Who is disappointed SONY disabled A mode with manual lenses after DSLR-A700?

iibo said:

mario007 said:

sony wont hear you....

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That's exactly what I've concluded. They're trying to keep customers locked into using Sony lenses only, they think people who want to use Lensbabies or hook their cameras to telescopes are just weirdos, who cares about them.

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I see that a posting from "Nordstjernen" said that:

Since you ask how each of us deals with this, I will answer for myself:

iibo said:

I am using manual lenses quite often, but never, never, never in auto mode. I have always used manual settings, and will continue with this for maximum exposure control. The Sony/ Sony A900 solution is OK for me as it is now.

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If you are experienced enough, isn't the "manual setting" approach satisfactory, perhaps combined with bracketing several images at different exposures? And, when using a telescope, for example, would a functioning A-mode really help with pictures like those shown in the link below:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1021&message=26247042

Regards
Rob
http://www.robsphotography.co.nz/Sony-A900.html
Examples of superb detail captured in A900 images

I can't say anything about astrophotography beyond stating that A mode was definitely helpful for me when photographing the moon with my A700, and particularly during the lunar eclipse when the brightness varied somewhat during the phases of the event - when I was preoccupied tracking the moon and would highly, HIGHLY prefer not to divert any effort or waste any opportunities on experimentally (or theoretically) establishing the correct exposure.

Manual mode also impacts some flash photography in macro as well as regular light photography with say a 58mm f/1.2 - where you prefer to dedicate your attention to manual focusing rather than manually tracking both focus and exposure.

-- AK

I would prefer to use the word acceptable rather than satisfactory - anyone with half a brain would like this function restored . Yes it is possible , given time, to fiddle with settings & re-shoot but could be a very frustrating process , especially for Jpegs users, if light conditions were continually changing.
--
Keith-C

Robsphoto said:

If you are experienced enough, isn't the "manual setting" approach satisfactory, perhaps combined with bracketing several images at different exposures?

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No it's not, and it's experienced people who know that manual setting is very limiting. We are talking not only natural light photography, but flash and mixtures of natural light and flash. And with macro that is mixed with bellows aperture correction and all the rest. When it was all done manually there were few that would tackle macro. Macro only became popular with the advent of proper TTL exposure control. I've done it both ways, I'd never use manual with TTL exposure control available. It's too much guesswork that often does not pan out.

No, astronomical photography rarely if ever uses exposure meters of any type. But it's hardly all there is. Though Sony clearly thinks no farther than that in what they say in the owner's manual. And quite a few folks here don't think very far into advanced photography claiming that they can set manual for everything.

Walt

cyainparadise said:

Phil, what do you care that Sony still hasn't come out with a replacement for the A700?

I see in another thread that you bought another A700. If Sony shows a replacement at CES or PMA, you'll probably be screaming that Sony made your recent purchase obsolete.

Admit it, you're not happy unless you're complaining about something.

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Frankly I don't much care anymore whether there is a replacement for the a700. I have two a700 bodies that should last me a good long time and I don't see any sensor breakthroughs in that time period, so I am good.

I bought all my Alpha gear at low to very low prices so if I have to move to another system it won't hurt me much financially. (In fact I have been making money lately by selling off some of my old Minolta FF lenses.)

I also picked up a little Nikon D40 for not much money recently and and am looking for a good price on a used Nikkor lenses and maybe a Nikon D300 on Craig's list, but there is no hurry on that either.

I pity anyone needing to buy an APS-C DSLR from Sony right now, but Hey I have two a700 bodies, so no worries for me!
I'm happy even when I am not "complaining" as you call it!

-Phil

Nordstjernen said:

They were not fired, they where brain washed, all of them ;-)

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Not fired, not brainwashed, just designing different kinds of cameras.

I do however think they have made a serious mistake by "crippling" A-mode. I vote B.
--
Dulaney
A700; SAL 50 f1.4; SAL 18-250; CZ 85 f1.4

Phixel said:

As for making unsupported statements look no further than the multitude of posters that have been adamant in their assertions that an a700 replacement was "coming soon".
Well surprise, surprise, the a700 still ain't here yet!
So much for veracity of all the reassurances posted here.

-Phil

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Phil, I have seen no one on this forum, or any other forum, assert that the A7xx cameras would be here in 2009. the end of which year we have yet to reach. We have heard, on other sites, some who have predicted the arrival of the A7xx in January or February, orhers who predict the arrival in March or April. I have been saying, on the basis of various pieces of evidence, that they wll arrive in the first quarter of 2010, no later than April. We still have more than four months for that to happen.

Meanwhile you have been predicting that they would never arrive, that there would be NO replacement for the A700, in spite of statements to the contrary by such authorities as Thom Hogan and Toru Katsumoto, the General Director of Sony. So if they EVER arrive you will have been proved wrong.

We are now within two weeks of CES. I don't know whether Sony will anoounce anything about the A7xx at that event, but I do know that they will be very active there.
--
Dulaney
A700; SAL 50 f1.4; SAL 18-250; CZ 85 f1.4