Simple, prove that sales are video related. Never once have you addressed that.
Well, look at this way: Sony increased shares and became 3rd during 2006 to 2008, but in 2009 Sony is on the bottom everywhere. Why did that happen in 2009? Let’s think logically. 99% of general public who go to Best Buy don't ask whether the camera has DOF preview and DMF. They don't even understand what that means. A couple of years ago, DSLRs were so expensive that only a few enthusiasts bought these cameras. That's not the case now. Everyone is buying DSLRs. They are cheap. Some models are even cheaper than p&s (for example A230 is cheaper than Canon G11).
I spent two months this year all over the west on a photographic foray, often in crowds of people with cameras taking photos. Video cameras were rare and those that used them clearly preferred the tiny ones, DSLRs were rare, People shooting video with P&S or DSLRs with it were virtually non-existant. People were shooting still photography. Now you want to claim they ignored the still photography abilities of the cameras they were buying and based their choice on video!!!! So they could go out and do still photography!!!! Whatever drugs you are on have warped your thinking.
The folks out there were highly impressed with what I was shooting with, I let a lot of them see the photos or look through the OVF as they were interested. BTW none of them had any trouble looking through the OVF or looked for the LV. DSLR folks and I compared notes on shooting things. And compared equipment. They were quite impressed with what I had to shoot with. They were interested in still photography. I spent a whole afternoon shooting side by side with a user of a D300 and the Sigma 50-500. While I shot with the a700 and 70-400G. We compared photos, discussed techniques for the still photography we were doing. Our methods differed, but the actual photos were of similar quality. And video never once came up.
As far as Sony sales this year, a few stats from a few US stores does not tell very much. Especially as they are marginal to camera sales and are hardly worldwide. No matter what the sales levels you are assuming all choices were based on video. And that people know nothing about still photography even though that's what the majority are going to do with their camera. They most certainly checked out the still photography of the camera before buying, and almost certainly choose on that. I got lots of detailed questions about the a700, questions about things you say they know nothing about. There were both DSLR and P&S folks asking those questions. They are a lot smarter than you, which does not take much.
Now you can claim that you, as a self-proclaimed “guru” and enthusiast, don’t want video. You are only interested in still photography. That’s fine, don’t use video then, but there is no evidence that including video and lv make the camera worse for still photography.
Sony's fast LV resulted in a degraded OVF. Limited to mirrors only. That is worse than a quality pentaprism like in the a700, a850 or a900. It's easy to find where these things change camera designs.
I have never claimed to be a "guru" though some others have called me that. I'm a very experienced SLR/DSLR photographer. Which is worth nothing in this group.
Speaking of self proclaimed gurus, just where do you get off claiming to be a guru on what people know or are interested in? Or what sales figures mean? You have made it abundantly clear you know nothing.
The proof is Canon 7d, Nikon D300s, and Pentax K7 -- all three models are better than A700. All have more features for still photography than A700, but yet they offer video. Why should Sony unnecessarily harms it’s sales by excluding LV and video in it’s camera? That’s idiotic and harmful to Sony and more costly to A-mount users, as I explained already: If Sony is losing sales; they will try to make it up by increasing prices for lenses or by other means harmful to A-mount users. So it costs more to have no video, and it has nothing positive in return. No video doesn't make a camera better as K7, 7D, D300s are still better than A700 but offer video.
You have never in any form proved that Sony is loosing sales due to video. You have, in fact avoided providing proof you most certainly don't have. Do you have any proof of what percentage of the sales of 7d D300s or K7 are due to the video? All you have is your personal warped daydream.
Walt
