MLU petition to Sony

[bakubo]

Ken has created a petition for people who are interested in telling Sony to not leave out MLU. You can read about it here and the link to the petition:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read. ... e=33799554

[Javelin]

just signed it. be iteresting to see if it has any effect. the marketing people usually have a ratio to guage how many real people think the same way compared to how many participate in a thing like this

[bakubo]

Yeah, that is why Ken asked that this be posted on other forums too. Try to get enough signatures for Sony to at least consider it.

[David Kilpatrick]

It's almost certainly pointless. The new shutter-mirror assembly may not allow it, and by trimming microseconds off the cycle time, they may have improved AF as well as enabled things like 5fps or 7fps in a modestly priced body. My guess is that the designed out MLU at an early stage to simplify manufacture and reduce costs, and simultaneously gain benefits not apparent to the buyer (i.e. in performance, not in features).

David

[bakubo]

The lack of MLU is really a no-biggie for me. I never had it except in my Minolta XK years ago and in the Canon 30D I had a few years ago. Never used it. I just don't do the kind of photography where it would be useful. Some people do though. A few days ago Ken spent a lot of time looking at the service manuals of the A100, A200, and A700. He started a thread about it. He couldn't find anything in them that showed what was different in the A200 and A700 that prevented the independent raising of the mirror. Anyway, whether there was a good reason, other than marketing, to remove it from some of the Alphas or not, I guess, people are hoping to get Sony's attention for future DSLRs. Since it took something like 20 seconds for me to sign the petition I did it. If it had taken much more than that I probably wouldn't have bothered. This one missing feature doesn't cause me any heartburn, but the accumulation of things such as no program shift, etc. starts to make me concerned. As long as my A700 is working okay I don't mind waiting to see what happens. I don't care much about brands so if when the time comes Sony has something I want I will get it. If they don't then I will get something else.

[bossel]

I just signed it. Don't care for DOF preview or Program Shift, but MLU is a must. Maybe not for A230 type of camera but for A5x0 definetely.

[01af]

The new shutter-mirror assembly may not allow it ...

If so then it's a faulty design and has to be dumped.

While I do understand that closely embedding the mirror-up sequence into the whole take-a-metering-lift-the-mirror-fire-the-shutter-drop-the-mirror cycle may make things easier for the designer and may save a few bucks in manufacturing costs, it still is an absolute no-no in an SLR camera that's supposed to be more than just a toy for beginners. The fact that some serious users never use MLU for their kind of work doesn't take away anything from that.

-- Olaf

[bfitzgerald]

Never hurts to try. We simply don't know if there is a mechanical design that does not allow MLU, or it's simply Sony cutting things back. (evident in removal of P shift and other options etc)

Even if it cannot or won't be done, it might send a warning shot to Sony for future models.

I "wrongly" thought Bionz NR would not be possible to fix..we'll see, pointless or not, I think the issue needs to be raised, and Sony need to be made aware of the importance of MLU etc.

[Greg Beetham]

Isn't the A550 the first Sony DSLR with main sensor LV? or am I mistaken? If it is, then that's the feature that Sony was concerned with perfecting, first and foremost, not whether MLU was still available in the end or not, I think they either clean forgot all about it, or didn't realize how important the LV feature and MLU were to each other.
If they didn't realize how important MLU was to have at the same time as LV, it proves one thing to me, Sony doesn't understand STILL photography, or they don't listen to real photographers needs, they mainly take notice of their marketing people, and if that's the case, we are in trouble....
Greg

[bfitzgerald]

Sony doesn't understand STILL photography, or they don't listen to real photographers needs, they mainly take notice of their marketing people, and if that's the case, we are in trouble....
Greg

Ah the coin has dropped, after all this time

Trouble isn't the word, Sony need to get rid of the current folks in charge, and put people in place who understand photography. It's really very easy. What we have a present, is a bunch of folks telling Sony how they should be running their DSLR business, and in most cases, they would be doing a vastly better job. Forum folks spot things, Sony don't even understand or comprehend, if that's not worrying..what is?? lol

[Greg Beetham]

I probably should have said 'we are in trouble....still'
I've been complaining for ages about Sony's lack of comprehension about still photography to anyone who would listen, after what they did to the Macro Flash system that is, and that goes right back to the days when the only camera they had was the A100 and I used to hang out over at dpr...I sitll sruggle to beleive a camera co. could do what they did...and completely ignore any questions on the subject as well.
So Baz, the penny has well and truly dropped for me, and quite some time ago too.
Greg

btw, Thanks Henry for the link, I have duly signed the petition, we are probably just peeing in the wind, but yoiu gotta try....

[alphaomega]

I also signed the MLU petition. Some of you may be interested in Angela Nocholson's comments on MLU (or the lack thereof) in her Amateur Photographer review of A500/550 21 Nov. issue:

Although we use a very solid Manfrotto studio stand to support the cameras when we shoot the resolution test images, I found it difficult to get shake-free shots with these two cameras at their lowest sensitivity settings. As usual, I ensured the image stabilisation system was turned off and used the self-timer to reduce the chance of vibration introducing blur, but neither camera has a mirror lock-up facility and this appears to be the root of the problem. Selecting a wider aperture, which allowed a faster shutter speed (at least 1/125sec seems to be necessary with a 105mm lens mounted) eventually resolved the problem

So there you have it. The shutter can cause vibration problems. She did not particularly mention problems with ISO200 causing erratic exposures as mentioned by David Kilpatrick or ISO200 being inferior to similar settings in A100, A700 or A350. She mentions the wide gamut particularly when using Adobe RGB setting

as a result, raw shooterrs have plenty to work with

. That is good and then HDR as well for good measure when the contrast range is large.
I wonder if David Kilpatrick ended up with an unstable camera causing the ISO200 (particularly sky noise)problems he reported or she just missed the problem altogether and it is really endemic. I would really like to know more about the IQ performance of the A550 as I need an additional camera and wonder whether to go for the A550 or hope for an A700 replacement.

[bossel]

Sony could invent sensor based MLU: Analyze the shake frequencies, amplitutes etc caused by the mirror when the camera is mounted on the tripod. Then move the sensor to compensate. This might require a different algorithm than the normal SSS.

[Birma]

I've signed. As Henry said, it only took a few seconds. Probably a waste, but just in case

[bfitzgerald]

Won't make any difference at all, but hey..sounding off can help relieve stress! lol