I had expected to like the newer grip because of my experience with the Maxxum 5, but a DSLR is still too heavy for that style of grip, and I appreciated the older a200 grip much more. The GUI very nice for beginners. I appreciated how the aperture range shows up on the LCD and how the highlighted area actively changes as you zoom the kit lens, showing you the speeds you can work with.