Sony, PLEASE take some tips from Nikon

Yeah I want a firmware upgrade to give my a850 5fs so count me in. Or better yet turn it into a nikon d3x oh but wait all the good monolta lenses wont fit that...bugger.

Actually if they can tweek the firmware enough they may be able to give me a camera that will just takes great photos no matter how i use it.

Trace

I actually shoot a lot of raw and jpg professionally and I can telll you that the jpg output is very good at iso 800 and less and still not bad at higher iso either with good processing.

These cameras tend to under expose in low light and if sony were to fix anything this would be my number one isssue. I think that this underexposing is confusing ppl on what the real problem is. The noise IMO that ppl are seeing is actually a symptom and not so much a noise issue, its an exposure issue. In low light i usually set the exposure compensation to +1.

The other problems is that ppl look at reviews and study images at high (unrealistic) magnifications on computers and then get a distorted view of what it means in reality......which is not much!!..... to the point of total insignificance.

So when ppl ask for a firmware to fix the noise issue it tells me they don't really know the camera.

Trace

This was a nice, but strategic release by Nikon around the CES / PMA timeframe to get some press.

Companies love buzz.

I'd love to see some A900/A850 improvements, though, as it would make it much easier for me to decide if I want to stay with Nikon or move to Sony FF. Right now I'm in limbo

--
JL Smith
http://jl-smith.smugmug.com
Gear listed in profile!

Well, DPReview criticizes Sony cameras all the time and Sony keeps sending them review units. I guess they don't take it personally. They are a business entity after all, why should they, right?

Nordstjernen said:

1) When yo are pleased with the equipment you are a fanboy ...

2) When you are not satisfied, you are analytic and worth listening to ...

;-)

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09 CTS V said:

Sony will only hear "us" if we stop buying their cameras. I can accept that Nikon is a better camera, but also a more expensive camera.

You can't turn a Chevy into a BMW.

By the way I am very happy with my recently purchased A700. I love the D700, but can't justify the price difference.

Click to expand...

The problem is Nikon is NOT a better camera (actually this should be discussed in terms of an entire system - not just the body). Nikons are robust, and have excellent pro support, a lot of lenses, and low light performance second to none. However they can't match the color fidelity of higher end SONY bodies and the out of focus rendering of several SONY / Minolta lenses.

Let's say folks just silently defer buying the next SONY Alpha item on our shopping lists or take our dollars to Canon or Nikon, as you suggested. Precisely how you expect SONY to identify the reason?

IMO Large multi-national companies are pretty hard of hearing - you want to shout repeatedly in their ear if you want them to hear. Simply silently non-buying can be interpreted very ambiguously.

sounds like you think all is perfect with the camera and nothing is needed

maybe many features need improvement, such as noise reduction, better and faster stabilization algorithms? and who knows what else

sitting back and blasting any updates is rather, well, rather well, kind of slow motion, imho

could be why Sony has no need to update its flagship, many are pleased with what they got, so why change anything

change is pitiful?

iibo said:

You ask for A900/A850 firmware:

• The fanboys say, Why? There are no bugs, the camera works as expected, stop complaining.

• We actual owners watch as Canon and Nikon add features or make small improvements via firmware (not bug fixes) and wonder if Sony will also make an effort to improve their "flagships" by uncrippling A-mode, adding chroma noise reduction/CA correction to JPGs, etc. Not asking for the world, just a few things to extend the life of our investment.

I went through the same thing with the R1, except that camera had a real and problematic exposure bug that needed fixing. I waited two years... nothing. Then gradually realized Sony has walked away from me and will not even offer an upgrade path in the form of an R2.

So here we are again, 15 months since the A900 was announced and not a peep. Maybe it's too soon to conclude Sony is going to repeat their pattern, but I'm guessing they will.

Asking politely, crying, begging, won't help. Best thing is to research very carefully before buying Sony, and if you didn't and the camera is not meeting your needs, to sell and buy something that will. Expect nothing from this company, and you'll never be disappointed!

