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I think the so called D7 Upgrade should have been free

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Terry Waite said:
But arn't these upgrades the same technology that the D7i has?
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Only partially.
Terry Waite said:
so it was no extra skin off Minoltas back as far as development costs
go.
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Yes it was.

The D7i has different motors and other parts. Also, some of the hardware in the D7i is not available in the D7, such as sound hardware. This means the software had to be adapted and tested specifically for and on D7 hardware.
Terry Waite said:
Its just a simple flash upgrade.
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To you, yes. Not to the development team making the software upgrade.
Terry Waite said:
Long live file sharing ! (I bet I made some enemies here, but
what the heck)
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Yes, p*ss off Minolta so they never make any upgrades again. Great idea. Go you!

--
Jesper
 
TheSwede said:
Terry Waite said:
I still can't believe that Minolta is charging for this D7 upgrade.
Click to expand...
They're still working out the business model. This is completely
unprecedented; consumer (and even prosumer) cameras have always
been treated as throwaways by the manufacturers. If you want the
new features - get the new model. noone has offered any form of
upgrade path before.
theswede #100093 said:
Firmware upgrades should be free when you spend that much on a
camera.
Click to expand...
And engine upgrades should be free when you spend forty times as
much on a car, I assume?

It has nothing to do with how much the original item cost. I
challenge you to mention one - just one - other consumer/prosumer
camera at the same (or lower, or about twice or so) cost that
offers free upgrades to functionality, incorporated from next
generation models.
theswede #100093 said:
Hopefully someone will put the upgrade out on the net for
download.
Click to expand...
Hopefully not. This will only make Minolta regret their decision to
create the upgrade in the first place, and we'll never see anything
like it again.

Hopefully a lot of people pay the small amount of money to take
advantage of this unprecedented upgarde path, and Minolta will make
more of them available in the future. I would be very happy if I
can pay $50 to get a big chunk of D9 (or whatever comes next)
functionality into my D7i. If people put the upgrade on the net
instead of buying it (what's $50 to get a next generation digicam?
Very little compared to the $1k to buy a new one) Minolta are
unlikely to do that.

Not to mention all other digicam manufacturers. If this move is
received well, they will be forced to offer similar deals - and if
they do, everyone will benefit. Then prices of upgrades will drop
and probably become free.

This is a first. Noone else has done this. Ever. Please support it
so we get more of it. It's in our interest.

--
Jesper
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OK you may have won me over with that statement. But OH HOW I DO LOVE A GOOD DEBATE. I will wait to hear how much it really improves the camera before I get it from a Hacker (I mean Purchase it) LOL
 
Bryan Biggers said:
Robert Lemoine said:
I am not wrong, you are making me wrong and that is YOU saying it.
It is my opinion that the ugprade should be free. The AF speed
handling is a bug fix to me, not an upgrade. And goes for many of
these "upgrades". Pleople pay for it because they have no choice.
Had they be given the choice, they would ALL have opted for the
free option. Survey it and come back again.
Click to expand...
The focus worked the way that they said that it worked, and you
could read about exactly how fast it was on their web site and on
this very web site before you bought the camera.

By the same logic, Windows 98 should have been free, right? It
fixed thousands of bugs in Windows 95. Plus it has FAT32! The hard
drive can go faster, hard drive access in Win 95 with FAT 16 was
slow, that was a bug right? And all they did to fix it was some
software. And 98 SE should be free too, right? Sure, they added
some features, but they also fixed thousands of bugs. It is just
software, right? This is a whole new OS for the camera that goes
beyond the original specs.
Bryan
Click to expand...
My Windows 98 was free (if ya know what I mean)
 
Terry Waite said:
I still can't believe that Minolta is charging for this D7 upgrade.
Firmware upgrades should be free when you spend that much on a
camera. Hopefully someone will put the upgrade out on the net for
download.
Click to expand...
Whew,,, Is it getting hot in here or is it just me?
 
Terry Waite said:
No one would buy a new camera for the few upgrades that are
available in this package so I disagree.
Click to expand...
--

Well, I think that I did! I have a D7, and I bought a D7i to get the new features. Now I have the upgrade for the D7, and it feels very close to the D7i. The only significant difference is that the focus is a bit slower at tele, no wireless flash (which I do use) and no sound on the movies (I've only used it in real life in one situation). Maybe, had the upgrade been available sooner, I would not have bought a D7i. But I was certainly willing to spend that kind of $ to get these features. Bryan
 
Well said. I really cannot believe all this fuss. Its great that Minolta has designed a camera that allows its feature set updated for a small price. I wish Canon, Nikon etc would do this but this would no doubt affect the sale of new cameras. This is a brave move by Minolta and it should be supposed. They did not charge for the previous firmware updates which were designed to fix bugs. Which would you rather do, spend lots of money for a new camera to get the latest features or spend a relatively small sum for an upgrade? I'm betting most will go for the upgrade.

