latest a77 rumor

[bakubo]

I think Apple had been doing better than Nokia not because innovation, but because they placed their product as "objects of desire"

In my life there have been so many products marketed as objects of desire that made people crazy about having another possession. Some I remember from the 1970s are:

Pet Rock
Mood Ring
Earth Shoes
Puka Shell Necklace

[pakodominguez]

pakodominguez
Nokia ditched their operating system a few months ago and went for Windows 7 and it will be the autumn before they have an iphone competitor. That is Apple innovation in action. Proper Innovation creates new "objects of desire". Apple is far ahead of any competitor through innovation in both technology and marketing of their technological products. There may be equally good competitive products but they are not being marketed innovatively.

Do you know that people that use Mac products think that, just because the apple on top of their devise, they are more "creative"? Do you know that people that use mac products think that they are "early adopters"?

Nokia got blind because they sold more phones than any other maker (they are actually the biggest "digital camera makers"!) but mostly low end phones -for today standards. Even RIM is falling down, while Android is getting more and more adepts. I think by the end of the year we'll see the new Nokia+windows phone and then we'll see better "the future".

I've use my girlfriend iPhone, Android phones and tablets and my current phone is a Windows Mobile (win7) and I do prefer the windows phone; no hesitation.

Time will show how the A77 (and A65) are received and how Sony promote them. In the UK Canon's 1D IV sells for £3500 and Nikon D3s for £3600. If the A77 comes out at £1000 (usually same £ as $ price) there is £2500 for lenses before you hit competitor body prices.

I don't understand the logic to compare a 7-series camera with this two professional cameras -that are 2+ years old. Totally different targets.

That is assuming that the A77 will AF better than the A55. So there you have 24Mp, 10fps and top class video. Lenses? Buy a 300mm F2.8. That will be equivalent to 450mm on D3s or 900mm if only 12Mp size of image is used. The 24Mp combined with high ISO settings will give sports photographers endless possibilities with just one lens because of the sensor size. The same reasoning could be applied to the excellent Sony 70-400mm (if AF can keep up). The higher ISO capability would enable high shutter speeds even with this lens.

as I said before, from all this new technology, I only expect the sensor and the EVF on the next NEX model.

Regards

[bakubo]

I don't understand the logic to compare a 7-series camera with this two professional cameras -that are 2+ years old. Totally different targets.

Several months ago one of the big posters on dpreview predicted that by this spring we would see tons of Sony A77 bodies attached to Sony 500mm f4 lenses on the sidelines of the big professional sports games.

[David Kilpatrick]

I don't really care whether Windows/MS/PC has caught up. The fact is that in 1984, Apple gave me (and others willing to take the risk) a nerw type of graphic computing which enabled very profitable work - while the PC platform barely existed, and could do almost nothing in terms of MAKING things. We used 16-bit TI systems from 1981 after using early Apple (Euro) and attempting Robographics production of images. But when LISA appeared, and then Mac 128, we converted.

From my angle, PC/Windows tried to feed users a huge load of rubbish for an entire entire decade. They made everthing difficult from networking to printing, just to keep 'consultants' and 'software engineers' employed - while Apple created a platform which handed total control to the user, so that no outside expertise was needed if you had half a brain.

As an example, we had a Leaf Scanner in the 1990s, and wanted to run it on a Mac laptop with a small screen. I was able to reconfigure the interface using ResEdit (free) so that the dialogs all fitted on a screen smaller than the 640 x 480 originally written. It took me hours and cost me nothing.

In 1989, I used Fontographer to create an entirely new Postscript font with camera and photo symbols. No such thing existed on PCs - they did not use Postscript and couldf not (for several years). That font is still in use now for the ending symbols on our magazine page articles. But in 1985, I wrote 'Rules OK', a bitmap font which allows frames and boxes to be placed on the page. No PC user could have done this in a day's work.

In 1992, I was able to write a completely new halftone screen and jump ahead of competitors in repro. It took me a few minutes.

It was to be ten years before Windows came even vaguely close to offering this. So my loyalty stays with Macs. Apple enabled things which Microsoft would have kept in the hands of consultants and programmers. Where we once had to pay £1,500 quarterly just to get bug fixes and updates, Apple enabled us to do this ourselves.

Sorry, we missed the engineers, it was nice making coffee for them. But it was a con - make a system the user can't manage without special tools or trainings, support a community of people earning from the restrictions placed on end users. Apple broke that cartel.

David

[bfitzgerald]

Oh dear more Apple v Microsoft stuff.

Both makers have their ups and downs no questions there. MS have done a good job on Win 7 that has to be said I'm overall quite impressed. Why would I buy an Apple when I can't configure the system I want? Choice..there isn't much with Apple you take it or leave it. I'm maybe 75% through my new PC build (note pc I can run linux too) every single component is hand picked and fits my criteria of quiet and high quality. Both Apple and MS are proprietary it's just with Apple you have limited hardware choices. If Apple had the guts to go head to head with MS as in sell the OS to people they'd have a lot more fans.