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I'm not an A850/900 owner; I own and heavily use an A700. And we got our FW update--four of them--so I'm pretty pleased along these lines. But it did take Sony a full year to get the main problem corrected.

And Sony has issued FW updates to some other cameras.

That doesn't mean I don't sympathize with A850/900 owners calling for FW updates. I sure hope Sony will issue one or more. But I am not at all clear just exactly what can be corrected by FW updates. For example, your crippled A mode--a mistake on Sony's part I agree--I really suspect we're dealing here with something that is at least in part a hardware issue--and therefore not fixable by means of FW. Likely not feasible to fix until an entirely new camera is brought out. This may be the case with other A850/900 issues as well.
--
Dulaney
A700; SAL 50 f1.4; SAL 18-250; CZ 85 f1.4

So the moaners will stop whining.

They do not like the JPEg?

Shoot with the Agorabasta settings, or shoot raw and use C1 or LR3 and you are good as you can get.

As for C & N offerings compared to the a900, only the d3x can hold the candle to the sony and yet not sony/minolta or AF Zeiss lenses for it.

And the only two things the 1ds Mark III can do better are: it can take a little more rain and maybe more tampering, but that is all about it. As its apparent faster AF speed, is not backed by 100% reliability. For all the rest, it comes second.

Professional customer support.... you need to buy the 4/7/8K bodies to qualify for it.

I would like to see how many of the complainers would be ready for doing that.....

Be ware of what you wish...

I can only repeat here that the only FW update for my sony A900 is a better A mode so that i can use M42 lenses with adapter in A mode .

For wide primes : i do not need AF (bigger and more heavy and more expensive) and all that beautiful zeiss glass for Nikon is NOT available for Sony thanks to the Zeiss_ Sony partnership !

A distagon 25 mm 2,8 is what i need , or in Sony mount or with M42 adapter : a firmware update here is very welcome .
Guido

I agree, the "broken" A mode with non-chop optics on the DSLR-A900 (compared to how DSLR-A700 works) is the main reason why I'd like SONY to fix it via a firmware update to the DSLR-A900.

Guido FORRIER said:

I can only repeat here that the only FW update for my sony A900 is a better A mode so that i can use M42 lenses with adapter in A mode .

For wide primes : i do not need AF (bigger and more heavy and more expensive) and all that beautiful zeiss glass for Nikon is NOT available for Sony thanks to the Zeiss_ Sony partnership !

A distagon 25 mm 2,8 is what i need , or in Sony mount or with M42 adapter : a firmware update here is very welcome .
Guido

Click to expand...

For m42 lenses you an buy a chiped adapter off ebay for cheap. That is what I use and A mode works fine.

trace

cheap=how much?
--
Dulaneycheap=how much?
A700; SAL 50 f1.4; SAL 18-250; CZ 85 f1.4

The problem with these adapters is that they may fit M42 lenses but not converted Rokkor optics (where say 58/1.2 rear element leaves very little room for any chip), Arsat shift lenses, my Minolta M/A Converter-L and so on.

Each of these require its own adapter

With that chipped adapter (thanks fulford) i can use the zeiss distagon 25mm . But i wait : i received from zeiss germany a mail :
"Dear Mr. Forrier,

Thanks for your request and your interest in our products.

Unfortunately, Carl Zeiss does not offer a wide angle lens with fixed focal length for the Sony Alpha 900 at the moment. We can offer a 2,8/16-35mm Zoom lens for this camera. You can find all details about our current lenses for the Sony Alpha System at

http://www.zeiss.com/C12567A8003B58B9/ContentsWWWIntern/42B1E57EA6944280C12572820048463E

For lenses with a fixed focal length for your camera, please contact SONY directly.

Best Regards

Bertram Hönlinger "

I read between the lines : "at the moment" : something to come ? more zeiss glass needed for A950 ? Can be good news for the A850/A900 owners .
Guido