Emmanuel
Bryan Biggers said:
Tony Rae said:
Terry Waite said:
I still can't believe that Minolta is charging for this D7 upgrade.
Firmware upgrades should be free when you spend that much on a
camera. Hopefully someone will put the upgrade out on the net for
download.
Click to expand...
I agree. It's not something that effects me since I just bought the
D7i but if I had bought the D7 earlier I'd not be very happy about
this.
It's not going to earn Minolta too many friends.
Others such as Canon and Nikon offer them for free. I upgraded the
firmware on my old Canon S10 and it was freely available at Canon's
homepage. Maybe they are not selling many and need all the money
they can get?
Click to expand...
--

You guys have to be kidding. NO manufacturer has ever offered a
firmware upgrade like this one that adds features that were not
present when you bought the camera. The firmware upgrades that you
got for free from Nikon and Canon were all bug fixes, and Minolta
has also had two free bug fix firmwares for the D7; you are free to
download them today. Minolta didn't have to do this. They could
have let the D7 owners buy a new camera, which is what EVERY other
manufacture has done. Instead they chose to add new features to the
old camera, even though it competes with the new model, and make it
availible at a nominal price. If you go over in the Nikon and Sony
forums, you will find people looking with considerable jealousy at
this upgrade. If people don't support it, they can go back to the
"old days" of buying a new camera instead when a new camera comes
out. Bryan
Click to expand...
 
I guess we have a nomenclature clash here. In the computer industry, a firmware upgrade is free. Period. On the other hand, a software package upgrade such as COREL, PHOTOSHOP and MINOLTA VIEWER are not free. I understand your Windows analogy but an OS is not a firmware.

You won't believe the firmware upgrades I get for my servers. Some are actually complete upgrades of the old features + new options as a bonus.

I like that service! I pay already so much for all the rest!

Regards
Bryan Biggers said:
Robert Lemoine said:
I am not wrong, you are making me wrong and that is YOU saying it.
It is my opinion that the ugprade should be free. The AF speed
handling is a bug fix to me, not an upgrade. And goes for many of
these "upgrades". Pleople pay for it because they have no choice.
Had they be given the choice, they would ALL have opted for the
free option. Survey it and come back again.
Click to expand...
The focus worked the way that they said that it worked, and you
could read about exactly how fast it was on their web site and on
this very web site before you bought the camera.

By the same logic, Windows 98 should have been free, right? It
fixed thousands of bugs in Windows 95. Plus it has FAT32! The hard
drive can go faster, hard drive access in Win 95 with FAT 16 was
slow, that was a bug right? And all they did to fix it was some
software. And 98 SE should be free too, right? Sure, they added
some features, but they also fixed thousands of bugs. It is just
software, right? This is a whole new OS for the camera that goes
beyond the original specs.
Bryan
Click to expand...
 
Bryan,

How is the AF response of the D7 after the upgrade? Is there less hunting as well as an increase in AF speed? Do I take it the AF speed increase is greatest at the tele end of the zoom?

Emmanuel
Bryan Biggers said:
Terry Waite said:
No one would buy a new camera for the few upgrades that are
available in this package so I disagree.
Click to expand...
--
Well, I think that I did! I have a D7, and I bought a D7i to get
the new features. Now I have the upgrade for the D7, and it feels
very close to the D7i. The only significant difference is that the
focus is a bit slower at tele, no wireless flash (which I do use)
and no sound on the movies (I've only used it in real life in one
situation). Maybe, had the upgrade been available sooner, I would
not have bought a D7i. But I was certainly willing to spend that
kind of $ to get these features. Bryan
Click to expand...
 
Terry Waite said:
Terry Waite said:
I still can't believe that Minolta is charging for this D7 upgrade.
Firmware upgrades should be free when you spend that much on a
camera. Hopefully someone will put the upgrade out on the net for
download.
Click to expand...
Whew,,, Is it getting hot in here or is it just me?
Click to expand...
YES, looks like you started something. my analogy is this. You are running a network of cisco routers, if there is a bug in the feature set, Cisco will offer a free fix, if you want to add new features that your router supports such as a different protocol then you must PURCHASE the feature set image.