I admire their ability to overcharge for hardware and bundle and OS with it..but it's Dick Turpin in modern times for system builders.
My personal view is that long term in the future the days of paid for operating systems will be over.

At that point both MS and Apple will be in for a whole heap of pain

[artington]

Oh dear more Apple v Microsoft

My personal view is that long term in the future the days of paid for operating systems will be over.

At that point both MS and Apple will be in for a whole heap of pain

Yes, I'm sure that cloud computing is the future - once broadband is fast enough! May be sooner than we think.

I too prefer the Mac for photography but the PC is better for music production. The main problem with two incompatible systems is transferring large quantities of files between them, which require NTFS formatting of a Mac partition. When I bought a dual format external hard-disk I tried to do this and managed the apparently Impossible - it seized up the Mac requiring a complete re-format! Needless to say the disk went back. Cloud computing would resolve this dilemma nicely.

[agorabasta]

Cloud computing is the Big Brother's dream. A total rip of any privacy.

[pakodominguez]

@DavidKilpatrick is because people like you than a big percentage of mac users "fells" they are more creative -but they are not, no more than any windows user. And same goes with other brands-war. I don't think the A77, even if loaded with tones of new features, will kill Canon or Nikon dominance -but I believe Sony will, in 10 years or more, become to place the Alpha division to a strong 2nd place.

[bfitzgerald]

There certainly is an element of Mac's are better for photography. I'm not entirely sure why that sticks (at least to some folks)
A pc is a pc to me regardless of what OS it runs on. There is a trend of smaller computers in recent years and makers have expanded things beyond a dull beige box so referencing back to the 80's or 90's isn't entirely relevant for modern computers. I recommended a few Zotac pc's to folks for non super heavy work kitchen or bedroom pc and they absolutely love them! Nice machines very very compact and an area where they have taken the small factor much further than Apple ever did.

Of course the Ipad 2 is all the rage right now..but again nothing kills all in PC land. I don't predict the demise of netbooks or laptops because of it just another product which (might) suit some users better. According to my local shops they say desktops are coming back into fashion of late. Things move and change in this industry and evolve over time. Apple deserve some credit for being one of the few early days of PC makers to have "survived" for such a long time. That does not guarantee their future though.

I can't actually buy a Mac I would want. Mac mini is cute but under powered and not even running the newer i-3 CPU's. i-mac well I don't want a computer built into a monitor and the entry model is under specced IMO CPU is fine but a 500Gb HDD and 4Gb or ram does not impress. Mac pro is at a price that is too heavy for most and even there you get a mere 3Gb or ram starting off. Apple don't actually make a "good mid range desktop" for some odd reason.

[stevecim]

In theory, because Apple have only a handfull of models, they have a chance to fine tune OSX for max. performance, I have seen some tests where mac laptops running windows 7 under preform in the graphic department compare to OSX (on the same laptop), lets face it, Windows needs to support almost an endless range of hardware combinations. That fact alone would mean Windows will never preform has good has OSX.

has for " long term in the future the days of paid for operating systems will be over" depends on what you mean by "long term" OS's like Linux have never had a real impact on Home or business desktops and Android is all ready running in to the same problems it's big brother has, it's changes to fast, we already have devices running 1.2, 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 3.0, 3.1 in just a few years. Working has system administrator (mixed Linux/Windows environment .) I would never run Linux at home, it's just to much work.
If I was looking for a new PC at home I would get a Apple OSX based system, after 25 years working in IT, the last thing I want to do at home is "Build and administrator" at PC.

For me OSX has the performance, reliability of a Unix OS with a GUI second to none.

[alphaomega]

Well folks, so here is the latest sonyalpharumors.com SR5 rumor on the long awaited A700 replacement. http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/sr5-last ... al-images/
The mirror housing is so small that this is another translucent model. Looks like some of the control wheels/buttons are lifted from the A700 and two control wheels are retained. 24Mp and new 16-50mm F2.8. I could have been tempted had it not been for my advancing years and emphasis on reducing weight and bulk.

[artington]

I could have been tempted had it not been for my advancing years and emphasis on reducing weight and bulk.

Presumably you're referring here to your camera kit

[David Kilpatrick]

We get to use this in three weeks' time - also, I suspect, we (the press) will be able to use the new 500mm f/4.5 SSM Apo tele G on the 24 megapixel body/s.

David

[Dusty]

24 megapixel body/s.

David

So there is a 750?

Dusty

[pakodominguez]

24 megapixel body/s.

David

So there is a 750?

Dusty

Rumor said A65 - No new OVF body now...