HopeSpringsEternal
Forum Enthusiast
I think that I now get what the SLTs are mostly about. It is all about having failed to compete head to head with well known trusted camera makers and deciding that future attempts to compete purely on features/price will result in failure again.
So Sony decided to compete by not competing. Ie,they simply create a new market category ,SLT,where Canon ,Nikon and Pentax are non existent and hope Canon,Nikon and Pentax will be unable to stoop to their level and compete there since they have a much more established base of serious users who would not accept the IQ and usability compromises that Sony has made in its creation of the SLT category.
For this plan to work, the brick and mortar stores need to start carrying these SLT and NEX models and Sony would need to actually market these products on TV and other media outlets which it never did for their Alpha DSLRs.
I think that Sony has purposely refused to provide replacement A700 class DSLRs because it actually doesn't want traditional photographers as customers because those are the kind of customers who make the most traditional demands on Sony -- an area where they are least able to compete and satisfy the customers at a good profit.
Sony hopes that the A700 class users will jump ship or at least get out of their way while the Playstation generation, soccer moms, P&S upgraders and people looking for a "neat" photographic toy/gadget come rushing in to buy these novel NEX and SLT cameras.
So it is a generational problem for Sony. It's like they were married to an older Minolta battleworn woman who was always nagging them to compete directly with Canikon and it was not enjoyable for them, so now they can abandon the old nagger and seek comfort (profit) in the new young things who can appreciate Sony's expertise in electronic lifestyle toys and gadgets.
If you don't believe that analogy check out all the forum Sony groupies (paid or otherwise deluded) who are begging them to drop EVFs and embrace autoHDR and psuedo-10fps SLT cameras even on the full frame cameras.
I gambled when I chose Sony rather than Nikon and Canon. I never actually thought that they would drop out of the traditional higher-end DSLR business after only one generation (A700,A900 are pretty much same design generation) but I guess I was wrong. I bought into Sony mostly on the price, minolta old glass availability and in sensor anti-shake. My first was the A350 which I found too slow and too small for my hands. I tried the A700 and fell in love with it's ergonomics and speed. I quickly purchased it. Nothing since from Sony has come anywhere the value of the A700 in the APS-C category. The A900 was not just for me because it did not compete feature wise with the 5d MkII in lacking video and live-view plus poor low ISO. If Sony released a new FF with good high ISO sensor and LV/video I would buy it the next day. But you know what, they never will.
So anyone who expects an OVF fullframe or A7xx needs to just come grips with the fact that we've been dropped as we are no longer a desired consumer for Sony.
To continue my earlier analogy, half-seriously, is that like a cheating spouse, Sony won't just come out and state that they have taken us all for a ride (see the stupid 2yr old A7xx wood mock-ups). So they say, "wait another year for the A7xx". Yeah, that's the ticket...
A700 users, welcome to dumps-ville
Btw, I have a NiB A700, Min 28-135mm, Beercan,Maxum 7,Sigma 500mm f/4.5,etc.. check my profile, on the chopping block
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/hopeiseternal/
So Sony decided to compete by not competing. Ie,they simply create a new market category ,SLT,where Canon ,Nikon and Pentax are non existent and hope Canon,Nikon and Pentax will be unable to stoop to their level and compete there since they have a much more established base of serious users who would not accept the IQ and usability compromises that Sony has made in its creation of the SLT category.
For this plan to work, the brick and mortar stores need to start carrying these SLT and NEX models and Sony would need to actually market these products on TV and other media outlets which it never did for their Alpha DSLRs.
I think that Sony has purposely refused to provide replacement A700 class DSLRs because it actually doesn't want traditional photographers as customers because those are the kind of customers who make the most traditional demands on Sony -- an area where they are least able to compete and satisfy the customers at a good profit.
Sony hopes that the A700 class users will jump ship or at least get out of their way while the Playstation generation, soccer moms, P&S upgraders and people looking for a "neat" photographic toy/gadget come rushing in to buy these novel NEX and SLT cameras.
So it is a generational problem for Sony. It's like they were married to an older Minolta battleworn woman who was always nagging them to compete directly with Canikon and it was not enjoyable for them, so now they can abandon the old nagger and seek comfort (profit) in the new young things who can appreciate Sony's expertise in electronic lifestyle toys and gadgets.
If you don't believe that analogy check out all the forum Sony groupies (paid or otherwise deluded) who are begging them to drop EVFs and embrace autoHDR and psuedo-10fps SLT cameras even on the full frame cameras.
I gambled when I chose Sony rather than Nikon and Canon. I never actually thought that they would drop out of the traditional higher-end DSLR business after only one generation (A700,A900 are pretty much same design generation) but I guess I was wrong. I bought into Sony mostly on the price, minolta old glass availability and in sensor anti-shake. My first was the A350 which I found too slow and too small for my hands. I tried the A700 and fell in love with it's ergonomics and speed. I quickly purchased it. Nothing since from Sony has come anywhere the value of the A700 in the APS-C category. The A900 was not just for me because it did not compete feature wise with the 5d MkII in lacking video and live-view plus poor low ISO. If Sony released a new FF with good high ISO sensor and LV/video I would buy it the next day. But you know what, they never will.
So anyone who expects an OVF fullframe or A7xx needs to just come grips with the fact that we've been dropped as we are no longer a desired consumer for Sony.
To continue my earlier analogy, half-seriously, is that like a cheating spouse, Sony won't just come out and state that they have taken us all for a ride (see the stupid 2yr old A7xx wood mock-ups). So they say, "wait another year for the A7xx". Yeah, that's the ticket...
A700 users, welcome to dumps-ville
Btw, I have a NiB A700, Min 28-135mm, Beercan,Maxum 7,Sigma 500mm f/4.5,etc.. check my profile, on the chopping block
--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hopeiseternal/