Sure I would like to see it free but I do like the idea that features may be added for my existing camera at a nominal cost rather than having to get a whole new camera.
 
Bryan Biggers said:
Emmanuel said:
Bryan,

How is the AF response of the D7 after the upgrade? Is there less
hunting as well as an increase in AF speed? Do I take it the AF
speed increase is greatest at the tele end of the zoom?

Emmanuel
Click to expand...
Hi Emmanuel,
I'm trying to put some observations up on this page...
http://webpages.charter.net/bbiggers/DCExperiments/html/d7ug_vs_d7i.html
Bryan
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"Noise reduction: This is the single best improvement in my opinion, but I do like low light photography. The D7u now has the full length dark frame subtraction that the D7i has in bulb mode. Using it, my 30 second long dark frame is now perfectly clean where I had thousands of hot pixels before. It is quite dramatic and well worth the price of the upgrade alone. The noise reduction is only effective in Bulb mode, so if you have hot pixels visible at shorter shutter speeds this will not help."

Are you saying that the D7U for the D7 now give us bulb mode capability. I am a bit confused by the above. you state "The noise reduction is only effective in Bulb mode" but the D7 has no bulb mode right? Thanks
 
Terry,

You're a pretty bright guy. Searching for an illegal copy of the update from Minolta and using your first and last name.

I'll guess that Minolta keeps track of the updates via a serial number. I hope you never have to send in your camera for service.

Stan

I'll pay for mine!
 
River, you are throwing some fresh water on the fire. I never had to upgrade any CISCO router, so can't tell you. The rest I get it for free.
New River said:
Terry Waite said:
Terry Waite said:
I still can't believe that Minolta is charging for this D7 upgrade.
Firmware upgrades should be free when you spend that much on a
camera. Hopefully someone will put the upgrade out on the net for
download.
Click to expand...
Whew,,, Is it getting hot in here or is it just me?
Click to expand...
YES, looks like you started something. my analogy is this. You are
running a network of cisco routers, if there is a bug in the
feature set, Cisco will offer a free fix, if you want to add new
features that your router supports such as a different protocol
then you must PURCHASE the feature set image.

Sure I would like to see it free but I do like the idea that
features may be added for my existing camera at a nominal cost
rather than having to get a whole new camera.
Click to expand...
 
Robert Lemoine said:
Terry Waite said:
Terry Waite said:
I still can't believe that Minolta is charging for this D7 upgrade.
Firmware upgrades should be free when you spend that much on a
camera. Hopefully someone will put the upgrade out on the net for
download.
Click to expand...
Whew,,, Is it getting hot in here or is it just me?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
All of you are totally wrong.

Minolta should compensate me and all other D7 owners by exchanging the D7 for a D7i. That seems logical and fair to me.

Harry
 
Thanks. I've just taken a look and the info you provide is very useful. I'm waiting for Minolta UK to provide the upgrade but I don't like the idea of sending my camera in for the change.

I really miss the wireless flash feature I have and make a lot of use of on my Dynax cameras. It is so tempting to buy the 7i especially as the AF is more responsive and sensitive than the D7 (even with the upgrade). Responsive AF is a must when I'm away travelling and when you usually only get the one chance to get the photo.

Emmanuel
Bryan Biggers said:
Emmanuel said:
Bryan,

How is the AF response of the D7 after the upgrade? Is there less
hunting as well as an increase in AF speed? Do I take it the AF
speed increase is greatest at the tele end of the zoom?

Emmanuel
Click to expand...
Hi Emmanuel,
I'm trying to put some observations up on this page...
http://webpages.charter.net/bbiggers/DCExperiments/html/d7ug_vs_d7i.html
Bryan
Click to expand...
 
Stan Gidaszewski said:
Terry,

You're a pretty bright guy. Searching for an illegal copy of the
update from Minolta and using your first and last name.

I'll guess that Minolta keeps track of the updates via a serial
number. I hope you never have to send in your camera for service.

Stan

I'll pay for mine!
Click to expand...
Yes I am a pretty bright guy. I have an extended warranty through MACK not Minolta for 4 more years so it really does not matter. Plus did I admit any wrong doing? Just intent, Can't do anything about intent. Plus my views have been swayed in the right direction. I may just purchase this after all.
 
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